'My lord, I open my defence shortly, referring the particulars
to the witnesses themselves, in calling those who will fully
refute the suppositions and inferences made by the prosecutor,
whom first, my lord, I shall begin with, to show there is no
evidence of any murder at all committed; and this I say again,
ought to be indisputably made manifest and proved, before any
man can be so much as suspected for it.
HATSELL, BARON--Do not flourish too much, Mr. Cowper; if you
have opened all your evidence, call your witnesses, and when
they have ended, then make your observations.
MR. COWPER--Then, my lord, I will take up no more of your time
in opening this matter. Call Robert Dew. (Who appeared.) When
Mrs. Sarah Stout drowned herself, was not you a parish officer?
DEW--I was. I was next house to the Coach and Horses; and about
six o'clock came a little boy (Thomas Parker's boy), and said
there was a woman fallen into the river. I considered it was
not my business, but the coroner's, and I sent the boy to the
coroner, to acquaint him with it, and the coroner sent word by
the boy, and desired she might be taken out; so I went to the
river, and saw her taken out: she lay in the river (as near as
I could guess) half a foot in the water; she was covered with
water; she had a striped petticoat on, but nothing could be
seen of it above water. I heaved her up, and several sticks
were underneath her, and flags; and when they took her out, she
frothed at the nose and mouth.
COWPER--How was she? Was she driven between the stakes?
DEW--She lay on the right side, her head leaning rather
downwards: and as they pulled her up, I cried, 'Hold, hold,
hold, you hurt her arm'; and so they kneeled down and took her
arm from the stakes.
COWPER--Did you see any spot upon her arm?
DEW--Yes, sir.
COWPER--What sort of spot was it?
DEW--It was reddish; I believe the stakes did it; for her arm
hit upon the stake where she lay.
COWPER--Pray, how do these stakes stand about the bridge of the
mill?
DEW--I suppose they stand about a foot asunder; they stand
slanting, leaning down the stream a little.
COWPER--Could you discern her feet?
DEW--No, nothing like it, nor the striped petticoat she had
on.
COWPER--Might not her knees and legs be upon the ground, for
what you could see?
DEW--Truly, if I were put upon my oath whether they were so, or
not, I durst not swear it; sometimes the water there is four
feet, sometimes three and a-half; I believe her feet were very
near the bottom.
COWPER--Are not the stakes nailed with their head against the
bridge?
DEW--They are nailed to the side of the bridge.
COWPER--Pray, describe the manner in which they took her up.
DEW--They stooped down, and took her up.
COWPER--Did they take her up at once?
DEW--They had two heavings, or more.
COWPER--What was the reason they did not take her up at once?