The Liverpool Standard, and General Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1854-10-03 00:00:00

witness went into the drawin

)m to prepare

from the bedroom, anu
do for dinner, as Mrs. Watts was so _
and Miss Wade subsequently had luncheon in the draw-

ing,room. After luncheon Mr. Watts went into the
bedtoom, and in a short time the defendant called her
to come into the room, and on entering she found Mrs.
Watts-in a convulsive fit. She-then called for Miss Wade,
and subsequently Mrs. Sergeant, Mrs. Townsend and
Hannah Day entered. The screams of the deceased were
heard all over the- house. Mrs. Watts died at twenty
minutes= to four o'clock, Mr. Watts, Miss Wade, and wit-
ness being the only persons in the room at the time. In
an hour and a half 'after the death of the deceased Mr.
Watts gave her £5, and said that he would give her be-
sides £lO a ear, as Mrs. Watts had desired him, in the
interval of the fits, to "Remember Winn." Deceased
used to.take a great deal of opening medicines, and three
or four weeks before her death she complained much of a
heavy weight and pain in her chest. Her stomach was
hard and full, and a week or ten days before her death
the deceased could not lace her stays, and sometimes could
not bear them on at all. Mr. Watts recommended her to
take some castor oil, which the deceased took, besides
rhubarb pills and Gregory's powders. The deceased told
witness that these remedies had no effect. Witness heard
Mr. Watts: persuade his wife to take other remedies, but
she objected, saying that she liked to follow her own pre-
scriptions best. 'Upon the death of Mrs. Watts the de-
fendant appeared to be very much affected and distressed.
On the Wednesday or the Thursday after the death,
witness neat saw the 41d. change, when Mr. Watts was
taking something out of a drawer, when she told him it
was theehange out of the sixpence that Mrs. Watts had
given her to get the tobacco. Mr. Watts then asked
"What tobacco ?" when she gave him the same account
of it that she had given that day. The defendant replied,
" How very odd of Mrs. Watts. Witness had no reason
to suppose that Mr. Watts knew of the tobacco water
from any other source.
Mrs. Townsend was the next witness galled. She
deposed to seeing the tobacco boiled, and expressed her
surprise at the time, but remarked that she supposed Dr.
Watts had ordered it. _ _

Mary Sergeant, with whom the defendant and his wife
lived, said that, on Thursday, the 24th August, in crossing
the river in the steamer, along with Miss Wade and
Esther Winn, the defendant told her that his wife had
stopped at home to draw out a draft of a will; that she
had left him £14,000, and that he was residuary legatee ;
that she had left £5,000 to Mr. Wade's family, and £l,OOO
was to be left for her funeral expenses. Mr. Albright,
druggist, New Brighton, deposed to the defendant calling
upon him to witness the will, which he attested, along
with Mr. Hill, postmaster, on the Ist September. Witness
had no conversation with the defendant about the con-
tents of the will or the registration of the death.

Mr. Snowball put in the marriage settlement. The
property settled upon Mrs. Egremout, on her marriage
with Mr. Watts, was as follows :—£12,000 on mortgage
of freehold estates in Lincolnshire ; £3,000 on a mort-
gage debenture of the South Wales Railway Company;
£5OO on a mortgage debenture of the Eastern Union
Railway Company ; 30 shares, £5O each, in the Stock of
the South Wales Railway Company ; 20 shares, of £5O
each, in the Stock of the Nottingham Gaslight and Coke
Company ; 10 shares, of £lOO each, in the Stock of the
Guardian Fire and Life Assurance Company; household
furniture, plate, &c.
Mr. Snowball.—That is my case. _ _ _

Mr. Conway said that if the bench thought it necessary
to proceed further with the case, he would ask for an
adjournment, as all his evidence was yet to be heard.
The Magistrates retired for a few moments, and, on
their return, Major-General Sir Edward Cust said that
they had determined upon proceeding with the hearing
of further evidence ; but, it being then about five o'clock,
they would adjourn until Saturday morning.—The case
was accordingly adjourned.

The court at its sitting on Saturday was addressed at
great length Thy Mr. Conway for the defence. In his ad-
dress he dwelt upon the vast importance of the case to his
client, not merely on account of the legal consequences
which were implied in the charge, but as regarded his
future peace of mind and position in society. He trusted
that, for the comfort of his declining years, his client
should leave the court not merely discharged of all legal,
but all moral, responsibility ; with his name, his character,
and his life freed from the slightest stain or suspicion.
Taking the evidence of Esther Winn, which had been
given in a manner to elicit the approbation of the court,
the learned gentleman contended that it afforded the
court a consistent, clear, and continuous account of every
thing that preceded this lamentable transaction, and that
it effectually shielded the defendant from all the charges—
charges they scarcely amounted to, but rather insinuations
and inuendos—which had been cast upon him. On this
part of the case he put it to the court whether, in the
whole experience of the bench, they had ever heard a
statement made in support of the prosecution that could
at all be compared with that which had been made in this
instance. In the place of legal evidence, they had had.
inuendos ; in the place of facts, insinuations and suspi-
cions, gleaned from the gossip of a watering-place, noto-
riously prolific of scandal of all sorts, gleaned from the
tap-room, gleaned from the kitchen, one rumour dove-
tailed into another, producing a mosaic of insinuation
and irrelevant statements. Some portion of the blame
must fall upon the gentleman who had actuated and insti-
gated the proceedings, and who appeared as the prose-
cutor in this case ; of whom and of his learned friend he I
grievously complained for sailing under false colours.
Throughout the whole of his friend's opening it was per-
fectly clear that, with the exception of the title given to
the charge, the charge alleged, and sought to'be proved,
was the more henious, flagrant, and repulsive one of mur-
der. The only motive throughout the alleged suppres-
sion, the only reason which could possibly be assigned
by the most ingenious imagination was that his client had I
been guilty of the awful crime of taking away the life of
the partner of his life by his own hand, and that to shield
himself from the consequences of such an act he had pro-
cured this false register. If these were his friend's in-
structions and views, why not boldly come forward and
call the alleged offence by its proper name? Was it very
uncharitable to suppose that Mr. Barkworth must have
felt that the responsibility of preferring so grave a charge was
too serious for him to encounter, and that, therefore, un-
der the protection of the minor charge of making a false
register, of giving a false account of his wife's death, he
insinuated the heinous crime to which he had referred.
Mr. Conway proceeded to comment upon the evidence of
Mr. Barkworth, for the purpose of throwing liight upon
the real origin and cause of this inquiry. It appeared
that Mrs. Watts, Mr. Barkworth's sister, was a lady
of somewhat eccentric habits, but possessed of con-
siderable property. Her will had no doubt been made
mainly in favour of her husband, with whom, during
the short period of their matrimonial life, she had
lived on the most affectionate terms. Against this will,
it had transpired, a caveat had been entered, and it was
clear that ulterior proceedings were to be taken with
respect to it ; and it was not uncharitable to suggest that
the real meaning of this inquiry was not so much with a
view to convict his client of an atrocious crime, as to elicit
something favourable to the prosecution of that suit, just
as wreckers blew up a vessel, not so much for the value of
the rafters and beams. as for the hope of finding some
precious booty. It might be that Mr. Barkworth thought
that in the course of the inquiry something would turn
up to impugn the sanity of Mrs. Watts. He contended,
however, that his client was entirely exonerated from sus-
picion by the combined facts of the pre-existence of a will
of substantially the same effect as the one made a few days
anterior to Mrs. Watts' death, and the evidence of Esther
Winn, who had deposed to the prolonged illness of Mrs.
Watts, the attention of the defendant, and to his desire to
introduce additional medical assistance,but was unable to do
so owing to the repugnance of Mrs. Watts, to the deceased's
having sent for the tobacco and used the enema without
the knowledge of the defendant, and to the defendant not
knowing this fact until after he had made the certificate,
subsequently to which he had made no attempt to con-
ceal the fact, having, in fact, told Winn to state every
thing to Dr. Parr, who made the post mortem examina-
tion. With respect to the legal charge, he submitted that
he was not called upon to answer it, because it had not
been proved that at the time he made the certificate he
was cognizant of the actual cause of death ; the fact of
the self-application by Mrs. Watts of the tobacco decoc-
tion not having been made known to him until after that
certificate had been given. Mr. Conway then proceeded
to call the following witnesses :
Mr. John Maurice Banner, consulting-surgeon of the
Northern Hospital, deposed that he had known cases in
which tobacco-water had been used as an injection in cases
of obstinate constipation; and that the symptoms which
preceded Mrs. Watts' death were such as might be sup-
posed to follow rupture of the abdomen produced by pro-
, longed constipation.
In cross-examination by Mr. Snowball, witness stated
that in a case of supposed prolonged constipation, if the
patient were seized with faintness and prostration, accom-
panied by continued convulsions, he should have used a
powerful injection, and if the symptoms continued to be
aggravated, he certainly should have sent for additional
assistance. In answer to Sir E. Cust, witness said he
should not necessarily have concluded from the symptoms
that there had been administration of poison. Had he
been the husband in the case, he certainly should not have
felt anxious for a post mortem examination.
Mr. John Parke, surgeon, New Brighton, deposed that
Mr. Watts had, during the course of his wife's illness,
spoken to him about the symptoms, and had expressed a
wish to call witness in to see her. After her death, at the
request of the defendant, who could not write well him-
self, having a paralysed hand, witness filled up a form of
certificate of cause of death. From the symptoms, which
he had heard described from other sources, he should have
thought at the time that death had resulted from pro-
longed constipation and effusion into the abdomen. There
was not the least attempt at concealmeant on Mr. Watts'
part.
Sophia Wade, granddaughter of the defendant, gave
corroborative evidence of that detailed, on a previous day,
by Esther Winn.
Mr. Conway put in the original will, executed at
Cheltenham on the 12th June, 1854, and a copy of the
will executed at New Brighton on the 31st of August, 1854.
They were substantially the same, both bequeathing the
bulk of the deceased's property, to the amount of £14,000,
to the defendant. The former was in the handwriting of
the deceased, and the attesting witnesses were Esther
Winn and another servant ; but the latter was drawn up
by an attorney, and witnessed by two respectable residents
of New Brighton.
Mr. Albright, druggist, deposed that on the day on
which the deceased died, Esther Winn took the prescrip-
tions produced to his shop. He remarked that the patient
must be suffering under obstinate constipation, as it was
a strong dose of croton oil. On a previous occasion, Mr.
Watts himself called with a prescription for a mild
aperient powder. He manifested extreme anxiety that it
should be properly made, and staid until it was ready.
After he had gone, witness remarked to his own family
+ha+ " +ha rklei cranflarnnri

to his wife, judging from his extreme —ca;:e—in witnessingthe preparation of the medicine."

„. ~et to make ,oent upon, I,Liv
bench, to send the case for trial before one of the judges
of the land.
The mag____
half-past three o'clock, returninp,

istrates retired to consider their decision at

,sence 01

:dward Cust said they had _ giver

it anxious

deliberatior

and had