Star.
London, England, 1828-08-14 00:00:00

NORWICII,_Avo. 12.

Before the LORD CUR? BARON. •
Thomas Vaughan ‘s as indicted for having broken and
entered the church-yard of the parish of tireat AT
Mt nth, in this county, and unlawfully and indecently
dug and opened a certain grave there, and Vie body of
one Elizabeth Beck, therein buried, unlawfully and in-
decentl y taken and carried away. The second count in
the indictment charged him with having taken the body
of a person unknown.
Mr. ALDERSON (with whom wall Mr. PRESTON)
rated the case. The present indictment was found at
the Boraugh Court of Great Yarmouth, and by the de-
fendant removed, by a writ of certiorari, into this Court,
in consequence of the indignation excited in the town of
Yarmouth against the offence which had been commit-
ted within its walls. It happened, that in October last, a
runvoir prevailed in that town, that the graves of the
dead had been violated, and dead bodies stolen for the
purpose of dissection. It was certainly to be lamented
that the outcry had been raised; for " where ignorance
is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise ;" but the fact was so;
an 1 the survivors of those who had died and been buried
in the church-yard far some months preceding the month
he had mentioned, had their graves opened, and it was
discovered that a great many bodies had been taken
away. Amongst these persons was Mr. Beck, whose
wife had died in the month of November last. He at•
tended her funeral, and the corpse was enclosed in a
shrowd and a dimity gown. The body was missing.
This increased the alarm, and mothers, husbands, and
all who had lost their relatives, were seen running in
a state bordering on distraction towards the church-
yard ; t ters were actually seen carrying about with them
fragments of the coffins which had been taken from the
graves of their deceased relatives. The excitement
throughout the town was unprecedented. Inquiries were
instituted; and it was found that the defendant had been
for some time residing in the town under circum-
stances of great suspicion. The defendant was observed
to go out at late hours in the night, bringing in some
articles in linen bags, which were sent off in deal boxes
in the morning. At first it was supposed that he was
engaged in smuggling transactions; but on farther in-
quiry it was found that the prisoner had been carrying
on, in conjunction with a person of the name of Barber,
the illegal traffic in question.. The Jury would, no
doubt, hear fruits the Learned Sergeant who conducted
the defendant's case, that it was necessary for the inter.
ests of science that this traffic should be continued, and
philosophy and the authority of Paris would also be
called in support of the practice. Thank Heaven !
however, the practice of Paris was not the practice of
England. Every decent man would expect that when
he had followed the body of his wife or daughter to the
silent tomb, " where the wicked cease from troubling,
and the weary are at rest," their cold clay should there
remain till the last trump shall sound and the graves
give up their dead.
George Beck—l lost my wife, Elizabeth, on the 4th
of last November. She was buried in the public burial
ground at Great Yarmouth, on the north side, near the.
' palisades. It was buried in a shrowd, and one of her
own dimity morning gowns. I went some time after-
wards to the grave, and found that it had been opened
by some one; the lid of the coffin was broken, and the
body gone ; this was on the 18th of November. I after*
wards examined the grave again with Coble, to see if I
could find the gown, which was there, at the font end of
the coffin.
Robert Barber—l lived in Beccles. I remember the
defendant coming last year to my father's house, and
my father walked away with him. This was after Mi-
chaelmas. My father returned in three or four days.
He h ft again, and again returned. I don't know whether
he went from home again. The defendant came on foot
the Sunday alter. I went back with him_to Yarmouth.
He told me I was to go with him to look after his horses.
When we got there I took out the horses, and put them
into stables in Bolter's row. He never told me he wanted
me for any thing but to look after his horse. On the
Monday night we went to the church yard, getting over
the wall.We went up to a tomb-stone, round which there
was an iron palisade. The defendant then began to
open one ot the graves, desiring me to stand behind one
of the tombs to watch if any body came. He then opened

the grave and took out a body. It took about an hour;
he did it with a shovel. I held a batt,whtn he put the body
(a female) into it. He then told me to pull the mould into
the grave, as he did. Defendant said, " %Yell have ano-
ther, ' and we got another in the same way, and carried
them to the corner of the church-yard. I helped them
over the wall, and the defendant task them both into the
stable in Bolter's row. On Tuesd .y morning we packed
them in two deal boxes, putting in sawdust and screwing
the lids down. I borrowed a wheelbarrow, and they were
put onto the waggon, the defendant having put on a di-
rection. The defendant did not live in the house in Bol-
ter's-row. I got the bags of Mrs. Clarke, and the boxes
and the saw-dust of Mr. Howard, by the order ache de-
fendant. My wages were 21. a week.
Cross-examined by Mr. Sergeant Stoarcs—l was
taken to gaol the week before Christmas; I first talked
with Mr. Coble about this affair; I have received a
subpana to appear against my own father in the next
cause. A Gentleman has promised me that I should
get off, if I appeared as evidence in this case.
Peter Coble, Serjeint at Mace at Great Yarmouth—
In December last I searched the defendant's house there,
in Bolter's•row ; it is immediately opposite the corner
of the churchyard; there is a passage from the house
into the stable ; I found some saw-dust and tow. I

apprehended the prisoner in Blackman-street, in the
Borough; he was taken to the White Lion; one of the
officers said to him, " I)—n it, Tom, you'll be lagged
this time 1 you're charged, I see, in the warrant, with
stealing a dimity gown, as well as the body." Prisoner
replied, " You ought to know me better than that; if I
have taken it, they'll find the gown in the coffin, I dare
say." I afterwards searched the churchyard at Yar-
mouth, with Mr. Beck. In a grave I found a dimity
gown in a coffin, which I showed to Mr. Beck, and it
was taken to the police office; I burnt it afterwards.
Cross•examined by Mr. KELLY—I don't know how
long the prisoner and the officers bad been at the White
Lion before he said what 1 have told ; they were speaking
qu'te in a jocular manner.
Job Horace proved making the packing-cases for the
prisoner; they were two feet tour inches long, 14. inches
deep, and the tame wide. One day, at a funeral, I saw
the prisoner attending it ; he looked into the graves, and
told me the ages of the people buried in them. We made
seven boxes in all. The price was ss. 6d. This was in
October.
Mrs. Clarke—l made some linen bags for the prisoner,
but it was innocently done; I'd no Wear what they were
for; I'm so 'fused! They were to be made as long as a
woman's gown, and as wide as a woman's apron, and to
be sewed with strong twine; young Barber paid for
them; the prisoner and Barber said, " They hoped they
should have good luck;' I once saw the pi isoner receive

,and open a letter, and he shook his head sad, and sais.:
" It was but a very little."
Mr. Sergeant &rotas •(with whom was Mi. KELLY,
addressed the Jul) far the xielenda t. Ire c•rt.iiig to t
consideration of this case,•he thou4ht n right to make a
few general nbsetiratir us. The .I..ry hid been told tha..
the to s n of Yirmotith had been in a state at vie tement
so high and so perilous to the administration of justice,
that the learned Recorder of that town had t.. 1.1 them
that he thought the defendant had d'.ne quire right in
'ringing the case before the Jury f a place far distal
•
fr.rii the scene of local prejudice. He,however (the *earn-
ed Sergeant), well knew that, amidst the torrent of poou
1 ,r psej induce wuich might t xist in some places, there was
one sanctuary and one tribunal where prejudice is neve!
4dmitted, and where the administration 01 justice is not
polluted by the jalousies which may ezi.t Out of don's:
that sanctuary is an English Count of Justice—that
bunal an Engltsh Jury. A long tine had not elapsed
since, even in this cnu ntry, J titles were impannelled to try
persons accused of the oftener of witclicr alt. Why did hi
make these ob•er vat ons? Because we were still living

in an age in which the dawn of phil-soppy %as rising.
and the light of science diffusing its cheetf influence
around, but in which the datkiiess which formerly
over-ran the country was not altogether banished. "1
own," said the Learned Counsel, '• I rejoice, I glory, in
the advance of what is sneeringly called philosophy;
and I do earnestly hope that the progress of the science
of surgery will not be retarded by popular prejudice;
above all, I hope that an English Jury will not be found
to lend their aid to its retardation. When we recollect
the sad catalogue of bodily infirmity to which our na-
ture is subject, for which no remedy can be found ex-
cept in the skilful hand and the enlightened mind of
the anatomist and the surgeon, we shall be sensible
of the necessity of guarding the science with jea-
lousy against any attack which may be made upon
it." He spoke in a place which the highest authority
in cases of surgery—the most enlightened member of
his profession (Sir Astley Cooper)—says is distinguished
not in England alone, but throughout Europe, for
the celebrity of its medical men in one dreadful dis-
ease with which human nature is afflicted (calculus).
If a Jury felt any bias in a case of this kind, it would,
he was sure, be rather in favour of a man, who stood
before them, confessedly, the victim of popular preju-
dice. A struggle, it was notorious, was at this time
going on between this country and the countries
of the continent, on this very important subject of the
supply of bodies for anatomical dissection. The ener-
gies of our own cout.try, he was satisfied, would ulti-
mately prevail, and science would not be banished from
its shores to seek in distant climes for that pr. tection it
could not find at home; but at such a time, he hoped
the Jury would not lend even an indirect aid against
the progress of anatomy in this country. The Learned
Sergeant then took an elaborate view of the evidence
fur the prosecution, and contended that the witness
Barber was unworthy of credit.
The LORD CHIRP BARON, in summing up the case,
told the Jury that all they had to consider was, whether
it had been proved to their satisfaction that the de-
fendant had been guilty of taking from a grave in the
church-yard at Yarmouth the dead body either of Mrs.
Beck, or of a person unknown? It was undoubtedly
true, that without subjects, as they were called, we
could have no good anatomists or surgeons; but it was
the province of the Legislature to alter the law which at
present existed on this point : they had only to do with
the facts, and upon them their verdict must be founded.
The Jury, after some consultation, found the prisoner
Guilty.