State Trials Part 25

The Examination of JOHN MARSON, taken before me, this 27th day of April, 1692.

'Who being examined where he was on Monday the 13th of March last, saith, That he was at the borough of Southwark (he being an attorney of the said court) till past 4 of the clock in the afternoon; and saith, that he set out from Southwark for Hertford soon after, and came to Hertford about eight the same afternoon, and put up his horse at the sign of , an inn there, and then went to the Hand and Glove, together with G.o.dfrey Gimbart, esq., Ellis Stephens, William Rogers, and some others, where they stayed till about eleven of the clock at night, and then this examinant went thence directly to the house of John Gurrey, with the said Stephens and Rogers, who lay together in the said Gurrey's house all that night. And being asked what he said concerning the said Mrs. Sarah Stout, deceased, this examinant saith, that on Sunday the 12th of March last, this examinant being in company with one Thomas Marshall, and telling him that this examinant intended the next day for Hertford, with the marshal of the King's Bench, the said Thomas Marshall desired this examinant and the said Stephens, who was then also in company, that they would go and see the said Sarah Stout (his sweetheart). He confesseth, that he did ask the said Gurrey, if he would shew this examinant where the said Stout lived; telling the said Gurrey that his name was Marshall, and asked him if he never heard of him before; and jocularly said, that he would go and see her the next morning, but doth not believe that he said any thing that any friend was even with the said Sarah Stout, or to such like effect. And doth confess, that he did the next day, upon the said Gurrey's telling him that the said Stout was drowned, say, that he would keep his word, and would see her. And saith, that meeting with Mr. Cowper (who is this examinant's acquaintance) he believes he did talk with him concerning the said Stout's being drowned, this examinant having seen her body that morning.

JOHN MARSON.

'_Cogn. Die et Anno antedict.

Coram J. Holt._'

JONES--All that I observe from it, is this: That he had been five hours in town, and when he came to his lodging, he came in wet and hot, and said he was just come from London.

MARSON--I had rid forty miles that day, and could not be soon cold.

HATSELL, BARON--They have done now for the king; come, Mr.

Cowper, what do you say to it?

JONES--If your lordship please, we will call one witness more, Mary Richardson. Mrs. Richardson, do you know Mr. Marson, or any of these gentlemen?

MRS. RICHARDSON--They came on Tuesday night to the Bell at Hoddesdon, and lay there, and one of the gentlemen, when I was warming the sheets, asked me if I knew Mrs. Sarah Stout? And I said Yes. He asked me if I knew which way she came to her end?

And I told him I could not tell.

JONES--Is that all? What did they say more?

MRS. RICHARDSON--They did desire and wish it might be found out how it came about; and one gentleman took no notice of her at all. They had a little bundle, but what was in it I cannot tell, but there I saw it bound up in some coloured stuff or other, but what it was I cannot tell.

JONES--Is that all you can say?

MRS. RICHARDSON--Yes, that is all.

JONES--Then we have done.

HATSELL, BARON--Come, Mr. Cowper, what do you say to it?

COWPER--Now they have done on the part of the king, my lord, and you gentlemen of the jury, I must beg your patience for my defence. I confess it was an unfortunate accident for me (as Mr. Jones calls it) that I happened to be the last person (for aught appears) in the company of a melancholy woman. The discourse occasioned by this accident had been a sufficient misfortune to me, without any thing else to aggravate it; but I did not in the least imagine that so little, so trivial an evidence as here is, could possibly have affected me to so great a degree, as to bring me to this place to answer for the worst fact that the worst of men can be guilty of.

My lord, your lordship did just now observe, that I have appeared at the bar for my clients; but I must say too, that I never appeared for myself under this, or the like circ.u.mstances, as a criminal, for any offence whatsoever.

He then goes on to point out that there is no positive evidence against him, but only suppositions and inferences--what to-day would be called circ.u.mstantial evidence; and that even admitting the evidence of the prosecution, it is as strong to show that the deceased woman was not murdered as that she was. Even if the evidence proved that Mrs. Stout was murdered, there was nothing to show that he or his fellow-prisoners were guilty of the murder. The body was not floating when it was found, as could be shown by the parish officers who were employed by the coroner to take it out of the water. It in fact had sunk, and had then been carried by the force of the stream sideways up the stakes which were about a foot apart pointing down stream; and yet the alleged fact that the body was floating was the only evidence produced to prove that the woman was not drowned. Evidence would be given to prove that the fact that the body contained little or no water was immaterial, for drowning takes place when only a very little water is received into the lungs; and in a case of suicide it is probable that water would enter the lungs sooner than it would in cases of accident. As to the evidence derived from the examination of the body after exhumation, it ought not to have been given, as the exhumation was itself an offence; 'but as it is I have no reason to apprehend it, being able to make it appear that the gentlemen who spoke to this point have delivered themselves in that manner either out of extreme malice, or a most profound ignorance; this will be so very plain upon my evidence, that I must take the liberty to impute one or both of these causes to the gentlemen that have argued from their observations upon that matter.'

It had been suggested that he had an interest in the death of the deceased by reason of holding money of hers which he had received as her trustee or guardian. He had been concerned in investing some 200 in a mortgage for the deceased the previous December; he had paid over this money to the mortgagees, and the mortgage had been found by the prosecutors among the papers of the deceased after her death. This was the only money transaction he had ever had with her. The prosecution had proved that there was no concealment of shame to induce him to murder her; and that, though they had no inclination to favour him.

He would produce evidence to show that the dead woman committed suicide, though he only did so most unwillingly and under compulsion. The prosecution had shown that she was melancholy, and he could show that she had reason for making away with herself. This he would do by producing letters of hers, which were he alone concerned he would not allude to; but as he was in honour bound to make the best defence he could for his fellow-prisoners, he had no choice in the matter.

The maid Walker was the only person who gave any direct evidence against him, and she said that she heard the door shut at a quarter past eleven, and that on going downstairs directly afterwards she found that both he and the deceased had left the house. But he would prove that he had entered the Glove Inn as the town clock struck eleven, that he had stayed there a quarter of an hour, that after he had done several things at his lodgings he had gone to bed by twelve, and had not gone out again that night. He had sent to fetch his horse from Mrs. Stout's house on Tuesday morning, as was only prudent, but he had told the man whom he sent that he would not want it till the next day, when he was going into Ess.e.x with the rest of the circuit, which he did.

He had not heard that his name was connected with Mrs. Stout's death till two months after the event; and the prosecution had in fact been set on foot by the Quakers, who were scandalised at the idea of one of their number committing suicide, and the political opponents of his father and brother in the town.

Cowper went on to explain that he always had the offer of a share in his brother's lodgings, which were some of the best in the town, whenever the latter went circuit, 'which out of good husbandry I always accepted.' At the time of the last circuit, when the present case arose, Parliament was sitting, and his brother 'being in the money chair,'

could not attend. As Cowper had been invited to lodge with Mrs. Stout during the a.s.sizes and wished to accept the invitation, he asked his brother to ask Barefoot, the keeper of his lodgings, to dispose of them if he could. The brother said he would do so 'if he could think on it,'

and accordingly Cowper went down to Hertford intending to lodge with Mrs. Stout unless his brother had failed to write to Barefoot. On arriving at Hertford he found that his brother had not written to Barefoot, and that the rooms there were ready for him. He accordingly stayed there, sent to the coffee-house for his bag, and took up his lodging at Barefoot's as usual. As soon as he had done this, the maid Walker came round from Mrs. Stout's to invite him to dinner there. He accepted the invitation, and also a further invitation to come again in the evening; but he did not agree to sleep there. When he came the second time he paid the deceased the interest on her mortgage, some six pounds odd, in guineas and half-guineas, which money was found in her pocket after she was drowned. He wrote a receipt for the money, which she refused to sign; she pressed him to stay there that night, which he refused to do.

He then went on:--

'My lord, I open my defence shortly, referring the particulars to the witnesses themselves, in calling those who will fully refute the suppositions and inferences made by the prosecutor, whom first, my lord, I shall begin with, to show there is no evidence of any murder at all committed; and this I say again, ought to be indisputably made manifest and proved, before any man can be so much as suspected for it.

HATSELL, BARON--Do not flourish too much, Mr. Cowper; if you have opened all your evidence, call your witnesses, and when they have ended, then make your observations.

MR. COWPER--Then, my lord, I will take up no more of your time in opening this matter. Call Robert Dew. (Who appeared.) When Mrs. Sarah Stout drowned herself, was not you a parish officer?

DEW--I was. I was next house to the Coach and Horses; and about six o'clock came a little boy (Thomas Parker's boy), and said there was a woman fallen into the river. I considered it was not my business, but the coroner's, and I sent the boy to the coroner, to acquaint him with it, and the coroner sent word by the boy, and desired she might be taken out; so I went to the river, and saw her taken out: she lay in the river (as near as I could guess) half a foot in the water; she was covered with water; she had a striped petticoat on, but nothing could be seen of it above water. I heaved her up, and several sticks were underneath her, and flags; and when they took her out, she frothed at the nose and mouth.

COWPER--How was she? Was she driven between the stakes?

DEW--She lay on the right side, her head leaning rather downwards: and as they pulled her up, I cried, 'Hold, hold, hold, you hurt her arm'; and so they kneeled down and took her arm from the stakes.

COWPER--Did you see any spot upon her arm?

DEW--Yes, sir.

COWPER--What sort of spot was it?

DEW--It was reddish; I believe the stakes did it; for her arm hit upon the stake where she lay.

COWPER--Pray, how do these stakes stand about the bridge of the mill?

DEW--I suppose they stand about a foot asunder; they stand slanting, leaning down the stream a little.

COWPER--Could you discern her feet?

DEW--No, nothing like it, nor the striped petticoat she had on.

COWPER--Might not her knees and legs be upon the ground, for what you could see?

DEW--Truly, if I were put upon my oath whether they were so, or not, I durst not swear it; sometimes the water there is four feet, sometimes three and a-half; I believe her feet were very near the bottom.

COWPER--Are not the stakes nailed with their head against the bridge?

DEW--They are nailed to the side of the bridge.

COWPER--Pray, describe the manner in which they took her up.

DEW--They stooped down, and took her up.

COWPER--Did they take her up at once?

DEW--They had two heavings, or more.

COWPER--What was the reason they did not take her up at once?