TRIAL OF JOHN TAWELL. 125 



victcd to be hung for the burglary of which he was 

 accused, and before his execution confessed his crime 

 and gave information about his companions in the 

 burglary, and in consequence another man, named 

 Dowsett, was taken and tried at the next Assizes, found 

 guilty, condemned to death, but afterwards reprieved 

 and sent to Botany Bay for life ; there, however, he 

 assaulted one of his keepers, and finally suffered the 

 same fate as Saunders. 



There were several remarkable criminal trials in the 

 county of Bucks, and of one of them, at which I was 

 present, I am tempted to give a slight account. 



I know few trials of modern times which created 

 greater interest than that of John Tawell, the Quaker, 

 for the murder of Sarah Hart, of Salt Hill. The 

 prisoner was a man of considerable property, who 

 lived at Berkhampstead, and moved In good society. The 

 trial lasted for three days, and was presided over by 

 Baron Park, afterwards Lord Wensleydale. The facts 

 which came out in evidence were these. Sarah Hart 

 was the mother of two children, and lived in a neat little 

 cottage by the side of the high-road at Salt Hill ; every 

 quarter-day, or about that time, she used to tell her 

 neighbours she expected her " good man " to call and 

 bring her quarterly income. In the October previous to 

 the murder he had been taken seriously ill after his visit, 

 and so it was with much anxiety she was awaiting him 

 to call in January. She and her children met him at 

 the door ; he sent out for some bottled porter for their 

 dinner, and stayed some time. He was seen to leave 

 the cottage very hurriedly, and a violent and shrill 



