Old Bailey Proceedings:
Old Bailey Proceedings: Accounts of Criminal Trials

21st May 1760

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190. (M.) Ann Hullock proceedingsdefend This name instance is in set 3994433. , single woman , was indicted for the willful murder of her female bastard infant , April 8 .

She likewise stood charg'd on the coroner's inquest for the said murder.*

Susannah Dorwood < no role > . I am a midwife; I was sent for to Mrs. Dudman's; she told me she was afraid that Nanny was brought to bed, and the child was killed; I took a candle and look'd down the vault, and saw a child's feet; I went directly up stairs to the prisoner, and said Nanny, why could you put the child down the vault; she said she did not; this was between 9 and 10 o'clock in the morning; I told her she did, and told her I saw a plain proof that she had been delivered, and had put the child down the vault; then she attempted to make me believe it dropp'd from her body in the vault; I had found she had been delivered on the boards in the vault; at last she told me she did; I went to Mrs. Dudman, and desir'd she would let me take the child out of the soil; she said, she was afraid she should come into trouble; I said, the jury could not sit till it was taken out; I went and took it out; the minute I got it up at the he ad of the vault the blood appear'd: I said here is murder committed, the head is almost off; I laid it down on the boards, and it bled prodigiously.

Q. How long had it lain in the vault, as near as you can guess?

S. Dorwood. I believe it might have been born between 3 and 4 in that morning; it stuck in the soil, and the soil kept the place together, so that the blood had no vent; I went up stairs directly; I said Nanny, how could you lay violent hands on it to draw innocent blood, said I, do you consider you soul? she made no answer; I said, where is your pocket? she said it was down stairs; I put my hand under her bed, and found her pocket, but there was no knife in it; then I asked her where the knife was, with which she committed the murder; she said in the knife-box; I ask'd what knife; she said one of her mistress's case knives; I look'd in the box, but looking on the other dresser I found the knife, that I suppose to be the knife with blood upon it.

Q. Did the child appear to you to have come to the birth?

S. Dorwood. It did.

Q. In your opinion was the child born alive?

S. Dorwood. Yes.

Q. Where was this?

S. Dorwood. It was at Paddington.

Q. Did you examine the body of the prisoner?

S. Dorwood. No, I did not, because every thing was safe from her body.

Q. Was it a male or female child?

S. Dorwood. It was a female.

Jane Dudman < no role > . The prisoner was servant to a lodger of mine, she seem'd to be big with child; she had been but a fortnight in my house; when she had not been in my house above a week there was some grease upon the floor, I desir'd her to get it up; she down on her knees, and as she stoop'd, I said you are a good servant, but I fear you are spoil'd; I said are you marry'd (she appear'd very big) she said no, she never was married in her life. I was in my bed, and heard a person coming down early in the morning; I call'd who is there 2 or 3 times, at last I call'd aloud; she answer'd, it is me; are not you well, said I? no said she I am not well: I heard her go down stairs, and open the yard door; she was out some time. I was very uneasy. She did not come in; I got up and open'd the sash, and call'd to her; she said yes, Madam, I am a great deal better, I will come in presently; I believe she had been in the yard something less than a quarter of an hour.

Q. Where was she when she answer'd you?

J. Dudman. She was then in the necessaryhouse; then I went to bed, and did not go to sleep, I was afraid she would fall to pieces there; presently I heard the yard door open, she went into the kitchen, and open'd the window, I went to sleep; when my husband got up, my maid came up to me and said, Madam, I am frighted out of my wits, I am afraid Nanny has miscarry'd, she has mopp'd up the place in the necessaryhouse, and the kitchen too.

Q. Is you maid here?

J. Dudman. No, she is not; there was a person that lay in our house that night, and he said to me, there is something that should not be; my husband bid me go and see; I went, and saw a bad thing had been done: then my husband sent for a constable, and order'd me to lend for a midwife, which I did; then I went up stairs to the prisoner's mistress, and begg'd of her to go with me to the maid; she made us believe she was asleep; I shook her, and call'd to her, and ask'd her what wicked deed she had been doing, where is your child? at last she said it was down in the vault. I had seen the child before, but afterwards I saw the child's throat was cut. I said to her, how could you do this, there is an hospital ready, and if you had spoke to me but half an hour before I could have got it in. She never own'd to me that she had laid violent hands on it.

John Gibbs < no role > . I am constable; I was sent for to the house of Mrs. Dudman. She told me, she was afraid her lodger's servant had been deliver'd of a child in the little house, and that she had made away with it, the child was taken out of the soil, and I saw it with the head almost cut off. I went in, and ask'd where the girl was; I went to her and said, was the child born alive. She said yes. I said, did it cry? she said yes. I said, what could be the reason of your murdering of it? she said, she did not know what to do with it. I said, have you any cloaths for it? she said, no. Said I, you will be hang'd. She said, O Lord, I hope not. Said I, is it your child? she said yes. I said, how did you murder it? with a case knife, said she. I ask'd her where the knife was? she said, in the kitchen. I talk'd to her a good deal, and ask'd her if she was in her senses; she said she was very well for the time, and that she was able to get up and do her business. I went down stairs and ask'd for the knife, and there I was show'd it. The next morning I apply'd to justice Fielding, and ask'd what I should do with her? he said, by all means fetch her, if she is able to be removed, there is one subject lost. don't let another be lost without punishment. I went and fetch'd her, and she confess'd the same before the justice; in the coach between there and justice Fielding's she never denied the fact; but said, she always intended to put it in the necessary. It was a female child (a case knife produc'd with blood upon it)

Prisoner's defence.

I did not intend to do it, I took the knife with me with intent to part the burden from the child; I never heard it cry as I am here alive. When I found what I had done I put it in the vault; I was by myself in the vault.

Guilty . Death .

She receiv'd sentence immediately (this being thursday) to be executed on the saturday, and her body to be diffected and anatomis'd.




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