State Trials Part 30

STEPHENS--We never stirred from one another, but went along with the marshal of the King's bench, to accompany my lord chief-justice out of town, as is usual.

HATSELL, BARON--I thought it had been as usual for him to go but half the way with my lord chief-justice.

ROGERS--They generally return back after they have gone half the way, but some of the head officers go throughout.

STEPHENS--It was the first circuit after the marshal came into his office, and that is the reason the marshal went the whole way.

HATSELL, BARON--Did not you talk of her courting days being over?

PRISONERS--Not one word of it; we absolutely deny it.

STEPHENS--I never saw her.

JONES--Mr. Marson, did you ride in boots?

MARSON--Yes.

JONES--How came your shoes to be wet?

MARSON--I had none.

_Hunt_ gave an account of how he was at the Old Devil Tavern at Temple Bar, on Sunday night, and Marson and three or four others of Clifford's Inn being there at the same time, discoursing of the marshal's attending the Lord Chief-Justice to Hertford, Marson said he too might be required to go; on which one of the company said, 'If you do go to Hertford, pray enquire after Mr. Marshall's mistress, and bring us an account of her;'

and it was this discourse that gave occasion to talk of Mrs. Stout at Gurrey's house, which was done openly and harmlessly. This story was corroborated by one Foster, who had been at the Devil; and Stephens offered to call another witness to the same purpose, but was stopped by the judge.

_Hanks_ was called, and gave the same account of his arrival in Hertford as Marson had already given. He was in Marson's company from the time he met him till he left him at his lodgings, at about eleven o'clock.

_Rutkin_ was called by Marson to give an account of his coming to Hertford.

RUTKIN--My lord, I came to wait on the marshal of the King's Bench to Hertford, and when we were come to Hertford we put up our horses at the Bull, and made ourselves a little clean; we went to church, and dined at the Bull, and then we walked in and about the court, and diverted ourselves till about seven o'clock; and between seven and eight o'clock came Mr. Marson and Dr. Hanks to town, and then we agreed to go to the Dolphin and Glove to drink a gla.s.s of wine; the marshal went to see an ancient gentleman, and we went to the Dolphin and Glove, and staid there till past ten o'clock, and after the reckoning was paid we went with them to their lodging, with a design to drink a gla.s.s of wine; but then I considered I was to lie with the marshal, and for that reason I resolved not to go in, but came away, and went to the Bull Inn, and drank part of a gla.s.s of wine and afterwards went to the next door to the Bull Inn, where I lay with the marshal.

_Marson_ called witnesses to character, who swore that they had always had a good opinion of him, that they had never seen him but a civilised man, that he had been well brought up amongst them, and that they had never seen him given to debauchery.

_Cowper_ said that he was concerned to defend the other prisoners as much as himself, and that there was something he wished to say in their behalf.

'The princ.i.p.al witness against them is one Gurrey; and I will prove to you, that since he appeared in this court, and gave his evidence, he went out in a triumphant manner, and boasted that he, by his management, had done more against these gentlemen than all the prosecutor's witnesses could do besides.

To add to that I have another piece of evidence that I have just been acquainted with; my lord, it is the widow Davis, Gurrey's wife's sister, that I would call.

_Mrs. Davis_ was asked by her sister to help her lay the sheets for the men in Gurrey's house, and while she was doing so the gentlemen came into the room; it was then about ten, or something later. They had three quarts of wine and some bread and cheese, and then went to bed; and after that Gurrey went to fetch Gape, who lodged at his house, from Hockley's.

COWPER--I only beg leave to observe that Gurrey denied that he went for him.

HATSELL, BARON--Ay; but this signifies very little, whether it be true or false.

Various other witnesses were called, who gave all the prisoners excellent characters in their private and professional capacities.

JONES--My lord, we insist upon it, that Mr. Cowper hath given a different evidence now, from what he did before the coroner; for there he said he never knew any distraction, or love fit, or other occasion she had to put her upon this extravagant action. Now here he comes, and would have the whole scheme turned upon a love-fit. Call John Mason.

_Mason_, in answer to questions put to him by Mr. Stout and Jones, said that Cowper, before the coroner, had said that he knew no cause for Mrs.

Stout's suicide; and that she was a very modest person. He was asked whether he knew any person she was in love with, and he said he knew but of one, and his name was Marshall, and he was always repulsed by her.

_Archer_ was present at the inquest, and heard Cowper say that he knew no occasion of Mrs. Stout's death, nor of any letters.

COWPER--Then I must call over the whole coroner's inquest, to prove the contrary.

HATSELL, BARON--Did they ask him concerning any letters?

ARCHER--They asked him, If he knew of any thing that might be the occasion of her death?

HATSELL, BARON--I ask you again, if they asked him if he knew of any letters?

ARCHER--My lord, I do not remember that.

MR. STOUT--I would have called some of the coroner's inquest but I was stopped in it.

JURYMAN--We have taken minutes of what has pa.s.sed; If your lords.h.i.+p pleases we will withdraw.

HATSELL, BARON--They must make an end first.

_Mrs Larkin_ was called, and said that Rutkin came to her house between nine and ten, and that the marshal did not come in till an hour afterwards.

_Mr. Stout_ desired to call witnesses to his sister's reputation; and _Jones_ said that the whole town would attest to that.

_Hatsell, Baron_, then summed up. He said that the jury could not expect that he should sum up fully, but that he would notice the most material facts, and that if he omitted any thing, Jones or Cowper would remind him of it. He then recapitulated Sarah Walker's evidence, very briefly; and then went on:--

The other witnesses that came afterwards, speak concerning the finding of the body in the river, and tell you, in what posture it was. I shall not undertake to give you the particulars of their evidence; but they tell you she lay on her right side, the one arm up even with the surface of the water, and her body under the water; but some of her cloaths were above the water.

You have also heard what the doctors and surgeons said on the one side and the other, concerning the swimming and sinking of dead bodies in the water; but I can find no certainty in it; and I leave it to your consideration.

Further, there were no signs of water in the body, and it was said that this was a sign that she was not drowned; but then it was answered that it might show that she had drowned herself, because if she wished to drown herself she would choke herself without swallowing any water.

The doctors and surgeons have talked a great deal to this purpose, and of the water's going into the lungs or the thorax; but unless you have more skill in anatomy than I you would not be much edified by it. I acknowledge I never studied anatomy; but I perceive that the doctors do differ in their notions about these things.... Gentlemen, I was very much puzzled in my thoughts, and was at a loss to find out what inducement there could be to draw in Mr. Cowper, or these three other gentlemen, to commit such a horrid, barbarous, murder. And on the other hand, I could not imagine what there should be to induce this gentlewoman, a person of plentiful fortune, and a very sober good reputation, to destroy herself.'

But if they believed the letters that had been produced to be in her hand, there was evidence to show that although she was a virtuous woman, a distemper might have turned her brains, and discomposed her mind.

As to these three other gentlemen that came to this town at the time of the last a.s.sizes, what there is against them, you have heard; they talked at their lodging at a strange rate, concerning this Mrs. Sarah Stout, saying, her business is done, and that there was an end of her courting days, and that a friend of theirs was even with her by this time. What you can make of this, that I must leave to you; but they were very strange expressions; and you are to judge whether they were spoken in jest, as they pretend, or in earnest. There was a cord found in the room, and a bundle seen there, but I know not what to make of it. As to Mrs. Stout, there was no sign of any circle about her neck, which, as they say, must have been if she had been strangled; some spots there were; but it is said, possibly these might have been occasioned by rubbing against some piles or stakes in the river. Truly, gentlemen, these three men, by their talking, have given great cause of suspicion; but whether they, or Mr. Cowper, are guilty or no, that you are to determine. I am sensible I have omitted many things; but I am a little faint, and cannot remember any more of the evidence.

The jury then retired, and in half an hour returned with a verdict of Not Guilty as to all the prisoners.

The acquittal in this case led to an appeal of murder, the most curious survival of the earliest English criminal procedure, which was not finally abolished till 1819. The effect of such a proceeding was that after an acquittal on an indictment for murder, the prosecutor might challenge the accused to an ordeal by battle. Accordingly, in the long vacation following the trial, Mrs. Stout, the mother of the dead woman, sued a writ of appeal out of Chancery, against Cowper, in the name of an infant who was her daughter's heir. The sealing of the writ was delayed, it is said to nearly the last possible day, a year after the alleged murder, for the purpose of keeping the matter in suspense as long as possible; and the consent of the mother of the infant to Mrs. Stout's being named as his guardian for the purpose, was obtained from her by a fraudulent representation that the object of the proceeding was to obtain the deceased woman's property for him. On discovering what its real effect was, she and her friends applied to one Toler, the under-sheriff of Hertfords.h.i.+re, for the writ, and on his giving it up to them, burnt it. On a rule being obtained for the return of the writ, and it appearing that Toler had delivered it to the infant's mother, he was adjudged guilty of a gross contempt, and heavily fined. Holt, Lord Chief-Justice, said on this occasion that

he wondered that it should be said that an appeal is an odious prosecution. He said he esteemed it a n.o.ble remedy, and a badge of the rights and liberties of an Englishman. The court of king's bench, to show their resentment, committed Toler to the prison of the king's bench for his fine, though the clerk in court would have undertaken to pay it. And Holt, chief-justice, said to Toler, that he had not been in prison long enough before, and that he might now, if he pleased, go to Hertford and make his boast that he had got the better of the king's bench.

Afterwards Mrs. Stout pet.i.tioned the Lord Keeper for another writ; the infant and his mother presenting a counter-pet.i.tion disowning their former writ as sued forth without their consent. After an argument before a full court it was decided that the Court had power to grant a new writ, but that it would be unjust to grant one under the present circ.u.mstances, because, among other reasons, the appellant and his mother had renounced the writ as soon as they understood its nature, and there was no proof that the appellees had been privy to their action.

FOOTNOTES:

[43] Spencer Cowper (1669-1727) was the younger brother of Earl Cowper, who was the first Lord Chancellor of Great Britain. He was educated at Westminster, and made Controller of the Bridge House Estates in 1690. At the time of this trial his brother was the member for Hertford. In 1705 and 1708 he represented Beeralston in Parliament; he was one of the managers in Sacheverell's trial, and lost his seat in consequence, but was afterwards elected for Truro in 1711. In 1714 he became Attorney-General to the Prince of Wales, and in 1717 Chief-Justice of Chester. On the accession of George the Second he was made Attorney-General of the Duchy of Chester, and a Judge of the Common Pleas in 1727. He died the same year. He was the grandfather of William Cowper the poet.

[44] Sir Henry Hatsell (1641-1714) was the son of an active Roundhead who sat in the House of Commons during the Commonwealth. He was educated at Exeter College, was called to the Bar in 1667, and became a Baron of the Exchequer in 1697. The present trial was the most conspicuous with which he was connected, from which fact it may be supposed that he never enjoyed a very high reputation. He was removed from the Bench soon after Queen Anne's accession.