TRIAL OF JOHN TAWELL. 127 



had been married only two or three years previously to 

 a very charming widow, a Quakeress of the name of 

 Cutforth, living in good style and in high repute. The 

 next day Tawell was arrested, brought to Aylesbury, 

 and at the March Assizes was tried for the murder. 



The above facts were proved, and also that he had 

 brought prussic acid at a chemist's shop in London ; that 

 the woman Sarah Hart had been his first wife's servant 

 when he was living at Sydney, New South Wales, and 

 that he had two children by her ; that he allowed her 

 fifty-two pounds a year, which he paid quarterly ; 

 that he wanted not only to save this annual sum, but 

 that he feared daily that she might find out where he 

 lived, and would expose and degrade him amongst all 

 the Friends. 



The trial was made memorable by the ingenious and 

 yet preposterous defence set up b}^ his counsel, Mr. 

 Fitzroy Kelly, O.C, afterwards Lord Chief Baron of the 

 Exchequer. Contrary to experience, there was no smell 

 of prussic acid either in the victim's throat or in the 

 room, and only a faint trace in the intestines. Mr. Kelly 

 therefore hoped to persuade the jury that this trace 

 was the result of her having eaten several apples during 

 the day, which was not denied, some apple-pips being 

 found in the stomach ; that all apple-pips contained traces 

 of prussic acid, and would fully account for the small 

 quantity of that deadly poison found in the body. This 

 defence earned for the eminent lawyer the sobriquet of 

 " Apple-pip Kelly." He made a most powerful and 

 eloquent appeal to the jury; and the judge, as it was 

 past six o'clock on the second day, decided to postpone 



