1. EDWARD WELCH proceedingsdefend was indicted for that he, on the 4th of December instant, not having the fear of God before his eyes, but being moved and seduced by the instigation of the Devil, with force and arms, feloniously, wilfully, and of his malice aforethought, on one Margaret Lane proceedingsvictim , in the peace of God and ourlord the king, then being, did make an assault, and that he with a certain clasp knife, of the value of sixpence, which he in his right hand, then and there had and held, on the lower part of the belly of the said Margaret, feloniously, wilfully, and of his malice aforethought, did strike and thrust, giving her by such striking and thrusting as aforesaid, one mortal wound, of the breadth of one inch, and of the depth of three inches, of which mortal wound the said Margaret languished from the said 4th of December to the 6th, and languishing did live, on which said 6th day of December the said Margaret, of the said mortal wound aforesaid, did die; and so the jurors on their oaths say, that he, the said Edward, her the said Margaret, feloniously, wilfully, and of his malice aforethought, did kill and murder .

He was also charged with the like murder on the coroner's inquisition.

The case opened by Mr. Garrow.

ELEANOR BURKE < no role > sworn.

I live in High-street, Bloomsbury, No. 23 . I am a married woman. I know the prisoner, and the poor woman that lived with him, Margaret Lane; they lived together as man and wife: I lived in the same house: they had lived there going on four months: they used to porter fruit in Covent-garden. I remember the prisoner coming home on Wednesday, the 4th of December, down stairs, without a bit of hat on his head, and with tears in his eyes, and he said, there now, this woman is not at home before me now; I said, she was not gone far, but went out for something she wanted; at the same time he said, I will do for her to night; says I, Ned, for Christ's sake do not have any words in the house to night; he said then, that he would do for her, and give her her guts for garters; he ran up stairs, and I heard the murder going on; I did not hear the woman come in; and I heard the woman crying murder as soon as he got up stairs; she kept crying murder, Nell Burke < no role > ! murder, Nell Burke < no role > ! I listened still, and heard her speech getting very weak; I did not go at first, because there were often such cries; I thought he was beating her, or pulling her hair; then I went up into the room, and she was crying, Ned, my life! my life, Ned! and so on: on my opening the door, she was on the furthermost side of the room; he was between me and the door; she was standing, leaning back, with her hands by her side, against the wall; he was standing staring in her face, close enough; he had something in his right hand, which I could not tell what it was; he had a candle in his left hand, and he was stabbing her in my sight, all the while before me, and also before I got into the room; I saw him stabbing her; and he said to me, what brought you here, you whore? I will serve you the same; when I saw the man stabbing the woman I got as soon as I could on the landing-place; I bawled out, murder! the woman is done for; then I called out, Mrs. Thorpe! Mrs. Thorpe! the woman is done for now: Mrs. Thorpe lived in the floor facing me: she sent me to the shop to get a man to go up; I could not get ever a man there; then I went to look for the patrol, and when I came back I found Mrs. Thorpe and the patrol at the door; I was not absent half an hour: we went up stairs in the prisoner's room, and found her on the flat of her back, on the floor; we all went into the room: the prisoner was standing on the landing place, in custody of a constable: I supported the deceased's head; I saw her guts out of one side: the poor woman said nothing to me, only to undo her stays and things, for she was swelling up so much, she said, and to send for the doctor, and the gentleman, the clergyman, that she should confess to him: as the prisoner was taking to the justice, he said to the deceased,

"Peggy, was it not the scissars that did it, that were hanging to your side when I wanted to get the money out of your pocket?" and she made him no answer; and he said,

"Peggy, will you not go to see me in the round-house tomorrow?"but she made no answer: she was laying on the floor, on the broad of her back: the wound was the right side of her belly: she was taken to the hospital about six o'clock; it was not full five when it happened: it was on a Saturday night, and she died on the Monday: they would not let me into the hospital: I saw nothing picked up in the room.

Mrs. THORPE sworn.

I lived in the first floor of this house: the prisoner and the deceased lived there together, as man and wife, about four months: I was sitting in my own room: my door was shut: I was at work: I heard desperate cries of murder, from the two pair of stairs back room, which was the prisoner's room; it was Hannah Lane's voice: I did not attempt to go out of my room, because they were very frequently fighting, and there were often cries of murder; Mrs. Burke went up, and she came down, and alarmed me; says she, Mrs. Thorpe, the woman is killed, come up for God's sake: I went up, and saw the situation she lay in: Welch was standing in the middle of the room, with a knife in his hand, and the deceased laying on the floor, and I ran down stairs, and got the assistance of the constables and patrol; and as we were going up the prisoner was coming down stairs; he had got down one pair of stairs: this had made a great alarm: I told him to go up stairs again, and not be a fool; I asked him how he could do such a thing; and he said, damn her eyes, it was her own scissars; then he returned, and went up first, and we followed him: the deceased was laying as we left her; we took up a light; I saw no other: he got in a little before me, and when we got in he was standing in the middle of the room, with a knife in his hand, which he threw under the table; and the deceased said, for God's sake, Mrs. Thorpe, fetch me a woman and a doctor; I saw her situation; she kept swelling very much; I cut her petticoat strings; she was not unlaced; the wound was in the right groin, the lower part of the belly; and I saw her entrails very much out through the wound; the patrol took the man out of the room while we examined the body more; and I went for a doctor; but I was so frightened I could not get one at all: she kept swelling so much: the patrol cut her petticoats off: I desired Martha Reardon < no role > to pick up the knife, which she did, and gave it to me, and I gave it to the patrol; it was a pocket clasp knife, with a picked point; it was very bloody; the blood was wet upon it; she called out for a clergyman, for she was a dead woman; then she was taken to the hospital; I heard nothing more: I saw her no more.

Was the knife the same the prisoner had thrown away? - Yes.

Are you sure of that? - Yes.

Court. In undressing the woman did you observe any scissars by her side? - I did not.

Did she used to wear any scissars by her side? - I never saw any.

MARGARET REARDON < no role > sworn.

I lived in the same house; I went up into the room after the patroles took the man to the round-house: I picked up a knife from under the table; Mrs. Thorpe desired me to pick it up; I gave it to her, and she gave it to the patrol; it was full of blood; I did not take notice whether it was fresh or dry blood.

Prisoner. Have not you a warrant against me? - My husband has.

SAMUEL WRIGHT < no role > sworn.

I am one of the patrol. I went to the house. Mrs. Thorpe delivered me a knife: it has been in my custody ever since: I was before the magistrate, Mr. Walker: this knife was produced; the prisoner said, if he was hanged for it, this was his knife, several times.

(The knife produced; a large elasp knife with some blood on it.)

CHARLOTTE BARKER < no role > sworn.

The deceased had been to my sister'sshop for some potatoes; I served her with some, and my sister served her with a penny candle; in about ten minutes, to the best of my knowledge, I was alarmed with the cry of murder; I saw the patrol coming, and I sent them up; I followed them up stairs; the deceased was sitting on the floor, with one knee up, and the other stretched out; she asked me to fetch her a minister and a doctor; I went down stairs, and fetched a surgeon, Mr. Cartwright, and I stood by one side of her, and I saw a pair of scissars lying fastened to the string of her apron; I had seen the wound; and I asked her if the scissars had hurt her; she said, no, he did it with a knife; the prisoner was then gone to the justice's: there was no blood on the scissars at all.

Court. Did she explain who she meant by he? - No, she did not; she was very faint.

Did you repeat the question? - No; I was glad to get out of the room.

JAMES PINNOCK < no role > sworn.

I am the constable; I took the prisoner with the two patroles. She said, she wanted a woman and a doctor.

Mr. Garrow to Mrs. Burke. I believe you Irish women call a midwife a woman? - Yes.

Pinnock. The prisoner said he had been taking some money away from her, and the scissars had run into her side.

THOMAS CARTWRIGHT < no role > sworn.

I am apothecary to the united parishes: I was called upon to see the woman; I found her lying on the floor, and a wound on the right side, on the lower part of the belly, and the intestine protruded about four inches; I found the wound so small (being about an inch in length) I found it impossible to reduce the intestine without making the incision much larger; I went to the hospital, and saw the intestine reduced.

Mr. Garrow. Now by the smallness of the wound, and by its size, could you form a judgment whether it had been made by a cutting instrument or by a puncture? - It appeared to have been made by a cutting instrument; I saw the intestine at the hospital, and it was cut through, which confirmed my opinion, that the wound was made with a knife.

JOHN DINGLE < no role > sworn.

I am resident house-surgeon of the Middlesex hospital. I saw this deceased: there was a small wound made in the lower part of the right side of the belly, through which a considerable portion of the intestine had protruded: after this woman was considered by me in a dangerous state, and she so considered herself, she said to me that her husband had stabbed her with a knife, and before that he had struck her on the head with a small stick.

Who did she mean by her husband? - The prisoner. She died on the Monday morning; the wound she had received was the cause of her death.

From the appearance of it, could it be made by the puncture of a pair of scissars, in a struggle between two persons? - In my judgment it certainly could not, as the intestine had been cut through; I have no doubt but it was done with such an instrument.

PRISONER's DEFENCE.

I had not seen this knife that was produced at the justice's for some time, the week before; it did belong to me; I had not seen it since Tuesday or Wednesday: on this Saturday morning I did work for Mr. Dumay, in German-street, at the Gun Tavern < no role > : I had not a load for this woman, for us both together, as usual; on my return I had half-a-crown in my pocket, which I had earned; I gave it to her to buy provision for the next day; my small clothes were dirtied in carrying these things, and she told me I had dirtied them with a servant maid below stairs; then I went with two bushels of coals, and returning back to my apartment I found my room door open, and nobody in the room; I came down to Eleanor Burke < no role > , and asked her if she saw this woman; I said, I hadlost many things, and should lose more; when she came in I gave her a box of the ear, and she fell right against the window; says I, what is the matter with you? says she, I am cut, I am ruined; and I missed my razors; I could not find them: we had sprats for dinner; and I found the razors under the pillow; she said, she had put them for me; she was repeatedly jealous of me; I turned her away, and she went to the people, and threatened to set the house on fire; and she made such a row that the people told me they would not be bothered about her.

The prisoner called one witness to his character.

GUILTY , Death.

GUILTY, on the coroner's inquisition.

Tried by the first Middlesex Jury before Mr. Justice ASHURST.

Proclamation being made, the Recorder passed sentence as follows:

Prisoner at the bar. You have been convicted after the patient hearing of a discreet jury, to whom you could make no objection, of the very heinous crime of murder; that you may make the best use of the short space of time that is allotted to murderers to remain among us, I announce to you the dreadful information, that the court are perfectly satisfied with the verdict of the jury, by which you are doomed to almost immediate death: bad as the crime of murder is in every case, your crime is highly aggravated by the consideration, that you by cohabiting with this woman had taken her under your pecullar protection; the blow given by you to this woman is not only unlawful as a member of civil society, but it was disgraceful to you as a man; it was an attack made by the strong on the weak; it was an attack made by a man with a deadly weapon in his hand, on a poor defenceless woman; it was attended with a Brutal ferocity, and accompanied with expressions that would disgrace the most ignorant and the most inhuman savage; such as I shall not repeat, because they are too shocking for the hearing of such an audience: this, prisoner, was a conduct which nothing could justify or even mitigate, but a direct and violent attack on your own existence: your mind must have been callous to the feelings of humanity, and to the well-being of others. Let me most seriously now recommended to you, to pay some attention to your own welfare, and to your present situation, and to make the best use of your time; cut off from all hope in this world, if possible, to make your peace with God hereafter: and I, prisoner, pray to the Almighty God, that the execution which you are now about in a most publick manner to suffer, may become a serious example to deter others in future, who may be disposed to commit such violent outrages, against, and in defiance of, the laws of God and man, and to the injury of society. Nothing remains for me but that I pass upon you the sentence of the law; which sentence is, That you be taken from hence to the place from whence you came, and from thence on Monday next to a place of execution, there to be hanged by the neck until you are dead, and your body to be dissected and anatomized , pursuant to the statute in that case made and provided.