debt; that Mr. Donellan and he had a bed in the same room for a month or
five weeks. He remembered to have had a conversation with him about Sir
Theodosius being poisoned. On his asking him whether the body was
poisoned or not, he said, "There was no doubt of it." The witness said,
"For God's sake, captain, who could do it?" He answered, "It was amongst
themselves; he had no hand in it." The witness asked, "Whom he meant by
themselves?" He said, "Sir Theodosius himself, Lady Boughton, the
footman, and the apothecary." The witness replied, "Sure, Sir Theodosius
could not do it himself!" He said he did not think he did--he could not
believe he would. The witness answered, "the apothecary could hardly do
it--he would lose a good patient; the footman could have no interest in
it; and it was unnatural to suppose that Lady Boughton would do it." He
then said, "how covetous Lady Boughton was! she had received an
anonymous letter the day after Sir Theodosius's death, charging her
plump with poisoning him; that she called him and read it to him, and
she trembled; she desired he would not let his wife know of that letter,
and asked him if he would give up his right to the personal estate, and
to some estates of about two hundred pounds a year, belonging to the
family." The conversation was about a month after the captain came into
the jail. At other times he said, "that it was impossible he could do a
thing that never was in his power."
This being the chief evidence, the prisoner in his defence pleaded a
total ignorance of the fact, and several respectable characters bore
testimony to his integrity. The jury, however, found him guilty, and he
received sentence of death.
At seven o'clock on the next day, the 2nd of April, 1781, he was carried
to the place of execution at Warwick, in a mourning-coach, followed by a
hearse and the sheriff's officers in deep mourning. As he went on he
frequently put his head out of the coach, desiring the prayers of the
people around him.
On his arrival at the fatal spot he alighted from the coach, and,
ascending a few steps of the ladder, prayed for a considerable time, and
then joined in the usual service with the greatest appearance of
devotion: he next in an audible tone of voice addressed the spectators
to this effect:--That, as he was then going to appear before God, to
whom all deceit was known, he solemnly declared that he was innocent of
the crime for which he was to suffer; that he had drawn up a vindication
of himself, which he hoped the world would believe, for it was of more
consequence to him to speak truth than falsehood, and he had no doubt
but that time would reveal the many mysteries that had arisen in his
trial.
After praying fervently some time he let his handkerchief fall--a signal
agreed upon between him and the executioner--and was launched into
eternity. When the body had hung the usual time it was put into a black
coffin, and conveyed to the Town Hall to be dissected.
It is almost needless to inform our readers, that the poison with which
the unfortunate Sir Theodosius was murdered was prussic acid, at that
time only recently introduced and little known.
DAVID TYRIE.
EXECUTED FOR HIGH TREASON.
The charge against this malefactor was that of sending intelligence of
our naval affairs to France during the time of war. The prisoner was by
birth a Scotchman, and having lived as a clerk in the service of a Mr.
Powell for five years, he entered into business for himself, but was so
far unsuccessful as to be made a bankrupt. He subsequently obtained a
situation in the Navy Office, Portsmouth, where he was most traitorously
guilty of the offence imputed to him.
He was tried at Winchester, by virtue of a special commission, on the
10th of August, 1782, when the charge alleged against him was supported
by the following testimony.
Maria Harvey proved that a bundle of papers, the property of Tyrie, had
been delivered to her by a Mrs. Askew, about the 13th of February; that
the particular charge given with them had raised her curiosity to
inquire into the contents of the bundle. She had been induced in
consequence to open them, and thinking that the contents were of a
dangerous nature, she carried them to a Mr. Page, in Westminster, who
being of the same opinion, they were conveyed to the office of the
secretary of state. The papers on being examined proved to be copies of
papers called the "Navy Progresses;" being a list of all the ships of
the navy, the situation and state of repair of each, &c. To these were
added remarks on their destination, a description of the dock-yards at
Portsmouth, Plymouth, and all the public, and even of several private,
docks. They also contained a plan, by which it was proposed to furnish
a person in France with intelligence on very moderate terms, when the
importance of the object was considered; the particulars were, an
express to be employed which would travel four hundred and fifty miles,
to be paid at thirteen pence per mile; a monthly salary of five or six
guineas to a person at each of the dock-yards; also a salary of two or
three guineas to a man in the lesser yards. There were a number of other
papers produced, all going to the purpose of giving information to the
enemies.
Captain William James also proved that Tyrie had bargained with him to
go to Boulogne to purchase wines. He had agreed to pay him fifteen
guineas in money for the voyage, and to provide him with a letter of
credit for fifty pounds to trade with. Upon his being about to sail, the
prisoner delivered to him a packet of letters for the commandant of the
port, and a passport for Boulogne or Cherbourg; but feeling that it was
not proper to carry letters to the French coast in time of war, he
consulted a Captain Harrison upon the propriety of doing so. The latter
advised him against it, and they opened the packet: it contained five
letters, which gave an account of the sailing of some frigates to
intercept a fleet of French transports; a particular account of the
departure of the East and West India fleets, together with the names and
strength of their respective convoys, besides other important
information of the same character. One of these letters, it appeared,
was signed by the prisoner, in his own name, and the others in the name
of Croix; and it was proved that the whole of them, as well as the
papers produced by Mrs. Harvey, were in his handwriting.
The case having been left to the jury for their consideration, they
immediately returned a verdict of guilty.
Mr. Justice Heath then passed upon the unhappy prisoner the sentence of
the law, which was the same as that in the case of La Motte, which has
very recently been alluded to, and which was subsequently carried out in
its fullest terms.
The prisoner behaved during his trial with remarkable composure, and met
his fate without any apparent emotion.
WILLIAM WYNNE RYLAND.
EXECUTED FOR FORGERY.
In the execution of this unhappy man, the world may be said to have
sustained a severe loss; for Mr. Ryland was an engraver of first-rate
abilities, and of very considerable celebrity. He was a native of Wales,
and his father having been patronised by the Welch baronet, Sir Watkin
Williams Wynne, he was named after that individual. While yet young, he
displayed considerable talent, and in the early part of his
apprenticeship he engraved a head of his godfather in a style which
betokened unusual taste and power. Having completed his term, he visited
the French and Italian schools; and in the former obtained the honorary
medal, which was presented to him in Paris. On his return to England, he
introduced the admired art of engraving in imitation of chalk drawings;
and soon after George III. had ascended the throne, he was appointed by
him to the situation of his engraver, with a salary of two hundred
pounds a year; and the queen added one hundred pounds a year more out
of her privy purse, as a testimony of her approbation of his
extraordinary talents.
A few years previous to the fatal act for which he suffered, Mr. Ryland
entered into partnership with a Mr. Bryer, and they jointly opened a
shop in Cornhill, where they carried on a very extensive trade in
prints; the former still continuing to exercise his abilities in the art
of engraving. But although their business was productive of great
profit, several heavy losses, occurring almost at the same time, so
deranged their pecuniary affairs, that a bankruptcy ensued.
Some years after this failure, Mr. Ryland, on his own separate account,
opened a print-shop in the Strand, where he had every prospect of
success; but being fond of a private life, he quitted his business, and
retired to Pimlico, and thence to Knightsbridge, where, by one fatal
act, he entirely ruined his reputation as a man; but his name, as an
artist, will ever stand in the highest estimation. At this time Mr.
Ryland had recovered his losses in trade, and was bequeathed shares in
the Liverpool Water Works, which were then deemed to be worth ten
thousand pounds: his business was worth two thousand pounds a year, and
his stock was valued at ten thousand pounds more. Such was his own
statement of his property, in his defence on his trial; and it was
supposed that, in order to engross the remaining shares in his Liverpool
concern, he committed the forgery for which he suffered.
The forged instruments so exactly resembled the real bills that it was
scarcely possible to know one from the other; but it being discovered
that two bills of the same tenor and date were out, and consequently
that one of them must prove a forgery, suspicion fell so strong on
Ryland that he was induced to secrete himself, and a reward was offered
for his apprehension. He went in disguise to Stepney, and took an
obscure lodging at the hovel of one Richard Freeman, a cobbler,
accompanied by Mrs. Ryland, the wretched partner of his misfortune,
passing as Mr. and Mrs. Jackson; and there he continued for some time to
evade the search after him, till one fatal step of the unfortunate woman
who was watching over his safety caused his apprehension. She took,
unconscious of danger, one of her husband's shoes to the cobbler to be
mended, with the name of "Ryland" on the inside of it. This was fatal:
the cobbler, in order to obtain the reward, delivered up his lodger.
When the officers of justice went to apprehend Ryland, they found him in
a corner of the room on his knees, and heard a noise like a guggling in
his throat, and upon approaching him they found that he had attempted
suicide. He had a razor in his hand, and a basin stood before him; but
the wound which he had inflicted did not prove mortal.
On the 20th July, 1783, he was arraigned at the bar of the Old Bailey,
on an indictment charging him with feloniously forging and uttering a
certain bill of exchange for 210_l._ sterling, purporting to be a bill
drawn by the gentlemen of the factory at Fort George, Madras, on the
Hon. East India Company, with intent to defraud the said Company, &c.
The solicitor to the East India Company, who prosecuted the prisoner,
endeavoured, by several proofs, to bring home the charge to the accused;
but, though forgery was manifest, yet it was so nice a point to
distinguish the true bill from the false one, that it was, during the
trial, supposed that they could not convict him, until Mr. Whatman,
paper-manufacturer at Maidstone, appeared as a witness.
Mr. Whatman deposed that the paper of the forged bill was of his
manufacture. He then explained to the Court his reasons for thinking so:
the moulds, he said, in which the paper of the bill was made, were
received by him in February, 1780, but were not used before the December
following: they were then worked with; and the first paper sent to
London made by them was on the 27th of April, 1781: but he was convinced
that the paper on which the bill was written was not sent before the 3d
of May, 1782; and the way by which he knew it was, that there were
defects in it, which exactly agreed with those in the sheets of paper
which he produced, and which had been made by him at that period. It was
further proved that the instruments bore date antecedent to the time of
the paper being made; and this evidence being conclusive, in spite of
the prisoner's arguments that his fortune being ample he had no reason
to commit the offence imputed to him, he was found guilty.
He was executed at Tyburn on the 29th August, 1783, being the last
person who suffered by the hands of the executioner at that place.
CHRISTOPHER TRUSTY, AND OTHERS.
EXECUTED FOR RETURNING FROM TRANSPORTATION.
The year 1783 crowded the prisons of England to a degree never before
known, though the offences of the prisoners were not distinguished by
any particular enormity, and were generally devoid of that interest
which entitles them to a place in our Calendar.
Of these numerous offenders, one hundred and fifty were proceeding to
North America, on board the Swift transport, pursuant to their sentence,
when they rose on the captain and crew, in the Downs, on the 30th of
August, and, after confining them, got on shore at Deal, and all made
their escape.
On this intelligence reaching London, Mr. Justice Blackborow ordered the
constables attending at his office to search for the fugitives in the
different places of iniquitous resort. Having armed themselves each with
cutlasses, Redgrave, Season, and Isaacs, accordingly went to a house in
Onslow-street, Saffron-hill, where, in one room, they found five
returned transports, two of whom ran up stairs, and escaped by lowering
themselves from a back window, by means of the bed-clothes: but the
others, arming themselves, one with a poker, another with a shovel, and
a third with a clasp-knife, having a blade about six inches long, as
with one voice, cried out "Cut away! we shall be hanged, if taken; and
we will die on the spot, rather than submit!" All expostulation proving
fruitless, the officers attempted to seize them, upon which a dreadful
conflict ensued, and many wounds were given and received, but at length
the villains surrendered, and were conveyed before Mr. Blackborow for
examination. Being asked by the magistrate by what means they had
procured their liberty, they acknowledged that they had run the ship on
shore; adding, that to recover their liberty was not difficult, as, in
compassion of their sufferings, the captain permitted eighteen or
twenty convicts to be upon deck at one time, unfettered: that, on the
third day of being thus indulged, they (the prisoners), and others who
were upon deck, liberated the rest; and, having confined the captain and
crew, ran the vessel on the sands, and got on shore in the two
long-boats: that no cruelty was exercised upon any part of the crew, nor
any property stolen from the vessel, except that some of the convicts
obliged the sailors to change clothes with them: that they concealed
themselves in hedges and ditches till night, and then took different
routes: that they collected half-a-crown among themselves, which they
gave to a countryman for conducting them to Rye, whence they walked up
to London, where they had arrived but a very short time before they were
apprehended.
In the September sessions, at the Old Bailey, Christopher Trusty, and
twenty-three others, were capitally convicted of the offence of being
found at large in this kingdom before the term for which they were
ordered to be transported had expired, and received judgment of death.
Six of the ringleaders, viz. Charles Thomas, William Matthews, Thomas
Millington, Christopher Trusty, David Hart, and Abraham Hyams, were
selected for immediate execution, and were hanged on the 22d of
September, sentence having been passed upon them on the 20th.
No fewer than fifty-four prisoners received sentence of death on the
same day, in many of whose cases the extreme penalty of the law was
subsequently inflicted.
SAMUEL HARRIS AND JOHN NORTH.
EXECUTED FOR MURDER.
At the Admiralty sessions, held on the 11th of November, 1784, these men
were tried for the wilful murder of John M'Nier, one of the mariners
belonging to his majesty's cutter the Nimble, in the service of the
Customs.
On the trial it appeared that on the night of the 30th of April last, it
being clear moonlight, a vessel was observed at about two miles distance
from Deal, hovering or standing in towards the shore, which was supposed
to be a smuggler. Lieutenant Bray, commander of the Nimble, being
acquainted with the fact, manned three boats, and proceeded to speak to
her, and, coming within hail, told them his name and business, which was
to board and search her. He was answered by many voices with
imprecations, bidding him keep off; and a volley was instantly fired
into his boat, whereby M'Nier, one of the crew, received a shot in his
right breast, near the pap, of which he instantly died. Lieutenant Bray
then proceeded to board the vessel, which proved to be the Juliet
lugger, of Deal, (laden with about four hundred tubs or half-ankers of
spirits,) but he received another volley: he however persisted, and
boarded the lugger, when an engagement began, in which some men fell.
North leaped overboard, but was taken, and Harris was found concealed in
the hold. He said that he was only a passenger, and had been waiter at
the assembly-house at Margate, where he was then going; but unluckily
for him he had on a pair of trousers and a seaman's jacket, in the
pockets of which were found several musket and pistol balls.
On this evidence the prisoners were found guilty; and on the morning of
the 13th, two days after conviction, they were taken from the cells of
Newgate, put into a cart, and conveyed to the gallows, which was erected
on a platform at Execution Dock, and there executed.
CHARLES PRICE.
CHARGED WITH FORGERY.
The subject of this narrative was born about the year 1730, in
London--his father lived in Monmouth-street, and carried on the trade of
a salesman in old clothes, and there he died, in the year 1752, of a
broken heart, occasioned, it is said, by the bad conduct of his
children.
In early life Price exhibited those traits of duplicity, which were
manifested in his subsequent career, frequently defrauding his father,
and disposing of the property, which he carried off to the Jews,
disguised in his brother's clothes. By this means his brother was
occasionally chastised in his place, while he escaped unpunished.
The following anecdote of his ingenuity is highly characteristic of his
disposition. His father, tired of his tricks and knaveries, put him
apprentice to a hosier in St. James's-street, but even here he was
unable to restrain his appetite for fraud. Having managed, on the
occasion of one of his visits to his home, to carry off a suit of
clothes of elegant workmanship, he dressed himself with becoming taste,
and, thus disguised, proceeded to his master's shop. Calling himself the
Hon. Mr. Bolingbroke, he selected a variety of silk stockings of
beautiful texture, undiscovered by his employer, and on quitting the
house, he desired that the goods should be sent to him at Hanover House
in an hour's time, when he promised that he would pay for them. Being
perfectly aware that it would be his duty to carry home the goods, Price
immediately stripped himself of his disguise, and, returning to his
master's residence, was directed to convey the parcel to Hanover House.
He soon came back declaring that Mr. Bolingbroke was out, and that he
had left the stockings with the bill; but it being speedily ascertained
that they had been lodged with a pawnbroker instead of the supposed
customer, and his ingenious scheme being discovered, he was dismissed
from his employment.
He had not been long at liberty, before he sailed for Holland, and there
assuming the name of Johnson, he obtained a situation as clerk in the
counting-house of a merchant, by means of a forged letter of
introduction. Having debauched his master's daughter, and carried off a
considerable sum of money, he thought it prudent to return to England;
but having there soon expended the proceeds of his fraud in dissipation,
he was again thrown upon the world.
His wits, however, were not exhausted, nor did they ever slumber long.
He determined upon a trial to establish a brewery, by obtaining a
partner with money; and as a first step towards it, in the year 1775, he
issued the following curious advertisement:--
"Wanted,--A partner of character, probity, and extensive acquaintance,
upon a plan permanent and productive. Fifty per cent. without risk, may
be obtained. It is not necessary he should have any knowledge of the
business, which the advertiser possesses to its fullest extent; but he
must possess a capital of between five hundred and one thousand pounds
to purchase materials, with which, to the knowledge of the advertiser, a
large fortune must be made in a very short time.
"Address to P. C., Cardigan Head, Charing Cross.
"P. S. None but principals, and those of liberal ideas, will be treated
with."
To this advertisement the famous comedian, Samuel Foote, paid attention.
Eager to seize what he thought a golden opportunity, he advanced the sum
of five hundred pounds for a brewery; we need not add, that the sum soon
disappeared, and Foote retired from the concern, having gained nothing
but experience and disappointment. Price, however, had the impudence to
apply to him again, wishing him to unite in the baking trade; but the
comedian archly replied, "As you have brewed, so you may bake; but I'll
be cursed if ever you bake as you have brewed!"
After this unfortunate business, Mr. Price turned methodist preacher,
and in this character defrauded several persons of large sums of money.
Advertising in order to get gentlemen wives, he swindled a person of the
name of Wigmore of fifty guineas, for which he was indicted; but having
refunded a part, he effected his escape.
With astonishing impudence he afterwards again set up a brewery in
Gray's Inn Lane; and after various frauds, he became a bankrupt in 1776.
Ever fruitful in resources, he set out for Germany, where he engaged in
some smuggling scheme, for which he was imprisoned; but he returned to
England, having managed to pocket three hundred pounds in the course of
his trip. A brewery in Lambeth was then again tried, but ineffectually;
and he was afterwards successively a begging-letter impostor and a
lottery office keeper; and then he assumed the trade by which he
qualified himself to become the subject of remark in the Newgate
Calendar. Having leagued himself with a number of adventurers whose
business consisted in making and selling forged notes, he entered into
their schemes; but, fearful of being himself employed in the dangerous
act of putting off the notes, in the year 1780, memorable for the riots
in London, he assumed the name of Brant, and engaged a plain, simple,
honest fellow, as a servant, whom he converted into the instrument of
passing his forged notes without detection. He advertised for this
servant, and conducted himself in a manner truly curious towards him.
The young man, having answered the advertisement, heard nothing relative
to it for about a week. One evening, however, just about dusk, a
coachman was heard inquiring for him, saying there was a gentleman over
the way in a coach who wanted to speak to him. On this the young fellow
was called, and went to the coach, when he was desired to step in; and
there he found an apparently old man, affecting the foreigner, seemingly
very much afflicted with the gout, as he was completely wrapped up in
flannel about the legs, and wearing a camlet surtout, buttoned over his
chin, close up to his mouth; a large black patch over his left eye; and
almost every part of his face so hid, that the young fellow could
scarcely discover a feature except his nose, his right eye, and a part
of that cheek. The young man's character was found to suit, and he was
engaged; but his surprise may easily be imagined, when on his next
seeing his employer, he found him a thin, genteel-looking young man.