Yorkshire Oddities, Incidents, and Strange Events — John Shaqi
Yorkshire Oddities, Incidents, and Strange EventsBaring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
History
Yorkshire Oddities, Incidents, and Strange Events
Baring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Legends -- England -- Yorkshire; Yorkshire (England) -- Miscellanea
"That he carried his wife over a certain wain-bridge, called
Bishop-Dyke Bridge, betwixt Cawood and Sherborne, and within a lane
about one hundred yards from the said bridge, and on the left hand
of the said bridge, he and his wife went over a stile, on the
left-hand side of a certain gate entering into a certain close, on
the left hand of the said lane; and in a pond in the said close,
adjoining to a quickwood hedge, did drown his wife, and upon the
bank of the said pond did bury her; and further, that he was within
sight of Cawood Castle, on the left hand; and that there was but
one hedge betwixt the said close where he drowned his said wife and
the Bishop-slates belonging to the said castle.
"WILLIAM BARWICK.
"Exam. capt. die et anno super dict. coram me.
"S. DAWSON, Mayor."
William Barwick was tried and convicted before Sir John Powell, Knight,
at the Summer Assizes held in York on the 18th of September, 1690.
"On Tuesday, September the seventeenth, 1690, at York Assizes,
Thomas Lofthouse, of Rufforth, within three miles of York city,
sayeth,--
"That on Easter Tuesday last, about half an hour after twelve of
the clock in the daytime, he was watering quickwood, and as he was
going for the second pail there appeared, walking before him, an
apparition in the shape of a woman. Soon after, she sat down over
against the pond, on a green hill; he walked by her as he went to
the pond, and as he came with the pail of water from the pond,
looking sideways to see if she sat in the same place, which he saw
she did; and had on her lap something like a white bag, a-dandling
of it (as he thought), which he did not observe before. After he
had emptied his pail of water, he stood in his yard to see if he
could see her again, but could not. He says her apparel was brown
cloathes, waistcoat and petticoat, a white hood, such as his wife's
sister usually wore, and her face looked extream pale, her teeth in
sight, no gums appearing, her visage being like his wife's sister,
and wife to William Barwick.
(Signed)
"THOMAS LOFTHOUSE."
When Barwick ascended the gallows to be hung, he told the hangman that
he hoped the rope was strong enough, as if it should break with his
weight he would fall to the ground and become a cripple for life. His
apprehensions, however, were soon quieted, for the hangman assured him
he might venture upon it with perfect confidence.
After he was dead the body was hung in chains by the pond where the
murder had been committed.
FOOTNOTE:
[6] J. Aubery, in his "Miscellanies upon Various Subjects," 1696, gives
the particulars of this curious story.
SNOWDEN DUNHILL,
THE CONVICT.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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