education, in the North of Ireland. Having gone to Dublin at the age of
sixteen years, he soon afterwards entered into business as a
wine-merchant; but being uncontrolled, he fell into bad habits and
company, and was compelled to give up his trade. An associate inviting
him to join him at Kilkenny, he proceeded thither by coach, and seeing a
lady in the conveyance, the elegance of her appearance and manners
impressed him with an idea that she was of rank. He determined, if
possible, to profit by the opportunity afforded him. He handed her into
the inn, and a proposal being made that the company should sup together,
it was agreed to on all hands; and while the supper was preparing, Carr
applied himself to the coachman to learn the history of the young lady;
but all the information he could obtain was, that he had taken her up at
Dublin, and that she was going to the Spa at Mallow. He was determined,
however, to become better acquainted with her, and prevailed on the
company to repose themselves the next day at Kilkenny, and take a view
of the Duke of Ormond's seat, and the curiosities of the town. This
proposal being acceded to, the evening was spent in the utmost harmony
and good-humour; and the fair stranger even then conceived an idea of
making a conquest of Mr. Carr, from whose appearance she was induced to
suppose that he was a man of distinction. It was now "diamond cut
diamond," and in the morning the fair incognita dressed herself to great
advantage, not forgetting the ornament of jewels, which she wore in
abundance; so that when she entered the room, Carr was astonished at her
appearance. She found the influence she had over him, and resolved to
afford him an early opportunity of speaking his sentiments; and while
the company were walking in the gallery of the Duke of Ormond's palace,
an occasion presented itself, which was not lost by either party. The
lady at first affected displeasure at so explicit a declaration; but,
soon assuming a more affable deportment, she told him she was an
Englishwoman of rank; that his person was not disagreeable to her; and
that, if he was a man of fortune and the consent of her relations could
be obtained, she should not be averse to listening to his addresses. She
further said that she was going to spend part of the summer at Mallow,
where his company would be agreeable; and he followed her to that place,
contrary to the advice of his friend, who had formed a very unfavourable
opinion of the lady's character.
It is needless to say that the company of so refined and elegant a
person was not to be kept without some expenses, which were not of a
very moderate character, and the difficulties in which our hero had
already placed himself were in nowise diminished by his new connexion.
He remained with her, however, until the end of the season induced them
to return to Dublin; and then a trip to England was proposed,
preparatory to the final steps being taken to complete the nuptial
arrangements. The gallantry and wits of the gentleman were sorely tested
to procure the requisite funds for the trip; but he at length succeeded
in obtaining such a sum as he and the lady deemed sufficient. The
passage only remained to be secured, and the too credulous sharper was
employed in obtaining it; but in his absence the lady shipped all the
effects on board a vessel bound for Amsterdam, and, having dressed
herself in man's apparel, she embarked and sailed, leaving Carr to
regret his ill-judged credulity.
Thus reduced to want, he went to London, and having enlisted as a
foot-soldier, he was discharged after several years' service. He
subsequently entered as a marine, but soon afterwards came to London
again, and opened a shop in Hog-lane, St. Giles's. He now married a girl
who he thought had money; but soon discovering her poverty, he abandoned
her, and removed to Short's Gardens, where he entered into partnership
with a cork-cutter; but having obtained the promise of support from his
partner's customers, he set up on his own account, and was tolerably
successful, though his passion for gambling prevented his retaining any
part of the produce of his business. His new companions at the
gaming-table, having an eye to their own profit, offered to procure him
a wife of fortune, though they knew he had a wife living, and actually
contrived to introduce him to a young lady of property, with whom a
marriage would probably have taken place, but that one of them, struck
with remorse of conscience, developed the affair to her father, and
frustrated the whole scheme. Being now again thrown upon his own
resources, he engaged himself as porter to a merchant; but while in this
condition, his master having entrusted him with a check, for sixty
pounds, he procured it to be cashed, and having spent the money in the
lowest debauchery, he again entered as a marine. There being something
in his deportment superior to the vulgar, he was advanced to the rank of
sergeant, in which he behaved so well that his officers treated him with
considerable favour.
The vessel in which he sailed was of considerable power, and taking a
merchant-ship richly laden, and soon afterwards several smaller vessels,
the prize-money amounted to a considerable sum. This gave Carr an idea
that very great advantages might be obtained by privateering, and having
procured a discharge, he entered on board a privateer, and was made
master-at-arms. In a few days the privateer took two French ships, one
of which they carried to Bristol, and the other into the harbour of
Poole; and refitting their ship, they sailed again, and in two days took
a French privateer, and gave chase to three others, which they found to
have been English vessels belonging to Falmouth, which had been captured
by a French privateer. These they retook, and carried them into
Falmouth; in their passage to which place they made prize of a valuable
French ship, the produce of which contributed to enrich the crew. On
their next trip, they saw a ship in full chase of them, on which they
prepared for a vigorous defence; and an action soon after taking place,
many hands were lost by the French, who at length attempted to sheer
off, but were taken after a chase of some leagues.
The commander of the English privateer, being desperately wounded in the
engagement, died in a few days; on which Carr courted his widow, and a
marriage would have taken place, but that she was seized with a violent
fever, which deprived her of life--but not before she had bequeathed him
all she was possessed of. Having disposed of her effects, he repaired to
London, where he commenced smuggler: but his ill-gotten goods being
seized on by the officers of the revenue, he took to the still more
dangerous practice of forging seamen's wills, and gained money thus for
some time; but, being apprehended, he was brought to trial at the Old
Bailey convicted, and was sentenced to die.
He was of the Romish persuasion, and died with decent resignation to his
fate.
Carr was hanged at Tyburn on the 16th of November 1750.
NORMAN ROSS.
EXECUTED FOR MURDER.
About the time at which this man met his most deserved punishment, the
public journals teemed with accounts of the impudence and crimes of the
parti-coloured tribe of servants denominated footmen. To such a daring
pitch had their impudence arrived, that they created a riot at the
theatre in Drury Lane, even in the presence of the heir-apparent to the
throne. One evening when the Prince and Princess of Wales, the father
and mother of King George III., attended the performance, these
miscreants commenced a dreadful uproar. It was then the custom to admit
servants in livery into the upper gallery _gratis_, in compliment to
their employers, on whom they were supposed to be in attendance; and not
content with peaceably witnessing the performance, they frequently
interrupted those who had paid for admission, and, assuming the
prerogative of critics, hissed or applauded with the most offensive
clamour. In consequence of these violent proceedings, the manager shut
the door against them, unless they each paid their shilling. Upon an
occasion when that part of the royal family already mentioned were
present, they mustered in a gang, to the number of three hundred; broke
open the doors of the theatre, fought their way to the very door of the
stage, and, in their progress, wounded twenty-five peaceable people.
Colonel De Veil, then an active magistrate for Westminster, happened to
be present, and in vain attempted to read a proclamation against such an
outrage; but, though they obstructed him in his duty, he caused the
ringleaders to be secured, and the next day committed three of them to
Newgate.
At the ensuing sessions they were convicted of the riot, and sentenced
to imprisonment.
In the mean time, the choler of these upstarts was raised to such a
pitch, that they sent the following threat to the manager:--
"To Mr. Fleetwood, in Lincoln's-Inn-Fields, Master of the Theatre,
Drury Lane.
"SIR,--We are willing to admonish you, before we attempt our design: and
provided you use us civil, and admit us into our gallery, which is our
property, according to formalities; and if you think proper to come to a
composition this way, you'll hear no further; and if not, our intention
is to combine in a body, _incognito_, and reduce the playhouse to the
ground; valuing no detection--we are indemnified!"
The manager carried this letter to the Lord Chamberlain, who ordered a
detachment of fifty soldiers to do duty there each night, and thus
deterred the saucy knaves from carrying their threats into execution.
At the Edinburgh theatre it was also a custom to admit men wearing the
badge of servitude into the gallery _gratis_; and when Garrick's
inimitable farce, "High Life Below Stairs," wherein the waste and
impudence of domestic servants of rich men is completely exposed, was
performed there, a most violent clamour broke out in the gallery, so as
entirely to interrupt the performance, and put the other part of the
audience in fear of the consequences. The hardy Scotchmen, however, laid
hold of the rioters, and kicked every footman, who alone were concerned,
out of the house, where, without paying, they never more entered.
Having thus referred to an evil which existed in 1751, and which even to
this moment continues to exist to a considerable extent, namely the over
bearing insolence of the fellows who usually fill the situations of
domestic servants in the families of the rich, it is time to proceed to
the history of the subject of this sketch. Ross was born of decent
parents in Inverness, and received an education by which he would have
been fitted to fill a situation in a merchant's counting-house. The
difficulty in obtaining such employment, however, induced him to enter
the service of a lady, who had always exhibited great kindness towards
his family; and he soon afterwards accompanied her son to the Continent
in the capacity of _valet-de-chambre_. He continued in this situation
during about five years, when he returned to Scotland, and was employed
by an attorney in Edinburgh; but having contracted an intimacy among
other servants, from their instruction he acquired all the fashionable
habits of drinking, swearing, and gaming, and was dismissed on account
of his impudence, and the irregularities of his conduct.
He was subsequently engaged by a Mrs. Hume, a widow lady of good
fortune, whose residence, during the summer, was at Ayton, a village
about four miles from Berwick-upon-Tweed. The extravagance of our hero,
and an unfortunate intercourse which he had with a fellow-servant, soon
compelled him to look for some other means of procuring money, besides
that which was honestly afforded him by his mistress; and having
exhausted the patience of his friends by borrowing from them repeatedly,
he formed the resolution of robbing his employer. It would appear that
Mrs. Hume slept in a room on the first floor, and that the keys of her
bureau were usually placed under her head for safety. Sunday night was
the time fixed upon for the commission of the robbery, and, waiting in
his bed-room without undressing himself, till he judged the family to be
asleep, he descended, and leaving his shoes in the passage, proceeded to
his lady's bed-chamber. Upon his endeavouring to get possession of the
keys, the lady was disturbed, and being dreadfully alarmed, called for
assistance; but the rest of the family lying at a distant part of the
house, her screams were not heard. Ross immediately seized a clasp-knife
that lay on the table, and cut his mistress's throat in a most dreadful
manner. This horrid act was no sooner perpetrated than, without waiting
to put on his shoes, or to secure either money or other effects, he
leaped out of the window, and after travelling several miles, concealed
himself in a field of corn.
In the morning the gardener discovered a livery hat, which the murderer
had dropped in descending from the window; and, suspecting that
something extraordinary had happened, he alarmed his fellow-servants.
The disturbance in the house brought the two daughters of Mrs. Hume down
stairs; but no words can express the horror and consternation of the
young ladies upon beholding their parent weltering in her blood, and the
fatal instrument of death lying on the floor.
Ross being absent, and his shoes and hat being found, it was concluded
that he must have committed the barbarous deed; and the butler therefore
mounted a horse, and alarmed the country, lest the murderous villain
should escape. The butler was soon joined by great numbers of horsemen;
and towards the conclusion of the day, when both men and horses were
nearly exhausted through excessive fatigue, the murderer was discovered
in a field of standing corn. He was immediately secured, and being
brought to trial, he had the effrontery to declare that he was admitted
to share his mistress's bed, and that his custom was always to leave his
shoes at the parlour door. That on the night of the murder he proceeded
as usual to her room, but on entering it his horror was aroused at
discovering her to be murdered. He leaped out at the window to search
for the perpetrators of the deed, and dropping his hat he thought it
better not to return until night. Having been found guilty, he was
sentenced to have his right hand chopped off, then to be hanged till
dead, the body to be hung in chains, and the right hand to be affixed at
the top of the gibbet, with the knife made use of in the commission of
the murder.
Upon receiving sentence of death he began seriously to reflect on his
miserable situation, and the next day he requested the attendance of Mr.
James Craig, one of the ministers of Edinburgh, to whom he confessed his
guilt, declaring that there was no foundation for his reflections
against the chastity of the deceased. Six weeks elapsed between the time
of his trial and that of his execution, during which he showed every
sign of the most sincere penitence, and refused to accompany two
prisoners who broke out of jail, saying he had no desire to recover his
liberty, but that on the contrary he would cheerfully submit to the
utmost severity of punishment, that he might make atonement for his
wickedness. The day appointed for putting the sentence of the law into
force being arrived, Ross walked to the place of execution, holding Mr.
Craig by the arm. Having addressed a pathetic speech to the populace,
and prayed some time with great fervency of devotion, the rope was put
round his neck, and he laid his right hand upon the block, when it was
struck off by the executioner at two blows. He was immediately
afterwards run up to the gallows, when, feeling the rope drawing tight,
by a convulsive motion of the arm he struck his bloody wrist against his
cheek, which gave it a ghastly appearance. The sentence was subsequently
fully carried into effect.
The execution took place on the 8th January 1751.
THOMAS COLLEY.
EXECUTED FOR MURDER.
This offender was a victim to his own feelings of superstition. At the
time of his crime and execution the belief in witchcraft was almost
universal, and Colley was hanged for the murder of a poor old woman
named Osborne, whose qualities as a witch he tested by ducking her in a
pond until she was dead, thereby indisputably proving to the
satisfaction of all, and to the credit of the deceased woman, how
unjustifiable were the suspicions which had been entertained of her
character.
The evidence given against the prisoner was to the following effect:--On
the 18th April, 1751, a man named Nichols went to William Dell, the
crier at Hemel Hempstead, in Hertfordshire, and delivered to him a paper
to the following effect, which was to be cried:
"This is to give notice, that on Monday next, a man and woman are to be
publicly ducked at Tring, in this county, for their wicked crimes."
This notice was given at Winslow and Leighton-Buzzard, as well as at
Hemel-Hempstead, on the respective market-days, and was heard by Mr.
Barton, overseer of the parish of Tring, who being informed that the
persons intended to be ducked were John Osborne, and Ruth his wife, and
having no doubt of the good character of both the parties, sent them to
the workhouse, as a protection from the rage of the mob.
On the day appointed for the practice of the infernal ceremony, an
immense number of people, supposed to be not fewer than five thousand,
assembled near the workhouse at Tring, vowing revenge against Osborne
and his wife, as a wizard and a witch, and demanding that they should be
delivered up to their fury. In support of their demands they pulled down
a wall belonging to the workhouse, and broke the windows and
window-frames. On the preceding evening the master of the workhouse,
suspecting some violence from what he heard of the disposition of the
people, had sent Osborne and his wife to the vestry-room belonging to
the church, as a place the most likely to secure them from insult. The
mob would not give credit to the master of the workhouse that the
parties were removed, but, rushing into the house, searched it through,
examining the closets, boxes, trunks, and even the salt-box, in quest of
them. There being a hole in the ceiling, which had been left by the
plasterers, Colley, who was one of the most active of the gang,
exclaimed, "Let us search the ceiling;" and this being done, but of
course without success, they swore that they would pull down the house,
and set fire to Tring, if the parties were not produced. The master of
the workhouse, apprehensive that they would carry their threats into
execution, and unmindful of the safety of the unfortunate wretches whom
it was his duty to protect, at length gave up their place of
concealment; and the whole mob, with Colley at their head, forthwith
marched off to the church and brought them off in triumph. Their persons
secured, they were carried to a pond, called Marlston Mere, where they
were stripped and tied up separately in cloths. A rope was then bound
round the body of the woman, under her arm-pits, and two men dragged her
into the pond, and through it several times; Colley going into the pond,
and, with a stick, turning her from side to side. Having ducked her
repeatedly in this manner, they placed her by the side of the pond, and
dragged the old man in, and ducked him: then he was put by, and the
woman ducked again as before, Colley making the same use of his stick.
With this cruelty the husband was treated twice over, and the wife three
times; during the last of which the cloth in which she was wrapped came
off, and she appeared quite naked.
Not satisfied with this barbarity, Colley pushed his stick against her
breast, and the poor woman attempted to lay hold of it; but her strength
being now exhausted, she expired on the spot. Colley then went round the
pond, collecting money of the populace for the _sport_ he had shown them
in ducking the old witch, as he called her. The mob now departed to
their several habitations; and the body being taken out of the pond, was
examined by Mr. Foster, a surgeon; and the coroner's inquest being
summoned on the occasion, Mr Foster deposed that, "on examining the body
of the deceased, he found no wound, either internal or external, except
a little place that had the skin off on one of her breasts; and it was
his opinion that she was suffocated with water and mud."
Hereupon Colley was taken into custody, and when his trial came on, Mr.
Foster deposed to the same effect as above mentioned; and there being a
variety of other strong proofs of the prisoner's guilt, he was
convicted, and received sentence of death. His defence was that he had
endeavoured to protect the old people from violence, instead of
attempting to injure them.
After conviction he seemed to behold his guilt in its true light of
enormity. He became, as far as could be judged, sincerely penitent for
his sins, and made good use of the short time he had to live in the
solemn preparation for eternity.
The day before his execution he was removed from the jail of Hertford,
under the escort of one hundred men of the Oxford Blues, commanded by
seven officers; and being lodged in the jail of St. Albans, was put into
a chaise at five o'clock the next morning, with the hangman, and reached
the place of execution about eleven, where his wife and daughter came to
take leave of him. The minister of Tring assisted him in his last
moments, and he died exhibiting all the marks of unfeigned penitence.
He was executed on the 24th of August 1751, and his body afterwards hung
in chains at a place called Gubblecut, near which the offence was
committed.
It is not a little remarkable that, at so recent a period, so many
people as composed this mob should be found so benighted in intellect,
and utterly uninformed, as to be guilty of so miserable and so glaring a
piece of absurdity and wickedness as that which was proved in the
evidence against the prisoner. In former ages, it is true, not only the
people, but even the authorities of the land, believed in witchcraft and
sorcery; but it is indeed extraordinary that in the eighteenth century a
scene such as that described could have been permitted to occur at a
village within thirty miles of the metropolis.
The following copy of an indictment, furnished us by a friend who took
it from the American Court record, must prove a matter of curiosity to
the reader at the present enlightened era:--
"Essex, ss. (a town in the colony of Massachusetts Bay, in New England.)
"The jurors of our sovereign lord and lady, the king and queen (King
William and Queen Mary), present, that George Burroughs, late of
Falmouth, in the province of Massachusetts Bay, clerk (a Presbyterian
minister of the Gospel), the 9th day of May, and divers other days and
times, as well before as after, certain detestable arts, called
witchcraft and sorceries, wickedly and feloniously hath used, practised
and exercised at and in the town of Salem, in the county aforesaid, upon
and against one Mary Walcot, single woman, by which said wicked arts the
said Mary, on the day aforesaid, and divers other days and times, as
well before as after, was, and is tortured, afflicted, pined, consumed,
wasted, and tormented against the peace," &c.
A witness, by name Ann Putnam, deposed as follows:--On the 8th of May,
1692, I saw the apparition of George Burroughs, who grievously tormented
me, and urged me to write in his book, which I refused. He then told me
that his two first wives would appear to me presently and tell me a
great many lies, but I must not believe them. Then immediately appeared
to me the forms of two women in winding-sheets, and napkins about their
heads, at which I was greatly affrighted. They turned their faces
towards Mr. Burroughs, and looked red and angry, and told him that he
had been very cruel to them, and that their blood called for vengeance
against him; and they also told him that they should be clothed with
white robes in heaven when he should be cast down into hell, and he
immediately vanished away. And as soon as he was gone, the women turned
their faces towards me, and looked as pale as a white wall; and told me
they were Mr. Burroughs's two wives, and that he had murdered them. And
one told me she was his first wife, and he stabbed her under the left
breast, and put a piece of sealing-wax in the wound; and she pulled
aside the winding-sheet and showed me the place: she also told me that
she was in the house where Mr. Daris, the minister of Danvers, then
lived when it was done. And the other told me that Mr. Burroughs and a
wife that he hath now, killed her in the vessel as she was coming to see
her friends from the eastward, because they would have one another. And
they both charged me to tell these things to the magistrates before Mr.
Burroughs's face; and if he did not own them, they did not know but they
should appear this morning. This morning, also, appeared to me another
woman in a winding-sheet, and told me that she was Goodman Fuller's
first wife, and Mr. Burroughs killed her, because there was a difference
between her husband and him.
Upon the above, and some other such evidence, was this unfortunate man
condemned and executed.
The days are now, happily, past, when such monstrous absurdities are
heard of.
FREDERICK CAULFIELD.
EXECUTED FOR MURDER.
The following is a remarkable instance, if it be true, of a dream
occasioning the discovery of a murder:
Adam Rogers (a creditable man, who kept a public-house at Portlaw, a
small village nine or ten miles from Waterford, in Ireland) dreamed one
night that he saw two men at a particular green spot on an adjacent
mountain; one of them a sickly-looking man, the other remarkably strong
and large. He then fancied that he saw the little man murder the other,
and awoke in great agitation. The circumstances of the dream were so
distinct and forcible that he continued much affected by them; and on
the next morning he was extremely startled at seeing two strangers enter
his house, about eleven o'clock in the forenoon, who resembled precisely
the two men that he fancied he had seen.