But notwithstanding the ghastliness of the apparition, it seems it
made so little impression in Lofthouse's mind, that he thought no more
of it, neither did he speak to any body concerning it, 'till the same
night as he was at his family duty of prayer, that that apparition
returned again to his thoughts, and discomposed his devotion; so that
after he had made an end of his prayers, he told the whole story of
what he had seen to his wife, who laying circumstances together,
immediately inferred, that her sister was either drowned, or otherwise
murdered, and desired her husband to look after her the next day,
which was Wednesday in Easter week, Upon this, Lofthouse recollecting
what Barwick had told him of his carrying his wife to his uncle at
Selby, repaired to Harrison beforementioned, but found all that
Barwick had said to be false; for that Harrison had neither heard of
Barwick, nor his wife, neither did he know anything of them. Which
notable circumstance, together with that other of the apparition,
encreased his suspicions to that degree, that now concluding his
wife's sister was murdered, he went to the Lord Mayor of York; and
having obtained his warrant, got Barwick apprehended, who was no
sooner brought before the Lord Mayor, but his own conscience then
accusing him, he acknowledged the whole matter, as it has been already
related, as it appears by his examination and confession herewith
printed: to which are also annexed the informations of Lofthouse, in
like manner taken before the Lord Mayor of York, for a further
testimony and confirmation of what is here set down.
On Wednesday the sixteenth of September, 1690, the criminal, William
Barwick, was brought to his trial, before the Honourable Sir John
Powel, Knight, one of the judges of the northern circuit, at the
assizes holden at York, where the prisoner pleaded not guilty to his
indictment: but upon the evidence of Thomas Lofthouse, and his
wife, and a third person, that the woman was found buried in her
cloaths in the Close by the pond side, agreeable to the prisoner's
confession, and that she had several bruises on her head, occasioned
by the blows the murderer had given her, to keep her under water: and
upon reading the prisoner's confession before the Lord Mayor of York,
attested by the clerk, who wrote the confession, and who swore the
prisoner's owning and signing it for truth, he was found guilty, and
sentenced to death, and afterwards ordered to be hanged in chains.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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