Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1875-02-26
CRIMINAL WOMEN.
From App.etOn's Literary Journal

Il
men in this world of ours, from the days oi
sacred history to the present moment. They
have shown sometimes the cool and calcu-
lating yillainy of the poisoner and iorger,
but more often the rabid, eccentric, self-de-
stroying wickedness of the weak. You
men know what an enraged lamb will do, >
said a keen observer Women are not lambs
always, but certain confession of sex ap-
pears in the worst of them. In the first
place that want of - staying power r. that
absence of the inertia of strength, which
ever prevents the female surgeon from ris-
ing to successful eminence, that inability OF
muscles to serve the exactions of the brain
then, again, something nobler and more un-
selfish appears. Conscience and decency
come back to 4 woman after passion is spent;
she is seldom hardened to the core; death
ennobles her; her couraged in all scenes OF
danger is proverbial, and il is pathetic TO
read of the last hours of the most desperate
female criminals, to see the womanly viz
| tues appearing as the crust of an unworthy
life is being broken, TO hear their prayers,
witness their generosity, admire their forti-
tude, and notice their determinations 10 be
well or decently dressed. They go to the
scafold or the block brayely, prayerfully,
and in a good gown. If dress is at once the
reason and consequence of the fall, Is has
soothed the enormous insults Of the block,
and the gallows, and the guillotine. In our
day, we have Mrs. Surratt praying for = a
| good black gown to be hanged in - as Mary
| Queen Of SCOTS arrayed herself in crimson
velvet, and said TO her maidens, s. See that
| die decently - Mrs. Larner, of yellow starch
memory, took her own ruff out OF fashion by
being hanged in it. Female criminals
have wooed death like lover; they are
afraid :" of mice and rats and such small
deer" but they meet the King of Terrors
gracefully.
Forgery is an unfeminine crime, because
deliberate. Women are not fond Of money
for itselt-as a sex, they are not miserly.
1t is fortunate for :" commercial paper that
women do not take to forgery for there
seems to he no reason why they should not do
it well, their neat manipulation, habit, and
faculty of imitation, their adroit hands, and
much-used rens-all would lead towards sue
cess. But in women-forgers we see again
a curious confession of sex they ovs-do
the excellence. the name is written too well;
they are not held back by the inertia OF
strength. Fortunately, they are rare, they
do not love it. The crimes Of women arise
from passionate. illy-regulated blood, flowing
in veins all too delicate TO carry such tor
rent no wonder that the brain gets swamp
ed with the flood and this thought carries
compassion with it. We pity the child and
lover murderer we know how frenzied she
was, but we have no sheme-faced tears Tor
the forger
There is an interesting case of woman
forger in Jeffrey time A certain Lady joy,
widow. probably. Of city knight, laid
claim to lands in the town of Shadwell, long
held By St Paul's church. She produced her
deeds, fine old parchments, duly Illuminated,
very clear in their definitions, high-sound-
ing, proper, and kingly titles of Philip
and Mary, and all the hourishing useless,
formal, legal phra-eology. She claimed
so much that the court was alarmed
church, too, is hard antagonist; bishops,
priests, and deacons, hold on with last
ing grip. Is this not 80, heirs Of Anneke
JAMS 4
So it came to pass that they found the
Lady JOY forger. Clever as an an
tiluarian, curiously excellent as an illumin-
ator, the Lady Joy had, with the aid oi two
or thres. ignoble tools named varou>ly Ban
mister and Duffett, and some two or three
other, gotten up new parchment - look
like old, and, by an ingenious story OF hav-
ing found them in q garret with some gcau-
inc deeds which she produced. came very
neI getting her lands. Strange neglect OF
En gli>h law, the non-registration OF deeds
in a country, too, where rank and title de
p md on the possession of land.
Lady Joy mad clever lawyer. bat 30 had
IL
rian, though not forger. He took home
the deeds and read them carefully. Yes.
here was an anachronism She styled Philip
and Mary :. King and Queen OF Naples
| They had never borne that title, or not, at
least, at that time.
Jeffreys was delighted " All, JOY" said
he, " thou trimmest not round that far
tree
Lady Joy bore cross-examination admira-
bly,, but her poor tools broke down lament
bly,. Duifetts wife turned sta1e's-evidence,
and gave the following queer informa-
ton
"They bade me put saffron in the ink, and
they rubbed the parc1ments over dirty win
dows, layed them an the balconies 10 be
rained on, and dried them by the fire to make
them look shrivele1, they wore them in
their pockets and sat on them, to give them
rubbed and worn appearance.
So this accomplished lady, who could paint
and illuminate so beautifully, would have
received the lands but for one mistake-she
knew little too much she had added one
title too many. She might better have de-
prived Philip and Mary of two titles than to
have added one which they had not yet
borne. Jeffreys was enchanted ; he admired
Mr.. Bradbury's acumen, and praised him in
a most unstinted manner. He showed great
clearness and cleverne ess himself in the cross
examination, making Bannister tell at least
| fifty lies. He insulted the woman Duffet in
I his usual coarse manner and brought out all
sort of unpleasant family secrets from Lady
JOY She claimed that her agent had found
these deeds in garret that the lands be-
longed to her great grandfather and she
really and cunningly doyetailed in some start
ling and true facts about the sale of sluiee-
way and pond-where, indeed, some early
Law brother of St. Paul's bad evidently cheat
ed landholdcr out of n very good piece of
! property.
! But the sluce-wsy. as Jefreys said,
would not hold water and she was de-
feated. The dry law-reports do not tell if
she was punished, nor give us the pleasure
of knowing how she bore punishment or
death. Perhaps the loss of her Shadwell
for which she had 50 valiantly fought was a
sufficient punishment. From her surround
ings, in spite Of her pretty name, she does
not seem to have been a very refined OF
lofty parsonage Jefreys admitted that the
forgeries were enormously clever, but he re-
served his praise for Bradbury. whose cum
ming devices he admired. Jetfreys was right
sometimes he had too much talent to be
always wrong.
Frances, Countess Of Somerset, came into
court" Ah, there was fascinator 1eI
poisoning of Sir Thomas Overbury with tart:
(perhaps he died Of the pastry is too old a
story to reiterate here. He had been hel
friend-some said her lover-he had helped
her to get rid of one husband, and. to gel
another, he must be put out of the way. She
was not hanged; ne, she had but to come
into court with her " dress of black tammel
a cypress chaperon, cobwebruf and cuffs,
beautiful as the morning in her delicate
black-and-white draperies, shed some tear
and be pardoned.
Frances, Countess of Somerset, art thou
guilty Of the felony and murder, or not
guilty ?" said the clerk of the crown.
The countess, making an obeisance to the
lord high steward, answered, " Guilty" in 8
low voice, but wondrous fearful.
All, wicked white hand Beautiful, ter
rible woman
The king pardoned her, and Sir Edward
Coke extolled the royal ssgscity, observing
that the king instructions deserved to b.
written in q sunbeam"
Sir Francis Bacon, great and corrupt
assisted in this monstrous injustice. Rank
wealth, family and beauty, tonight for th'
countess, and she escaped the gHllows. Som'
J people are severe enough to say that thos'