Chronicles of Newgate, Vol. 1: From the twelfth to the eighteenth centuryGriffiths, Arthur
History
Chronicles of Newgate, Vol. 1: From the twelfth to the eighteenth century
Griffiths, Arthur
Criminals -- Great Britain; Newgate (Prison : London, England); Prisons -- England; Punishment -- Great Britain
[268:1] "What do you bring this fellow here for?" Oneby had cried
to the keeper of Newgate when he appeared with Hooper. "Whenever I
look at him I shall think of being hanged." Hooper had a forbidding
countenance, but he was an inimitable mimic, and he soon made himself
an agreeable companion to the condemned man.
[273:1] The husband of the Lady Macclesfield who was mother to Richard
Savage.
CHAPTER IX
LATER RECORDS
Crimes more commonplace, but more atrocious—Murder committed
by Catherine Hayes and her accomplices—She is burned alive
for petty treason—Sarah Malcolm, the Temple murderess—Other
prominent and typical murders—Wife murderers—Theodore
Gardelle, the murderer of Mrs. King—Two female murderers—
Mrs. Meteyard—Her cruelty to a parish apprentice—Elizabeth
Brownrigg beats Mary Clifford to death—Governor Wall—His
severe and unaccommodating temper—Trial of Sergeant Armstrong
—Punished by drumhead court martial and flogged to death—
Wall's arrest and escape to the Continent—Persons of note
charged with murder—Quin, the actor, kills Williams in
self-defence—Charles Macklin kills Hallam, a fellow actor at
Drury Lane—Joseph Baretti, author of the "Italian Dictionary,"
mobbed in the Haymarket, defends himself with a pocket-knife,
and stabs one of his assailants.
Returning to meaner and more commonplace offenders, I find in the
records full details of all manner of crimes. Murders the most
atrocious and bloodthirsty; robberies executed with great ingenuity
and boldness by both sexes; remarkable instances of swindling and
successful frauds; early cases of forgery; coining carried out with
extensive ramifications; piracies upon the high seas, long practised
with strange immunity from reprisals.
Perhaps the most revolting murder ever perpetrated, not excepting
those of later date, was that in which Catherine Hayes assisted. The
victim was her husband, an unoffending, industrious man, whose life
she made miserable, boasting once indeed that she would think it no
more sin to murder him than to kill a dog. After a violent quarrel
between them she persuaded a man who lodged with them, named Billings,
and who was either her lover or her illegitimate son, to join her in
an attempt upon Hayes. A new lodger, Wood, arriving, it was necessary
to make him a party to the plot, but he long resisted Mrs. Hayes's
specious arguments, till she clenched them by declaring that Hayes was
an atheist and a murderer, whom it could be no crime to kill; moreover
that at his death she would become possessed of £1,500, which she would
hand over to Wood.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account