The Power of Conscience, exemplified in the genuine and extraordinary confession of Thomas Bedworth: delivered to one of the principal officers of Newgate, the night before his execution on September 18, 1815, for the murder of Elizabeth Beesmore in Drury lane. Relating his horrible sufferings until compelled to surrender to public justice by the constant supernatural visitations of the murdered woman, and the frequent appearance of her apparition. From the original paper now in the possession oBedworth, Thomas
History
The Power of Conscience, exemplified in the genuine and extraordinary confession of Thomas Bedworth: delivered to one of the principal officers of Newgate, the night before his execution on September 18, 1815, for the murder of Elizabeth Beesmore in Drury lane. Relating his horrible sufferings until compelled to surrender to public justice by the constant supernatural visitations of the murdered woman, and the frequent appearance of her apparition. From the original paper now in the possession o
Bedworth, Thomas
Bedworth, Thomas, 1764-1815 -- Trials, litigation, etc.; Beesmore, Elizabeth, -1815; Trials (Murder) -- England -- London
THE following brief statement of the life of an almost obscure
individual, drawn up from his own lips, is published not from any wish to
diminish the just indignation and natural horror excited by the dreadful
crime of _murder_, of which he was found guilty by his own confession, as
well as by the Verdict of the Jury, but from an anxious desire to develop
such particulars as exemplify the sad consequences of ungoverned passion
and depraved pursuit. However different from all rational views that
extraordinary portion of his relation may be which details the frequent
_horrible appearance of the murdered woman_, there is no more reason to
doubt his solemn belief of the reality of the TERRIBLE APPARITION than of
any other part of his edifying Narrative. The criminal related the whole
himself, in compliance with the wishes of _one of the principal officers
of the prison_, whose humanity and attention he gratefully acknowledged,
and who had long expressed a desire to know his melancholy story. He
commenced his relation about midnight before his execution. He solemnly
and earnestly, as a dying man and in the presence of Almighty God,
protested the truth of every circumstance, and the whole is here
faithfully given as he delivered it. Although scrupulously examined upon
the _supernatural appearance_, which was reasonably conjectured to be the
effects of his disturbed imagination and wounded conscience, he eagerly,
positively, and repeatedly asseverated it to be a fact as certain as that
he was then in the cell, to die that morning. This his full confession
upon the brink of his falling into the grave, was taken down in writing
in the presence of and by the direction of _the officer_ before
mentioned, and the _original paper_ is now in the possession of the
_publisher_, and is as follows:
THOMAS BEDWORTH’S CONFESSION.
THOMAS BEDWORTH was born in the year 1764, in the parish of _Bloxidge_,
Staffordshire. His parents were of honest reputation and industrious
habits, and could well afford to instil into his mind the principles of a
good education; but to this he was obstinately averse, and they not being
firm in their purpose, he successfully opposed every attempt that was
made to furnish him with that knowledge of good and evil, without which
he fell a sacrifice to the consequences of sensual indulgence, and
expiated a crime, conceived in jealousy and stimulated by intoxication,
on the scaffold of Newgate.
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