| Reference Number | t17960622-6 |
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| Verdict | Guilty |
| Sentence | Death |
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| Actions | Cite this text Old Bailey Proceedings Online (www.oldbaileyonline.org, version 8.0, 26 September 2023), June 1796, trial of MARY NOTT (t17960622-6). | Print-friendly version | Report an error |
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390. MARY NOTT was indicted for the wilful murder of the Count De Gripiere De Laval De Moncroe , on the 29th of May .
She likewise stood charged with the like murder on the Coroner's Inquisition.
I am a surgeon in Newman-street, Oxford-street: On the 3d of June, I was called in to inspect the body of a Frenchman, in Monmouth-court, Whitcomb-street ; I received a note by the beadle from Mr. Butler, church-warden of the parish of Saint Ann's; in consequence of which, I went about eleven o'clock that morning; there were several persons present, but no one that I knew, except the beadle, whom I appointed to meet me there at eleven o'clock, and he did meet me there accordingly; I examined this gentleman as he lay on the bed, he was dressed in every thing except his coat, he was in an extreme putrid state.
Q. Did you strip the body? - A. I did not; the only mark of any injury that I could perceive about him was, a wound on the side of the neck of nearly an inch and an half, the depth of it was very inconsiderable indeed; I then waited the directions of the Coroner's Jury, I think the body was in as high a putrefaction as ever I saw a body in my life.
Q. Was he a corpulent man, or otherwise? - A. He appeared exceedingly bloated, which I attributed in a great degree to the putrefaction.
Q. Do you think that wound was the cause of his death? - A. I don't think it was.
Q. You were not present when other wounds were discovered when the body was stripped? - A. Yes; it was after I had been before the Coroner's Jury, they sent a message for me to return to them again; when I got to them again, they told me the undertaker's man, in stripping this gentleman, had discovered a wound in his side, near his ribs, but that was nothing more than the skin having peeled off in consequence of putrefaction, there was not the least wound whatever; the foreman of the Coroner's Jury went with me, I perfectly convinced him that there was no other wound but that in the neck.
Q. Did you observe any blood over the bed, or bolster? - A. I saw some blood upon the floor under the bed, and some about the sleeves of his waistcoat.
Q. Did you observe any thing that could account for that blood? - A. I have no doubt but that blood might proceed from the wound in his neck.
Q. Have you any opinion what was the probable cause of his death? - A. I cannot say whether it was an act of suicide, or whether it was by any other hand.
Q. You say that wound you do not think was the cause of his death? - A. No; I cannot think it was.
Q. You cannot form any opinion how he came by his death? - A. I cannot.
I live in Monmouth-court, next door to the house that the prisoner took care of on the same side of the court.
Q. Did you on the 29th of May observe any thing particular in that house? - A. No, not in the house; I observed some kind of very comical noise between one and two o'clock in the day; there was one kind of scream I thought was by a man, and when I went to look I could not see any thing; I thought it was like a man falling down, as if a chair was drawn from under him; it was almost facing where this business happened across the yard; they come smoaking their pipes there some times of a Sunday evening at the top of the stables; I was very near the yard of the prisoner's house, only the yard parts between the stables and the house; and when I went up two pair of stairs of my own house to see the roof of the stables, it was no such thing, the noise was over and I came down stairs again.
Q. The noise was such as to attract your attention, and made you go and look? - A. Yes.
Q. Do you know the house which the prisoner had the care of? - A. Yes; I live about 150 yards from it; on Thursday the 2d of June, Mr. Webb, a particular friend of mine, called on me upon business relative to a Mr. Baker, who was publishing a work under the patronage of his Majesty, and he mentioned that the French Marquis had been missing some time; that he used to take milk for his breakfast and boil it in their parlour, which he had neglected to do, and they had missed him; I asked him if he had made any enquiry about him he said he had not, he had not time; I asked him if he had looked into his room, he said, no; I was in habits of friendship with the person who kept the house, I lived there myself three or four years; I thought it a duty incumbent upon me to seek into this matter, and I asked a man to get me a ladder in the neighbourhood, which he did; as we were going with the ladder we met with an acquaintance, who went with us, and the ladder was reared to the window of the Marquis; the person who was employed went up the ladder, which was in a backyard at the back-part of the house, and got into the room.
Q. Then you cannot tell any thing of that but what he told you? - A. No; he exclaimed that there was a person in the bed; when he mentioned that circumstance, Mary Nott exclaimed, Good God if I had known there had been a person dead in that room, I would not have been in this house last night by myself till twelve o'clock at night for the world.
Q. Did he say that the person in the room was dead? - A. I don't recollect whether her did or not; Oakhurst went into the room, and I went to the church-warden, and the beadle of the parish came and sent for a smith.
Q. Did you observe the prisoner say any thing else? - A. No; it appeared to me an exclamation of surprise, what a person would naturally have said; I think I should have said so myself.
Cross-examined by Mr. Knapp. My Lord has asked you, whether you recollect that Oakhurst said whether the person was dead or not? Did you yourself understand, Mary Nott being by, that he was dead? - A. Yes, I naturally supposed from his being missing from Sunday to Thursday.
Q. This exclamation appeared to be natural? - A. It appeared so to me, it did not appear to me to have the smallest appearance of guilt; and I told the Grand Jury so.
I am a shoemaker, No. 35, St. Martin's-lane; on the 2d of June Mr. Brunn came to my place about eleven o'clock as nigh as I can guess, and employed me to get a ladder, and I got a ladder to look through the window where the body lay.
Q. Did you try to get in at the door? - A. No.
Q. Why did you not? - A. I was not employed to do that; I went up the ladder and looked in at the window, and perceived a body lie across the bed.
Q. Was the window open or shut? - A. Shut.
Q. Who was present at that time? - A. Mr. Brunn was at the foot of the ladder, and Mrs. Nott was standing upon the ladder.
Q. Did she know what you were about? - A. Yes. she knew I was going up to lock.
Q. Had you any conversation with her before you went up the ladder? - A. I asked her if I should go up the ladder, and she said, yes; she told me to do it; when I got up the ladder I perceived a body lying with a blanket and sheet over its head, and bloody; I asked Brunn if I should open the window, which I did, and when I opened the window there was such a terrible smell as I never smelt in my life before; I asked him if I should get in at the window, and he told me, yes, and I got in; I told him I could not go in the smell was so great, I came down the ladder directly, and Mr. Brunn went and fetched the beadle.
Q. Did you hear the prisoner say any thing? - A. She screamed out and alarmed the court, when I gave the alarm of a person lying across the bed.
Q. You said so from the ladder; yes, the screamed and alarmed the court, and the people came into the house.
Q. Did you hear her say any thing? - A. No. I did not take notice of what she said.
Q. Did she say that she would not have slept in
the house? - A. Yes; I heard her say that had she known any body was dead in the house she would not have slept there.Q. What do you mean by alarming the court? - A. She ran out of doors and brought the people to come in with her, and saw no more till Mr. Humphries the beadle came in, which was in about five minutes; he went up the ladder first, and he asked if nobody would go up in the room, and I said I would: I went up along with him and got into the room, and the first thing I perceived in the room, on the left side of the window, was a washhand bason.
Q. How far from the bed? - A. I cannot say how many yards, it was on the window seat.
Q. What was in it? - A. It appeared to me to be almost half full of blood and water; there was a portmanteau lying upon the floor with a chain to the staples locked, cut open length ways.
Q. Did you examine it? - A. No. it appeared to be three-parts full of paper.
Q. Did you see whether it was recently cut or not? - A. No, I did not; it appeared to be cut with a knife; I did not examine what was in it; I looked about the room for a key and could not find one, except an old rusty key that was hanging up by the door; the door was fast, it appeared to be locked.
Q. Did you try if it was the key of the door? - A. Mr. Humphries did, I did not; he sent for a blacksmith to pick the lock, he could not pick it outside, and he came up the ladder and picked it inside; and when the blacksmith was gone, he undid the sheets and blankets from the man's face, and said his face was like a blackamoor; I quitted the room, and do not know any more about it.
Q. Did you find any knife about the room? - A. Yes; a round pointed case-knife, it lay close to a portmantean about three yards from him; I did not take it in my hand, but I perceived that there was no blood upon it.
Cross-examined by Mr. Knapp. Q. It was with this poor woman's consent that you went up the ladder first of all? - A. Yes.
Q. And when you gave notice to Mr. Brunn, she screamed and immediately went for somebody, and brought somebody to her assistance? - A. Yes.
Q. You saw a case-knife which had no blood upon it? - A. None at all.
I am a lodger in this house in Monmouth-court, Whitcomb-street: Eight months I ceased to lodge there that very night that the murder was discovered on the 7th of June; my room was the very next to the deceased, there was only a wainscot partition between.
Q. You knew the deceased? - A. I knew him by sight: he could not speak English, nor I could not speak French, but I knew his person; I missed him on the Monday morning, I had not slept in the house ten weeks till that night; I observed that I had not heard him, and asked the prisoner if she had seen him come in, or something to that purpose, which was about nine or ten in the morning about breakfast time; she said he had not come down to take his milk, and that he was not in, because his key was not in the door which he always used to leave in the door; nothing further passed that morning; on the Tuesday morning I made nearly the same observation, and asked if she had seen him, she said no he had not been in, for she observed the key was not in the door; she had peeped or looked through the key-hole, and she could observe nothing about the room, his clothes or any thing to disturb it since he went out; she was convinced by that that he was not in the room, or something to that effect; that she was sure he was not come home; I asked if she could form any idea where he was, or to that purpose, and she said she thought he was gone into the country with a tall young Frenchman and woman that had called upon him every day, and they had not called since he had been away, and she conjectured from that that he was gone into the country with them: I made similar observations on the Wednesday morning; I asked if he had been at home, and she said she thought he must have gone into the country with this tall Frenchman and woman; she made the same observations on the Thursday, or to that effect, that they had never called upon him since he had been missing.
Q. Who lodged in the house at the time? - A. A Mr. Baker, author of a Picturesque Guide through Wales, he went out of town on the Saturday; I went into his room which I had given up to him first; I came into the room on the Sunday night to sleep, he left the house on the Saturday; there was another gentleman lodged in the room over the deceased, a Mr. Kiplin, a performer belonging to the Richmond Theatre, and the prisoner, us three inhabited the house at the time this accident happened, Mr.Baker was gone; I know nothing more of the matter.
Cross-examined by Mr. Knapp. Q. Do you happen to know whether this poor Marquis was visited by any French people? - A. I have seen a great many Frenchmen there during the winter, when Mrs. Hutchins, the real landlady of the house, was there, but she is now deranged.
Q. In what state of mind was this unhappy man? - A. He appeared very chearful always.
Q. Did you understand any thing of his circumstances? - A. I believe he was an Emigrant, and had the pay from the Committee.
Q. This woman told you she had looked through
the key-hole, and said, she thought the room was in the state in which he left it, for she could see nothing disturbed? - A. Yes.Q. And she supposed he must have been gone in to the country with these French people? - A. Yes; with a tall young Frenchman, and woman, who had never called since he was missing.
Q. I believe you live in the opposite house to that which the prisoner had the care of? - A. Yes; I was at home all day on the Sunday, I came to my window on Sunday, I cannot be positive whether it was a little before two or a little after; after I had sat a little while, I observed the prisoner come up stairs into the dining-room, open the window, look out for about one minute, then shut it down, and put to the shutter.
Q. How many windows are there to this room? - A. Two; she then took a long hair-broom and went to the other window, and dusted it; then went into a closet adjoining the room with this said broom, and knocked very loud against the sash of that window a great while, I should suppose I heard her in there near ten minutes; I did not see any thing more in that room; I still sat at the window, and I heard her reading very loud in the parlour with gentlemen all the afternoon; I heard more than one man.
Q. Till what time in the afternoon? - A. Till five o'clock, or after five o'clock; then a man came up the court crying curds and whey, and a gentleman came out of the house and called to the prisoner to take him in some milk; she answered, it is not milk, it is curds and whey; he said, very well, and went in, and shut the door.
Q. Did you know the deceased who lodged there? - A. Yes; perfectly.
Q. Was it him? - A. No, it was not.
Q. Was this conversation in English, by English persons? - A. Yes; I did not observe any thing more that day.
Q. How long did this window-shutter remain shut? - A. All the day.
Q. Had you ever observed that before? - A. Yes; I have seen the shutters shut in the day, but I never saw her open the window and shut it again directly; for if that window was open I could see to the deceased's door; and could see every person that went up and down; I observed the window-shutter open again the next day; I did not observe any thing more that day.
I knew the deceased perfectly well; I live opposite the house where the deceased lodged: On the 31st of May, in the morning, I enquired of the prisoner to know whether she had heard any thing of the French gentleman; she said, no; I said, it was very odd, being a person that seldom staid from his lodgings; I asked her if she did not think some accident had happened to him in his room; she answered, no; she said, she had peeped in at the keyhole, and could not see any thing of him there; she supposed him to be gone into the country with a tall French gentleman, and a young woman. On the Thursday following, being in my front parlour, the prisoner came running in to me, screaming, Mrs. Lathwaite, Mrs. Lathwaite, the Frenchman has been murdered in his bed! I did not go near the premisses, I only spoke to some of the lodgers that came into the house; I asked Mr. Webb where he was when this melancholy affair happened; he said, he went out in the morning, and was not at home till eleven o'clock at night.
Q. Did you make so much observation of the house as to say, whether there was a tall French gentleman went in and out of the house? - A. Never; he was a very regular man; and, I believe, kept very little company.
Q. (To Webb.) You were there but recently before the 29th of May? - A. I had been eight months in the house as a lodger.
Q. Did you, while you were lodging there, observe a French tall gentleman, and a lady, come to this gentleman? - A. I cannot say I ever did observe any body of that description, for I went out always at ten o'clock.
Q.(To Mrs. Innis.) Did you observe a tall French gentleman, and a lady, frequent this house? - A. Never in my life; I am very much by myself, being a single woman; and I had been accustomed to sit at my window and read.
Mr. Brunn. My Lord, I have seen such a gentleman and lady come to the house, I have opened the door once or twice to people of that description; the last time I saw them was one rainy morning, and they had an umbrella with them.
Q. How lately have you seen this gentleman and lady? - A. It may be two months since I saw them last; I have not opened the door since Mrs. Hutchins left the house; I seldom was in the parlour but at breakfast, and she would frequently ask me to open the door for her.
I was perfectly well acquainted with the deceased; on Sunday, the 31st of May, about the hour of two o'clock, I called at No. 9, in Monmouth-court, Whitcomb-street, where my deceased friend lived; I rapped at the door, and the prisoner at the bar was coming in from Whitcomb-street into the court; she took the key of the hall door from her pocket and unlocked the door; I stood on the steps of the hall door, and I asked her whether the Marquis de-Moncroc, the French gentleman, was at home; the reply was, that the gentleman went our early
that morning; he would not be at home till late that night; I then told her to let the gentleman know that Mr. Andoe had called. On the Thursday following, the 2d of June, I came to town from Chelsea, where I lived, and about one o'clock went to Compton-street to see an intimate friend of mine there; I was rather struck with his countenance; when I went into the room the gentleman says, you don't know what has happened; why, says he, our friend, de Moncroe is dead; I said, it was impossible; I then went and demanded admittance into the house; I knocked but nobody answered: I then determined to go to Bow-street, and Mr. Addington was not then at the office; I then went to Vine-street, to Mr. Addington's house, who gave me assistance; I returned to the house, the door was opened by the beadle, who had the key of the padlock, and I saw my friend in a horrid condition; he was covered up entirely with blankets, and the cloaths of the bed; the pillows were over his forehead, and covered his face as far as the nose; the hat of the deceased lay over the top of the bed where the pillows should lay, and one of the leaves of the hat was bloody; I then observed a vast quantity of blood that went through and through the bed on the left side, it did not seem to proceed from the wound given in the neck, which was on the left side of the neck; on that day I discovered nothing further; however, I beg leave to observe, that I made some questions to the lodgers of the house, particularly Mr. Webb.Court. We must not hear any conversation with them.
On Thursday, when the Inquest was sitting, I had him entirely stripped in the position in which he lay across the bed; and when he was stripped, the waistcoat was obliged to be cut off of him entirely, and then I observed a wound on the breast of the deceased, nearly opposite the heart; I immediately returned to the Jury, and requested the surgeon should be sent for. I observed the blood and water in the wash-hand-bason, which seemed as it somebody had been rincing their hands; I made every search possible about the bed and floor, whether any weapon whatever could be found, I perceived none; when the small cloaths were taken off of the deceased, I had them shook, and out of the pocket that laid on the left side, there was a long knife, just such as the French wear, a long knife double, and a pen-knife at the end of it; a pair of scissars, a foot-rule, a pencil, and a small key at the bottom of the pocket; I observed the knife exceedingly clean, not any way stained with the least blood.
Q. Such a knife as French gentlemen use at table? - A. Yes; I then met the beadle, and requested one of the small drawers was open, and I desired him to put it into the next drawer, and see if it would sit; I would not touch the key myself, I left it in the hands of the parish officers, he opened the drawer, and found some foreign coin, French half-crowns, and one louis-d'or, I believe, I cannot tell the amount; it is now deposited with the church wardens of the parish.
Q. What was this gentleman's natural temper of mind? - A. A very chearful man, and a very strong stout man for his age; he was between fifty-eight and sixty years of age.
Q. Did you frequent him much? - A. I never was at that house before, he was seldom at home in the day-time; I have been very often in his company with his friends. On Whitsunday, we were coming together from chapel, and he said, he would be glad if I would go with him to dine; I made a frivolous excuse, because I knew his circumstances would not admit of it; but I begged his address, in case it should be in my power to be of any service to him; and when governor Mills came from Martinico, I went to him, in hopes of getting to go over there, where I knew the deceased had considerable property to the amount of 250,000l. and offered me letters when I was going out last October.
Q. Did you ever find this gentleman's spirits depressed with his misfortunes? - A. Not particularly so; he was a man excessively resigned to his fate; he felt his misfortunes as every man must, but not particularly so.
Q. When had you seen him before this unfortunate affair? - A. On Whitsunday in the same month.
Q. Did he appear composed at that time as much as a man could be in his situation? - A. Yes.
Cross-examined by Mr. Knapp. Q. Was this wound in the neck of any material consequence in your judgement? - A. No.
Q. You seemed to have conceived a real friendship for this gentleman? - A. I had.
Q. And would not dine with this gentleman because you thought his finances were not sufficient? - A. Yes; I beg leave to observe that what proves that true, the Wednesday before the unfortunate man's death there was four guineas lent to him by a most intimate friend.
Q. He was so distressed that he borrowed four guineas? - A. I did not say he asked for the money, but they forced him to take that trifling sum, seeing that he had but one pair of breeches, one waistcoat, and one coat.
Q. I believe it is natural to your nation not to ask for money at all; your nation has a spirit above it? - A. I cannot say such a thing as that.
Q. You say he behaved himself very resigned to situation? - A. Yes.
Q. He must have felt a considerable change? - A. So has every body else in his situation; but I beg to observe one thing to the Court; about six months ago a correspondent in the city allowed the Marquis from 15l. to 20l. a month on his estates in the West-Indies, but when they found the total disaster that was likely to accrue in that country, they stopped those resources.
Q. Formerly, though his finances were in such a state as to make him comfortable, it was withheld from him, and he was left in the state you now describe? - A. Yes.
I am beadle of St. Martin's in the Fields: On the 2d of June I was coming along Orange-street, I met Mr. Brunn and another man; he asked me where the church-warden lived, he said there was a person laid dead in his room; I said I was beadle, and it was some part of my duty to look into that business; he took me into Monmouth-court, and into a back yard, where there was a ladder; when I got to the top of the ladder, I called Oakhurst to follow me; with that I entered the room, he was at the top of the ladder, and I made him enter the room too; as soon as we had entered the room I found the door was locked and I could not find a key about the room; he was wrapped up in blankets in such a manner that I thought I must uncover him to see if could find the key; I turned the blanket round, and then I found his breeches pocket hanging inside out; I then searched the other pocket of the left side which was not turned out, but there was nothing in it; I searched the right-hand waistcoat pocket to see if I could find the key; I could not find the key, and I went to the window in the yard and called to somebody to fetch a smith, Mr. Cousins, in Whitcomb-street; he sent his boy to fetch a smith to get some picklock-keys, he tried to pick the lock and could not, and he mounted the ladder and came up outside and picked it; I thought it most proper to get him to go back and get a padlock to fasten the door; the room was so offensive I thought it most prudent to go to the Coroner immediately, which I did.
Q. Did you observe any thing particular that was in the room? - A. There was a wash-hand bason of water and blood in the window, as if somebody had washed their hands from blood in it?
Q. Did you see any thing of a knife? - A. I did upon the table, a case knife, it was not bloody; the portmanteau was cut very near a foot in length, it was locked and chained, and every thing very well secured; we had the Jury the next day, and I was frequently there, but somebody always with me; I had the care of the room, as he had some effects; the Jury sat at the Highlander, the corner of Suffolk-street.
Q. When did you next go to the lodgings of the deceased? - A. I do not recollect that I went at all by myself.
Q. In what manner was the corpse wrapped up in these bed-clothes? - A. He lay across the bed very near the top, his heels touched the ground; he lay rather upon his left side, and I was obliged to unwrap him to look for the key.
Q. Were the clothes folded round him? - A. Yes, with blankets; I could not see any thing of his body till I unwrapped him.
Q. How were the pillows? - A. There were some pillows, and I believe some blood about the pillows.
Q. Were the pillows about his head? - A. They were very near his head; I said he was as black as a blackamoor, but I think I never saw his face till I uncovered him from the pillows.
Q. Did you perceive a hat near the pillows? - A. There was a hat.
Q. Did you perceive any blood upon it? - A. I did not.
Q. When was the second time you went there after the 2d of June? - A. I cannot tell whether I I was there after or not; I did not see the prisoner at all till she was apprehended.
Q. Did you not see her when you went up the ladder? - A. No, I did not.
Cross-examined by Mr. Knapp. Q. You attended the Coroner's Jury? - A. Yes.
Q. Do you know what the verdict of the Jury was? - A. Wilful murder by a person or persons unknown.
Q. (To Webb.) What was the occupation of the prisoner in this house? - A. She was a person taken in to clean the house and make the beds and wait upon the lodgers, after the derangement of the real landlady; she had been there, I think, about a month before, it might be more or less; she always had the opening and shutting of the doors and making of the beds and so on; Mrs. Hutchins's mother would sometimes come and stay for a night perhaps; I saw the Marquis go out on the 29th, and I went out myself soon after and returned about half an hour after.
Q. Was there any stranger in the house at that time? - A. I did not see any body.
Q. Did you happen to observe if any body was in the parlour? - A. I did not observe any one.
Q. Did you ever know persons assemble in the parlour for the purpose of reading loud? - A. Yes; Mr. Baker and I have read loud, reciting parts of plays, but never on a Sunday; and Mr. Baker, the author, has read his works to me frequently, but not on a Sunday; Mr. Baker went away on Saturday the 28th of May.
Mrs. Innes. I saw the deceased when it was first found out; I waited at the door while they were
Picking the lock; the prisoner went up stairs with me, and the first thing I saw was the deceased with his breeches pocket turned out; I said he has certainly been robbed, the prisoner immediately said he did it himself; I made no reply; I then looked a little further, and saw about as much as my hand of the deceased's face, and it was as black as ink, that I should not have known it to be the same person; I observed a sheet rolled about his neck, and a great quantity of blood about it; I said, dear me, see the quantity of blood; sure the man has been murdered; the prisoner answered he has cut his own throat, or how should he cut his portmanteau; I had not observed the portmanteau, nor I believe had any one in the room; I then said it was very strange, he had all his clothes on but his coat, for I did not then perceive that his cravat was off; she said he had been just at prayers before he did it, he always prayed, she said, three times a-day, morning, noon, and night; there was a lady with me observed the wash-hand bason; I then looked at the window, and saw a wash-hand bason stand with about a pint of water in it; I looked at it, and it appeared as if somebody had washed their hands in it and just tinged it with blood; I then came down stairs, the room was so offensive, and went into the front parlour with this lady and the prisoner, and this lady said it is very odd that wash-hand bason should be in the window with blood and water; the prisoner immediately said, who dare to come here to create suspicion? Not odd at all, not odd at all, he did it himself.Cross-examined by Mr. Knapp. Q. You live opposite to this house? - A. Yes.
Q. Do you live by yourself? - A. Yes; there are other lodgers in the house.
Q. Are you of any profession? - A. I take in needle-work.
Q. You have been in Court during the whole examination of the other witnesses, since you were examined? - A. Yes.
Q. You heard the beadle examined? - A. Yes.
Q. You heard what he said? - A. Yes.
Q. As well as every other witness who has been examined? - A. I don't know that I heard every one.
Q. Every one since you have been examined yourself? - A. Yes.
Q. How came you not to give the account you now give when you stood up before? - A. My Lord only asked me as to what I saw on the Sunday, and therefore I did not go on.
Q. How came you not to go on? - A. I expected to be called up again; I have been three times examined, and I am sure no gentleman as ever heard me deviate.
Q. Did not you hear the oath administered to you? - A. Yes.
Q. That you were to tell the whole truth? - A. Yes; and when I was before the Grand Jury, I said it was all I observed upon the Sunday; then I was asked what I had observed on the Thursday, and I told what I had observed on the Thursday.
Q. Did you say what you have now stood up to say before the Magistrate? - A. I did.
Q. You have not been speaking with any of the witnesses since you were examined? - A. No; I am sure there is no one thing that I have here said but what I said before Mr. Justice Addington.
Q. Was what you said there taken down? - A. Part of it was.
I am a Frenchman; I keep an eating-house.
Q. Do you know any thing about this unfortunate affair? - A. No; I do not.
I live at No. 4, Little Suffolk-street; I was standing at my door about a quarter after one o'clock on Sunday the 29th of May, the Marquis came by; he said, how do you do, Madam; I said, very well, thank you, Sir; I asked him how Mrs. Hutchins was; he put his hand to his head, and said, very bad, Madam; and he shook hands with me; he went towards home, and I watched him to the end of the court.
Cross-examined by Mr. Knapp. Q. On that day, the Sunday, he pointed to his head? - A. Yes; to tell me that Mrs. Hutchins was very bad.
Q. Did he appear to be disturbed in his mind? - A. No; he appeared exceedingly chearful, and merry.
I am a journeyman upholsterer and undertaker; I know no further than getting orders to take measure of this body; I was stopped by the gentlemen of the Jury sitting, and I went into the public-house, and stopped till I could get measure of the body; I went up into the room with intention to take measure of him, and was stopped by the beadle; he told me, I could not till the Jury had done their business; I measured it afterwards, and perceived something on the left side, I perceived there was a wound, but I will not be positive the gentleman lost his life by that; it was a wound about the size of a middling size penknife; I did not examine it particularly.
Q. Did you examine the depth of this wound; did you probe it? - A. No; there was a great deal of blood upon the bed.
Upon the undertaker coming to strip the body, he said, there was a little wound upon the left side, that went to the heart; I then sent for the surgeon to come again, and examine the body; in consequence of that, he examined the body when naked, and said, there was no wound there.
Q. But did he search it with his fingers, and probe it properly? - A. He told the Jury he had examined it.
Q. (To Mr. Simmons.) What degree of examination did you make of this wound in the side? - A. I examined it very minutely, indeed, and do most positively aver, there was not the least wound whatever; I attempted to probe it both with my silver probe and my finger, and I can speak in the most confident manner, that no wound existed there; it was mere putrefaction.
Q. How do you account for that quantity of blood? - A. I did not see any great quantity of blood.
Q. You said, in your original examination, you did not know whether he had not killed himself; how could a person kill himself if the wound was not sufficient to kill a man? - A. He might have laid his head in an unfavourable situation, that he might have been strangled by it; but the wound in the side, I am perfectly clear, is imaginary.
Q. (To Humphries.) Was it you that spoke to the bed being wetted through to the floor? - A. There was a vast deal of blood on the floor, it had gone through the bed.
Prisoner's defence. I never saw the Count but when he came down in the morning to boil his milk, and the same in the evening, and then he went up stairs, and I saw no more of him; he never talked to me, he could not speak English; and when he wanted me to make his bed, he beckoned me; and he was always in the room when I made his bed, and emptied his chamber-pot; and when I had done I made him a curtsey, and I never saw any more of him.
Court. (To Mrs. Innes.) Q. Your room was a front room? - A. Yes.
Q. And at the farther end you could see his door and if any body went into it? - A. Yes.
Q. Was there any other door led into his bedroom besides that? - A. Yes; but that I could not see.
For the prisoner.
I live in St. George's-fields; I have known the prisoner almost fifteen years.
Q. What has been her general disposition? - A. I have known all her family; her sister nursed me in five lyings-in; I saw nothing but the greatest humanity; I think, if there was a worm lay here she would rather go out of the way than tread upon it; and the prisoner has called upon me several times when my children have been ill, and always expressed the greatest humanity, in short she was very tender-hearted.
I live in St. Martin's-lane; I have known the prisoner between six and seven years; I never found any otherwise by her than a quiet, harmless, inoffensive woman, and an honest industrious woman, that worked very hard for her living.
I live in St. Martin's-street; I have known the prisoner about twelve months, I have known her family six or seven years; I know nothing by her, but a quiet, sober, honest woman.
Q. And a humane woman? - A. Yes; a very good disposition.
GUILTY . Death (Aged 53.)
Tried by the first Middlesex Jury, before The LORD CHIEF BARON.