Part 12

J. GURREY--I did not observe, only that he was hot, and put by his wig; I see his head was wet, and he said he was just come from London, and that made him in such a heat.

JONES--Had he shoes or boots on?

J. GURREY--I did not observe that.

JONES--What did they do the next day?

J. GURREY--The next morning I heard this party was in the water; I sat up all night, and was fain to wait till my daughter came down to look after the shop; and then I went to see her, and she removed into the barn, and they were wiping her face, closing her eyes, and putting up her jaws; and as I came back these persons were walking, and I met Mr. Marson and Mr. Stephens, and told them the news; said I, this person has come to a sad accident: say they, so we hear; but nevertheless we will be as good as our word, and go and see her. I went with them and overtook Mr. Rogers; and Marson said we are going to see Mrs. Stout. 'O landlord!' said Rogers, 'you may take up that rogue' (pointing at Mr. Marson) 'for what he said last night'; but I did not think, they speaking so jocularly, that there was any suspicion of their being concerned in the murder. A second time I went, the barn-door was locked; I knocked, and they opened it, and let us in, and they uncovered her face to let me see her, and I touched her; and looking about for them they were gone, and I cannot say they see her or touched her: Then Mr. Marson and they were consulting how to send a great-coat to London, and I directed them to a coachman at the Bell-inn; but I did not hear he went to enquire after the coachman; then they went to your lordship's chamber, and I went home; and about eleven o'clock I saw Mr. Marson and Mr. Stephens coming down with Mr. Spencer Cowper.

MARSON--I did not go out that night after I came in.

JONES--No; we agree that. Did you see Mr. Cowper and these gentlemen together?

J. GURREY--Only at eleven o'clock on Tuesday noon, Mr. Cowper, Mr. Marson, and Mr. Stephens were coming down to the market place.

JONES--Did not they take their leave of you when they went away from you that forenoon?

J. GURREY--No; only in the morning they told me they would send me word at noon if they intended to lodge there.

MARSON--I desire to know of Mr. Gurrey, if his sister was not in the room when we came in?

J. GURREY--She was in our house that day; but whether when they came in I cannot tell.

COWPER--Pray, have you not had some discourse with your sister, the widow Davis, concerning some suspicion that you had of Sarah Walker, that hath been produced as a witness?

J. GURREY--I do not remember any such.

COWPER--Then did not you say these words, We must not concern ourselves with Sarah Walker, for she is the only witness against the Cowpers?

J. GURREY--I cannot remember any such thing.

HATSELL, BARON--You may answer according to the best of what you remember; if you say you have forgot when you have not, you are forsworn.

COWPER--If your lordship pleases to give leave to Mr. Gurrey to recollect himself, I ask him, Whether he did not talk with his sister Davis about some suspicion his wife and he had about Sarah Walker, the maid-servant of the deceased?

J. GURREY--I believe there might be some talk of a person that was seen to go into the churchyard at some distance with Sarah Walker.

COWPER--Did your wife say that she did suspect that person?

J. GURREY--Yes.

COWPER--Did your wife say they behaved themselves strangely, and that she would have persuaded the widow Blewit to have watched her?

J. GURREY--There was something of that.

COWPER--Was there not some such words, that they must not meddle with Sarah Walker, for she is the witness against the Cowpers?

J. GURREY--I said, Do not concern yourself with Sarah Walker, for fear of taking off her evidence.

COWPER--Pray did not the widow Davis warm the sheets for these gentlemen?

J. GURREY--She was with my wife, but I cannot say whether she warmed the sheets.

COWPER--When they came home, had you any lodgers that wanted to come home? Had not you one Gape?

J. GURREY--I cannot say whether he was in before or after them.

COWPER--Did not you say to your sister Davis, Now these gentlemen are in bed, if Mr. Gape would come home, our family would be quiet?

J. GURREY--I do not remember that.

COWPER--Pray, did not you go to look for Mr. Gape?

J. GURREY--Yes, I went to Hockley's.

COWPER--Who did you employ to speak to Mr. Gape?

J. GURREY--Mrs. Hockley.

COWPER--When you came home to your own house, and after you had been at Hockley's to speak with Mr. Gape, what account did you give of the time of night, and other particulars?

J. GURREY--I gave no account of the time.

COWPER--Not to Mrs. Davis?

J. GURREY--I cannot tell whether I did or no.

COWPER--Did not you say, Mr. Gape asked Mrs. Hockley what a-clock it was?

J. GURREY--No, I do not remember that; but Mrs. Hockley went in, and told him what time of night it was; it was eleven or twelve of the clock, which I cannot say.

JONES--Call Martha Gurrey. (Who was sworn.) Which of these gentlemen do you know?

MRS. GURREY--Mr. Marson, Mr. Rogers, and Mr. Stephens.

JONES--What time of the night was it when they came to your house? give an account of it, and what you heard them say.

MRS. GURREY--It was a little after five, or thereabouts that they came.

JONES--Who came?

MRS. GURREY--Mr. Stephens, and Mr. Rogers, and there was one Mr. Gilbert, that married a first cousin of mine; he came and asked me for my husband; and I asked him his business, and he said he wanted to speak to him.

JONES--Pray come to these men; when did they come to your house?

MRS. GURREY--They hired the lodging at five of the clock. When they first came to see them I was not at home; Mr. Gilbert brought them, and as I was coming along the street I saw Mr. Gilbert walking off, and would not look at me.

JONES--When did they go out?

MRS. GURREY--They never staid there.

JONES--When did they come in again?

MRS. GURREY--Between eleven and twelve.

HATSELL, BARON--What did they do when they came again?

MRS. GURREY--I was laying on some sheets two pairs of stairs when they came, and then there was three of them; so they saw me a little after, and begged my excuse for bringing in another, for they said it was so late that they could not get a lodging any where else: and said, if I thought fit, the gentleman should lie with them: And I told them I liked it very well.

JONES--What firing had they?

MRS. GURREY--The firing I laid on in the morning, and they sent for my husband to fetch them some wine.

JONES--What did you hear them talk on?

MRS. GURREY--They discoursed with my husband, and asked him if he knew Mrs. Sarah Stout; and one of them said to Mr. Marson, I think she was an old sweetheart of yours; Ay, said he, but she turned me off, but a friend of mine is even with her: And Mr. Rogers said he was in with her; and afterwards said, her business was done. They had a bundle, that was wrapt up in pure white cloth, like to an apron, but I cannot say it was an apron; and there was a parcel hanging loose by it; and when he laid it down he said, he would pass his word Mrs. Sarah Stout's courting days were over; and I said, I hoped it was no hurt to the gentlewoman; and then I looking upon Mr. Marson, saw him put his peruke aside, and his head reeked, and he told them he was but just come from London that night, which made him disappointed of a lodging.

JONES--What did you hear them say about any money?

MRS. GURREY--I asked them how they would have their bed warmed? And Mr. Marson answered, very hot: With that I went down to send my daughter up, and she could not go presently; I told her then she must go as soon as she could.

HATSELL, BARON--Pray, do not tell us what passed between you and your daughter: What do you know of these gentlemen?

MRS. GURREY--I went to the next room, to see if every thing was as it should be; I hearkened, and they had some discourse about money, and I heard somebody (I do not know who it should be except it were Mr. Stephens) answer and say, the use money was paid to-night; but what money they meant I cannot tell.

JONES--What did you find when they were gone?

MRS. GURREY--Sir, I found a cord at the end of the trunk.

JONES--Was it there in the morning, or before they came?

MRS. GURREY--No, it could not have been, for I swept my room, and wiped down the dust.

JONES--Was the cord white?

MRS. GURREY--No, it was more dirty than it is now, for my husband and I have worn it in our pockets.

COWPER--Pray, who brought the cord down from above stairs?

MRS. GURREY--My daughter that lived with me, and she laid it upon the shelf.

COWPER--Did not you hear there was a coroner's inquest sitting?

MRS. GURREY--The next day at night I did hear of it.

COWPER--Why did not you go to the coroner's inquest and give an account of it there?

MRS. GURREY--I told my husband of it, and I asked my husband if he did not hear what they said concerning Mrs. Sarah Stout? And he answered, yes, they ought to be taken up for the words they said last night: Why, saith I, do not you take notice of it? I think you ought to take them up. But he went out of doors, and I saw no more of him till the afternoon. When I heard the words, I thought somebody had stole away and got to bed to her.

COWPER--Pray, if your husband heard these words, why did not he go to the coroner's inquest?

MRS. GURREY--I did speak to him to have them taken up.

COWPER--Why did he not do it?

MRS. GURREY--He said he would not do it, he did not know but it might cost him his life.

JONES--How came you after this to discover it?

MRS. GURREY--Because I was so troubled in mind I could not rest night nor day; and I told him if he would not tell of it, I would tell of it myself, for I was not able to live.

_Elizabeth Gurrey was sworn._

JONES--Pray, do you know Mr. Rogers, Mr. Stephens, and Mr. Marson?

E. GURREY--I know Mr. Marson, and these are the other gentlemen, I reckon.

JONES--What discourse did you hear from them?

E. GURREY--Mr. Marson asked the other gentlemen how much money they had spent? the other answered, what was that to him? you have had forty or fifty pounds to your share. Then the other asked him, whether the business was done? And he answered, he believed it was; but if it was not done, it would be done to-night. Then, my lord, he pulled a handful of money out of his pocket, and swore he would spend it all for joy the business was done.

JONES--Was Mr. Cowper's name mentioned?

E. GURREY--I heard them mention Mr. Cowper's name, but not Mrs. Sarah Stout's.

JONES--What condition was the gentleman's shoes in?

E. GURREY--I think it was Mr. Marson, his shoes were very wet and dirty; one of them was very hot, and he wiped his head with his handkerchief.

JONES--Now, my lord, we have done as to our evidence. Mr. Marson pretended he was just then alighted and come from London, and was in a great heat, and his shoes were wet: for when he was examined, he said, he came to town about eight of the clock, and went to the Glove and Dolphin inn, and stayed there till he came to his lodging. Now it was a wonderful thing that he should come wet shod from a tavern, where he had been sitting four or five hours together.

_Then the Examination of Mr. John Marson was read_:

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 Godfrey 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 circumstances, 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 circumstantial 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 Essex 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 assizes 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?