for the prosecution, showed, that Mrs. Bateman resided at Leeds, and was
well known at that place, as well as in the surrounding districts, as a
"witch," in which capacity she had been frequently employed to work
cures of "evil wishes," and all the other customary imaginary illnesses,
to which the credulous lower orders at that time supposed themselves
liable. Her name had become much celebrated in the neighbourhood for her
successes in the arts of divining and witchcraft, and it may be readily
concluded that her efforts in her own behalf were no less profitable. In
the spring of 1806 Mrs. Perigo, who lived with her husband, at Bramley,
a village at a short distance from Leeds, was seized with a "flacking,"
or fluttering in her breast, whenever she lay down, and applying to a
quack doctor of the place, he assured her that it was beyond his cure,
for that an "evil wish" had been laid upon her, and that the arts of
sorcery must be resorted to in order to effect her relief. While in this
dilemma, she was visited by her niece, a girl named Stead, who at that
time filled a situation as a household servant at Leeds, and who had
taken advantage of the Whitsuntide holidays to go round to see her
friends. Stead expressed her sorrow to find her aunt in so terrible a
situation, and recommended an immediate appeal to the prisoner, whose
powers she described as fully equal to get rid of any affection of the
kind, whether produced by mortal or diabolical charms. An application
was at once determined on to her, and Stead was employed to broach the
subject to the diviner. She, in consequence, paid the prisoner a visit
at her house in Black Dog Yard, near the bank, at Leeds, and having
acquainted her with the nature of the malady by which her aunt was
affected, was informed by her, that she knew a lady, who lived at
Scarborough, and that if a flannel petticoat or some article of dress,
which was worn next the skin of the patient, was sent to her, she would
at once communicate with her upon the subject. On the following Tuesday
William Perigo, the husband of the deceased, proceeded to her house, and
having handed over his wife's flannel petticoat, the prisoner said that
she would write to Miss Blythe, who was the lady to whom she had
alluded, at Scarborough, by the same night's post, and that an answer
would doubtless be returned by that day week, when he was to call again.
On the day mentioned, Perigo was true to his appointment, and the
prisoner produced to him a letter, saying that it had arrived from Miss
Blythe, and that it contained directions as to what was to be done.
After a great deal of circumlocution and mystery the letter was opened,
and was read by the prisoner, and it was found that it contained an
order "that Mary Bateman should go to Perigo's house, at Bramley, and
should take with her four guinea notes, which were enclosed, and that
she should sew them into the four corners of the bed, in which the
diseased woman slept, where they were to remain for eighteen months;
that Perigo was to give her four other notes of like value, to be
returned to Scarborough; and that unless all these directions were
strictly attended to, the charm would be useless and would not work." On
the fourth of August the prisoner went over to Bramley, and having shown
the four notes, proceeded apparently to sew them up in silken bags,
which she delivered over to Mrs. Perigo to be placed in the bed. The
four notes desired to be returned were then handed to her by Perigo, and
she retired, directing her dupes frequently to send to her house, as
letters might be expected from Miss Blythe. In about a fortnight,
another letter was produced; and it contained directions, that two
pieces of iron in the form of horse-shoes should be nailed up at
Perigo's door, by the prisoner, but that the nails should not be driven
in with a hammer, but with the back of a pair of pincers, and that the
pincers were to be sent to Scarborough, to remain in the custody of Miss
Blythe for the eighteen months already mentioned in the charm. The
prisoner accordingly again visited Bramley, and having nailed up the
horse-shoes received and carried off the pincers. In October the
following letter was received by Perigo, bearing the signature of the
supposed Miss Blythe.
"My dear Friend.--You must go down to Mary Bateman's, at Leeds, on
Tuesday next, and carry two guinea notes with you and give her them, and
she will give you other two that I have sent to her from Scarborough;
and you must buy me a small cheese about six or eight pound weight, and
it must be of your buying, for it is for a particular use, and it is to
be carried down to Mary Bateman's, and she will send it to me by the
coach.--This letter is to be burned when you have done reading it."
From this time to the month of March 1807, a great number of letters
were received, demanding the transmission of various articles, to Miss
Blythe, through the medium of the prisoner, the whole of which were to
be preserved by her until the expiration of the eighteen months; and in
the course of the same period money to the amount of near seventy pounds
was paid over, Perigo, upon each occasion of payment, receiving silk
bags containing what were pretended to be coins or notes of
corresponding value, which were to be sewn up in the bed as before. In
March 1807, the following letter arrived.
"My dear Friends.--I will be obliged to you if you will let me have
half-a-dozen of your china, three silver spoons, half-a-pound of tea,
two pounds of loaf sugar, and a tea canister to put the tea in, or else
it will not do--I durst not drink out of my own china. You must burn
this with a candle."
The china, &c., not having been sent, in the month of April Miss Blythe
wrote as follows:--
"My dear Friends.--_I will be obliged to you if you will buy me a camp
bedstead, bed and bedding, a blanket, a pair of sheets, and a long
bolster must come from your house._--You need not buy the best feathers,
common ones will do. I have laid on the floor for three nights, and I
cannot lay on my own bed _owing to the planets being so bad concerning
your wife_, and I must have one of your buying or it will not do.--You
must bring down the china, the sugar, the caddy, the three silver
spoons, and the tea at the same time when you buy the bed, and pack them
up altogether.--My brother's boat will be up in a day or two, and I will
order my brother's boatman to call for them all at Mary Bateman's, and
you must give Mary Bateman one shilling for the boatman, and I will
place it to your account. Your wife must burn this as soon as it is read
or it will not do."
This had the desired effect; and the prisoner having called upon the
Perigos, she accompanied them to the shops of a Mr. Dobbin, and a Mr.
Musgrave, at Leeds, to purchase the various articles named, which were
eventually bought at a cost of sixteen pounds, and sent to Mr. Sutton's,
at the Lion and Lamb Inn, Kirkgate, there to await the arrival of the
supposed messenger.
At the end of April, the following letter arrived:--"My dear Friends.--I
am sorry to tell you you will take an illness in the month of May next,
one or both of you, but I think both, but the works of God must have its
course.--You will escape the chambers of the grave; though you seem to
be dead, yet you will live. Your wife must take half-a-pound of honey
down from Bramley to Mary Bateman's at Leeds, and it must remain there
till you go down yourself, and she will put in such like stuff as I have
sent from Scarbro' to her, and she will put it in when you come down,
and see her yourself, or it will not do. You must eat pudding for six
days, and you must put in such like stuff as I have sent to Mary Bateman
from Scarbro', and she will give your wife it, but you must not begin to
eat of this pudding while I let you know. If ever you find yourself
sickly at any time, you must take each of you a teaspoonful of this
honey; I will remit twenty pounds to you on the 20th day of May, and it
will pay a little of what you owe. You must bring this down to Mary
Bateman's, and burn it at her house, when you come down next time."
The instructions contained in this letter were complied with, and the
prisoner having first mixed a white powder in the honey, handed over six
others of the same colour and description to Mrs. Perigo, saying that
they must be used in the precise manner mentioned upon them, or they
would all be killed. On the 5th of May, another letter arrived in the
following terms:--
"My dear Friends.--You must begin to eat pudding on the 11th of May, and
you must put one of the powders in every day as they are marked, for six
days--and you must see it put in yourself every day or else it will not
do. If you find yourself sickly at any time you must not have no doctor,
for it will not do, and you must not let the boy that used to eat with
you eat of that pudding for six days; and you must make only just as
much as you can eat yourselves, if there is any left it will not do. You
must keep the door fast as much as possible or you will be overcome by
some enemy. Now think on and take my directions or else it will kill us
all. About the 25th of May I will come to Leeds and send for your wife
to Mary Bateman's; your wife will take me by the hand and say, 'God
bless you that I ever found you out.' It has pleased God to send me into
the world that I might destroy the works of darkness; I call them the
works of darkness because they are dark to you--now mind what I say
whatever you do. This letter must be burned in straw on the hearth by
your wife."
The absurd credulity of Mr. and Mrs. Perigo even yet favoured the horrid
designs of the prisoner; and, in obedience to the directions which they
received, they began to eat the puddings on the day named. For five
days, they had no particular flavour, but upon the sixth powder being
mixed, the pudding was found so nauseous, that the former could only eat
one or two mouthfuls, while his wife managed to swallow three or four.
They were both directly seized with violent vomiting, and Mrs. Perigo,
whose faith appears to have been greater than that of her husband, at
once had recourse to the honey. Their sickness continued during the
whole day, but although Mrs. Perigo suffered the most intense torments,
she positively refused to hear of a doctor's being sent for, lest, as
she said, the charm should be broken, by Miss Blythe's directions being
opposed. The recovery of the husband from the illness, by which he was
affected, slowly progressed; but the wife, who persisted in eating the
honey, continued daily to lose strength, and at length expired on the
24th of May, her last words being a request to her husband not to be
"rash" with Mary Bateman, but to await the coming of the appointed time.
Mr. Chorley, a surgeon, was subsequently called in to see her body; but
although he expressed his firm belief that the death of the deceased was
caused by her having taken poison, and although that impression was
confirmed by the circumstance of a cat dying immediately after it had
eaten some of the pudding, no further steps were taken to ascertain the
real cause of death, and Perigo even subsequently continued in
communication with the prisoner.
Upon his informing her of the death of his wife, she at once declared
that it was attributable to her having eaten all the honey at once, and
then in the beginning of June, he received the following letter from
Miss Blythe:--
"My dear Friend.--I am sorry to tell you that your wife should touch of
those things which I ordered her not, and for that reason it has caused
her death; it had likened to have killed me at Scarborough, and Mary
Bateman at Leeds, and you and all, and for this reason, she will rise
from the grave, she will stroke your face with her right hand, and you
will lose the use of one side, but I will pray for you.--I would not
have you to go to no doctor, for it will not do. I would have you to eat
and drink what you like, and you will be better. Now, my dear friend,
take my directions, do and it will be better for you.--Pray God bless
you. Amen. Amen. You must burn this letter immediately after it is
read."
Letters were also subsequently received by him, purporting to be from
the same person, in which new demands for clothing, coals, and other
articles were made, but at length, in the month of October 1808, two
years having elapsed since the commencement of the charm, he thought
that, the time had fully arrived, when, if any good effects were to be
produced from it, they would have been apparent, and that therefore he
was entitled to look for his money in the bed. He, in consequence,
commenced a search for the little silk bags, in which his notes and
money had been, as he supposed, sewn up; but although the bags indeed
were in precisely the same positions in which they had been placed by
his deceased wife, by some unaccountable conjuration, the notes and gold
had turned to rotten cabbage-leaves and bad farthings. The darkness, by
which the truth had been so long obscured, now passed away, and having
communicated with the prisoner, by a stratagem, meeting her under
pretence of receiving from her a bottle of medicine, which was to cure
him from the effects of the puddings which still remained, he caused her
to be apprehended. Upon her house being searched, nearly all the
property sent to the supposed Miss Blythe was found in her possession,
and a bottle containing a liquid mixed with two powders, one of which
proved to be oatmeal, and the other arsenic, was taken from her pocket
when she was taken into custody.
The rest of the evidence against the prisoner went to show that there
was no such person as Miss Blythe living at Scarborough, and that all
the letters which had been received by Perigo were in her own
handwriting, and had been sent by her to Scarborough to be transmitted
back again. An attempt was also proved to have been made by her to
purchase some arsenic, at the shop of a Mr. Clough, in Kirkgate, in the
month of April 1807, but the most important testimony was that of Mr.
Chorley, the surgeon, who distinctly proved that he had analysed what
remained of the pudding, and of the contents of the honey pot, and that
he found them both to contain a deadly poison, called corrosive
sublimate of mercury, and that the symptoms exhibited by the deceased
and her husband were such as would have arisen from the administration
of such a drug.
The prisoner's defence consisted of a simple denial of the charge, and
the learned judge then proceeded to address the jury. Having stated the
nature of the allegations made in the indictment, he said that in order
to come to a conclusion as to the guilt of the prisoner, it was
necessary that three points should be clearly made out. 1st. That the
deceased died of poison. 2nd. That that poison was administered by the
contrivance and knowledge of the prisoner. And 3rd. That it was so done
for the purpose of occasioning the death of the deceased. A large body
of evidence had been laid before them, to prove that the prisoner had
engaged in schemes of fraud against the deceased and her husband, which
was proved not merely by the evidence of Wm. Perigo, but by the
testimony of other witnesses; and the inference the prosecutors drew
from this fraud was the existence of a powerful motive or temptation to
commit a still greater crime, for the purpose of escaping the shame and
punishment which must have attended the detection of the fraud; a fraud
so gross, that it excited his surprise that any individual in that age
and nation could be the dupe of it. But the jury should not go beyond
this inference, and presume that, because the prisoner had been guilty
of fraud, she was of course likely to have committed the crime of
murder; that, if proved, must be shown by other evidence. His Lordship
then proceeded to recapitulate the whole of the evidence, as detailed in
the preceding pages, and concluded with the following observations. "It
is impossible not to be struck with wonder at the extraordinary
credulity of Wm. Perigo, which neither the loss of his property, the
death of his wife, and his own severe sufferings, could dispel; and it
was not until the month of October in the following year, that he
ventured to open his hid treasure, and found there what every one in
court must have anticipated that he would find, not a single vestige of
his property; and his evidence is laid before the jury with the
observation which arises from this uncommon want of judgment. His memory
however appears to be very retentive, and his evidence is confirmed, and
that in different parts of the narrative, by other witnesses; and many
parts of the case do not rest upon his evidence at all. The illness, and
peculiar symptoms, which preceded the death of his wife; his own severe
sickness; and a variety of other circumstances attending the experiments
made upon the pudding, were proved by separate and independent
testimony; and it is most strange, that, in a case of so much suspicion
as it appeared to have excited at the time, the interment of the body
should have taken place without any inquiry as to the cause of death, an
inquiry which then would have been much less difficult; though the fact
of the deceased having died of poison is now well established. The main
question is, did the prisoner contrive the means to induce the deceased
to take it?--if she did so contrive the means, the intent could only be
to destroy.--Poison so deadly could not be administered with any other
view. The jury will lay all the facts and circumstances together; and if
they feel them press so strongly against the prisoner, as to induce a
conviction of the prisoner's having procured the deceased to take
poison, with an intent to occasion her death, they will find her guilty;
if they do not think the evidence conclusive, they will, in that case,
find the prisoner not guilty."
The jury, after conferring for a moment, found the prisoner guilty;--and
the judge proceeded to pass sentence of death upon her, in nearly the
following words:--
"Mary Bateman, you have been convicted of wilful murder by a jury, who,
after having examined your case with caution, have, constrained by the
force of evidence, pronounced you guilty; and it only remains for me to
fulfil my painful duty by passing upon you the awful sentence of the
law. After you have been so long in the situation in which you now
stand, and harassed as your mind must be by the long detail of your
crimes, and by listening to the sufferings you have occasioned, I do not
wish to add to your distress by saying more than my duty renders
necessary. Of your guilt, there cannot remain a particle of doubt in the
breast of any one who has heard your case.--You entered into a long and
premeditated system of fraud, which you carried on for a length of time,
which is most astonishing, and by means which one would have supposed
could not, in this age and nation, have been practised with success. To
prevent a discovery of your complicated fraud, and the punishment which
must have resulted therefrom, you deliberately contrived the death of
the persons you had so grossly injured, and that by means of poison, a
mode of destruction against which there is no sure protection; but your
guilty design was not fully accomplished.--And, after so extraordinary a
lapse of time, you are reserved as a signal example of the justice of
that mysterious Providence, which, sooner or later, overtakes guilt like
yours; and at the very time when you were apprehended, there is the
greatest reason to suppose, that if your surviving victim had met you
alone, as you wished him to do, you would have administered to him a
more deadly dose, which would have completed the diabolical project you
had long before formed, but which at that time only partially succeeded;
for upon your person, at that moment, was found a phial containing a
most deadly poison. For crimes like yours, in this world, the gates of
mercy are closed. You afforded your victim no time for preparation; but
the law, while it dooms you to death, has, in its mercy, afforded you
time for repentance, and the assistance of pious and devout men, whose
admonitions, and prayers, and counsels, may assist to prepare you for
another world, where even your crimes, if sincerely repented of, may
find mercy.
"The sentence of the law is, and the court doth award it. That you be
taken to the place from whence you came, and from thence, on Monday
next, to the place of execution, there to be hanged by the neck until
you are dead; and that your body be given to the surgeons to be
dissected and anatomised; and may Almighty God have mercy upon your
soul."
The prisoner having intimated that she was pregnant, the clerk of the
arraigns said, "Mary Bateman, what have you to say, why immediate
execution should not be awarded against you?" On which the prisoner
pleaded that she was twenty-two weeks gone with child. On this plea the
judge ordered the sheriff to impannel a jury of matrons; this order
created a general consternation among the ladies, who hastened to quit
the court, to prevent the execution of so painful an office being
imposed upon them. His lordship, in consequence, ordered the doors to be
closed, and in about half-an-hour, twelve married women being
impannelled, they were sworn in court, and charged to inquire "whether
the prisoner was with quick child?" The jury of matrons then retired
with the prisoner, and on their return into court delivered their
verdict, which was, that Mary Bateman is not with quick child. The
execution of course was not respited, and she was remanded back to
prison.
During the brief interval between her receiving sentence of death and
her execution, the ordinary, the Rev. George Brown, took great pains to
prevail upon her ingenuously to acknowledge and confess her crimes.
Though the prisoner behaved with decorum, during the few hours that
remained of her existence, and readily joined in the customary offices
of devotion, no traits of that deep compunction of mind, which, for
crimes like hers, must be felt where repentance is sincere, could be
observed; but she maintained her caution and mystery to the last. On the
day preceding her execution, she wrote a letter to her husband, in which
she enclosed her wedding-ring, with a request that it might be given to
her daughter. She admitted that she had been guilty of many frauds, but
still denied that she had had any intention to produce the death of Mr.
or Mrs. Perigo.
Upon the Monday morning at five o'clock she was called from her cell, to
undergo the last sentence of the law. She received the communion with
some other prisoners, who were about to be executed on the same day, but
all attempts to induce her to acknowledge the justice of her sentence,
or the crime of which she had been found guilty, proved vain. She
maintained the greatest firmness in her demeanour to the last, which was
in no wise interrupted even upon her taking leave of her infant child,
which lay sleeping in her cell, at the moment of her being called out to
the scaffold.
Upon the appearance of the convict upon the platform, the deepest
silence prevailed amongst the immense assemblage of persons, which had
been collected to witness the execution. As a final duty, the Rev. Mr.
Brown, immediately before the drop fell, again exhorted the unhappy
woman to confession, but her only reply was a repetition of the
declaration of her innocence, and the next moment terminated her
existence.
Her body having remained suspended during the usual time, was cut down,
and sent to the General Infirmary at Leeds to be anatomised. Immense
crowds of persons assembled to meet the hearse, in which it was carried;
and so great was the desire of the people to see her remains, that
30_l._ were collected for the use of the infirmary, by the payment of
3_d._ for each person admitted to the apartment in which they were
exposed.
A short sketch of the life of this remarkable woman, and a few anecdotes
of her proceedings, shall conclude this article. Mary Bateman, it
appears, was born of reputable parents at Aisenby, near Thirsk, in the
North-riding of Yorkshire, in the year 1768: her father, whose name was
Harker, carrying on business as a small farmer. As early as at the age
of five years, she exhibited much of that sly knavery, which
subsequently so extraordinarily distinguished her character; and many
were the frauds and falsehoods, of which she was guilty, and for which
she was punished. In the year 1780, she first quitted her father's
house, to undertake the duties of a servant in Thirsk, but having been
guilty of some peccadilloes, she proceeded to York in 1787; but before
she had been in that city more than twelve months, she was detected in
pilfering some trifling articles of property belonging to her mistress,
and was compelled to run off to Leeds, without waiting either for her
wages or her clothes. For a considerable time she remained without
employment or friends, but at length upon the recommendation of an
acquaintance of her father, she obtained an engagement in the shop of a
mantua-maker, in whose service she remained for more than three years.
She then became acquainted with John Bateman, to whom after a three
weeks' courtship she was married in the year 1792.