532 
POISONING BY 
“ WHITE PRECIPITATE.” 
until Tuesday evening, October 31, when Mrs. Butt, a neighbour, went in to see him 
and the prisoner asked her to stay a little. On Thursday evening, November 9 a Mrs* 
Brewer was called in by the prisoner, and she continued there all night. The prisoner 
mixed up some medicine m the kitchen, and took it upstairs to him. On Friday evening 
November 3, the deceased was desirous of having some tea. The prisoner went down¬ 
stairs to get some, and she brought up a teapot and teacup which had some milk in it. 
lhere was a knock at the door, and the prisoner went downstairs. Mrs. Butt, who was 
“ J room » , wen J, to pour out some tea, but upon lifting the spoon, she found a 
bluish white powder attached to it. She gave the deceased the tea, but it was offensive 
to him and he would only take the smallest quantity of it. That powder must have 
been put into the cup by the prisoner while downstairs. On the Saturday, November 4, 
_lrs. Butt went into the bedroom, and upon the washstand she saw a wineglass and 
there was a white-blue powder settled at the bottom of the glass. Mrs. Butt took the 
powder and put it in a paper, and that was sent to Mr. Herapath, who discovered it to 
be arsenic. After the man was dead suspicion became very rife, and the prisoner was 
taken into custody. She was about to be searched when she took out of her pocket 
a prayer-book, a purse, a pocket-handkerchief, and a small packet, which she instantly 
tlnew into the fire. She spilt some part of the powder contained in the packet on her 
clothes, which she wiped off with her pocket-handkerchief,—that was found to be 
arsenic. Under the clasp of the purse there was a white powder, and that was found to 
be strychnine mixed in starch. On the 10th of November, when Mrs. Brewer was 
cieamng the house, she found in the bedroom a packet screwed up, and that packet was 
labelled “poison. Poison, therefore, was found in the body; poison was found in the 
teacup and in the wineglass. No one could have administered the poison but the pri- 
soner It was shown that the prisoner had thrown the packet which Was in her pocket 
into the tire, and that this packet contained poison. Then came the question of motive. 
It appeared that the man and wife had lived happily together for nearly twenty years 
but that there had been an estrangement for the last two years. It has been stated 
that the deceased was a shoemaker; he had in his employment an apprentice and a 
journeyman named William Pratt, and there was no doubt but an illicit intercourse had 
been carried on between the prisoner and Pratt. This had excited the notice of the 
husband, and he had discharged Pratt, who then went to live at Dawlish, and a long 
correspondence had taken place between Pratt and the prisoner, showing the nature of 
the connection which had existed between them. The deceased had some time since 
made a will, m which he had given most of his property away from his wife. She was 
very angry at this, and in June last he executed another will, by which he left all his 
jjroperty to the prisoner. It would seem that after Pratt left the deceased he became 
cold to the prisoner, and she W'as desirous of regaining his attentions to her. 
I his was the case for the prosecution, and was proved by the witnesses named in the 
statement of facts. 
Mr. Kingdon summed up the evidence that he had adduced on the part of the prose- 
v U liUli • 
speech ^°* er ^ e ^ en a( ^ressed the jury on behalf of the prisoner in a most affecting 
The learned Judge having summed up, 
The jury conferred for ten minutes, and then returned a verdict of guilty, and sentence 
of death was passed, without hope of mercy. * 0 
POISONING BY “WHITE PRECIPITATE.” 
At Manchester, March 15th, before Mr. Justice LushRuth Hargreaves, a girl aged 
e ghteen was charged with having at Newchurch, on the 9th of December last? and™ 
divers other days, feloniously administered or caused to be taken by Henry Hargreaves 
her father, a certain poison called “white precipitate,” with intent to kill and murder 
Mr. Torr prosecuted ; the prisoner was undefended 
It appeared that the prisoner, who is a mill-girl, had formed the acquaintance of one 
