The Chronicles of Crime or The New Newgate Calendar. v. 1/2: being a series of memoirs and anecdotes of notorious characters who have outraged the laws of Great Britain from the earliest period to 1841.Pelham, Camden
History
The Chronicles of Crime or The New Newgate Calendar. v. 1/2: being a series of memoirs and anecdotes of notorious characters who have outraged the laws of Great Britain from the earliest period to 1841.
Pelham, Camden
Crime -- Great Britain; Criminals -- Great Britain; Newgate (Prison : London, England)
He gave the following account of the transaction:--He said he had no
design of destroying the infant, but put it in a bag lined with wool,
and made a hole in the bag that it might not be stifled. He added, that
the child was handsomely dressed, and he had intended to have left it at
the door of Mr. Chaworth, of Annesley; but the dogs barking, and there
being a light in the house, he desisted from his first intention, in
the fear of a discovery. After some hesitation, he said, he resolved to
place it under a warm hay-stack, in the hope that, when the servants
came to fodder the cattle in the morning, it would be found.
He acknowledged to a clergyman who assisted him in his devotions that he
forgave all his enemies, even his brother Charles; but made the
following strange addition to his speech: "that if, at the day of
judgment, God Almighty should ask him how his brother behaved, he would
not give him a good character."
The hopes of a pardon which he had entertained soon proved unfounded;
and an order arrived for his execution on the 11th December 1759, on
which day he completed his 74th year, and terminated his life on a
scaffold erected at Nottingham.
LAURENCE, EARL FERRERS.
EXECUTED FOR MURDER.
Laurence, Earl Ferrers, was a man of singular and most unhappy
disposition. Descended of an ancient and noble family, he was doomed to
expiate a crime, of which he had been guilty, at Tyburn.
It would appear that the royal blood of the Plantagenets flowed in his
veins, and the earl gained his title in the following manner:--The
second baronet of the family, Sir Henry Shirley, married a daughter of
the celebrated Earl of Essex, who was beheaded in the reign of Queen
Elizabeth; and his son, Sir Robert Shirley, died in the Tower, where he
was confined during the Protectorate, for his attachment to the cause of
the Stuarts. Upon the Restoration, the second son of Sir Robert
succeeded to the title and estates; and Charles, anxious to cement the
bonds which attached his friends to him, summoned him to the Upper House
of Parliament by the title of Lord Ferrers of Chartley, as the
descendant of one of the co-heiresses of the Earl of Essex; the title,
which had existed since the reign of Edward III., having been in
abeyance since the death of that unfortunate nobleman. In the year 1711,
Robert, Lord Ferrers, was created by Queen Anne, Viscount Tamworth and
Earl Ferrers; and it appears that although the estates of the family
were very great, they were vastly diminished by the provisions which the
Earl thought proper to make for his numerous progeny, consisting of
fifteen sons and twelve daughters, born to him by his two wives. At the
death of the first earl, his title descended to his second son; but he
dying without issue, it went in succession to the ninth son, who was
childless, and the tenth son, who was the father of the earl, Laurence,
the subject of the present sketch.
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