Circumspect reportage

THOMAS ANDREWS,
CONVICTED OF AN UNNATURAL CRIME.

This miserable wretch, who had formerly lived in good credit, kept a public house at Pye Corner, near Smithfield, known by the sign of the Fortune of War, where he had as much business as enabled him to support his family in some degree of credit.

John Finnimore, a servant out of place, who had been acquainted with Andrews when he (Finnimore) lived with Mrs. Mead, in Red Lion Court, behind Saint Sepulchre's church, called on Andrews, to inquire if he could help him to a service. Andrews's wife being now out of town, he told Finnimore that he was welcome to sleep at his house; but the other declined it for that night, as Mrs. Mead had given him permission to lodge at hers.

On the following day Finnimore went to Andrews's with an acquaintance; and, after they had drank together, Finnimore hinted that Mrs. Mead had not offered him a lodging for the second night; on which Andrews told him that, as his wife was still out of town, he was welcome to a share of his bed. Hereupon Finnimore went away with his acquaintance, and returned about nine o'clock in the evening.

There were at that time a considerable number of people in the house; and when they were gone, which was not till near one o'clock in the morning, Andrews locked the doors, and he and Finnimore went to bed together.

What passed, or was presumed to pass, till daylight, it is impossible to relate with any kind of regard to the laws of decency.

In the morning Andrews opened the door, and Finnimore, going out without exchanging a word with him, went to his acquaintance, whom he found at the George, in Leather Lane, looking after some horses, which he drove, being coachman to a gentleman who put up his cattle at that place.

The coachman asked Finnimore to carry a letter to Clapham; but he said he could not go, and assigned such reasons as accounted for his incapacity.

Hereupon the coachman advised Finnimore to have Andrews taken into custody; and on the following day a warrant was procured for this purpose; but, when the constable went to take Andrews into custody, he charged him likewise with Finnimore, on which the constable took charge of them both.

The constable conducted them to the Mansion-house; but the lord mayor being absent, they were conveyed to the houses of two aldermen, neither of whom happening to be at home, Finnimore was lodged for that night in Bridewell, and Andrews in the Compter.

On the following day they were carried before Sir Robert Ladbroke, the sitting alderman at Guildhall, when Finnimore made such a charge against Andrews that he was committed to Newgate.

At the ensuing sessions Andrews was brought to his trial at the Old Bailey, when Finnimore gave such a clear account of the horrid transaction that the jury did not hesitate to find the prisoner guilty, and he received sentence of death.

Notwithstanding this conviction on evidence the most complete that the nature of such a case would allow, a conviction that left no doubt of Andrews's guilt in the mind of the public, yet such interest was made that he was indulged with a reprieve, and afterwards obtained a full pardon.

Andrews was discharged from Newgate in the month of July, 1761.

What sort of interest it was that procured a pardon for this man, it may be improper, because it could hardly be decent, to say. It is a subject that the delicate pen scarcely knows how to touch: but pardoned he was, to the astonishment of nine persons in ten who knew any thing of the case.

The writer of this narrative was well acquainted with two of the gentlemen that were of the jury that convicted Andrews; and he has been repeatedly assured by them that the strength of the evidence against him was such that no kind of doubt could remain of his guilt. Let the rest be buried, as it ought to be, in obscurity; and we believe our readers will thank us that this obnoxious story is one of the shortest in our collection.

Having beaten a horse

The servant of farmer Peters of Wishingford in Cornwal having beaten a horse with great cruelty, the beast seized him with his teeth, and shook him in the air in such a manner, that he died two hours after he was released.

The poor man stumbled

The following remarkable affair is said to have happened near Frome in Somersetshire: A farmer having high words with his wife; and being employed at the same time in somewhat wherein he had occasion for the use of a bill-hook, which he had in his hand, on some provocation he gave her a cut on the top of the head with it, on which she ran from him, and he after her, in order (as supposed) to repeat the blow, when there being a very deep well in the yard with its mouth unstopped, the woman leaped over it, but the poor man stumbled, fell headlong into it, and was drowned.

The object of criminal desire

A young woman at Lyons very handsome, but little advantaged in point of fortune, was the object of criminal desire to three young fellows. Each endeavoured separately to seduce her, but with out success. The better to succeed, they joined, and had recourse to the stratagems of a procuress, who having contrived to bring the girl to her house, the three gallants there forced her, and dreading afterwards the punishment of their crime, cut her body to pieces, and threw it into the Rhone.

For some days the unhappy parents sought their daughter in vain; but the river having thrown up several parts of the mangled carcase, it was then concluded she was murdered.

Information having been taken, it was found she had been at the procuress; whereupon the latter was taken up and interrogated, where she confessed her crime and her accomplices.

Criminally concerned with her

An inquisition was taken at Guy's hospital, on the body of Elizabeth, the wife of Edward Hascar, otherwise called Sarah Bartlett, (for by that name she was brought to the hospital) when it appeared, by the evidence of Elizabeth Aldridge, servant to Patrick Dawson, of Bermondsey-street, surgeon and apothecary, (the only witness as to the fact,) that the deceased was formerly housekeeper to her master, and that she used frequently to come to his house and cohabit with him; that last Thursday evening, on his coming home, he asked the witness whether the deceased had been there, who informed him she had not; he then expressed a great desire to see her, and directed the witness to rise early next morning and fetch her, which she did, and on coming in, her master being in bed, the witness informed him the deceased was come; whereon he desired them to come up stairs to him, and a boy was sent for some brandy, which being drank, he ordered the witness to make some chocolate for their breakfast; and on the witness's quitting the room for that purpose, the deceased immediately followed her into the kitchen; that soon after her master came down, and he and the deceased breakfasted together in the kitchen; that after breakfast, Dawson saluted the deceased, saying, My dear, I love you; I have something in particular to tell you: to which the deceased answered, the maid would go out of the kitchen; he replied that would not do. The deceased then proposed to go into the little parlour, and several other places, but none would do besides his bedchamber, to which, at length, she consented to go; and on their going up stairs, she said, it is not the first time I have trusted myself with you alone, by many, and expressed a great desire of knowing the secret he was to communicate to her: That on her entering the bedchamber, the door was immediately fastened, and they continued very quiet about a quarter of an hour, when on a sudden the deceased cried out several times, murder! murder! Betty! Betty!

That the witness ran directly up stairs, and found the bedchamber door locked, and heard Dawson say, Betty, you are too late; that she burst open the door, and saw the deceased lying on the floor in a gore of blood, her master standing near her with a bloody knife in his right hand; and on the witness crying out,You wicked, blood thirsty man, what have you done!

He moved the knife, aiming at her, as if he intended directly to stab her, and d_d her, saying, he would stab her too. That on the witness asking the deceased, what occasioned her master to use her so? She informed her, that because she had refused to permit him to be criminally concerned with her, he on a sudden opened his bureau, and from thence tobk a knife, with which he stabbed her.

The surgeons, on examining the deceased's body, discovered three wounds in her belly, which they made no doubt were mortal, and confirmed the above witness in the deceased's declaration as to the occasion. The deceased was sent to Guy's hospital, and there died the next morning; where she also declared the reason of ill treatment, and acknowledged she was above five months gone with child, but was uncertain who was the father of it.

The jury brought in their verdict, wilful murder. The above Patrick Dawson is not yet taken.

Gunpowder in the oven

A most melancholy accident happened at a gentleman's seat near Greenhithe in Kent, where the game-keeper having put a quantity of gunpowder into the warm oven to dry, very thoughtlessly left it there, and went into the field to work. Just before dinner the under cook-maid, as her custom was, went to light the oven, when the powder instantly took fire, and the blast came full in the unhappy girl's face, set her all in a blaze, and she expired in five minutes a dreadful spectacle to look at.

Her terrible shrieks alarmed the family, and one of the men servants throwing his coat over her to extinguish the flames, brought off the skin of her face and neck, when it was removed, and increased the horror of her appearance.

A like accident happened a few days before at a gentleman's seat near Boulogne in France, where the gardener playing with a gun, and firing it oft' in sport, set fire to a box of gunpowder, and blew up the house with seven persons in it; himself and a maid servant were killed on the spot, but five others, though, wounded, wonderfully escaped with life.

A young man in France

A young man in France, being lately attacked by a fever, became delirious, arid afterwards raving mad. In this condition, the only objects of his fury were his parents; and he was at length so seemingly sensible of his error, that he talked of nothing but expiating his sins by fire; and for that purpose, having raised a pile of wood, he found means to light it, and to throw himself in; but the torments he felt in the flames, soon brought him to himself, and he endeavoured to save his life, but too late; for tho' he had strength enough to get out, yet he was so terribly scorched, that he died the next day in great agony.