At the ensuing sessions at the Old Bailey she was tried on an indictment for privately stealing, and the jury brought in the verdict 'Guilty;' in consequence of which she received sentence of death. After conviction Jenny seemed sincerely to repent of the course of iniquity in which she had so long persisted, punctually attending prayers in the chapel, and employing great part of her time in private devotions. The day preceding that on which she was executed she sent for the woman who nursed her child, then about three years old, and, after informing her that there was a person who would pay for the infant's maintenance, ear. nestly entreated that it might be carefully instructed in the duties of religion, and guarded from all temptations to wickedness; and then, acknowledging that she had long been a daring offender against the laws both of God and man, and entreating the woman to pray for the salvation of her soul, she bade her farewell, apparently deeply impressed with the sentiments of contrition. On the following morning she appeared to be in a serene state of mind; but, being brought into the press-yard, the executioner approached to put the halter about her, when her fortitude abated: in a short time, however, her spirits became again tolerably composed. She was conveyed to Tyburn in a mourning-coach on the 18th of March, 1740, being attended by a clergyman, to whom she declared her firm belief in all the principles of the Protestant religion. At the place of execution, having employed a considerable time in fervent prayer, her life was resigned a sacrifice to those laws which she had most daringly violated; and her remains were, by her own par ticular desire, interred in St. Pancras churchyard. We may, perhaps, fix the most dangerous period of life to be between the years of sixteen and twenty. As we approach towards maturity we grow impatient of control, regardless of all advice that does not flatter the prevailing humour, and direct all our attention to a state of independence, which youthful imagination repre. sents as the summit of human felicity, where no inconvenience can obtrude but such as may, without difficulty, be repelled by the mere efforts of our own resolution. The advice of a parent sinks into the mind with double weight; but we should allow the due force to such as is offered by those who are unconnected with us in the ties of blood. If the conduct that is recommended to us points to the happiness of life, what folly is it to submit to the suggestions of idle inclination, the indulgence of which can yield but a slight and temporary gratification, and may, perhaps, prove the source of severe and lasting regret! There are those who censure the laws of these kingdoms as being of too sanguinary a complexion. Be it admitted that there is something extremely dreadful in the idea of depriving a fellow-creature of existence at a time when the weight of his sins is sufficient, without the Divine assistance, to sink him into everlasting perdition: but, as partial favour must always give way to considerations for the public good, it should be remembered that the lives of individuals are not sacrificed so much for the sake of punishing them for the offences of which they have been guilty, as with a view of making them examples for the discontinuance of vice. Justice may for a time be eluded, and no incon. venience may have been sustained by the injured party, who, though entertaining no private animosity, nay, even tenderly compassionating the offender, will be induced, by his regard to the public, to enforce the law. How dangerous, then, must be the situation of those who have been guilty of acts of delinquency! The dread of a violent and disgraceful death, together with all the horrors of conscious guilt, must continually rush upon their minds, and render them miserable beyond the power of expression. Persons who, having infringed the laws of their country, are committed to prison, too frequently are known to employ their time in a very unprofitable manner. How can this conduct be accounted for but by supposing that they cherish the expectation of an acquittal? No circumstances in life are so desperate as to exclude the hope of a fa vorable change of fortune. In sup port of this assertion it need only be said, that scarce an instance can be produced where the most notorious offender has, even at the place of execution, declined all thoughts of a reprieve. To consider the terrible situation of a condemned prisoner must unquestionably prove distressing, in a peculiar degree, to a humane mind. The unhappy object stands tottering on the verge of eternity, and the dreadful prospect wholly incapacitates him for making that preparation which is necessary to so im. portant a change; for it is a reason. able supposition that, under such alarming circumstances, the mind must be so violently agitated as to be deprived of the power of exert ing its usual functions; and there is too much cause to apprehend that, when repentance is thus long de layed, there will be but a feeble support for the hope of its effi. eacy. WILLIAM DUELL, EXECUTED for murder, WHO CAME TO LIFE AGAIN WHILE PREPARING FOR DISSECTION IN SURGEONS' HALL. THIS man met a better fate than a criminal in a similar situation in Germany. The body of a notorious malefactor was stretched out upon the table, before an assembly of German surgeons, for dissection. The operator, in placing it in a proper position, felt life in it; whereupon he thus addressed his brethren of the faculty, met to witness the operation: 'I am pretty certain, gentlemen, from the warmth of the subject, and the flexibility of the limbs, that by a proper degree of attention and care the vital heat would return, and life in consequence take place. But when it is considered what a rascal we should again have among us, that he was hanged for so cruel a murder, and that, should we re. store him to life, he would probably kill somebody else:-I say, gentlemen, all these things considered, it is my opinion that we had better proceed in the dissection.' Whether this harangue, or the fear of being disappointed in so sumptuous a surgical banquet, operated on their consciences, we cannot tell; but, certain it is, they nodded accordance; and the operator, on the signal, plunged his knife into the breast of the culprit, thereby at once precluding all dread of future assassinations-all hopes of future repentance. Duell was convicted of occasioning the death of Sarah Griffin, at Acton, by robbing and ill-treating her. Having suffered Nov. 24, 1740, at Tyburn, his body was brought to Surgeons' Hall to be anatomized; but, after it was stripped and laid on the board, and while one of the servants was washing him, in order to be cut, be per. ceived life in him, and found his breath to come quicker and quicker, on which a surgeon took some ounces of blood from him; in two hours he was able to sit up in his chair, and in the evening was committed to Newgate; and his sentence (which might have been again inflicted) was changed to transpor tation. WILLIAM CREAK, EXECUTED FOR MAIL ROBBERY. We have already observed that this species of public robbery was formerly, though never pardoned after conviction, very common. It is now matter of surprise to reflect that such vast property as always has been remitted by post-letters should have been so insecurely guarded in its conveyance. A lad with the mail behind him often carried thousands of pounds, through lonely roads, in the dead hour of the night. Hence, where there could be no resistance, every lurk. ing cowardly thief was able to take the mail at his pleasure; but, happily, the disposal of the plunder seldom failed of leading to a discovery of the perpetrator. When the unfortunate man who is the subject of the present report was tempted to swerve from the paths of honesty, in robbing the mail, he was a linen-draper of good repute at Henley-upon-Thames. He married the sister of one Kitson, a maltster of the same town, by whom, it appears, he was seduced to commit the robbery; and who then, having received a part of the plunder, basely impeached, and brought him to an ignominious death. We say basely; for, though the public received benefit from the information of Kitson, yet cannot we divest ourselves of detestation of such individual treachery. In consequence of this information a warrant was issued for the apprehension of Creak, who had repaired to London with the remainder of the bank-notes, in order to pass them away. After considerable search, he was taken in the borough of Southwark, in the very act of putting off some of the stolen notes in payment for linens; and, when he found that he was apprehended, he stuffed the remainder into his mouth, and actually swallowed them before they could be recovered. He was indicted at the assizes held at Kingston for the county of Surrey, in the month of August, 1740, convicted of robbing the Western and Portsmouth mails, and was executed, much lamented, on Bagshot Heath, and his body af. terwards hung in chains, on the spot where he committed the robbery. This man, though his offence was of so heinous a kind, may claim some compassion from the feeling reader. He had a large family, bore an excellent character among his neighbours, and his credit was still good with his merchants in London. Unsuspicious in nature, he had trusted others to a considerable amount, and was deceived in promises of payment. We could here wish trades mcu to adhere to the adage- Better to cry over their goods than to cry after them.' It also appeared that this was the only piece of iniquity in which he had been concerned. N ELIZABETH AND MARY BRANCH, THESE Cruel women were born at Philips-Norton, in Somersetshire. The mother was distinguished from her childhood by the barbarity of her disposition, which increased with her years, and discovered itself on various occasions, particularly in fomenting divisions among her father's servants, to render whom unhappy appeared to be one of the greatest pleasures of her life. Her parents, observing with regret this ferocity of temper, told her that she would never get a husband unless she changed her conduct. This seemed for a while to have some influence on her, which gave great satisfaction to her parents; but it will appear from the following narrative that this influence was not lasting. Being addressed by a neighbor VOL. I. ing farmer, named Branch, a marriage took place; but the husband soon found what an unfortunate choice he had made; for his wife no sooner came into possession of her matrimonial power than she began to exercise her tyranny on her servants, whom she treated with undeserved and unaccountable cruelty, frequently denying them the common necessaries of life, and sometimes turning them out of doors at night, in the midst of winter; but their wages in these cases were sent them by Mr. Branch, who was as remarkable for his humanity and justice as his wife was for the opposite qualities. Mary Branch, the daughter, was an exact resemblance of her mother in every part of her diabolical temper. 27 Mr. Branch dying, and leaving an estate of about three hundred pounds a year, he was no sooner buried than all the servants quitted the family, determined not to live. with so tyrannical a mistress; and her character became so notorious that she could obtain no servants but poor creatures who were put out by the parish, or casual vagrants who strolled the country. It is needless to mention the particulars of the cruelties of this inhuman mother and daughter to such servants as they could procure, at whom they used to throw plates, knives, and forks, on any offence, real or supposed; we shall therefore proceed to an account of their trial and execution for the murder of Jane Buttersworth, a poor girl who had been placed with them by the parish officers. At the assizes held at Taunton, in Somersetshire, in March, 1740, Elizabeth Branch, and Mary, her daughter, were indicted for the wilful murder of Jane Buttersworth; the principal evidence against them being in substance as follows: Ann Somers, the dairy-maid, deposed that the deceased, having been, sent for some yeast, and staying longer than was necessary, excused herself to her old mistress, on her return, by telling a lie; on which the daughter struck her violently on the head with her fist, and pinched her ears. Then both of them threw her on the ground, and the daughter kneeled on her neck, while the mother whipped her with twigs till the blood ran on the ground; and the daughter, taking off one of the girl's shoes, beat her with it in a cruel manner. The deceased cried for mercy, and, after some struggles, ran into the parlour, whither they followed her, and beat her with broomsticks till she fell down senseless; after which the daughter threw a pail of water on her, and used her with other circumstances of cruelty too gross to mention. Somers now went out to milk the cows, and on her return, at the expiration of half an hour, found her mistress sitting by the fire, and the girl lying dead on the floor; but she observed that a clean cap had been put on her head since she went out, and that the blood had run through it. Saying she believed the girl was dead, the old mistress gave her abusive language; and the deceased being put to bed, Somers was ordered to lie with her; which she was obliged to comply with, in the fear of being treated in a manner equally cruel. Somers was not suffered to go out on the following day; and at night the body was privately buried. This transaction, added to the character of the mistress, having raised a suspicion in the neighborhood, a warrant was issued by the coroner to take up the body; and, an inquest being made into the cause of the girl's death, Mr. Salmon, a surgeon, declared that she had received several wounds, almost any one of which would have proved mortal. The defence made by the prisoners on their trial was, that the prosecution was malicious; for that the deceased had been subject to fits, in one of which she fell down, and received the bruises which occasioned her death; but, bringing no proofs in support of this allegation, the jury found them guilty, and they were sentenced to die. After conviction they entertained great hopes of pardon, and presented a petition to the judge; but all the favour they could obtain was a respite for five weeks, in consideration that Mrs. Branch might have some temporal affairs to settle. |