Houseman, he committed the murder for which his life was afterwards
forfeited to the laws of his country. The object of this diabolical
crime was Daniel Clarke, a shoemaker, living at Knaresborough; and it
appears that this unfortunate man, having lately married a woman of a
good family, industriously circulated a report that his wife was
entitled to a considerable fortune, which he should soon receive. Aram
and Houseman, in consequence, conceiving hopes of procuring some
advantage from this circumstance, persuaded Clarke to make an
ostentatious show of his own riches, in order to induce his wife's
relations to give him that fortune of which he had boasted. It is not
impossible that in giving their subsequent victim this advice, they may
at the time have acted from a spirit of friendship, and without any intention
of committing that crime for which they afterwards received their
reward; but the belief that the design was already formed receives equal
confirmation from subsequent events.
Clarke, it seems, was easily induced to comply with a hint so agreeable
to his own desires; and he borrowed, and bought on credit, a large
quantity of silver plate, with jewels, watches, rings, &c. He told the
persons of whom he purchased, that a merchant in London had sent him an
order to buy such plate for exportation; and no doubt was entertained of
his credit till his sudden disappearance in February 1745, when it was
imagined that he had gone abroad, or at least to London, to dispose of
his ill-acquired property.
Whatever doubt may exist as to the original intention of the parties,
their object at this time is perfectly clear, and there can be no
hesitation in supposing that Aram and Houseman had at this time
determined to murder their dupe, in order to share the booty. On the
night of the 8th February 1745, they persuaded Clarke to take a walk
with them, in order to consult upon the proper method to dispose of the
effects; and, engaged in the discussion of this subject, they turned
into a field, at a small distance from the town, well known by the name
of St. Robert's Cave. On their arrival there, Aram and Clarke went over
a hedge towards the cave; and when they had got within six or seven
yards of it, Houseman (by the light of the moon) saw Aram strike Clarke
several times, and at length beheld him fall, but never saw him
afterwards. These were the facts immediately connected with the murder,
which were proved at the trial by Houseman, who was admitted King's
evidence; and, whatever were the subsequent proceedings of the parties
in respect of the body, they must remain a mystery.
The murderers, going home, shared Clarke's ill-gotten treasure, the half
of which Houseman concealed in his garden for a twelvemonth, and then
took it to Scotland, where he sold it. In the mean time Aram carried his
share to London, where he sold it to a Jew, and then returned to his
engagement with Mr. Plainblanc, in Piccadilly.
Fourteen years afterwards elapsed, and no tidings being received of
Aram, it was concluded that he was dead; and these fourteen years had
also elapsed without any clue being obtained to unravel the mystery of
the sudden disappearance of Clarke. The time at length came, however, at
which all the doubts which existed upon both subjects were to be solved.
In the year 1758, a labourer named Jones was employed to dig for stone
in St. Robert's Cave, in order to supply a limekiln at a place called
Thistle Hill, near Knaresborough; and having dug about two feet deep, he
found the bones of a human body, still knit together by the ligaments of
the joints. It had evidently been buried double; and there were
indications about it which could not but lead to the supposition that
some unfair means had been resorted to in order to deprive the living
being of life. The incident afforded good grounds for general curiosity
being raised, and general inquiry taking place; and hints were soon
thrown out that it might be the body of Clarke, whose unexpected
disappearance was still fresh in the memory of many, and whose continued
absence had been the subject of so much surprise. Suggestions of his
murder which had been thrown out by Aram's wife were called to mind, and
a coroner's inquest being held, she was summoned. By this time a general
impression prevailed that the remains found were those of Clarke, and
the testimony of Mrs. Aram greatly confirmed the idea which had gone
abroad. She deposed that she believed that Clarke had been murdered by
Houseman and her husband, and that they had acquired considerable booty
for the crime; but she was unable to give any account of her husband, or
to state whether he still was in existence or not. Inquiries being made,
however, Houseman was soon found; and on his being brought forward to be
examined, he exhibited the utmost confusion. The coroner desired that he
would take up one of the bones, probably with a view of seeing what
effect such a proceeding would produce; and upon his doing so, he showed
still further terror, and exclaimed, "This is no more Daniel Clarke's
bone than it is mine!" The suspicions which were already entertained of
his guilt were, in a great measure, confirmed by this observation; and
it was generally believed that he knew the precise spot where the real
remains of the murdered man were deposited, even if he had not been a
party to their interment. He was therefore strictly questioned; and
after many attempts at evasion, he said that Clarke was murdered by
Eugene Aram, and that his body was buried in St. Robert's Cave, but that
the head lay further to the right in the turn near the entrance of the
cavern than the spot where the skeleton produced was found. Search was
immediately made, and a skeleton was found in a situation corresponding
exactly with that which had been pointed out. In consequence of this
confession an inquiry was immediately set on foot for Aram, and after a
considerable time he was discovered, occupying the situation of usher in
a school at Lynn in Norfolk.
He was immediately apprehended and conveyed in custody to York Castle;
and on the 13th of August 1759, he was brought to trial at the assizes
before Mr. Justice Noel. The testimony of Houseman to the facts which we
have described, and of the other witnesses whose evidence was of a
corroborative character, was then adduced; and from the proof which was
given, it appeared that the share of plunder derived by the prisoner did
not exceed one hundred and fifty pounds.
Aram's defence was both ingenious and able, and would not have disgraced
any of the best lawyers of the day. It is a curious and interesting
address, and we subjoin it as affording the best criterion of the
talents of the prisoner which can well be adduced. He thus addressed the
court:--
"My Lord,--I know not whether it is of right or through some indulgence
of your lordship that I am allowed the liberty at this bar, and at this
time, to attempt a defence, incapable and uninstructed as I am to speak;
since, while I see so many eyes upon me, so numerous and awful a
concourse fixed with attention and filled with I know not what
expectancy, I labour not with guilt, my lord, but with perplexity; for
having never seen a court but this, being wholly unacquainted with law,
the customs of the bar, and all judiciary proceedings, I fear I shall be
so little capable of speaking with propriety in this place, that it
exceeds my hope if I shall be able to speak at all.
"I have heard, my lord, the indictment read, wherein I find myself
charged with the highest crime, with an enormity I am altogether
incapable of; a fact, to the commission of which there goes far more
insensibility of heart, more profligacy of morals, than ever fell to my
lot; and nothing possibly could have admitted a presumption of this
nature but a depravity not inferior to that imputed to me. However, as I
stand indicted at your lordship's bar, and have heard what is called
evidence adduced in support of such a charge, I very humbly solicit
your lordship's patience, and beg the hearing of this respectable
audience, while I, single and unskilful, destitute of friends and
unassisted by counsel, say something, perhaps like argument, in my
defence. I shall consume but little of your lordship's time: what I have
to say will be short; and this brevity, probably, will be the best part
of it: however, it is offered with all possible regard and the greatest
submission to your lordship's consideration, and that of this honourable
court.
"First, my lord, the whole tenor of my conduct in life contradicts every
particular of the indictment: yet had I never said this, did not my
present circumstances extort it from me, and seem to make it necessary.
Permit me here, my lord, to call upon malignity itself, so long and
cruelly busied in this prosecution, to charge upon me any immorality of
which prejudice was not the author. No, my lord, I concerted no schemes
of fraud, projected no violence, injured no man's person or property. My
days were honestly laborious, my nights intensely studious; and I humbly
conceive my notice of this, especially at this time, will not be thought
impertinent or unseasonable, but, at least, deserving some attention;
because, my lord, that any person, after a temperate use of life, a
series of thinking and acting regularly, and without one single
deviation from sobriety, should plunge into the very depth of profligacy
precipitately and at once, is altogether improbable and unprecedented,
and absolutely inconsistent with the course of things. Mankind is never
corrupted at once. Villany is always progressive, and declines from
right, step by step, till every regard of probity is lost, and every
sense of all moral obligation totally perishes.
"Again, my lord, a suspicion of this kind, which nothing but malevolence
could entertain and ignorance propagate, is violently opposed by my very
situation at that time with respect to health; for, but a little space
before, I had been confined to my bed, and suffered under a very long
and severe disorder, and was not able, for half a year together, so much
as to walk. The distemper left me indeed, yet slowly, and in part--but
so macerated, so enfeebled, that I was reduced to crutches; and so far
from being well about the time I am charged with this fact, I have
never, to this day, perfectly recovered. Could then a person in this
condition take anything into his head so unlikely, so extravagant?--I,
past the vigour of my age, feeble and valetudinary, with no inducement
to engage, no ability to accomplish, no weapon wherewith to perpetrate
such a deed, without interest, without power, without motive, without
means. Besides, it must needs occur to every one, that an action of this
atrocious nature is never heard of, but when its springs are laid open.
It appears that it was to support some indolence, or supply some luxury;
to satisfy some avarice, or oblige some malice; to prevent some real or
some imaginary want: yet I lay not under the influence of these. Surely,
my lord, I may, consistently with both truth and modesty, affirm thus
much; and none who have any veracity and knew me, will ever question
this.
"In the second place, the disappearance of Clarke is suggested as an
argument of his being dead; but the uncertainty of such an inference
from that, and the fallibility of all conclusions of such a sort from
such a circumstance, are too obvious and too notorious to require
instances; yet superseding many, permit me to produce a very recent one,
and that afforded by this Castle.
"In June 1757, William Thompson, for all the vigilance of this place,
in open daylight and double-ironed, made his escape, and,
notwithstanding an immediate inquiry set on foot, the strictest search,
and all advertisement, was never heard of since. If, then, Thompson got
off unseen, through all these difficulties, how very easy it was for
Clarke, when none of them opposed him! But what would be thought of a
prosecution commenced against any one seen last with Thompson?
"Permit me next, my lord, to observe a little upon the bones which have
been discovered. It is said (which perhaps is saying very far) that
these are the skeleton of a man. It is possible, indeed, it may; but is
there any certain known criterion which incontestably distinguishes the
sex in human bones? Let it be considered, my lord, whether the
ascertaining of this point ought not to precede any attempt to identify
them?
"The place of their depositum, too, claims much more attention than is
commonly bestowed upon it; for of all places in the world, none could
have mentioned any one wherein there was greater certainty of finding
human bones than a hermitage, except he should point out a churchyard;
hermitages, in time past, being not only places of religious retirement,
but of burial too: and it has scarce or never been heard of, but that
every cell now known contains or contained these relics of humanity,
some mutilated and some entire. I do not inform, but give me leave to
remind your lordship, that here sat solitary Sanctity, and here the
hermit or the anchoress hoped that repose for their bones when dead they
here enjoyed when living.
"All the while, my lord, I am sensible this is known to your lordship,
and many in this Court, better than to me; but it seems necessary to my
case that others, who have not at all, perhaps, adverted to things of
this nature, and may have concern in my trial, should be made acquainted
with it. Suffer me then, my lord, to produce a few of many evidences
that these cells were used as repositories of the dead, and to enumerate
a few in which human bones have been found, as it happened in this
question; lest, to some, that accident might seem extraordinary, and,
consequently, occasion prejudice.
"1. The bones, as was supposed, of the Saxon saint, Dubritius, were
discovered buried in his cell at Guy's Cliff, near Warwick; as appears
from the authority of Sir William Dugdale.
"2. The bones thought to be those of the anchoress Rosia were but lately
discovered in a cell at Royston, entire, fair, and undecayed, though
they must have lain interred for several centuries; as is proved by Dr.
Stukely.
"3. But my own country--nay, almost this neighbourhood--supplies another
instance; for in January 1747, were found, by Mr. Stovin, accompanied by
a reverend gentleman, the bones, in part, of some recluse, in the cell
at Lindholm, near Hatfield. They were believed to be those of William of
Lindholm, a hermit, who had long made this cave his habitation.
"4. In February 1744, part of Woburn Abbey being pulled down, a large
portion of a corpse appeared, even with the flesh on, and which bore
cutting with a knife; though it is certain this had lain above two
hundred years, and how much longer is doubtful; for this abbey was
founded in 1145, and dissolved in 1538 or 1539.
"What would have been said, what believed, if this had been an accident
to the bones in question?
"Farther, my lord:--it is not yet out of living memory that at a little
distance from Knaresborough, in a field, part of the manor of the worthy
and patriot baronet who does that borough the honour to represent it in
parliament, were found, in digging for gravel, not one human skeleton
only, but five or six, deposited side by side, with each an urn placed
at its head, as your lordship knows was usual in ancient interments.
"About the same time, and in another field, almost close to this
borough, was discovered also, in searching for gravel, another human
skeleton; but the piety of the same worthy gentleman ordered both pits
to be filled up again, commendably unwilling to disturb the dead.
"Is the invention of these bones forgotten, then, or industriously
concealed, that the discovery of those in question may appear the more
singular and extraordinary? whereas, in fact, there is nothing
extraordinary in it. My lord, almost every place conceals such remains.
In fields, in hills, in highway sides, in commons, lie frequent and
unsuspected bones; and our present allotments for rest for the departed
are but of some centuries.
"Another particular seems not to claim a little of your lordship's
notice, and that of the gentlemen of the jury; which is, that perhaps no
example occurs of more than one skeleton being found in one cell: and in
the cell in question was found but one; agreeable, in this, to the
peculiarity of every other known cell in Britain. Not the invention of
one skeleton, but of two, would have appeared suspicious and uncommon.
But it seems another skeleton has been discovered by some labourer,
which was full as confidently averred to be Clarke's as this. My lord,
must some of the living, if it promotes some interest, be made
answerable for all the bones that earth has concealed and chance
exposed? and might not a place where bones lay be mentioned by a person
by chance as well as found by a labourer by chance? or is it more
criminal accidentally to name where bones lie than accidentally to find
where they lie?
"Here too is a human skull produced, which is fractured; but was this
the cause, or was it the consequence, of death? was it owing to
violence, or was it the effect of natural decay? If it was violence, was
that violence before or after death? My lord, in May 1732, the remains
of William, Lord Archbishop of this province, were taken up, by
permission, in this cathedral, and the bones of the skull were found
broken; yet certainly he died by no violence offered to him alive that
could occasion that fracture there.
"Let it be considered, my lord, that, upon the dissolution of religious
houses and the commencement of the Reformation, the ravages of those
times affected both the living and the dead. In search after imaginary
treasures, coffins were broken up, graves and vaults dug open, monuments
ransacked, and shrines demolished; and it ceased about the beginning of
the reign of Queen Elizabeth. I entreat your lordship, suffer not the
violence, the depredations, and the iniquities of those times, to be
imputed to this.
"Moreover, what gentleman here is ignorant that Knaresborough had a
castle, which, though now a ruin, was once considerable both for its
strength and garrison? All know it was vigorously besieged by the arms
of the parliament; at which siege, in sallies, conflicts, flights,
pursuits, many fell in all the places round it, and, where they fell,
were buried, for every place, my lord, is burial-earth in war; and
many, questionless, of these rest yet unknown, whose bones futurity
shall discover.
"I hope, with all imaginable submission, that what has been said will
not be thought impertinent to this indictment; and that it will be far
from the wisdom, the learning, and the integrity of this place, to
impute to the living what zeal in its fury may have done--what nature
may have taken off, and piety interred--or what war alone may have
destroyed, alone deposited.
"As to the circumstances that have been raked together, 1 have nothing
to observe but that all circumstances whatever are precarious, and have
been but too frequently found lamentably fallible; even the strongest
have failed. They may rise to the utmost degree of probability, yet they
are but probability still. Why need I name to your lordship the two
Harrisons recorded by Dr. Howel, who both suffered upon circumstances
because of the sudden disappearance of their lodger, who was in credit,
had contracted debts, borrowed money, and went off unseen, and returned
a great many years after their execution? Why name the intricate affair
of Jacques de Moulin, under King Charles II. related by a gentleman who
was counsel for the crown? And why the unhappy Coleman, who suffered
innocently, though convicted upon positive evidence; and whose children
perished for want, because the world uncharitably believed the father
guilty? Why mention the perjury of Smith, incautiously admitted king's
evidence: who, to screen himself, equally accused Faircloth and Loveday
of the murder of Dun; the first of whom, in 1749, was executed at
Winchester; and Loveday was about to suffer at Reading, had not Smith
been proved perjured, to the satisfaction of the Court, by the governor
of Gosport hospital?
"Now, my lord, having endeavoured to show that the whole of this process
is altogether repugnant to every part of my life; that it is
inconsistent with my condition of health about that time; that no
rational inference can be drawn that a person is dead who suddenly
disappears; that hermitages are the constant depositaries of the bones
of a recluse; that the proofs of this are well authenticated; that the
revolutions in religion, or the fortunes of war, have mangled or buried
the dead;--the conclusion remains, perhaps, no less reasonable than
impatiently wished for. I, at last, after a year's confinement, equal to
either fortune, put myself upon the justice, the candour, and the
humanity of your lordship; and upon yours, my countrymen, gentlemen of
the jury."
The delivery of this address created a very considerable impression in
court; but the learned judge having calmly and with great perspicuity
summed up the evidence which had been produced, and having observed upon
the prisoner's defence, which he declared to be one of the most
ingenious pieces of reasoning that had ever fallen under his notice, the
jury, with little hesitation, returned a verdict of Guilty. Sentence of
death was then passed upon the prisoner, who received the intimation of
his fate with becoming resignation. After his conviction, he confessed
the justice of his sentence to two clergymen who were directed to attend
him--a sufficient proof of the fruitlessness of the efforts to prove him
innocent, which the morbid sentimentality of late writers has induced
them to attempt. Upon an inquiry being made of him as to his reason for
committing the crime, he declared that he had reason to suspect Clarke
of having had unlawful intercourse with his wife; and that at the time
of his committing the murder he had thought that he was acting rightly,
but that he had since thought that his crime could not be justified or
excused. In the hopes of avoiding the ignominious death which he was
doomed to suffer, on the night before his execution he attempted to
commit suicide by cutting his arm in two places with a razor, which he
had concealed for that purpose. This attempt was not discovered until
the morning, when the jailor came to lead him forth to the place of
execution, and he was then found almost expiring from loss of blood. A
surgeon was immediately sent for, who found that he had wounded himself
severely on the left arm, above the elbow and near the wrist, but he had
missed the artery, and his life was prolonged only in order that it
might be taken away on the scaffold. When he was placed on the drop, he
was perfectly sensible, but was too weak to be able to join in devotion
with the clergyman who attended him He was executed at York on the 16th
August 1759; and his body was afterwards hung in chains in Knaresborough
Forest.