In this case we shall disclose one played by woman to defraud her of the most consummate tricks ever creditors; and a more effectual method cannot be resorted to. It is a satisfaction, however, that, during the perusal of the fate of Deborah Churchill, we know that Fleet marriages have long been declared illegal; and therefore the artifice cannot now be so easily accomplished. Formerly, within the liberties of the Fleet, the clergy could perform the marriage rites with as little ceremony as at Gretna Green, where, to the disgrace of the British empire, an ignorant blacksmith, or a fellow equally mean and unfit, assumes this sacred duty of the church.
Though this woman's sins were great, yet we must admit some hardship in her suffering the utmost rigour of the law for the crime for which she was found guilty, but which, at the same time, is, in the eye of the law, great as in the immediate perpetrator of a murder. Here we deem it well to observe, that any person present while murder is committing, and though he may take no part in the commission of the crime, yet, unless he does his utmost to prevent, he is considered guilty, equal with him who might have given the fatal blow.
Deborah Churchill was born about the year 1678, in a village near Norwich. She had several children by her husband, Mr. Churchill; but her temper not being calculated to afford him domestic happiness, he repined at his situation, and destroyed himself by intoxication.
Deborah, after this event, came to London, and, being much too idle and too proud to think of earning a subsistence by her industry, she ran considerably in debt; and, in order to extricate herself from her incumbrances, had recourse to a method which was formerly as common as it is unjust. Going to a public house in Holborn, she saw a soldier, and asked him if he would marry her. The man immediately answered in the affirmative, on which they went in a coach to the Fleet, where the nuptial knot was instantly tied.
Mrs. Churchill, whose maiden name is unknown, having obtained a certificate of her marriage, enticed her husband to drink till he was quite inebriated, and then gave. him the slip, happy in this contrivance to screen herself from an arrest.
A little after this she cohabited with a young fellow named Hunt, with whom she lived more than six years. Hunt appears to have been a youth of a rakish disposition. He behaved very ill to this unhappy woman, who, however, loved him to distraction, and at length forfeited her life in consequence of the regard that she had for him.
One night, as Mr. Hunt and one of his associates were returning from the theatre, in company with Mrs, Churchill, a quarrel arose between the men, who immediately drew their swords; while Mrs. Churchill, anxious for the safety of Hunt, interposed, and kept his antagonist at a distance; in consequence of which, being off his guard, he received a wound, of which he died almost immediately.
No sooner was the murder com- mitted than Hunt effected his escape, and, eluding his pursuers, arrived safely in Holland; but Mrs. Churchill was apprehended on the spot, and, being taken before a magistrate, was committed to Newgate.
November, 1708, at the sessions held at the Old Bailey, Mrs. Churchill was indicted as an accomplice on the act of the first year of King James I. called the statute of stabbing, by which it is enacted, that, 'if any one stabs another, who hath not at that time a weapon drawn, or hath not first stricken, the party who stabs is deemed guilty of murder, if the person stabbed dies within six months afterwards.'
Mrs. Churchill, being convicted, pleaded a state of pregnancy, in bar to her execution; and a jury of matrons, being impanelled, declared that they were ignorant whether she was with child or not. Hereupon the court, willing to allow all reasonable time in a case of this nature, respited judgment for six months; at the end of which time she received sentence of death, as there was no appearance of her being pregnant.
This woman's behaviour was extremely penitent; but she denied her guilt to the last moment of her life, having no conception that she had committed murder, because she did not herself stab the deceased. She suffered at Tyburn on the 17th of December, 1708.
From the fatal end of this woman we may gather the following lessons of instruction. Her unhappy temper induced her first husband to have recourse to strong liquors, which killed him. Hence let married women learn to keep a guard on their tempers, and always to meet their husbands with smiles of complacency and good nature. Marriage is either a heaven or a hell upon earth, according to the behaviour of the parties towards each other.
Mrs. Churchill's attachment to Hunt is a strong proof of the capriciousness of the female mind; but she is only one instance amongst thousands of a woman proving a bad wife, and entertaining an affection for a man no way worthy her regard. We wish, for the honour of the fair sex, that these instances may daily decrease; that female virtue may triumph through the land; and that every departure from it may be deemed as criminal in the eyes of the sex in general as it undoubtedly is in the sight of heaven.
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