Tuam, in Ireland. He had two sons by two wives. The elder son, named
John, to whom this narrative chiefly relates, was sent to Dublin to
study the law; and the younger, who was about seven years of age,
remained at home with his parents. The young student lived in a very
dissipated manner at Dublin, and soon quitting his studies, came and
resided near his father's place of abode. The father allowed him a
certain annual sum for his support; but, as he lived beyond his
allowance, he demanded farther assistance. The father, however, refusing
to accede to his wishes, he determined upon a horrible revenge, and
included his mother-in-law in his proposed scheme of vengeance, as he
imagined that she had induced his father to refuse him any further aid.
Having engaged his cousin, Dominick Bodkin, his father's shepherd, John
Hogan, and another ruffian of the name of Burke, to assist him in the
intended murders, they went to the house of Mr. Bodkin, senior; whose
household consisted of four men and three women servants, exclusive of
Mrs. Bodkin and the younger son, and a gentleman named Lynch, who was at
that time on a visit there. They found all the members of the family at
supper on their arrival, and having murdered them, they went into the
kitchen, where they killed three servant-maids; and, finding the men in
different parts of the house, they also sacrificed them to their brutal
and unprovoked rage. The murder of eleven persons being thus
perpetrated, they quitted the fatal spot; and, when some persons from
Tuam came the next morning to speak with Mr. Bodkin on business, they
found the house open, and beheld the dead body of Mr. Lynch, near which
lay that of Mrs. Bodkin, hacked and mangled in a shocking manner; and,
at a small distance, her husband, with his throat cut, and the child
lying dead across his breast. The throats of the maid-servants in the
kitchen were all cut; and the men-servants in another room were also
found murdered. The assassins had even been so wanton in their cruelties
as to kill all the dogs and cats in the house. The neighbours being
alarmed by such a singular instance of barbarity, a suspicion fell on
John Bodkin; who, being taken into custody, confessed all the tragical
circumstances above-mentioned, and impeached his accomplices: on which
the other offenders were taken into custody, and all of them were
committed to the jail of Tuam.
The shepherd then confessed that he had murdered two; but that thinking
to preserve the boy, to whom he had been foster-father, he besmeared him
with blood, and laid him near his father. Dominick, perceiving him
alive, killed him; and he afterwards murdered five more. John Bodkin
owned that he and Burke killed the remainder; that he had formerly
attempted to poison his mother-in-law; and that he was concerned with
his first-cousins, John Bodkin, then living, and Frank Bodkin, then
lately dead, in strangling Dominick Bodkin, their brother, heir of the
late Counsellor John Bodkin, of Carobegg, to an estate of nine hundred
pounds a year.
When they were brought to trial, John Bodkin, (the parricide), Dominick
Bodkin, and John Hogan, pleaded guilty; and they were all condemned, and
executed at Tuam on the 26th of March, 1742. The head of the shepherd
was fixed on Tuam market-house, and the bodies of the others gibbeted
within sight of the house where the murders had been committed.
Upon the confession of John, the cousin of the same name was apprehended
for the murder of his elder brother, Dominick Bodkin, and accused of
sitting on his mouth and breast until he was suffocated. He was taken in
a moss, or turf bog, near Tuam, covered over with straw, and disguised
in an old hat and peasant's clothes, for which he had given his own
laced coat and hat. Being examined before Lord Athenry, he said that he
had fled for fear of being loaded with irons in a jail, and denied
having any hand in his brother Dominick's death, affirming that he had
died of a surfeit, as had been reported. He was present at the execution
of his relations, but confessed nothing; and thus (there being no
positive proof against him) he escaped justice.
A case in which more cold-blooded cruelty has been displayed than in
this, has seldom fallen under our notice. The murder of an indulgent
parent must be insufferably shocking to every humane mind: but when we
consider, as in the present instance, what a variety of unprovoked
murders were added to the first, the mind is lost in astonishment at the
baseness, the barbarity, the worse than savage degeneracy of those
beings who could perpetrate such horrid deeds.
[Illustration: _Jonathan Bradford discovered at the bedside of M.
Hayes._]
JONATHAN BRADFORD.
EXECUTED FOR MURDER.
The details of this case reach us in a very abridged form; and we have
been unable to collect any information on which any reliance can be
placed beyond that which is afforded us by the ordinary channels. It
would appear that Jonathan Bradford kept an inn in the city of Oxford. A
gentleman, (Mr. Hayes), attended by a man-servant, put up one evening at
Bradford's house; and in the night, the former being found murdered in
his bed, the landlord was apprehended on suspicion of having committed
the barbarous and inhospitable crime. The evidence given against him was
to the following effect:--Two gentlemen who had supped with Mr. Hayes,
and who retired at the same time to their respective chambers, being
alarmed in the night with a noise in his room, and soon hearing groans
as of a wounded man, got up in order to discover the cause, and found
their landlord, with a dark lantern and a knife in his hand, standing in
a state of astonishment and horror over his dying guest, who almost
instantly expired.
On this evidence, apparently conclusive, the jury convicted Bradford,
and he was executed. But the fate of this man may serve as a lesson to
jurymen to be extremely guarded in receiving circumstantial evidence.
The facts attending the above dreadful tragedy were not fully brought to
light until the death-bed confession of the real murderer; a time when
we must all endeavour to make our peace with God.
Mr. Hayes was a man of considerable property, and greatly respected. He
had about him, when his sad destiny led him under the roof of Bradford,
a considerable sum of money; and the landlord knowing this, determined
to murder and rob him. For this horrid purpose he proceeded with a dark
lantern and a carving-knife, intending to cut the throat of his guest
while yet sleeping; but what must have been his astonishment and
confusion to find his intended victim already murdered, and weltering in
his blood!
The wicked and unworthy servant had also determined on the murder of his
master; and had committed the bloody deed, and secured his treasure, a
moment before the landlord entered for the same purpose.
THE EARL OF KILMARNOCK, AND LORD BALMERINO.
BEHEADED FOR HIGH TREASON.
A short account of the circumstances attending the rebellion of 1715
having been given in this work, some notice will, doubtless, be expected
of the second transaction of the same character, and with the same
object, which occurred in the year 1745.
It appears that the Pretender having gained the protection of France,
and the French also having their own interests to serve, it was
determined that a second attempt to restore the Stuarts to the throne of
England should be made by the descent of a body of men upon Scotland,
where it was conjectured numbers would render assistance, which was
eventually to march forward towards London, and expel the reigning
monarch. The design was evidently known to the government, from an
allusion made to the circumstance by the king in his speech from the
throne on the 2nd May, 1745; but the first notice which the British
public had of the proceedings of the Pretender, was from a paragraph in
the _General Evening Post_, which said, "The Pretender's eldest son put
to sea July 14th, from France, in an armed ship of sixty guns, provided
with a large quantity of warlike stores, together with a frigate of
thirty guns and a number of smaller armed vessels, in order to land in
Scotland, where he expected to find twenty thousand men in arms, to make
good his father's pretensions to the crown of Great Britain. He was to
be joined by five ships of the line from Brest; and four thousand five
hundred Spaniards were embarking at Ferrol."
The government, it appears, was not inactive on this occasion, and
proper instructions were given to such of the king's vessels as were
cruising in the Channel, to prevent the approach of any ships which
might be supposed to carry the leader of this rebellious attempt.
The young Pretender, followed by about fifty Scotch and Irish
adventurers, meanwhile, came _incog._ through Normandy, and embarked on
board a ship of war of eighteen guns, which was joined off Belleisle by
the Elizabeth, and other ships. They intended to have sailed northwards,
and to have landed in Scotland; but on the 20th they came up with an
English fleet of merchant-vessels, under convoy of the Lion man-of-war,
of fifty-eight guns, commanded by Captain Brett, who immediately bore
down upon the French line-of-battle ship, which he engaged within
pistol-shot five hours, being constantly annoyed by the smaller ships of
the enemy. The rigging of the Lion was cut to pieces; her mizen-mast,
mizentop-mast, main-yard and fore-topsail, were shot away; all her lower
masts and topmasts shot through in many places, so that she lay muzzled
on the sea, and could do nothing with her sails. Thus situated, the
French ships sheered off, and the Lion could make no effort to follow
them. Captain Brett had forty-five men killed: himself, all his
lieutenants; the master, several midshipmen, and one hundred and seven
foremast-men, wounded. His principal antagonist, the Elizabeth, with
difficulty got back to Brest, quite disabled, and had sixty-four men
killed, one hundred and thirty-nine dangerously wounded, and a number
more slightly injured. She had on board four hundred thousand pounds
sterling, and arms and ammunition for several thousand men.
The friends of the Stuart cause in Scotland were in the mean time as
active as their opponents, and committed many irregularities for the
purpose of supplying their ranks with a sufficient number of soldiers;
and being thus prepared, anxiously expected the arrival of their prince.
The latter found means to join his supporters by a small vessel, in
which he quitted the French coast; and eluding the vigilance of the
English cruisers, he landed on the Isle of Skye, opposite to Lochaber,
in the county of Inverness. After a lapse of about three weeks, he
appeared at the head of a body of two thousand men, under a standard
bearing the motto "_Tandem triumphans_"--"At length triumphant," and
marching his army to Fort William, he there published a manifesto,
signed by his father at Rome, containing many promises to those who
would adhere to his cause, amongst which were undertakings that he
would procure the dissolution of the union of the two kingdoms, and the
payment of the national debt. The country people flocked in great
numbers to his standard; and the mob, by which he was followed, soon
assumed the appearance, in numbers at least, of an army. Their first
attempt in arms, in opposition to two companies of foot, of the St.
Clair and Murray's regiments, was successful, the soldiers being far
inferior in numbers; and the rebels immediately marched upon Perth, and
having taken possession of that place, the Pretender issued his orders
for all persons who held public money to pay it into the hands of his
secretary. Dundee and Dumblain were successively seized by his soldiers;
and at length, on the 14th September, the Pretender proceeded through
the Royal Park and took possession of Holyrood House.
The money in the bank of Edinburgh, and the records in the public
offices, were now removed to the castle for security, and the gates of
the city were kept fast during the whole day; but five hundred of the
rebels, having concealed themselves in the suburbs, took an opportunity,
at four o'clock in the morning, to follow a coach which was going in,
and seizing the gate called the Netherbow, they maintained their ground,
while the main body reached the centre of the city, and formed
themselves in the Parliament Close.
Thus possessed of the Scottish capital, they seized two thousand stand
of arms, and on the following day marched to oppose the royal army under
the command of General Cope. The two armies coming in sight of each
other, near Preston Pans, on the evening of the 20th, Colonel Gardiner
earnestly recommended it to the general to attack his opponents during
the night; but, deaf to this advice, he kept the men under arms till
morning, though they were already greatly harassed. At five in the
morning, the rebels made a furious attack on the royal army, which was
thrown into unspeakable confusion by two regiments of dragoons falling
back on the foot. Colonel Gardiner, with five hundred foot, behaved with
uncommon valour, and covered the retreat of those who fled; but the
colonel receiving a mortal wound, the rebels made prisoners of nearly
all the rest of the king's troops.
The loss thus sustained by the royal army, was three hundred killed,
four hundred and fifty wounded, five hundred and twenty taken
prisoners,--total one thousand two hundred and seventy, while the rebels
only lost fifty men in all. Flushed with this partial victory, the
rebels returned to Edinburgh to make an attack upon the castle, and
attempted to throw up an entrenchment upon the hill; but notice having
been given to the inhabitants to retire, the battery was attacked by the
guns from above, the works destroyed, and thirty of the assailants
killed, besides three of the inhabitants who rashly ventured near the
spot. The rebel army remained during seven weeks in this city; and many
noblemen and gentlemen with their followers having joined it, a force of
more than ten thousand men was at length mustered. In November they
marched upon Carlisle, and after some resistance had been shown, it was
surrendered, and the insurgents then forced their way to Manchester,
where a regiment, chiefly formed of Roman Catholics, was raised.
But now such decisive measures were taken as put an end very shortly to
the insurrection. The Duke of Cumberland was at this time in Flanders,
with the army, but being sent for thence, he soon arrived to take the
command of the royal forces. About the time he reached London, the
rebels had advanced as far as Derby; but his royal highness lost no time
in travelling into Staffordshire, where he collected all the force he
could, to stop their farther inroads into the kingdom.
Liverpool had not been behind London in spirit and loyalty. The
inhabitants contributed largely in assisting the royal army, at this
inclement season, with warm clothing, and raised several companies of
armed men, which were called the Royal Liverpool Blues. Some of the
advanced parties of rebels having appeared in sight of the town, every
preparation was made to resist them; but, finding at length that the
Pretender bent his march by another route for Manchester, the Liverpool
Blues marched in order to destroy the bridges, and thereby impede their
progress.
Notwithstanding these impediments, the rebels crossed the Mersey at
different fords, through which the Pretender waded breast-high in water.
Their numbers could not be accurately ascertained, their march being
straggling and unequal, but about nine thousand appeared to be the
aggregate. Their train of artillery consisted of sixteen field-pieces of
three and four pound shot, two carriages of gunpowder, a number of
covered waggons, and about one hundred horses, laden with ammunition.
Their van-guard consisted of about two hundred cavalry, badly mounted,
the horses appearing poor and jaded. The Pretender himself constantly
marched on foot, at the head of two regiments, one of which was
appropriated as his body guard. His dress was a light plaid, belted
about with a sash of blue silk: he wore a grey wig, with a blue bonnet,
and a white rose in it, and appeared very dejected at this time. His
followers were ordinary, except the two regiments mentioned, which
appeared to have been picked out of the whole. The arms of the others
were very indifferent. Some had guns, others only pistols, the remainder
broad-swords and targets. In order to deceive the Duke of Cumberland,
all sorts of reports as to the future route of the rebels were sent
abroad, but the King's troops were concentrated at Northampton, a spot
well suited for the purpose, as it was the road which it was most
probable would be taken, in the event of the Pretender advancing upon
London, which was known to be his real intention. Meanwhile the rebels
appeared unconscious of the danger they were bringing upon themselves by
delay, and they remained during a considerable time endeavouring to
raise recruits. They at length, however, set forward on their march
southwards, but they had not advanced more than a mile before they
halted, held a consultation, wheeled round, and retraced their steps to
Derby. Having there seized all the plunder they could lay their hands
upon, they passed on, seeking to regain Scotland, where they had learned
that their friends had been joined by some French troops. The Duke of
Cumberland, in the mean time, being aware of their flight, followed them
with all speed, and learning that they had been compelled to halt at
Preston, from excessive weariness, he redoubled his efforts to come up
with them. By forced marches, travelling through ice and snow, he
succeeded in reaching Preston in three days, but he found that his game
had retired about four hours before him. The Pretender soon learned that
the excesses, of which his men had been guilty in their southward march,
were not to go unpunished, and wherever he went he found himself opposed
and harassed by the enraged country people, who lost no opportunity of
annoying him in his retreat, and of seizing the stragglers from his
army. At length, however, after repeated forced marches the Duke of
Cumberland came up with his antagonists at Lowther Hall; and the latter
dreading his approach, immediately threw themselves into the village of
Clifton, three miles from Penryth. They were there attacked most
vigorously and successfully by the dragoons, who had dismounted, and in
about an hour's time they were driven away from the post which they
occupied. They retreated forthwith to Carlisle, which was still in their
possession; but the continued advance of the royal troops induced them
again to retire, leaving only a garrison to oppose the entry of the Duke
into that city. The besieged fired upon their assailants with great
fury, but did little execution; and at length a battery having been
raised against them, they sent out a flag of truce, and surrendered upon
terms that they should not be put to the sword, but reserved for the
king's pleasure, and thus Carlisle was once more taken possession of by
the troops of his majesty.
The army of rebels made the best of their way now to Glasgow, where they
levied contributions, and thence to Stirling, which was in possession of
the English, and was commanded by the gallant General Blakeney. The
gates could not be defended, and they therefore marched in, and summoned
the garrison to surrender; but the veteran commander answered that "he
would perish in its ruins rather than make terms with rebels." In the
river of the town were two English men-of-war; and the rebels, in order
to prevent their going farther up, erected a battery, but the ships soon
destroyed it, and caused them to retreat a mile, where they erected
another, but did little execution. They now prepared for a vigorous
attack upon the castle, got some heavy pieces of ordnance across the
Forth, erected a battery against it, and called in all their forces.
General Blakeney fired upon them, and repeatedly drove them from their
works. General Hawley, in aid of his brother general, at the head of
such troops as he could form in order of battle, marched to attempt to
raise the siege; but the rebels made a desperate attack, and, aided by
accident, obtained the advantage. Repeated skirmishes subsequently took
place, but at length this system of warfare, so destructive to the
general state of the country, was terminated by the decisive victory
gained by the Duke of Cumberland, at the head of the Royal forces, at
the battle of Culloden. The Pretender, at the head of his army, opposed
the Duke, and the following, taken from the London Gazette, is the
conqueror's account of the battle:--