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On Thursday, the day after her conviction, Miss Jeffryes made a
confession, That what Mathews had swore was true, except that part of
his being in the house at the time the pistol went off: And that she
had had this murder in her thoughts for two years past, but never had
a proper opportunity of getting it executed before, till she engaged
Swan, and together with Swan, she offered Mathews money to execute it,
who agreed to do it; that upon the night the murder was committed, it
was agreed between Swan and her, that they should both go up to their
chambers, as if they were going to bed, and as soon as the maid had
locked her door, and was supposed to be in bed, Miss Jeffryes came out
of her own room and went to Swan’s, and said, “Holloh! are you awake?”
he answered, “Yes,” and he was not undressed; then she went into her
uncle’s room to see if he was asleep, and took a silver tankard, a
silver cup, and some silver spoons, from off a chest of drawers in the
deceased’s room; then she and Swan went down stairs, and Swan took out
a new sack from under the stairs, and she and Swan put the plate, and
some pewter and brass which they took off the shelves in the kitchen,
into the sack, till she said, I can do no more. Swan and she then
drank each a large dram of brandy; then she went upstairs into her own
chamber, where it was agreed she should undress herself, and lie till
a signal was given by a knock at her door or wainscot, that her uncle
was murder’d, then she was to open her window, and cry out, “Diaper!
fire and thieves,” to alarm the neighbourhood. She farther says, she
accidentally fell asleep as soon almost as in bed; but on a sudden was
waked by some noise in a fright, when she laid and listen’d, and heard
a violent breathing or gasping, as if somebody was under a difficulty
in drawing their breath; then she concluded her uncle was murder’d;
and then open’d her window, and made the agreed alarm; directly after
which she came down stairs, and Swan let her out of the street door in
her shift, when she ran to Mrs Diaper’s door, in the same court-yard;
Swan then shut the street-door, and as soon as he heard the neighbours
were coming, and thought a sufficient alarm was made, he opened the
street-door again in his shirt, and run out as if he was just come out
of bed in a fright. She further says, that previous to the excuting
this diabolical design, they had taken care to cut the wire of the bell
on tke outside, which went from the master’s to the maid’s room, to
prevent his calling the maid.
Swan says that he did not do the murder, but that Mathews, who came in
at the garden gate, which Swan left open for that purpose, actually
did, with one of the deceased’s pistols, which was hanging up in the
kitchen; and Swan cut a bullet, which he took out of a draw in the
kitchen to make it fit the pistol. And he is implacable against Miss
Jeffryes for having made any confession of this melancholy and wicked
affair.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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