Exeter, Friday, August 20...
The Times, 1824-08-23T00:00:00

I'le trial of WWierin AMarIslet, for the wilful muitrder of Ann TaYlor, took place this day, and on no formor occasion was there sto much interest excited amongst the inhaLbitants of Exeter and its neighbourhiood, as there was by this case. Numnbers of peasns had taken their station in the Court-house the night before, in order to secure placesq for the ensuiing day, antl during the morning the ave- nuesa to the Coa-rt.house were blocked up by -crowds of well-dressed From the statement of Mlr. COLEmiWDE, who condlucted the case for the prosecution, we collect the following facl?t :-TVhe priSoner at the bar had in the earlier partof his Hif served in the manines. He had beeni quartered in the city of E3tetcr for- a consilderable time, and acted in the capacity ofecorporal on the recruiiting serice He was discha-rged from this sersice about ten years since, and has residcd at a place called HilIlhead, shout a quarter of a mile ftom Broad Cliat, near Exeter. At this p lace he married, andi for the last two years has lriboured hut little, and has been chiefly supp)orted by parish relief. On the 28thi of.June last, the prisoner, having a child very ill of the comiplaint called the croup), went to Exeter for sionic leeches to apply to the child's throat. He hart been subject to epileptic fits for upwardIs of two years, and it was known he was ten- derlyattached to hischild, lie was seen in the morningof that day goingc to Exeter, and also on hiis return in the evening. The delay bein,g lonnger than seas necessary, he appeared rather agitated, com- plaind ofthe dlisordler in his he,d being worse, and it was very dloubtful whethier the unfalvourable change in his countenance.and the increasing confusion of his manner, procceeled fromn intoxication or an excess of his complasint. On returninig to hit; house he produced the leeches. The child was then ly-ing in An-n Newton's lap, and the prisoner asked her how it did'? She replied, it was very ill, past all hopes of the leeches beinig of any use to it. He said he hoped not. He kissed the inifant, anid wept very bitterly.. As -soon as he kissed the child, he went enit ef the house weepTing. 'lie leccl,es weire then applied, wrng ing .soner appeared al the time In thec deepest aflci nd the.1 L handIs, anid walking in an agitatedI ianner. In about a qu-artetr of an hour he was called in by his wife who askIed him if he had brouight a-ny breadl from Exeter: he replied he had not, and Ash desiredI him t'o fetch some fromi the village, to make a poultice for the child. Some lime arter this, the prisoner, by the entrenty of hiis ivifs went to bed uip stairs ansI rem-ainedI there. for about an hour and a. half, when he teas heara coming down stairs, in consequence, it wan supposed, of his hearing some reflections passing uipon hiim, in not corning home in time with the leeches. There we'e assembled at this time thie prisoner's wife, Susan Thorne, the deceased Ann Taylor, and two other women. They, wvere at thait time employed in strippning and layingz out the in- fant, whichi h.a.d died in the mean time ; and fearing that cIle prisoner couldi not bear the sight of his' dead child, they endearouired to sttop him feom comning down. In this attemipL they did not sucreeid; he wvent through the kitclhes, and passed into ani out-house, where his husbandry tools wyere kept, andI rushed back into the kitchen, armned with a shovel. He aimw a bow at his wife, whiceh she avoided ; and the other womeni, seeing this rani in consternation from tie house. Ann Taylor, the dleceased, anA Jane Mlarshiall, the prisonier's segter..in-law, ran on the road towards Exeter. The prisoner pursued them, and Ann TIaylor, finding that its gained on thiem, stopped, and turned to remonstrate with hiim. Fatally for herself, she rallowed hilm to come withini reachi. He struck lier to the gTouind ; she crietl out "1murder" and " help." lie !epeated hisi blows with such effect that life was very sooni eXtineL An inquest was held on the bodv, and the jikry returned a verdict of' "wilfuil murder" against Marshall. The unhappy woman wrho thus met with a dreadful death was about fifty years of agre. She was (lice wife of ahusbaitdman, tand was the mother of six children. 'l'he poor creature hiad, throuxgh the spirit of kindness. come to, give her assistance during the illnessi of the prisoner's child andI tiers could have been no ground for supposing inialice to have been entertainied by the prisner against her. The learnied Counsel, said that st h fct4 of Ann Taylor having come by her death by the hands of the' prisoner, there could niot be a doubt; but there was aL difficulty which would be presented to them, and which required a few remarks from hiun. Hie undersitood thnat Marshall betrayed occasionally symptoms of menital alienation, and if it could be shown that it was durtng one of'these periods, when his mixd wasi no longer under tke influence of reason, that he perpetrated this act, he could not of course be deem- ed an accountable agent, and was ab:solved from the guilt of murder. But then juries must carefully guard between that desc-riptian of de- ranigetnent which was the result of Mal-OTganization or naturaLl dis- order, and that temporary state of wandering which was producedby the vicious indulgence of the p arty himself, and to which it would be unjust and dangerous to allow the effect of a full and perfect ex- cuse for a dreadful clitne. This was the reasoning of Liord Hale, a man whbo had tse ampilest opportunities ofjiadging of the motives of hiuman actions, and whose skill and aetireness in detecting thosaemo- tives, throughi theirt minutest distinictions, excee-ded thost, perhaps, of any inan who ever sat on the bench. rho followitig witnesstes were then caler- Elizabeth Hlawkins deposed, that she inet the p7isoneron trhe e-ven- ing of the 28th of June, as he was returning from Exeter, when he complained of a violent pain in his hiezch, and said he was tw ill the nighit before that he thought he should have died. He appearedI ek- tremely ill andl agitated. Richard Bottcher stated, that whilst he was working on thse road oni the 28th of June, Mlarshall came up to hirn about half past two o'clock, and making a full stop said he had been a bad boy for thlat he went to Exeter for leeches for his, child, who was very bad, and he had stopped too long, anid had drank a drop too much. Anin N ewton, one of the womner who was in the house at the time of'the prisoner's return, described his uneasiness on finding that there were no hopes of the child's life. About 7 o'clock, sfter she had given the chiild to its mother, the prisoner samie and put his hands on her (witness's) neck,saying that what he had seen at Exeter wasi indescribable. He had seen tan fields thrown into one. The houises were turned upside down, aLnd he was obliged to walk, on the bottomi side of the c'ity. She saw him afterwardst in the outer yaird in aver aflicedatate, sand he sooke to no one-. At 9 o'clock wit- ness whohad revoucly gone h6me 'returned, to Mtarshall's, and foud tat he rioner was up stairs and his wife with himu entreat- leghi t sty n ed. She heard hilmsayvin a meatdolefiti tone- " Te Lrd tav ture upon me!h" She'went un stairs, and found that Mla-shall was dreteing himself. They askea him to retuirn to bed. He said, "1 can't bide here, I must rise and go out of JtL" Ile thten set about dressing himself in great haste ; anti when hisi sister-itt-law , Jane Mlarshall, c-ame up and desired him to go to bed, he threw his armns about, anid said, 4 Yes, you know all." As soon as he Was daressed, he hastened clown stairs, and wvhen half way ownaskd fr hs ht i a ostpitoustone.. He was abouxt gongou o te oo, uttustd hot ndcrssed the kithener to a plae weresom tols ay,andarmnghimself with a long-handled shovl, e ws aoutgoig ot, henAnnTaylor and his wife at- temped o ctchhun li mae ablo ashis wife; all the women ranoitt' except witness and] his wife H struck witniess two or thre blows with the stick of the shovel, and then ran after the other women. The witness went after Ihim oni the Exeter road, andI heard the noise of blows. She grew frightened, ard didrnot procee~d. She heard at least forty blowsi, and' thought they were on the groundl. Having wvaited a while, she hearsd thes sound of people talking. She then went on, and foud on theroaOd a bonnet, and little further the dcad body of Ann. Taylor. This witniess, in haer cross-examnination, state that the prisoner had been confined to his bedI several time& with-a complains in his head ; that he bad been, for weeks together, at theboapitdl of Exe- ter.and was obliged to wear a bandage round his head. lie frequently hat epileptic fits; but daring these fits,he would noteomnmitnetssof violence, he was avery good-natured. man, and avery kind fiher. Jane Marsha.-ll, the sister-in-la,wof theprisoner, ran out with Ann TIaylor, when he appeared armed with ashovel. He pursued them along the road for some time, roaring and making a dreadful noise, lie came up withAnTalrbhd her, and she beard her cry ottt, sItJane, Jn mI dr mude !-n her cross-exaxlienation, thist witness described tecnuto h rsnro this evening.to have been extremely unetd.Hjupdao, and acted ir, a most out rgeotts manner. Jane Troope had been also in the house, when Marshall appeased with the shovel, and ran out, accompanied by the decemsed. WVit- ness ran faster than hier companion ; and when she got a lIttil way she perceived Ann Trylor tuirn abou', and say to Marshal, "1, fie, TAlMarshall, what are you going to do wvith me !" Mfarshtiahl toid, strWhat are you going to do with. my child ?-yotu are gong th enstroyck child -you are going to ta-carry away my child." He hhnltrd er several blows with the shovel, and she fell. Thomas Cross, a surgeon, stated, that there appeared four wvounds on the body, three on the head, wnd one on the back. The 6kusl was fractured. The wounds wotld have produced'instant death. (The prisoner was here seized with a fit, which continued for a quiarter of an hour, during whichi lie was removed fronti court. On his return, the. Judge asked. him if he was perfectly restored, oz othetwise the Court was ready to wait I Trhe prisoner was then asked if lie ;ished to say a-ay thing in him defence, and hie replied he did not. Mr. Baron GAILROW said that perceiving a eeiet medical gentleman (Dr. AMilter) int (Nourt, he sho'uldrI i opininas to the fact whether the fit which the prisohe haI a ege one, Dr. Mliller stated that his strong opinion wstn h i a real. Hlenry Mtercer stated that he was a surgeon and after hearing the evidence in this ease, he was of opiinion tha the'prisoner wasr in a Dra Milercolins sa Daiel tree physicians who were in Cour, gve t a ther oinin fom earing the evidence, that tht prisnerwasdecdedl inanewhe hecommitted the act. Mr. B~ron GRROW,in hi spmmng up seem d t ntertain insanity o ?he prisner when e gommattouthetae. TheJur, wthut ~si4toi~ reured a verdict "1NotGiy on the gronofisny"Gul. 'Kthe peisoner was removed, in custody, to be detainad itt prlsot during Hits Majesty's pleasure. CC Hw old. are you, Pat ?" said a Clerk of! Indicinieni 40 is couv'ict-at slate asisizer, in the south of Ireland. '5--ftftht Sir I believe l'ns 'etywell as owld us ever I'll be," said Pat ~ and ii ,good '. wXth h-. 'isse acP&~ on ktht~ Monfty follavtxw EXETER, FRIDAY, Au6TUST 20.