324 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1816. 



wife gave hitn the gruel, the wit- 

 ness heard him say, " Susy, you 

 ha\e put pepper in this gniel ;" 

 which she denied, and he per- 

 sisted in declaring. She threat- 

 ened him with cooking no more 

 for him while he lived, if he did 

 not drink it. He died on the 

 Friday morning at six o'clock, 

 aftei" a week of severe agony ; 

 and liis son survived him only 

 six hours. The child of the wit- 

 ness, which was under the care 

 of the prisoner when witness went 

 out to work, died on the Tues- 

 day at six o'clock in the evening, 

 with violent retchings, convul- 

 sions, and vomiting, like the hus- 

 band and son of the prisoner. 

 Tins witness recounted the story 

 of the fortune-telling, as stated 

 above. There were no rats or 

 mice in the house to justify the 

 purchase of arsenic. 



John Swindels, who practises 

 medicine at Ashtonander-Line, 

 deposed, that he was sent for by 

 the prisoner to her husband ; that 

 he complained of violent pains in 

 the stomach ; that he gave him 

 an emetic, which relieved him a 

 little ; but that he gave over his 

 visits when the prisoner refused 

 to administer his prescriptions. 



Jonathan Hague, clerk to Mr. 

 Gibbon, an attorney at Ashton- 

 under-Line, stated a confession 

 that the prisoner made to him 

 when in custody after her appre- 

 hension for the murders. 



Samuel Newton, a constable, 

 presented to the Court the con- 

 fession of the prisoner before the 

 Coroner, stating, that no threat, 

 promise, or allurement was held 

 out to her to induce her to make 

 it ; but that, on the contrary, 

 she was warned not to criminate 



herself, and told that every thing 

 she said might be given in evi- 

 dence against her on her tiial. 

 The confession was read, and ac- 

 knowledged the murder in the 

 most uniestrved manner. 



Thomas Ogden, a surgeon at 

 Ashton, was called at the inquisi- 

 tion taken on the body. He ex- 

 amined the stomach, which was 

 inHamed nearly over its whole 

 extent, and in one place the in- 

 flammation had nmounied to gan- 

 grene. There was a quantity of 

 fluid on the stomach, which he 

 analyzed, and in the analysis de- 

 tected aisenic. He had no doubt 

 that inflammation was the cause 

 of the death, and the arsenic the 

 cause of the inflammation. 



The Judge summed np this evi- 

 dence, which seemed very clear, 

 and the Jury returned a verdict 

 of — Guilty. 



The Judge immediately pro- 

 nounced the awful sencence of 

 the law, that Susannah Holroyd, 

 being convicted of so atrocious a 

 crime, should be hanged on Mon- 

 day, and her body given for dis- 

 seciion. The prisoner, who had 

 continued during the whole of 

 her trial apparently insensible to 

 her awful situation, and had even 

 heard the word guilty without be- 

 traying any symptoms of emotion, 

 seemed impressed with the so- 

 lenui formalities and moving ad- 

 dress that accompanied the deli- 

 very of her sentence. The sym- 

 pathy of the numerous crowd that 

 attended this trial was powerfully 

 turned against the prisoner, not 

 only from the natural horror felt 

 at the crime for which she was 

 doomed to suffer, but from a very 

 general belief that, in her occu- 

 pation of nursing illegitimate chil- 

 dren 



