THE AFFECTING CASE OF THE UNFORTUNATE THOMAS DANIELS.
The calamitous circumstance of having
been condemned to death by the laws of his country,
for the most hateful of all crimes; and his most extraordinary
deliverance from an ignominious fate, and being restored
to liberty unconditionally and free! will naturally
render the case of Thomas Daniels a subject
of eager curiosity and warm debate. That persons
in the superior stations of life should sometimes find
means to evade the punishments incurred by infringing
the laws of their country, and by disturbing the order
of society, does not greatly excite our wonder; an
experience of the manners and customs of the world,
occasions our hearing such instances as things of
course; we make a natural reflection or two on the
occasions, and think no more of them. But when
a person in one of the lowest classes of mankind, by
a fatal accident, appears before a court of justice
with apparent evidences of guilt, sufficient to influence
a jury of his impartial countrymen to sentence him
to the most severe penalty the law can inflict; when
this man, meerly from the advantage of a good character
in the narrow circle of his acquaintance, and from
a re-examination into the probability of the fact,
for which he was condemned, shall have the inferences
drawn from the depositions on his trial, totally invalidated,
so that the sentence passed on him is freely remitted!
it is such a sanction of his innocence, that
it would be cruel and unjust, in particulars, afterward
to retain any suspicions injurious to him.
It ought to be principally attended
to in this affair, that his Majesty, whose regal virtues
are so generally known and acknowledged, cannot appear
in a more amiable view, than in the attention with
which he is said to have endeavoured to discover the
merits of the intercession made for this poor convict.
An instance which, as it may be deemed too trivial
to engage any particular share of princely consideration,
yet is certainly one of the truly parental duties
of a Monarch, and will endear him in the hearts of
many of his useful subjects, who are beneath caring
for the retention of Guadalupe or Canada.
And it is doing justice to the poor fellow, to own,
that he seems to retain a grateful, if not a politely
expressed, sensibility of the great obligation he owes
to the royal parent of this his second period of existence.
But as an imputation of so base a
nature, confirmed by a court of justice, would naturally
prejudice female minds universally against him, too
strongly for any after testimony in his favour easily
to efface; and as Mr. Daniels is not yet old
enough to relinquish all thoughts of matrimony, and
seems to possess too happy a share of vivacity to be
totally depressed by his past misfortunes, however
severe they have been; it is probable he may be hardy
enough yet to venture on a second trial of that state,
can he find any good girl candid enough to venture
on him: but however this may be, from many
important considerations the poor man is willing to
give the world all the satisfaction in his power,
relating to the unhappy woman who was lately his wife,
and on whose account he has gone through so much trouble
and anxiety from his first connexion with her:
and it is charitably hoped, that, as he has so solemnly
authenticated the particulars of it, the same degree
of credibility will be allowed him, which would
be granted to any other person of fair character and
good estimation.
The following particulars concerning
this unfortunate couple, were penned by Thomas
Daniels himself, since his enlargement; and are
faithfully exhibited with no other alterations than
what were absolutely necessary, with regard to spelling,
style, and disposition, to render the narrative in
some measure clear and fit for perusal. This dressing
was not intended to give any undue colouring to facts,
but simply to supply the deficiencies of the writer;
whose laborious situation in life has denied him those
literary advantages indispensable to the writing his
story with tolerable propriety.
Thus much being premised, it is time
to let the principal offer his plea, as candidate
for the favourable opinion of his readers.
“It was in the year 1757 that
I first became acquainted with Sarah Carridine,
by living in the same neighbourhood. She was a
very pretty girl; and I had a great affection for
her, as I imagined her to be a good industrious person.
I made my friends acquainted with my regard for her,
but they were entirely against my having her, because
of her living in a public-house: but I was obstinate,
and told them I loved her and would marry her at all
adventures, as I believed she would make a good wife:
upon this they said I might have another far preferable
to her, but that if I was resolved not to listen to
their advice, they would have nothing more to say
to me, and I should never come near them more.
Finding therefore it was in vain to hope for my father’s
consent in this affair, I consulted with her what
to do, and at her desire I agreed that she should
take a lodging for us both, and her mother took one
accordingly. I then left my former lodging and
lived with her; but as I still worked with my father
as before, he soon found that I had changed my lodging,
and upon what account. This discovery made him
very angry, and we had a quarrel about it, which made
me resolve not to work with him any more. This
laid me under a necessity of seeking for business
elsewhere; and in my walks for this purpose, I met
with some acquaintance, who told me they had entered
on board the Britannia privateer, and that
she was a fine ship. By their encouragement I
entered myself also. I went home, and told Sarah
Carridine what I had done; she cried sadly, but
I begged her to make herself easy, for that the cruize
was but for six months, that we were going to make
our fortunes, and that I would marry her when I came
back; and in the mean time would advise her to go
to service. This pacified her, and she promised
so to do.
“We sailed on the 30th of August,
on our cruize, but had very bad luck, and I returned
home in April, 1758. As soon as I came
to London, I went to my master, Mr. Archer,
who keeps the sign of the White Bear, the corner
of Barbican in Aldersgate Street; there
I sent for my father and mother, and we spent the
evening together very agreeably, much rejoiced at
our meeting again. I enquired of my mistress where
I could find Sarah Carridine? She referred
me to Mr. John Jones the founder, who she said
could inform me. Jones took me over the water
to an alehouse at the bridge foot, where I saw her.
I used in the evenings to go and sup with her, at
her mother’s, after my day’s work; and
Mr. Jones, lodging in the same house with me,
frequently went with me. Jones and I had been
old acquaintance for some years; he pretended great
friendship for me and Sarah Carridine, and offered
to be father to her and give her away. This was
very agreeable to me, and I fixed upon St. James’s
day for our marriage. I informed my friends of
my intention, but I could not obtain their consent.
I asked my master to lend me a guinea to defray the
wedding charges; but being refused, Jones advised
me not to be beholden to any of them, but to raise
some money upon my watch: I therefore put it
in his hands, and he pawned it for me. This will
serve to shew how officious he was in this transaction.
“We lived for some time after
our marriage in ready-furnished lodgings, until my
wife’s mother persuaded us to come and lodge
with her; she lived in Catharine-Wheel Alley, Whitechapel.
This we did until I procured some goods of my own.
While we lived there, she used to be frequently abroad
when I came home from my work. I cannot but take
notice in this place, that, however wrong it may be
esteemed by others, and however disagreeable to me,
to speak ill of the dead; yet the peculiarity of my
situation will, I hope, excuse the obligation I am
under of declaring the truth, this being now the discharge
of a duty I owe to myself. Whenever I asked her
mother where she was gone? she would tell me she was
gone to see some young women in Spital Fields.
When she came home she was often in liquor, and I
would then say, ’Sally, what makes you
drink so much?’ her mother would reply, ’Lord,
a little matter gets in her head, for she is a poor
drinker.’ I then resolved to take a little
shop to employ her: I did so, and put her in a
little shop in the Minories, to sell pork,
greens, and other articles; and she might have done
very well there if she had minded her business, and
not have gone to see the young women so often as she
pretended. At last however I went to see where
these young women lived, but they had not seen her
a long time. As I was returning back, I saw my
wife with Mr. Jones, going before me, whom
I followed until I saw they turned into a public-house.
On this I went back to her mother, and enquired whether
she was returned? she replied, ’Lord, I suppose
they will not let her come yet.’ With that
I said, it is very odd, but I believe I know where
she is; I will go and see. When I went back there
they were both together. So, said I, this is
your going to see Bett Reed! She replied,
I am but just come back. Pray, said I, how came
Mr. Jones here? She answered, she found
him there, and believed he came to see me. I
then said, I rather believe he came to see you; I saw
you both come in, arm in arm. She was then drunk,
which made me send her home. I told him he had
no business to keep my wife from me; but if he was
a man he would come out, and try who had the best
right to her. He would not, but went away.
“When I came home, my wife and
her mother and I, quarelled, and I had them both upon
me at once: she then ran away, and staid all night.
The next day by her mother’s persuasions we
made it up, and agreed that she should go and mind
her shop, and never go into Jones’s company
more. After this he did not come near us until
the next Lord Mayor’s Day, when he knew, I suppose,
that I was gone to my master’s hall. My
shopmate and I went to carry my master’s great
coat; my master gave us a bottle of wine, and we went
into the kitchin and got some victuals to it; this
we carried home to my wife, thinking to enjoy it quietly
there. I asked her mother where Sally
was? She said she was gone to the Three Kings,
and bid me go and call her. Before I went I heard
a noise upon the stairs, and, upon taking a candle
to see what was the matter, there stood my wife; and
hearing somebody going down to the cellar, there stood
John Jones!
“My wife and I had a great quarrel
on this occasion; she pretended that he came only
to give her some ribbons, as he had been a whiffler
in the procession. Perceiving what a loose disposition
she was of, I resolved she should keep shop no more;
I therefore shut it up. There are people enough
in that neighbourhood sufficiently acquainted with
these transactions; and with my wife’s general
behaviour.
“I then thought we should be
rather more quiet if I moved her from her mother’s,
for we were always quarrelling. I got some goods
of my own, and my wife and my mother took a
room for me in the Little Minories, when for
some time we lived more loving than before. However
she quickly began her old irregularities again, which
occasioned fresh quarrels, to the great uneasiness
of our landlady, for the people of the house were
very good sort of people. She would often talk
to my wife, and give her wholesome advice, but all
to no purpose; which determined me to leave her.
I again entered on board the Britannia privateer
as carpenter’s mate, without acquainting any
body with my intention, and went down to Greenhithe
where the ship lay, to work on board her. Before
I had been there many days, to my great surprize down
came my wife with John Jones! They staid
on board all night, my wife crying bitterly to persuade
me to come home again, promising an entire reformation
in her conduct. I said I could not come back
now, because I had entered myself; but she lamenting
and behaving like a mad woman, I was persuaded to
return home with her. To do this, I obtained leave
of our lieutenant to go to London, to bring
my tools down, when my wife prevailed on me to stay
at home. I then went to work again in town, and
my wife said if I would try her once more, by putting
her in a shop, she would be very good. Then it
was I took a house, at the corner of Hare Court,
Aldersgate Street, where, for some time, she managed
very well, but soon returned to her old ways again.
By our frequent quarrels the neighbours were at first
inclined to think I used her ill, but had they then
known how affairs were circumstanced, they would not
have blamed me; for her temper grew so unaccountable,
that she would frequently come after me, where ever
I happened to be at work, or at the alehouse, and
abuse me for nothing. When I came home at nights
from my work, thinking to pass the evenings comfortably
with her, she would constantly find some pretence
to quarrel with me, and to render my life uneasy.
One time, in particular, when I came home, she threw
the pewter quart pot, she had been drinking out of,
at my head; and then running out of the house, she,
in the violence of her rage, dashed her elbow through
the glass window of our shop, and then ran up to my
master Archer with her bloody arm, crying out, ’See
here what your rogue has done’ Thus
she endeavoured to prejudice me in the minds of all
my friends and acquaintance; when afterward she confessed
to Mr. Moses Owen, a barber in Old Street,
who compleated the cure of her arm, that she did
it herself purposely.
“Another time, when I worked
at St. Mary Axe, she, and one of her acquaintance,
having been to Billingsgate to buy oysters for
her shop, came to me to the Crown alehouse
in Camomile Street, where I was then at dinner
with my shopmates: there she wanted me to treat
her with drink, which, as I observed her to be already
in liquor, I refused, and would have gone back quietly
to my work; she then snatched off my hat and wig to
detain me, but finding that not to answer her intention,
she abused me in a most vile manner, and with a small
cod which she had with the oysters, beat me in a most
ridiculous manner about my head and face; and, as
all my brother journeymen may well remember, obliged
me to go back to my labour bareheaded!
“One day, when my business carried
me to the other end of the town for the whole day,
my wife gave Jones notice of it, and quickly
after I was gone dressed herself, shut up her shop,
and went out with him to spend the day. He was
that day dressed in a new suit of cloaths. At
night when I came home, not being able to get into
my house, I went to her mother’s in Whitechapel,
expecting to meet with her there. By the way
as I was coming back, who should I see before me but
my wife and John Jones! I followed them
into an alehouse, where I quarrelled with them both,
and in my passion threw some beer in her face, on which
she ran out to her mother’s. I challenged
Jones to fight me, but he would not. But
meeting with him afterward, he then challenged me,
for reporting the familiarity between him and my wife.
On this we stripped, and had two or three blows; he
fell against a table, and, as he says, broke two of
his ribs, for which he took me up, but I was bailed
out by my mistress. As my wife thought proper
not to come nigh me, I lett the shop which she kept
and lodged at my master’s. She continued
away about seven weeks, only calling upon me now and
then to abuse me; and going home to my house to scold
and threaten my lodgers, whom I had admitted upon
her deserting me.
“At length she and her mother
came together to me; her mother threatened, if I would
not take my wife home again, to arrest me for her board;
upon this I urged her bad treatment of me while she
was at home, her neglect of her family affairs, and
her scandalous attachment to this John Jones;
and lastly, her voluntary elopement. However we
entered into a treaty of pacification, in the course
of which, she confessed her intimacy with Jones,
and the terms on which it had subsisted. It seems
their connexion began while I was on my cruize in the
Britannia privateer; he promised to marry her
if I should not return, and if I did, that he would
still continue his kindness to her, and that in case
he was to die, to leave her all his goods, and all
his interest in the capital of a box-club, of which
he was a member. This confession, though it was
an odd one for me to hear, yet, as it was accompanied
with what appeared to me sincere promises of amendment,
I, in an evil hour, agreed to live with her once more.
Accordingly I moved my bed into the two pair of stairs
room, which one of my lodgers then quitted; this was
about nine months before her unhappy death.
“When she came home again, though
I believe she did not continue her acquaintance with
Jones, yet her behaviour was otherwise so disorderly
as rendered me very unhappy. For at times, when
I came from work, expecting my breakfast, dinner,
or supper, I frequently found the door locked, and
so was drove to the necessity of eating my meals at
an alehouse; a very disagreeable resource to a man,
who, having a wife and a home, naturally expected
the comforts resulting from such seeming advantages.
But this was not all; she sometimes coming home in
the interim, would seek me through all the public-houses
in the neighbourhood, and when she found me, would
strike me with whatever lay next her, raving at me
for not coming home, and denying her having been out.
Once, in particular, having bought a piece of veal
for my Sunday’s dinner, when the morning
came, truly she would not dine at home, she would
go to her mother’s, though I convinced her that
the weather, being hot, would spoil the meat by the
next day. I then went to my shoemaker to fetch
me a pair of shoes, and they in friendship asked me
to eat, as I found them at dinner; I was soon followed
by my wife, who, finding me eating, was hardly withheld
from stabbing me, first with a knife, and afterward
with a fork.
“One Sunday, with a view
to entertain her, I took her down to Ilford,
that we might spend the day agreeably. We dined
at the White-Horse there, and after dinner
she drank very freely. When the reckoning came
to be paid, she threw herself in a great passion with
the landlord, on account of his charge; and I unluckily
attempting to moderate matters between them, drew
all her rage upon myself. She was so violent in
her resentment, that she declared she would not go
home with me, but would go with the first person who
should ask her, or even with the next man who went
by. Just at this time, a man dressed like an officer
stopped in a chaise to drink; my wife soon entered
into discourse with him, and asked him to let her
ride home in his chaise: the man agreed, and away
they drove together! This now was a measure she
was not under any necessity of taking, because, not
believing she would be able to walk home, I had offered
her a place in the stage, which was quickly to pass
the door.
“Thus abandoned by her, I walked
home, and after waiting due time went to bed.
About two o’clock in the morning I was roused
by a knocking at the door: there was my wife
so drunk as hardly to be able to stand, attended by
her mother! The mother made what excuses she could
for her daughter, to induce me to let her in, pleading,
for the lateness of the hour, that, after the man
had carried her a long way out of her road on the
forest, he, at last, left her to walk home alone.
I let her in, but her mother was obliged to stay and
put her to bed, as she was entirely incapable of undressing
herself.
“Though her intimacy with Jones
was discontinued, yet she was not destitute of a gallant:
one William Charlton, a man of my own business,
was now her paramour; but as he was a married man,
I had the additional mortification of having his wife
come to scold me for suffering my wife to decoy away
her husband! After having been with this Charlton,
about a fortnight before her death, she came home very
drunk, and abused me sadly. She beat me over the
shoulder with a pair of tongs; I wrested them from
her, and, as I purpose to speak the truth, I will
confess, that, in my passion, as she ran down stairs,
I followed her and gave her a blow with them on the
head. Upon this she ran directly to Mr. Clark
the constable, the same who since apprehended me on
the occasion of her death, to get me taken into custody.
Mrs. Clark kindly wiped her forehead where
the skin was broke, and advised her to go home peaceably,
and make up the difference between us. This enraged
her so that she gave Mrs. Clark many foul words,
so that Mr. Clark came to expostulate with
me, not on the blow I had given my wife, but on the
ill language she had bestowed on his wife! Mr.
Clark and I talked the matter over a tankard
of beer, but I saw no more of my wife that night.
“There was also one Stroud,
a Smith, in the number of her intimates, but
I knew little of their concerns, more than what I understood
from his wife, who came frequently to me, enquiring
after him, and complaining greatly of my wife, for
enticing him away from his family and his work.
“These few instances I have
been able to recollect, may, in some measure, serve
to give the reader of my unhappy tale, an idea of my
wife’s character and conduct, which I solemnly
declare, I am not solicitous to expose, as the poor
creature is dead, more than is absolutely needful,
to shew what sort of person she was, and as it may
tend to clear me in the opinion of the world.
So quarrelsome was she by nature, that we never went
out together, but she would find some occasion to abuse
either me, some of the company, or even passengers
in the street; if any one casually happened to brush
her in passing, she would give them a blow in the
face, and then call upon me to stand kick and cuff
for her, while she having stirred up the mischief,
ran away, unconcerned at my fate in the mob:
and in our private disputes, I have been beat by her,
her mother, and a servant girl of her mother’s,
all at one time. Nay, she has frequently threatened
both to destroy herself, and to murder me. A
threat, she has since very nearly accomplished.
“The night before this melancholy
accident, I came home, to be sure not entirely sober:
where not finding my wife, I went directly to her
mother’s, where I found her very drunk.
It being night, her mother said it would not be proper
to attempt taking her home in that condition; and
therefore advised me to lie there that night, while
she and her girl would go and sleep at my lodging.
We did so.
“Being now come to the unlucky
day of my wife’s death, I propose to be as particular
in all my actions that day as recollection will enable
me.
“In the morning, after my wife’s
mother came back, we all breakfasted together at her
lodgings. After breakfast, I went to Mr. Clark,
Timber Merchant, in St. Mary Axe, to solicit
for some India Company’s work: from
whence I went to the Mansion House alehouse,
and drank a pint of beer. I then intended to
go to work at Mr. Perry’s in Noble-street,
but it being near dinner time, I stopped at the Bell,
opposite his house, for another pint of beer, where
meeting some acquaintance eating beef-stakes, I dined
with them. As I was eating, in came my wife and
her mother; she at first abused me for being at the
alehouse, but they afterward, in great seeming good
humour, drank with me, and as they wanted money, I
gave my wife two shillings, and lent her mother a six
and ninepenny piece, which I had just received in change
for half a guinea, from the master of the public house.
As the day was now far spent, and as I was pleased
with the prospect of working for the East-India
Company, I thought it not worth while to begin
a day’s work so late. I therefore went
to Smithfield, to see how the horse-market
went. From thence I went to Warwick-lane,
to see for a young man, whom I had promised to get
to work for the company also. I took him to Mr.
Clark, in St. Mary Axe; and afterward
went with him to two or three places more, the last
place was the Nagg’s Head in Hounsditch;
and about half an hour after nine o’clock went
home.
“When I came there, I went in
at the back door, which is under the gateway; and
which used to be only on a single latch, for the conveniency
of my lodgers: I went up to my room door, but
finding it fast, came down stairs again. There
was then some disturbance over the way in Aldersgate-street,
which I walked over to see the meaning of, imagining
my wife might chance to be engaged in it. Not
finding her in the croud, I returned, and went up
stairs again; while I was on the stairs, I heard my
wife cough, by which I knew she was at home. Finding
my door still fast, I knocked and called again; still
she would not answer. I then said “Sally,
I know you are at home, and I desire you would open
the door, if you will not I will burst it open.”
Nobody yet answering, I set my back against the door,
and forced it open. Upon this she jumped out
of bed; I immediately began to undress me, by slipping
off my coat and waistcoat, saying at the same time
“Sally, what makes you use me so? you
follow me wherever I go to abuse me, and then lock
me out of my lodging; I never serve you so.”
On this she flew upon me, called me a scoundrel dog,
said she supposed I had been with some of my whores;
and so saying, tore my shirt down from the bosom:
on this, I pushed her down. She then ran to the
chimney corner, and snatched up several things, which
I successively wrested from her: in the skuffle
a table and a screen tumbled down. At length
she struck me several blows with a hand-brush; and
while I was struggling to get it from her, she cried
out several times “Indeed,
indeed, I will do so no more.” When
I got the brush from her, which I did with some difficulty,
I gave her a blow with it, and then concluded she would
be easy. She sat down on the floor by the cupboard
door, tearing her shift from her back, which had been
rent in the skirmish; I sat down on the opposite side
of the bed, with my back towards her, preparing to
go into it; and seeing her fling the remnants of her
shift about in so mad a manner, I said, ‘Sally,
you are a silly girl, why don’t you be easy?’
On that she suddenly rose up, and with something gave
me a blow on the head, which struck me down.
I fell on the bedstead with my head against the folding
doors of it. I imagine she was then afraid she
had killed me, for I heard her cry two or three times O
save me, save me, save me! How she went out of
the window it is impossible for me to say, in the
condition she left me in; but from her cries I supposed
her gone that way; and in my consternation when I
rose, I ran down one pair of stairs, where, not knowing
how to behave, I went up again, and sat me down on
the bed from whence I rose. In this position Mr.
Clark, the constable, and the numbers who followed
him, found me. He said, Daniels you have stabbed
your wife, and flung her out of the window.
I replied, No, Mr. Clark, I have not, she threw
herself out. Mr. Clark took a candle,
and examined all the room in search of blood, but found
none; and lucky it was for me that neither of our
noses happened to bleed in the fray, though mine was
subject to bleed on any trifling occasion. He
then went to the window, where he found a broken piece
of a saucer, and asked what it was? I said, I
did not know; but recollected afterward, that it was
what I fed my squirrel in; though I know not how it
came broke; it was whole that day.
“From thence I was taken to
the Compter, and the public are already acquainted
with the proceedings on my trial: when I was condemned
for the supposed fact.
“I am informed that the next
morning they found a pair of small watchmaker’s
plyers bloody in the window, which were then considered
as a great proof of my guilt. These plyers were
what I have mended my squirrel’s chain with
whenever he broke loose, which was sometimes the case.
How they should be bloody, as God is my Saviour, I
cannot answer; but as no wound was perceived on the
body, they were not produced as evidence against me.
However, when my wife was brought up from the street,
it is said she was blooded, and that the bason was
put in the window where these plyers were found.
It is therefore possible that, in such confusion,
a drop or two might accidentally be spilt upon them;
more especially when we consider the tumult of a morning’s
exhibition of the dead body, for penny gratuities,
by the unprincipled mother of it.
“In the course of my trial,
the coroner laid some stress on the absence of Charles
Hilliard, the lodger under my room; but Mr. Hilliard
appeared however before the sessions were concluded,
to save his recognizances: he then deposed before
the judges, all he knew relative to the accident;
which being materially the same with the evidence he
gave at the coroner’s inquest, and as I have
no reason to wish it suppressed, I made it my business
to request Mr. Hilliard to recollect the whole
of it, which he was kind enough to give me in writing;
and here it is.
“Charles Hilliard gave
evidence before the coroner as follows.
“That Mrs. Daniels came
into his apartment about eight o’clock in the
evening to light her candle, and then went up to bed:
that about ten Mr. Daniels came home, and knocked
at the door, calling Sally, two or three times:
that not being admitted, he broke the door open:
that then he thought he heard a knocking to make good
the breach, after which some words ensued between
the parties, and blows followed: that he heard
Mrs. Daniels ask forgiveness, saying, she would
never do the like again: that Daniels
should say Damn my breeches, what do
you shut me out for? don’t I pay my rent?
after which he heard a rumbling in the room, but did
not distinguish any thing more, to the best of his
knowledge, till Mrs. Daniels fell from the
window.
“I lived in Mr. Daniel’s
apartment but little time, in which I heard many quarrels
and debates between them, which frequently happened
by her aggravation and ill-treatment of him.”
“I was sentenced to be executed
on Monday, September 21; the coronation-day
was to be the day following, which led some persons
into a conjecture, that this august solemnity was
the cause of the first respite, which made way for
my pardon. This however was a mistaken opinion,
for I owed the redemption from my hard fate entirely
to the kind Christian offices of my friends who, from
a persuasion of my innocence, applied to the worthy
magistrates of London; from whom, the circumstances
of my situation were represented to his Majesty.
The gracious condescension of this best of Kings,
in attending to the representations made to him on
my account, will never be forgotten, while I enjoy
that remnant of life I now owe to his goodness!
“I was condemned on the Friday;
on the Saturday I was comforted with the news
of a respite until the Friday following:
I then heard of a farther respite, and was appointed
to die with Campbel and Gurnet; before
the execution of whom, I was again granted a longer
time: and then my execution was to be forborn
until farther orders. I received my pardon on
Thursday, October 28, and was discharged from
confinement Sunday, November 1.
“From the time of receiving
sentence, to the time of my receiving a full pardon
was six weeks close confinement in the cells of Newgate;
where, by the terms of sentence, I was to be subsisted
on bread and water only. I can however affirm
with truth, that, conscious of my own integrity, not
all the terrors of so ignominious a death, and the
stamp of infamy attending it, ever could depress my
spirits from the first to the last. I relied
on the justice of God, who could penetrate beyond the
ken of short-sighted man; and with the utmost reverence
would I acknowledge the extension of his providence
toward me, in protecting me in this life, from the
consequences of premature judgment. I have been
frail in common with the rest of mankind; and I have
severely suffered. However, as my misfortunes
in marriage drove me into carelessness and excesses,
which, together with them, have been the ruin of me;
I hope that so remarkable a deliverance from the brink
of the precipice of eternity, has called home my scattered
thoughts, and will make me more sober and industrious
than I have heretofore been. I now conclude this
narrative with the most thankful acknowledgments to
all whose kindness has been instrumental in my deliverance,
from the awful fate from which I so hardly escaped.”
The reader has now seen what the poor
fellow had to offer for his own justification.
It may not be improper just to add a few remarks, first,
on the probabilities and improbabilities of the alledged
fact, and then to compare the fair result of such
examination with the tenor of the depositions on his
trial; these will tend greatly to clear our conceptions
with regard to the man.
The window of Daniels’s
room has two casements folding against each other,
with garden pots before them. One of these casements
only, used to be opened; the other being in general
kept shut. These casements were each about sixteen
or seventeen inches wide, and the window was about
a yard and a quarter high. When this accident
happened, one casement was open, the other shut, as
usual; consequently the opening then through
the window, was about sixteen or seventeen inches wide,
and a yard and quarter high. Through this space
a man was to thrust a woman nearly as strong as himself!
If such a thing had been attempted, the following
consequences must be incontestably allowed to ensue.
I. The woman would resist the attempt.
II. When persons struggle to
avoid imminent danger, and are driven to despair,
they are capable of a surprising degree of exertion,
beyond their ordinary abilities.
III. This woman would therefore
have continued in so narrow a gap a very considerable
while before she could have been forced through, and
would all that time have uttered cries, intreaties,
and exclamations, too expressive of her situation
to have been mistaken by the neighbours and spectators.
IV. Her resistance would have
overturned the before-mentioned garden-pots, and would
have shattered the glass of the casement that was
shut, and even forced open, or broke the casement itself,
which obstructed her passage.
V. In breaking the glass of the window,
her skin must have been greatly scratched and torn,
and her limbs, naked as she was, have been otherwise
greatly maimed and bruised.
VI. The man who undertook to
force her out, as he must have been greatly agitated
himself by his passions; as he was very closely employed,
on no very easy job; and as the actions of the suffering
party cannot be supposed to be meerly defensive through
the whole course of the fray; he must probably have
been observed by some of the spectators at the instant
of his effecting his purpose; and must positively have
borne some very conspicuous marks of his helpmate’s
reciprocal assaults.
The two first of these propositions
will be universally granted.
The third is contradicted by all the
evidence on the trial, who unanimously agree, that
the moment the woman was seen, she came through the
window? and was only then heard to use expressions
which Daniels accounts for better than any
one else.
In reply to the fourth, the pots were
not discomposed, nor the window broke, except one
pane; and it does not appear that even that pane might
not have been broke before.
In answer to the fifth; the body,
by the evidence of the surgeon, did not appear to
have received any other damage than the natural consequences
of so great a fall.
As to the last; the man was not seen
at the window at all: and as to any wounds or
bruises sustained by him, the constable, when asked,
whether he saw the blow on his head, which he affirmed
to be given him by his wife? declared he did not.
But he was not asked whether he looked for it; a question,
it may be presumed, he would have answered in the
negative. In such a situation, it is to be concluded,
the poor fellow was little heard and less regarded,
concerning whatever he might alledge in his own behalf.
A man may be stunned by a blow that might not perhaps
exhibit any remarkable appearance; and had it been
seen, his account of it would have weighed but little.
It is not even probable, had he knocked
this woman on the head first, that he could have sent
the body through the window so compleatly, as either
by fright, or design, she accomplished, herself.
But that she came there living, is past doubt.
To conclude: The evidence against
this unfortunate man, was only presumptive at most;
and upon clear scrutiny is really presumptive of nothing:
so that as he is discharged by royal authority, so
has he also a just claim to an acquittal in the minds
of all judicious and candid people.