158, 159. (M.) Mary Squires proceedingsdefend , widow , and Susannah Wells proceedingsdefend , were indicted, the first for that she, on the second of January , in the dwelling house of Susannah Wells < no role > , widow , on Elizabeth Canning proceedingsvictim This name instance is in set 35580. , spinster , did make an assault, putting her, the said Elizabeth Canning < no role > , in corporal fear and danger of her life, one pair of stays, value 10 s. the property of the said Elizabeth, from her person in the dwelling house did steal, take, and carry away . And

The latter for that she, well knowing that she, the said Mary Squires < no role > , to have done and committed the said felony aforesaid on the second of January, her the said Mary did then and there feloniously receive, harbour, comfort, conceal, and maintain, against his majesty's peace, and against the form of the statute . *

Elizabeth Canning. I had been to Salt-Petre Bank to see an uncle and aunt, his name is Thomas Colley < no role > , I set out from home about 11 in the forenoon, and staid there till about nine at night on the first of January; then my uncle and aunt came with me as far as Aldgate, where we parted; I was then alone, so came down Hounsditch and over Moorfields by Bedlam wall, there two lusty men, both in great coats, laid hold of me, one on each side, they said nothing to me at first, but took half a guinea in a little box out of my pocket, and three shillings that were loose .

Q. Which man took that?

E. Canning . The man on my right hand. They took my gown, apron, and hat, and solded them up and put them into a great coat pocket. I screamed out, then the man that took my gown put a handkerchief, or some such thing, to my mouth.

Q. Were there any persons walking near you at that time?

E. Canning. I saw nobody. They then tied my hands behind me; after which one of them gave me a blow on the temple, and said, d - n you, you b - h, we'll do for you by and by. I having been subject to convulsion-sits these four years, this blow stunned me, and threw me directly into a sit.

Q. Are these sits attended with a struggling?

E. Canning . I don't know that.

Q. What happened afterwards?

E. Canning . The first thing that I remember after this was, I found myself by a large road, where was water, with the two men that robbed me.

Q. Had you any discourse with them?

E. Canning. I had none; they took me to the prisoner Wells's house .

Q. About what time do you think it might be?

E. Canning. As near as I can think it was about four o'clock in the morning, I had recovered from my sit about half an hour before I came to the house. They lugged me along, and said, you b - h, why don't you walk faster? one had hold on my right arm, and the other on the last, and so pulled me along.

Q. Can you form any judgment in what manner you was conveyed to the place before you recovered of your sit?

E. Canning. I think they dragged me along by my petticoats, they being so dirty.

Q. When you came to Wells's house, was it day-light?

E. Canning. No, it was not; I think it was day-light in about three hours, or better, after I was there, which is the reason I believe I was carried in about four o'clock.

Q. When you was carried in, what did you see there?

E. Canning. I saw the gypsey woman Squires, who was sitting in a chair, and two young women in the same room; Virtue Hall (the evidence) was one; they were standing against a dresser.

Q. Did you see the prisoner (Wells) there?

E. Canning . No, I did not. As soon as I was brought in Mary Squires < no role > took me by the hand, and asked me if I chose to go their way, saying, if I did, I should have fine cloaths; I said, no.

Q. Did she explain to you what she meant by going their way?

E. Canning. No, sir. Then she went and took a knife out of a dresser drawer, and cut the lace off my stays, and took them from me.

Q. Had you, at that time, any apprehensions of danger?

E. Canning. I thought she was going to cut my throat, when I saw her take the knife.

Q. Did you see the prisoner (Wells) at that time?

E. Canning . No, I did not.

Q. Was any thing else taken from you?

E. Canning. There was not then, but Squires looked at my petticoat and said, here, you b - h, you may keep that, or I'll give you that, it is not worth much, and gave me a slap on the face.

Q. Had she the petticoat in her hand?

E. Canning . No, it was on me. After that, she pushed me up stairs from out of the kitchen, where we were.

Q. Describe the kitchen.

E. Canning. The kitchen was at the right hand going in at the door, and the stairs are near the fire.

Q. How many steps to them?

E. Canning. There are four or five of them.

Q. What did they call the name of the place where they put you in?

E. Canning. They call it the hay-lost. The room door was shut as soon as I was put up.

Q. Was it fastened?

E. Canning. I don't know that, it was at the bottom of the stairs in the kitchen. After she shut the door she said, if ever she heard me stir or move, or any such thing, she'd cut my throat.

Q. Did you see any thing brought up to eat or drink?

E. Canning. I saw nothing brought up. When day-light appeared I could see about the room, there was a fire-place and a grate in it, no bed nor bedstead, nothing but hay to lie upon, there was a black pitcher not quite full of water, and about 24 pieces of bread, (a pitcher produced in court) this is the pitcher, which was full to near the neck.

Q. How much in quantity do you think these 24 pieces of bread might be?

E. Canning. I believe about a quartern loaf.

Q. Had you nothing else to subsist on?

E. Canning. I had in my pocket a penny mince-pye, which I bought that day to carry home to my brother.

Q. How long did you continue in that room?

E. Canning. A month by the weeks, all but a few hours.

Q. What do you mean by a month by the weeks?

E. Canning. I mean a four-weeks month.

Q. Did any body come to you in the room during that time?

E. Canning. No, sir, nobody at all. On the Wednesday before I came away I saw somebody look through the crack of the door, but don't know who it was.

Q. Did you, during the time you was in this confinement, make any attempts to come down stairs, or make your escape?

E. Canning. No, sir, I did not till the time I got out.

Q. Had you any thing to subsist on during the time besides the pieces of bread, penny pye, and pitcher of water?

E. Canning. No, I had not.

Q. At what time did you get out?

E. Canning. I got out about four o'clock in the afternoon on a Monday, after I had been confined there four weeks, all but a few hours.

Q. How did you get out?

E. Canning. I broke down a board that was nailed up at the inside of a window, and got out there.

Q. How high was the window from the ground?

E. Canning. (She described it by the height of a place in the Sessions-House, which was about eight or ten feet high.) First I got my head out, and kept fast hold by the wall and got my body out; after that I turned myself round and jumped into a little narrow place by a lane with a field behind it.

Q. Did not the jump hurt you?

E. Canning. No, it was soft clay ground .

Q. Was it light then?

E. Canning. It was.

Q. What did you do for cloathing?

E. Canning. I took an old sort of a bed gown and a handkerchief that were in this hay-lost and lay in a grate in the chimney. (Produced in court. ) I made my ear bleed at getting out; the handkerchief I tied over my head instead of a cap, it was very bloody.

Q. Did you see any body when you jumped out at the window?

E. Canning. No, nobody at all; then I went on the backside the house up a lane, and crossed a little brook and over two fields, as I think, but I did not take notice how many fields, the path-way brought me by the road side. Then I went by the road strait to London.

Q. Did you know the way?

E. Canning. I did not.

Q. Did you call at any house?

E. Canning . No, I did not. It struck ten as I came over Moorfields . I got about a quarter after to my mother's house Aldermanbury.

Q. Did you acquaint any body with your misfortune coming along?

E. Canning . No, I did not .

Q. Who did you meet with first?

E. Canning . I met with the aprrentice first; then I saw my mother and the children. She went into a sit directly .

Q. Did you give an account to any body how you had been treated?

E. Canning . Yes, I did to Mrs. Woodward, was came to see me, that I had lived on bread and water . She was so affrighted she could not ask me many questions then; then Mr. Wintlebury came in, with whom I lived servant before I went to live with Mr. Lion; he took me by my hand and asked me where I had been; I said, sir, in Hertfordshire road ; he said, Bet, how do you know that? I said, because I saw my Mistress's coachman go by, which she used to go into the country into Hertfordshire, that was Mrs. Wintlebury; I knew the coach because I used to carry things to it, and fetch them back again.

Q. Was you asked any questions about the room or jugg that night, and what you had to subsist on?

E. Canning. Yes, there were many people came in, and I told them I had a jugg which was not quite full of water; they asked me how much, and I said I believed better than a gallon of it ; they asked me also how I got out, and I said I broke out of the window, and had torn my ear in getting out, which bled all the way coming home.

Q. What things did you observe in this hay-lost?

E. Canning. There were a barrel, a saddle, a bason, and a tobacco mould.

Q. What do you mean by a tobacco mould?

E. Canning. I mean such a thing that they do up pennyworths of tobacco with.

Cross-Examination.

Q. How long might these two men continue with you in Moorfields?

E. Canning. About half an hour.

Q. Did any body pass by at the time ?

E. Canning . Nobody at all

Q. Was this box, that contained your his guinea, taken out of your pocket ?

E. Canning . Yes, sir, it was.

Q. Had you any thing else in your pocket ?

E. Canning . I had a pocket handkerchief with a pye in it, which I did not lose.

Q. Was there any light near this place where you was first attacked?

E. Canning . There was a lamp.

Q. Have you recollected how long you lay this sit before you came to yourself?

E. Canning . I cannot be sure, but it was about half an hour before I arrived in Wells's house.

Q. During the time of your first being at tacked, whether you had any degree of sense at all?

E. Canning . Not till half an hour before I came to that house.

Q. Had you sense enough of any sortto know by what means you was conducted?

E. Canning . I think they dragged me along by my petticoats, they were made so dirty, but I was not sensible.

Q. Was you in any surprize when she took your stays?

E. Canning. I was in a great surprize, and all of a tremble.

Q. Then how can you tell who was there at the time?

E. Canning . The terror made me look about me to see what company was there.

Q. How long did the two men stay in the room?

E. Canning. They staid no longer than till they saw my stays cut off, then they went away, before I was put up in the lost.

Q. Did not you make an attempt to get out before that Monday you talk on?

E. Canning. I did not.

Q. How came you not to make an attempt before?

E. Canning. Because I thought they might let me out; it never came into my head till that morning.

Q. Where was you sitting when you saw somebody peep through the crack of the door?

E. Canning . I was walking along the room.

Q. How wide was this crack?

E. Canning. It was about a quarter of an inch wide.

Q. Did not you, in the whole 27 days, perceive where you was?

E. Canning . I did in about a week after, by seeing the coach go by.

Q. Was not you extreme weak?

E. Canning . I was pretty weak.

Q. Was you ever that way before?

E. Canning . No, I never was.

Q. Did not you pass many houses in your way home?

E. Canning . I did, and asked my way of people on the road.

Q. How came you, being in that deplorable condition, not to go into some house and relate the hardships you had gone through?

E. Canning. I thought, if I did, may be I might meet somebody belonging to that house.

Q. Did you see the prisoner (Wells) while you was in that confinement?

E. Canning. I never saw her in the house at all till I went down afterwards.

Q. Had you any of your sits while in that room?

E. Canning. I had not, but was fainting and sick.

Squires. I never saw that witness in my lifetime till this day three weeks.

Q. How was the prisoner (Squires) dressed when you was carried in?

E. Canning . She was sitting in her gown with a handkerchief about her head.

Q. Did you never, during all the time, try if the door was fastened or not?

E. Canning . I did once push against it with my hand, and found it fast.

Q. Had you used to hear any body in the kitchen ?

E. Canning. I heard people sometimes blowing the fire and passing in and out. There was another room in which I heard a noise at nights, but the house was very quiet in the day-time.

Q. Did you eat all your bread?

E. Canning. I eat it all on the Friday before I got out, it was quite hard, and I used to soak it in the water.

Q. When did you drink all your water?

E. Canning. I drank all that about half an hour before I got out of the room.

(Upon being asked where she did her occasions while in the room, she answered, she never had had any stool while in confinement, she had only made water.)

Virtue Hall < no role > . I know the two prisoners at the bar ; Wells lived at Enfield-Wash ; I went and lived there as a lodger. Mary Squires < no role > lived in the house, and had been there about seven or eight weeks.

Q. How long before E. Canning was brought in ?

V. Hall. About a fortnight before, which was on the 2d of January, about four in the morning, she was brought in there by two men, John Squires < no role > was one of them, he is son to Mary Squires < no role > , the other man I don't know any thing of; I never saw him before.

Q. How was she dressed when brought in?

V. Hall. She had no gown on or hat or apron .

Q. Who was in the house at the time.

V. Hall. There was I and Mary Squires < no role > , the prisoner and her daughter, the gypsie man said, mother, I have brought you a girl, do you take her, then she asked E. Canning, whether she would go her way.

Q. What did she mean by that?

V. Hall. She meant for her to turn whore, but she would not.

Q. Do you mention this by way of explanation, or as words as she said?

V. Hall. As words as she said; then Mary Squires took a knife out of a dresser drawer in the kitchen, and ripped the lace of her stays . and pulled them off, and hung them on the back of a chair in the kitchen, and pushed her up into the room, and said d - n you go up there then, if you please; then that came in with the gypsie's son, took the off Elizabeth Canning < no role > 's head, and went out a doors with it, the gypsie man John Squires < no role > , took the stays off the chair, and went out with them.

Q. Where was Elizabeth Canning < no role > , when the two men took away the things?

V. Hall. She was then up in the room.

Q. Had you ever been in that room?

V. Hall. I had, before she was brought there, several times.

Q. What was the name they called it by?

V. Hall. they called it by the name of the work-shop, there was a great deal of hay in it, they only put lumber in it, there was a great many pieces of wood, a tobacco mould, and this black jugg, about three hours after the young woman was put up, Mary Squires < no role > filled the jugg with water and carried it up.

Q. How do you know it was three hours after?

V. Hall. Then it began to be lightish.

Q. Did you hear any talk between them after she was in the room?

V. Hall . They took care I should know but little .

Q. Has Susannah Wells < no role > a husband?

V. Hall . No, she has not; when I went out of the kitchen, I went into the parlour, Wells said, Virtue Hall, the gypsie man came in and told me that his mother had cut the stays off the young woman's back, and he had got them, and she bid me not to say any thing to make a clack of it, fearing it should be known .

Q. How long was you in that house?

V. Hall. I was there a quarter of a year in all, if not more, I was there the whole time Elizabeth Canning < no role > was there; but I never saw her once after she was put up into that room, I was the first that missed her, I asked the gypsie woman once, whether that girl was gone? she answered what is that to you, you have no business with it, but durst not go, to see if she was gone, if I had, very likely they would have served me so.

Q. Did you ever see the other man after that night?

V. Hall. No, I never did.

Q. Who lodged in the house at the time besides ?

V. Hall . There was Fortunatus did.

Q. Did Mary Squires < no role > continue in the house long after this?

V. Hall . She did, till we were all taken up, which was I think on the Thursday after the young woman was gone.

Q. What was you in that house?

V. Hall. I went there as a lodger, but I was forced to do as they would have me.

Q. from Mary Squires < no role > . What day was it that the young woman was robbed?

Court. She says on the morning of the second of January.

M. Squires . I return thanks for telling me, for I am as innocent as the child unborn.

Q. from Wells. How long where these people, (meaning the gypsies) at my house in all, from first to last ?

V. Hall. They where there six or seven weeks in all, they had been there about a fortnight before the young woman was brought in.

Q. Did you ever see this cap or bed-gown before?

V. Hall. Not to my knowledge.

Thomas Colley < no role > . I am E. Canning's uncle, I live at Salt-peter-bank, on the new-year's day she dined and supped at my house, and went away about nine in the evening, as near as I can guess, I and my wife went along with her to Hounsditch . almost to the Blue-ball, there we parted with her, about a quarter or very near half an hour after nine o'clock.

Q. How was she cloathed?

Colley . She had a gown, hat, and white apron on.

Elizabeth Canning < no role > . Elizabeth Canning < no role > that has given her evidence is my daughter, after she was missing from new-year's day, I advertized her three times, she came back on the day before King Charles's Martyrdom, about quarter after ten o'clock at night, she had nothing but this ragged bed gown and a cap; I fell into a fit directly; my daughter is subject to fits, there was a garret ceiling fell in upon her head, which first occasioned them; and at times when any body speaks hastily to her, or at any surprize, she is very liable to fall in one, she has sometimes continued in one seven or eight hours, sometimes three or four, she is not sensible during the time she is in one, no more than a new born babe; when I came to myself my daughter was talking to Mrs. Woodward and Mr. Wintlebury; they asked her where she had been, she said on the Hertfordshire road, which she knew by seeing a coach going by; she gave the same account she has here. When she came into her warm bed, she was very sick, and had no free passage through her for stool or urine, till she was supply'd with glysters, for seven days after she came home, but what was forc'd by half a cup full at a time .

John Wintlebury < no role > . I saw Elizabeth Canning < no role > the night she came home; she appeared in a very bad condition, and had this dirty bed-gown and cap on. Hearing she was come home, I went to her mother's house, and said, Bett, how do you do? She said, I am very bad. Said I, where have you been? She said, she had been some where on the Hertfordshire road, because I have seen the Hertfordshire coach go backwards and forwards .

Q. Have you heard the Evidence she has given here in court?

Wintlebury. I have; she gave the same account that night, but not quite so fully that night, as she did before the sitting alderman, on the Wednesday after, but all agrees with what she has said here, I found her in a great flurry, so did not ask her many questions that night.

Joseph Adamson < no role > . I have known Elizabeth Canning < no role > the younger some years, I never saw her after see came home, till the day we went down to the people up . I and seven neighbour, of us, agreed to go to the place, I on houseback and some in the coach with E. Canning, I was down about an hour, or an hour and half before the coach came, and had secured all the people we found there; I seeing the room before she was brought in, thought she was able of giving account of it. I returned to meet her, and her about it. she deser, bed the room with some hay in it, a chimney place on the corner of it, an odd fort of an empty room, I went with her to the house and carried her out of the chaise into the kitchen, and set her on the dresser, and ordered all the people to be brought to her, to see if she knew any of them; she was then very weak, I took her in my arms like a child, upon seeing Mary Squires < no role > This name instance is in set 4424. , she said that is the woman that cut my stays off, and threatened to cut my throat if I made a noise .

Q. Did any of the people seem unwilling to be inspected ?

Adamson . Yes, they were very unwilling to be stopped, when we went down in the morning, particularly Mary Squires; after the girl had said this of Squires, Squires said to her, she hoped she would not sware her life away, for she never saw her before; E. Canning pointed to Virtue Hall, and said, that young woman was in the kitchen, when I was brought in; she pointed also to another young woman, and said she was there at the time, then we carried her up to examine the house, she said none of the rooms she had seen, was the room in which she was confined, then I asked if there were any other rooms, they said yes, out of the kitchen, (I had before been in it but did not say so then,) because I had a mind to see if she knew it, we had her up into it, she said this is the same room in which I was, but here is more hay in it than there was then; I laid my hand upon it, and said it has lately been shook up, it lay hollow, she was then pretty near a casement, said I, if you have been so long in this room doubtless you are able to say what is to be seen out here, she described a hill at a distance which is Chinkford-hill, I believe she could at the time she spoke about it, between her and the case-towards the casement, she houses on the other side the lane, then I opened the casement, we looked, and it was as she had described, I asked where was the window she broke out of, she us, there were some board mailed up and said, that is the window, I to see the coach go by at; then we pulled down the board, it was big enough for me to have cut of it, it appealed to me to be the same to the house, for I saw some of the broke off on the out side, that window was high.

werd L. The young woman lived servant with me till she was missing, I have in Alder manbury, I was one of the person that went down to Wells's, house, I went after the left of the gentlemen on the first of February, we were these sometime before she came, and had taken the people up; when the came she was carried into the kitchen, and sat on a dresser, and the people set all round her, I said to her, Bett, don't be frighted or uneasy, you see your friends about you, and on the other hand! don't be too sure, without you really can sware to what you say, therefore be very careful ; she pitched upon Mary Squires < no role > This name instance is in set 4424. to be the person that cut her stays off, she pitched upon a young woman that was said to be daughter to Mary Squires < no role > This name instance is in set 4424. , and said, she was in the kitchen, at the time, and likewise Virtue Hall, but said they did nothing to her; this black jugg was brought down, a bason, and the tobacco mould; she said, they were both in the room, where she was confined; she had described this jugg before, and said it was broken at the mouth, as it now appears to be.

Robert Scarrat < no role > . I went down to Endfield Wash, there where six of us in all, her mother and two women were with her in the chaise; she described the fields, and likewise a bridge, that night she came home, near the house; I asked her if she perceived a tanner's house near, she said she believed there was .

Q. Have you heard the other evidences that went down give their evidence.

Scarrat . I have, and what they have said is the truth, which I heard also, I also heard E Canning examined before the sitting alderman, she gave the same account she has done here.

Q. Was John Squires < no role > in the room at the time she pitched upon his mother and the rest ?

Scarrat. He was, she said she could not sware to him, he had his great coat on at out first going there, but he had pulled it off, she said he looked like the person, but she could not to him, they made him put his great coat on before the justice, then she said he looked more like one of the two men that brought her there.

Edward Rossiter < no role > . I wen t down with the rest, on the Thursday, I heard E. Canning examined before Mr. Tashmaker the justice; she gave the same account, then as now, she said John Squires < no role > was much like one of the men, when he had got his great coat on, she said she did not see Wells in the house, but she once saw her out at a window, but did not know she was the woman that belonged to the house.

Sutherton Bakler. I am an apothecary, I saw E. Canning, the day after she came home, on the 30th of January about noon, she was extreamely low and weak; I could scarcely here her speak, her voice was so low, and her pulse scarcely to be felt with cold sweats; she told me she had no passage during the whole time of her confinement, she was then in such a condition she had a glister administered the same day, she had many glisters given her, which after some time relieved her .

Q. Whether a person that is extreamely costive cannot subsist longer without food, or with less food, than a person that is not so ?

Bakler. I cannot answer to that . Each of the persons that said they went down to take the prisoners were asked where they went to, and answered to Endfield-wash, the house of the prisoner Walls .

Mary Squires < no role > This name instance is in set 4424. said nothing in her defence, but called the following witnesses .

John Giben < no role > . I live at Abbotsbury six miles from Dorchester, I am master of the house, called the Old-Ship; on the first of Jan . 1753, the prisoner Squires, came into the house, there was George her son, and Lucy her daughter with her, as she called them; she came with handkerchiefs, lawns, muslins, and chocks, to sell about town, she staid there from the first to the ninth day of the month, and lay at my house.

Q. How long have you kept that house?

Gibon. I have kept it two years, come lady-day.

Q. Look at the woman, are you sure that is her?

Gibon. He looks at Squires, and says; I am sure it is .

Cross Examination.

Q. How long have you known her?

Gibon . I have known her three years, and have soon her there three years ago.

Q. How long have you lived there?

Gibon. I was born at that town, I am a married man, have a wife and one child, I was bred in the farming way at Fisherton.

Q. By what do you recollect the day?

Gibon. There came an excise man to officiate there, for one John Ward < no role > that was sick, and I put the day of the month down, when he came; the excise office is kept at my house, the man that came was Andrew Wicks < no role > , or Wick.

Q. Did you see the prisoner sell any of these goods you mentioned.

Gibon. No, I did not, they offered them to sell to me, and others, my wife bought two cheque aprons.

William Clark < no role > . I live at Abbotsbury, and have for seven years; I remember seeing the gypsie there, the last time I saw her, was on the 10th of January last, I met with them on the road, we went some way together, we parted at Crudeway-foot, four miles from Abbotsbury, and three from Dorchester .

Q. Where was they going?

Clark. I can't tell that.

Q. Had you ever seen her before ?

Clark. I saw her, and her son and daughter three years ago come March, at Abbotsbury, they came with handkerchiefs, lawns, and muslins to sell; I saw the landlord's wife at the Ship buy some aprons of them the last time they were there .

Cross Examination.

Q. How came you to take particular notice of the day.

Clark. By keeping my other accounts, I carried goods out with me the same day to Portersham .

Q. Have you your book with you?

Clark. No, I have not, but I can't forget the day, because I don't go so often.

Q. Which way were they going?

Clark. They where making for London, they talked so.

Q. Did they give you any account, to what place they were bound next?

Clark. They did not, they lodged at this man's house, pointing to Gibon, at Abbotsbury .

Q. Did you see them there?

Clark. I did, on the first of January, I commonly go there of an evening, to have a pot of liquor.

Q. Do you remember when you kept Christmas day?

Clark. I do not.

Q. Can you give any account of new stile or old?

Clark . No, I cannot, but if I was to die for the woman I'll speak the truth.

Q. How was she cloathed there?

Clark. The same as now, and the son in a blue coat and a red waistcoat, and had a great coat with him.

Q. What size is he?

Clark. He is about five foot seven or eight inches high, the girl was in a camblet gown.

Q. You are sure you saw her the time you mention .

Clark. I undertake to sware positively to that, that I saw her there on the 1st of January last, and either on the ninth or tenth afterwards, and saw them going about the town in the time, to sell things.

Q. What are you?

Clark. I am a housekeeper, and have been in business about six years, I am a cordwinder.

Thomas Grevil < no role > . I live at Coom, three miles from Salisbury, I keep a publick house there, the sign of the Lamb; I saw Mary Squires < no role > This name instance is in set 4424. at my house, on the 14th of January.

Q. How many miles is Coom from Dorchester ?

Grevil . I cannot tell.

Q. Who was with her there?

Grevil . There was her sister and her brother, as she said, they sold handkerchiefs, lawns, and such things.

Q. How long did she stay at Coom?

Grevil . They stopped there but one night.

Cross Examination.

Q. What January do you mean?

Grevil . I mean last January, five weeks ago last Sunday.

Q. How came you to take such particular notice of it?

Grevil . There was a carpenter at my house, he had spent the biggest part of his money, it being Sunday night, I would have him go about his business, and put him out of the house two or three times, and after that he went over the way to another house, and pawned his ax; these three witnesses shewed their subpena's, as the cause of their coming to-give their evidence .

For the Crown.

John Iniser < no role > . I sell fish and oysters about Waltham-Cross and Theobalds . I know the prisoner Squires very well by sight, the last time I saw her before now, was at the time she was taken at Susannah Wells < no role > This name instance is in set 142. 's house; before that I had seen her several times every day up and down before she was taken.

Q. Are you very certain of that?

Iniser. I am that I saw her three weeks before, that she walked into people's houses pretending to tell fortunes. She told me mine once.

Q. Did you see any goods she had to sell?

Iniser. No, I did not, I always saw her by herself. I saw a young man in blue-gray when she was taken up, and two young women, all taken in the house of Wells.

Wells being called upon to make her defence, said, as to her character it was but an indifferent one, that she had an unfortunate husband who was hanged, and added, she never saw the young woman (meaning E. Canning) till they came to take us up; and as to Squires, she never saw her above a week and a day before they were taken up.

Squires guilty , Death .

Wells guilty .

Squires, the last day of the sessions, being asked what she had to say before she received sentence, answered, that an New-year's-Day I lay at Coom at the widow Grevil's house; the next day I was at Stoptage, there were some people who were cast away, and they came along with me to a little house on the top of the Moor and drank there, there were my son and daughter with me. Coming along Popham-lane there were some people raking up dung. I drank at the second alehouse in Basingstoke on the Thursday in the new-year week. On the Friday I lay at Bagshot-Heath, at a little tiney house on the heath. On the Saturday I lay at Old Brentford at Mr. Edwards's, who sells greens and small beer. I could have told this before, but one pulled me and another pulled me, and would not let me speak. I lay at Mrs. Edwards's, on the Sunday and Monday; and on the Tuesday, or Wednesday after, I came from thence to Mrs. Wells's house.

[Branding. See summary.]

[Imprisonment. See summary.]