The Sun. — 1844-01-15 (London, England)

EXECUTION OF SARAH WESTWOOD. STAFFORD, SATURDAY. —The unhappy culprit, Sarah Westwood, convicted at the last Special Assizes for the county, before Mr. Baron Rolfe, for the murder of her husband, has been executed. It ar pears that the culprit was the daughter of a labouring man, living at Churley, a hamlet near Burntwood, where the murder occurred. At an early age she acquired a loose reputation and was discarded by her parents, and eighteen months prior to her marriage with her unfortunate victim, she gave birth to an illegitimate child. Twenty years since her union took place, the fruits of which are several children. At the same house in which they resided at Burntwood also lived a man named Phillips, who, no doubt, was the principal cause of this diabolical occurrence taking place, from the fact that it was supposed that he had had a criminal intercourse with her, and which excited the unhappy differences that constantly hal' pceed between her and her husband. On the 9th of November, when the family were seated at the dinner-tab:e, the father entered and complained of a pain in his head, and requested his wife to make him some gruel, thinking that the dinner would not agree with him. She did as desired, and he partook of it, but inquired what was the " white stuff" that was floating about on the top of it. To this question she gave an evasive answer, and immediately afterwards the unfortunate man was taken with a severe fit of vomiting, and pains in the stomach, and was instantly sent to bed, and expired the same night. The wife appeared but very 10". differently concerned, and expressed a wish to have the body as quickly interred as possible. A" inquiry, however, took place, and on a post mortent examination being made, it was clearly ascertained that the deceased had died from the effects of arsenic. The above was the substance of the children's evidence, and by the exertions of the constabulary force, abundant proof was adduced that she had purchtsed the arsenic but a few days before, together with other. poisonous matter, at a chemist's shop, at a village called Worsall. These facts, with other circumstances, so clearly brought the case home to the wife, that the jury, on the trial, without hesitation, returned a verdict of guilty. Sentence of death was accordingly passed upon her, and she was removed. Since her condemnation she has been daily attended by the Rev. G. Norman, chaplain of the gaol, who has used every spiritual means to bring her to a just sense of her condition, and in answer to the entreaties made by the worthy pastor to induce her to acknowledge her guilt, she has on all occasions firmly declared her innocence. Her two youngest children visited her On Thursday for the last time. The interview is stated to have lasted about an hour, and on their parting scene presented itself of a most affecting character, such a one as not to be wished for again to occur within the walls of this prison. On the same day she expressed a wish to see her. sister and her husband, who were instantly sent for. On their arrival, however, from circumstances which, had been made known to the Governor, it was found that, instead of the man being the husband of the wretched woman's sister, it was Philipps, her guilty paramour; consequently the meeting was refused in the most positive terms. At this disappointment she manifested deep regret. This morning the condemned sermon was preached in the chapel, the worthy minister taking for his text the 2d Peter, chap. 1, verse 14, " Knowing that shortly I must put of my tabernacle." After the service the unhappy creature 'partook of the sacrament, and she evidently felt the deepest anguish at the awful position in which she was placed ; in facto she fainted twice or thrice during its performance' Notwithstanding all this, she still avowed her cony' plete innocence of the murder of her husband Her conviction appears to have given satisfaction throughout this part of the country, as no petition bag been forwarded to the Secretary of State for a cony mutation of her sentence. Her age is stated to be 42. She appeared deeply distressed as she approached the scaffold, and when placed under the fatal beam trem' bled violently. The preliminaries having been quicklY arranged, and the rope placed round her neck, the bolt was drawn, and the sufferings of the murderess ceased in this world.