depart, in order to prosecute their journey, Rogers earnestly
endeavoured to dissuade the little man from quitting his house and going
on with his fellow-traveller; and he assured him that if he would remain
with him that day, he would himself accompany him to Carrick next
morning, that being the town to which they were proceeding. He was
unwilling and ashamed to tell the cause of his being so solicitous to
separate him from his companion; but as he observed that Hickey, which
was the name of the little man, seemed to be quiet and gentle in his
deportment, and had money about him, and that the other had a ferocious
bad countenance, he dreaded that something fatal would happen, and
wished, at all events, to keep them asunder. The humane precautions
which he took, however, proved ineffectual; for Caulfield (such was the
other's name) prevailed upon Hickey to continue with him on their way to
Carrick, declaring that, as they had long travelled together they should
not part, but should remain together until he should see Hickey safely
arrive at the habitation of his friends. They accordingly set out
together; and in about an hour after they left Portlaw, in a lonely part
of the mountain, just near the place observed by Rogers in his dream,
Caulfield took the opportunity of murdering his companion. It appeared
afterwards, from his own account of the horrid transaction, that as they
were getting over the ditch, he struck Hickey on the back part of his
head with a stone; and when he fell down into the trench, in consequence
of the blow, Caulfield gave him several stabs with a knife, and cut his
throat so deeply, that the head was almost severed from the body. He
then rifled Hickey's pockets of all the money in them, took part of his
clothes, and everything else of value about him, and afterwards
proceeded on his way to Carrick. He had not been long gone when the
body, still warm, was discovered by some labourers who were returning to
their work from dinner. The report of the murder soon reached Portlaw;
and Rogers and his wife went to the place, and instantly knew the body
of him whom they had in vain endeavoured to dissuade from going on with
his treacherous companion. They at once declared their suspicions that
the murder was perpetrated by the fellow traveller of the deceased; and
an immediate search was made, and Caulfield was apprehended at Waterford
on the second day after. He was brought to trial at the ensuing assizes,
and convicted of the fact.
After sentence, the prisoner confessed that he had been guilty of the
murder, and stated that he had accompanied Hickey home from the West
Indies; and that observing that he had money in his possession, he had
long contemplated the deed which he afterwards effected, but was unable
to meet with a good opportunity until their arrival at the spot alluded
to.
He was executed at Waterford in the year 1751.
WILLIAM PARSONS, ESQ.
EXECUTED FOR RETURNING FROM TRANSPORTATION.
The unhappy subject of this narrative was the eldest son of Sir William
Parsons, Bart., of the county of Nottingham, and was born in London in
the year 1717. He was placed under the care of a pious and learned
divine at Pepper-harrow, in Surrey, where he received the first
rudiments of education. In a little more than three years he was removed
to Eton College, where it was intended that he should qualify himself
for one of the universities; but his misconduct prevented his friends
from carrying out their intentions in this respect; for having been
detected in various acts of petty pilfering, he was dismissed the
school, and sent home to his father. His disposition was now found to be
of so unpromising a character, that it was thought advisable to send
him to sea, and an appointment was procured for him as midshipman on
board a vessel of war lying at Spithead, which was immediately about to
proceed to Jamaica. Our hero soon obtained the necessary outfit, and
joined his ship; but some accident detaining her beyond the time when it
was expected she would sail, he applied for leave of absence, and went
on shore; but having no intention to return, he directed his course
towards a small town about ten miles from Portsmouth, called Bishop's
Waltham, where, by representations of his respectability, he soon
ingratiated himself into the favour of the principal inhabitants.
His figure being pleasing, and his manner of address easy and polite, he
found but little difficulty in recommending himself to the ladies, and
he became greatly enamoured of a beautiful and accomplished young lady,
the daughter of a physician of considerable practice, and prevailed upon
her to promise that she would yield to him her hand in marriage.
News of the intended alliance coming to the knowledge of his father and
of his uncle, the latter directly hastened to Waltham, to prevent a
union, which would have produced consequences of the worst character to
the contracting parties, and having apprised the friends of the young
lady with the condition and situation of the intended bridegroom, their
consent was withdrawn, and our hero was with some difficulty induced to
rejoin his ship. Restless, however, in his new employment, he had
scarcely reached Jamaica, when he determined that he would desert and
return to England; and the sailing of the Sheerness man-of-war for that
place afforded him an opportunity of carrying his design into execution,
of which he lost no time in availing himself. A new effort to obtain the
hand of his former love was as unsuccessful as that which he had first
made; and his uncle having ascertained the fact of his presence in
England, induced him at once to go back to the residence of his father,
with promises of future amendment. For a time his determination to alter
his course of life was obeyed; but soon again launching forth into
habits of irregularity, he was despatched as midshipman on board the
_Romney_, for the coast of Newfoundland. On his revisiting England,
after an absence of some years, he was mortified to learn that the
Duchess of Northumberland, to whom he was distantly related, had revoked
a will in his favour, which she had made, and had bequeathed to his
sister the fortune which, he knew, had been intended for him; and now,
finding himself spurned by his friends, he was soon reduced to a
condition of absolute necessity. Through the friendly intervention of a
Mr. Bailey, however, he procured an engagement at James Fort, on the
river Gambia, but here, as in all other situations unfortunate, he
contrived to engage himself in a quarrel, in consequence of which he was
compelled to return to Europe--a step, however, which he was alone
enabled to take by setting at defiance the commands of the Governor
Aufleur, that he should not quit the colony--and take his passage under
an assumed name on board a homeward-bound trader.
Arrived in London, he found no friend to whom he could apply for
assistance or relief, but at length discovering the residence of his
father, he went to him and implored some aid, even if he should not give
him any further countenance. Five shillings, and advice to enter a horse
regiment as a private, were all that he could obtain, however, and
rendered wretched by his miserable condition, the grave appeared to be
the only resource to which he could look for consolation. But a thought
suggested itself in time to prevent his rashly taking away his life,
that he should represent himself as his brother, who had recently come
into a fortune; and under the pretext that he was entitled to the
legacy, he committed frauds upon various tradesmen to a considerable
amount. His impudence and his ingenuity were now required to be exerted
in order to relieve him from the difficulty in which he was involved in
consequence of this proceeding, but his good fortune in throwing him in
the way of a young lady of good fortune, to whom he was married, placed
in his power the means of retrieving his lost character and his degraded
position. The marriage was solemnised on the 10th February 1740; and the
intercession of his friends, to whom he was now with difficulty again
reconciled, procured for him an ensigncy in the 34th regiment of foot
from the right honourable Arthur Onslow.
He appeared at this time to be desirous of re-appearing in that position
in society to which his birth entitled him; but having hired a house in
Poland-street, his extravagant mode of living again, in the course of a
few years, reduced him to a condition of great distress. He was
compelled to sell his commission in order to recruit his shattered
finances; and then, in order to meet new demands, he was guilty of
various forgeries, upon which he procured money to a very large amount.
For two years he pursued new plans of iniquity with considerable
success, but then being apprehended in the act of putting off a forged
draft, he was committed to Maidstone jail, and having been convicted at
the ensuing assizes, was sentenced to be transported for seven years. In
the month of September, 1749, he was put on board the Thames transport,
bound for Maryland, and in the following November he was landed at
Annapolis, in that place. He was now guilty of new offences, even more
criminal than those which he had before committed, and having first
ridden off with a horse belonging to the person to whom he was assigned
as a servant, and committed several robberies, he shaped his course to
Potomac, from whence he immediately sailed for England.
That refuge for the destitute of all classes at this period, "the road,"
was now the only resource left to our hero, and for a time he pursued
his new occupation with infinite determination and proportionate
success; but at length having attempted to rob Mr. Fuller, the gentleman
by whom he had before been prosecuted, he was recognised by him, and
being vigorously attacked, was at length compelled to surrender, and was
secured and committed to Newgate.
It was necessary to prove no new offence against him at his trial, but
all that was required was to identify him as a transported felon, who
had returned to England before the termination of the period for which
he had been sentenced to be banished; and this being done, he was
declared to have forfeited his life to the laws of his country. His
distressed father and wife used all their interest to obtain for him a
pardon, but in vain: he was an old offender, and judged by no means a
fit object for mercy.
While Parsons remained in Newgate, his behaviour was such that it could
not be determined whether he entertained a proper idea of his dreadful
situation. There is, indeed, but too much reason to fear that the hopes
of a reprieve (in which he deceived himself even to the last moments of
his life) induced him to neglect the necessary preparation for
eternity.
His taking leave of his wife afforded a scene extremely affecting: he
recommended to her parental protection his only child, and regretted
that his misconduct had put it in the power of a censorious world to
reflect upon both the mother and son.
At the place of execution he joined in the devotional exercises with a
fervency of zeal that proved him to be convinced of the necessity of
obtaining the pardon of his Creator.
William Parsons, Esq. suffered at Tyburn, on the 11th of Feb. 1751.
WILLIAM CHANDLER.
TRANSPORTED FOR PERJURY.
The scheme laid by this man for the purpose of plunder has scarcely ever
been equalled in art and consummate hypocrisy. It is to be observed that
in the case of every robbery committed, the hundred where it happens, or
the county at large, is responsible for the amount of the loss which the
injured person in such cases may sustain. In Chandler's attempt at fraud
founded upon this law, he implicated three innocent men, by whom he
pretended to have been robbed, and who, had his tale ultimately received
credit, might have lost their lives. Happily his plot was frustrated,
and the real offender was brought to justice.
William Chandler was the only child of Mr. Thomas Chandler, of
Woodborough, near Devizes, a gentleman farmer of moderate means. At an
early age the youth was articled to Mr. Banks, who was clerk of the
Goldsmiths' Company; but before two years had elapsed, in consequence of
frequent disputes which took place, he was transferred to Mr. Hill, a
respectable attorney in Clifford's Inn. His clerkship being nearly
expired, the necessity of providing himself with the means of commencing
practice on his own account suggested itself to his mind, and he
therefore laid a plan to procure the possession of as much money as he
could, and then going a journey into the country, upon some plausible
pretence, to trump up a story of being robbed, and sue the hundred for
the amount. Upon representations to his father, that he had a good match
in view, the old man gave him an estate of the value of 400_l._; and
then producing the deeds to his master, together with 500_l._ which he
had obtained by other means, but which he represented that he had
received from a rich uncle in Suffolk, he procured from him the advance
of 500_l._ more, in order, as he alleged, that he might take a mortgage
upon some property at Enford, within a few miles of his father's house.
Mr. Hill demanded some security for his money, and his clerk immediately
proposed to give him a mortgage upon his own estate. In order to favour
the appearance of the probability of his proceedings, he engaged with a
Mrs. Poor, who lived at Enford, in a transaction, having the mortgage of
some land which she owned for its object, and the money having been duly
advanced by his employer, he fixed the 25th March, 1748, to meet Mrs.
Poor to hand over the money and receive the necessary papers. Early on
the 24th, having turned most of his cash into small bills, to the amount
of 900_l._, he found, when he came to put these in canvas bags under his
garters, where he proposed to carry them for safety, that they made too
great a bundle, and therefore he took several of the bills, with some
cash, amounting to 440_l._, and exchanged them at the bank for two
notes, one of 400_l._ and the other of 40_l._; the first of which, in
his way home, he changed in his master's name, at Sir Richard Hoare's,
for one note of 200_l._, and two of 100_l._ each. On his reaching the
office, he told his master that the bank clerks were a little out of
humour at the trouble he had already given them, and that he had changed
his small notes with a stranger in the bank-hall for the notes which he
in reality had received at Sir Richard Hoare's. Mr. Hill, at Chandler's
request, having then written down the numbers and dates of the several
bills, and having seen them safely put up, Chandler took leave of him,
and about twelve o'clock set out.
About four o'clock the same afternoon he reached Hare-hatch, distant
thirty miles from London, where he stopped to refresh; and about five,
just as he had left his inn, he was, as he said, unfortunately met by
three bargemen on foot, who, after they had robbed him of his watch and
money, took him to a pit close by the road, and there stripped him of
all his bank-notes, bound his hands and feet, and left him, threatening
to return and shoot him if he made the least noise. In this woful
condition, he said, he lay three hours, though the pit was so near the
road that not a single horse could pass without his hearing. When night
came, however, he jumped, bound as he was, near half a mile, all up
hill, till, luckily for his purpose, he met one Avery, a simple
shepherd, who cut the cords, and of whom the first question Chandler
asked was, where a constable or tything-man lived. Avery conducted him
to Richard Kelly's, the constable's just by, and with him Mr. Chandler
left the notices required by the statutes, with the description of the
men who robbed him, so exactly, that a person present remembered three
such men to have passed by his house about the very time the robbery was
said to have been committed; and the mayor of Reading, who was
accidentally on the road, had a similar recollection of the bargemen,
whom he had met near Maidenhead thicket, between four and five the same
day. Chandler then returned to the inn where he had refreshed, and,
after telling his deplorable tale, and acquainting his landlord with his
intention of suing the hundred, he ordered a good supper and a bowl of
punch, and sat down with as little concern as if nothing had happened.
Next day he returned to London, acquainted his master with the pretended
robbery, and requested his assistance. Mr. Hill gave him the memorandum
he had of the numbers, dates, and sums of the notes, and sent him to the
bank to stop payment; but, instead of that, he went to Mr. Tufley, a
silversmith in Cannon Street, bought a silver tankard, and in payment,
changed one of the notes for a hundred pounds which he had received the
day before at Sir Richard Hoare's; and on his return to his master, told
him the bank did no business that day, on account of the hurry the city
was in with regard to a fire in Cornhill, which had happened the night
before. He therefore went again the following morning, and when he came
back, being asked by Mr. Hill for the paper on which he had taken down
the numbers, &c., he said he had left it with the clerks of the bank,
who were to stop the notes, but that he had taken an exact copy of it.
This, however, was false; for he had reserved Mr. Hill's copy, and left
another at the bank, in which he had so craftily altered the numbers and
dates of the three notes he received at Sir Richard Hoare's, amounting
to four hundred pounds, as to prevent their being stopped and Mr. Hill
remembering the difference.
On the 26th he inserted a list of his notes, being fifteen in all, with
their dates and numbers, in the daily papers, offering a reward of fifty
pounds for the recovery of the whole, or in proportion for any part; but
on the afternoon of the same day he withdrew his advertisement in all
the daily papers, and took his own written copy away at each place. On
the 29th of March, he put the notice of the robbery and the description
of the robbers in the London Gazette, as the law directs, except that he
did not particularize the notes, as he had done in other papers.
On the 12th of May following, he made the proper information before a
justice of the peace; but though Mr. Hill, his master, was with him, and
had undertaken to manage the cause for him, yet he made the same
omission in his information as in his advertisement in the London
Gazette.
All things being prepared, on the 18th of July 1748, Chandler's cause
came on at Abingdon, before a special jury; and, after a hearing of
twelve hours, the jury retired, and then gave the prosecutor a verdict
for nine hundred and seventy pounds, subject, however, to a case
reserved for the opinion of the Court of Common Pleas, concerning the
sufficiency of the description of the bank-notes in the London Gazette.
In the mean time, Chandler, fearing that by what came out upon the trial
he should soon be suspected, and that he might be arrested, obtained a
protection from Lord Willoughby de Broke, and gave out that he was
removed into Suffolk to reside, as he had before pretended, with his
rich uncle; but in reality he retired to Colchester, where his
brother-in-law, Humphry Smart, had taken an inn, with whom he entered
into copartnership, and never came publicly to London afterwards. He
was, however, obliged to correspond with his master, on account of the
point of law which was soon to be argued; and, therefore, to obtain his
letters without discovering his place of abode, he ordered them to be
directed "To Mr. Thomas Chandler, at Easton, in Suffolk, to be left for
him at the Crown at Audley, near Colchester."
Mr. Hill having written several letters to Mr. Chandler, pressing him to
come to town (as the Term drew near), and he evading it by trifling
excuses, the former began to suspect him, even before the point of law
was determined.
Just before this period, twelve of the notes of which Mr. Chandler
pretended to have been robbed, were all brought to the bank together,
having been bought, October 31, 1748, at Amsterdam, of one John Smith,
by Barnard Solomon, a broker there, and by him transmitted to his son,
Nathan Solomon, a broker in London. Upon further inquiry, it appeared
that John Smith, who sold the notes, staid but a few days in Holland;
that he was seen in company with Mr. Casson, a Holland trader, and came
over in the packet with him. Mr. Casson was then found, and his
description of John Smith answered to the person of Chandler, who was,
in consequence, pressed by letter to come to town and face Casson, to
remove all suspicion; but he refused.
In the interim, the point of law was argued before the judges of the
Common Pleas, when their determination was to the following
effect:--"That, as Chandler had not inserted the numbers of his notes in
the Gazette, nor sworn to them when he made oath before the justice, the
verdict must be set aside and the plaintiff nonsuited, without the
advantage of a new trial."
But now the scene began to open apace; for about this time the very
paper which Chandler left when he stopped payment of the notes at the
bank, was found; and upon its being seen by Mr. Hill, he at once saw
that he had been deceived, and proceeded to take the necessary steps to
secure his apprehension. The whole circumstances attending the case were
soon traced, upon a minute inspection of the bank books, as contrasted
with those of the banking-house of Messrs. Hoare and Co.; and about
midsummer 1749, Mr. Hill and others set out for Colchester, with a view
of securing the person of the culprit. After a fruitless journey,
however, of about a hundred and fifty miles in search of the fugitive,
they returned to the very inn at Colchester which was kept by the object
of their search, and then departed for London, without gaining any
intelligence. Chandler having seen his pursuers, thought it prudent to
decamp, and proceeded to Coventry, where he took a small public-house;
but being desirous of making some reparation to his late master, he
transmitted to him a hundred and fifty pounds by letter from Nottingham.
By the post-mark of his letter, he was eventually traced to Coventry,
and an indictment for perjury, in respect of the information on oath,
which he gave to the magistrates of the robbery, having been found
against him, he was taken into custody on a judge's warrant, and removed
to Abingdon, where, on the 22d July, 1750, he was arraigned on the
indictment preferred against him. The witnesses being all in attendance,
the prisoner traversed his trial until the next assizes, in pursuance of
a right which he possessed; but then the facts already detailed having
been proved in evidence, he was found guilty, and on the 16th July 1751,
he was sentenced to be transported for seven years, having first
undergone three months' imprisonment in the County Jail.
MARY BLANDY.
EXECUTED FOR PARRICIDE.
The unhappy subject of this memoir was a young lady of most respectable
family, and of superior education, but who, in spite of the exertions of
her parents in her early life to implant in her breast sentiments of
piety and virtue, was guilty of a crime of the most heinous
description--the wilful murder of her father. Mr. Francis Blandy was an
attorney residing at Henley-on-Thames, and held the office of town-clerk
of that place. Possessed of ample means, his house became the scene of
much gaiety; and as report gave to his daughter a fortune of no
inconsiderable extent, and as, besides, her manners were sprightly and
affable, and her appearance engaging, her hand was sought in marriage by
many persons whose rank and wealth rendered them fitting to become her
partner for life. But among all these visitants, none were received with
greater pleasure by Mr. or Mrs. Blandy, or their daughter, than those
who held commissions in the army. This predilection was evidenced in the
introduction of the Hon. William Henry Cranstoun, at that time engaged
on the recruiting service for a foot regiment, in which he ranked as
captain.