State Trials Part 26

DEW--Because I cried out, 'They hurt her arm.'

COWPER--Was she not within the stakes?

DEW--No, this shoulder kept her out.

COWPER--When you complained they hurt her arm, what answer did they make you?

DEW--They stooped down and took her arm out from between the stakes; they could not have got her out else.

COWPER--After she was taken out, did you observe any froth or foam come from her mouth or nose?

DEW--There was a white froth came from her, and as they wiped it away, it was on again presently.

COWPER--What was the appearance of her face and upper parts at that time?

DEW--She was so much disfigured, I believe that scarce any of her neighbours knew her, the slime of the water being upon her.

COWPER--Did you see her maid Sarah Walker at that time?

DEW--No.

HATSELL, BARON--Mr. Cowper, do you intend to spend so much time with every witness? I do not see to what purpose many of these questions are asked.

COWPER--I have done with him: call Young.

HATSELL, BARON--Mr. Cowper, I would not have you straiten yourself, but only ask those questions that are pertinent.

COWPER--Pray, give an account of what you know of the matter.

YOUNG--On Tuesday morning between five and six o'clock, last a.s.sizes----

COWPER--What officer did you say?

YOUNG--I was constable.

COWPER--Was you employed by the coroner?

YOUNG--Not by him in person. Between five and six o'clock some of the men that came into my yard to work, told me a woman was drowned at the mill; I staid a little and went down to see, and when I came there, I saw a woman, as they had told me, and I saw part of her coat lie on the top of the water to be seen, and I looked strictly and nicely within the bridge and saw the face of a woman, and her left arm was on the outside the stakes, which I believe kept her from going through; so I looked upon her very wishfully, and was going back again; and as I came back I met with R. Dew and two of my neighbours, and they asked me to go back with them, and said they were going to take her up; and being constable, I told them I thought it was not proper to do it, and they said they had orders for it; so I being constable went back with them, and when I came there I found her in the same posture as before; we viewed her very wishfully; her coat that was driven near the stakes was seen, but none of her coats, or her legs; and after we had looked a little while upon her, we spake to Dell and Ulse to take her up, and one of them took hold of her coat till he brought her above water; and as her arm drew up, I saw a black place, and she laid sideway, that he could not take her up till they had let her down again, and so they twisted her out sideway; for the stakes were so near together that she could not lie upon her belly, or upon her back; and when they had taken her up, they laid her down upon a green place, and after she was laid down, a great quant.i.ty of froth (like the froth of new beer) worked out of her nostrils.

HATSELL, BARON--How much do you call a great quant.i.ty?

YOUNG--It rose up in bladders, and run down on the sides of her face, and so rose again; and seeing her look like a gentlewoman, we desired one Ulse to search her pockets, to see if there were any letters, that we might know who she was; so the woman did, and I believe there was twenty or more of us that knew her very well when she was alive, and not one of us knew her then; and the woman searched her pockets, and took out six guineas, ten s.h.i.+llings, three pence halfpenny, and some other things; and after that I desired some of my neighbours to go with me and tell the money; for when it came to be known who she was, I knew we must give an account on it, and I laid it upon a block and told it, and they tyed it up in a handkerchief, and I said I would keep the money, and they should seal it up to prevent any question about it; and during all this while of discourse, and sealing up the money, the froth still worked out of her mouth.

COWPER--Have you measured the depth of the water? What depth is it there?

YOUNG--I measured the water this morning, and it was so high that it ran over the floodgate, and the height of it was about four foot two inches; but sometimes it is pent up to a greater height than it is to-day.

COWPER--Was it higher to-day than when the body was found?

YOUNG--To the best of my remembrance, it was as high to-day as it was then.

COWPER--Was any part of the body above water?

YOUNG--No, nor nothing like the body could be seen.

COWPER--Could you see where her legs lay?

YOUNG--No, nor nothing but her upper coats, which were driven against the stakes.

COWPER--Pray give an account how long she lay there, and when she was conveyed away?

YOUNG--I stayed a quarter of an hour, and then I went and sealed up the money at my own house, so that I did not see her removed.

JONES--Was anybody there besides yourself at this time?

YOUNG--Yes; twenty people at the least.

JONES--Now here is ten of them that have sworn that the body was above the surface of the water.

HATSELL, BARON--No, her cloaths, they say, were, but the body was something under the water.

COWPER--Now I will trouble your lords.h.i.+p no more with that fact, but I will give you an account of the coroner's inquest, how diligent they were in their proceedings, and produce a copy of the inquisition itself, that she was found to have drowned herself.

HATSELL, BARON--Mr. Cowper, that is no evidence if it be produced in order to contradict what these witnesses have said, that have been examined for the king; but if you will prove that they have sworn otherwise before the coroner than they now do, then you say something, otherwise the coroner's inquest signifies nothing as to the present question.

COWPER--Call Thomas Wall. I am loth to be troublesome; but, if you please to favour me, I desire to know of them whether they do admit there was an inquisition, and that she was found _non compos mentis_ and did kill herself.

JONES--We do admit it.

JURYMAN--We desire it may be read.

HATSELL, BARON--Why, will not you believe what they agree to on both sides?

JURYMAN--If they do agree so, I am satisfied.

_Wall_ was one of the coroner's jury, and saw the marks on the body which he described; Mr. Camlin and the younger Dimsdale were requested to examine them, which they did, and reported that they were no more than were usual in such cases. Wall refreshed his memory from his notes, and said that Sarah Walker had said that it was about eleven when she had taken the coals up to warm Cowper's bed, but she could not say when it was that Cowper went out, for she took up some more coals, and then tarried a little, and then went down and found that Cowper and her mistress had gone out.

HATSELL, BARON--The woman said the same thing.

COWPER--It is necessary in this particular as to time.

HATSELL, BARON--She told you the clocks did differ.

_Bowden_ and _Shute_ gave evidence as to the finding of the body and as to its state when found, corroborating the other witnesses.

COWPER--My lord, I am very tender how I take up your lords.h.i.+p's time, and therefore I will not trouble you with any more witnesses on this head; but with your lords.h.i.+p's leave I will proceed to call some physicians of note and eminence, to confront the learning of the gentlemen on the other side.

_Dr. Sloane_[48] said he had not heard the other witnesses very distinctly, because of the crowd; but that cases of the present kind were very uncommon, and that none of them had fallen under his own knowledge. It was plain that a great quant.i.ty of water might be swallowed without suffocation;