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BURNT FOR THE MURDER OF HER HUSBAND. (from The Newgate Calendar vol. 2, 1825. 76-77) |
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The Isle of Ely gave birth to this malefactor. She was the daughter of parents who were rather in low circumstances, yet contrived to keep her at school till she was twelve years of age; rightly judging that a tolerable education is frequently the groundwork of prudent and dutiful behaviour. At the age of sixteen she was grown a fine tall girl; at which time she was addressed by a young man, whose love she returned with equal affection. Her father, being apprized of the connexion, strictly charged his daughter to decline it: but there was no arguing against love; the connexion continued till it became criminal. The young fellow beginning to grow tired of her, though he had seduced her under promise of marriage, declared his resolution of going to London, but said that he would wed her on his return. Shocked at this apparent infidelity, she determined on revenge: a revenge that proved fatal to herself, and which she had but too easy a method of carrying into execution. The former lover had no sooner left her than she was addressed by a young man named John Hutchinson; and, though he had been always extremely disagreeable to her, she agreed to marry him the very next day after he had paid her a formal visit. The consequence was, that the marriage took place immediately; but her first admirer happening to return from London just as the newly-wedded pair were coming out of church, the bride was greatly affected at the recollection of former scenes, and the irrevocable ceremony which had now passed. Unable to love the man she had married, she doted to distraction on him she had lost; and, only a few days after her marriage, admitted to his former intimacy with her; a circumstance that gave full scope to the scandal-loving tongues of her neighbours. Hutchinson becoming jealous of his wife, a quarrel ensued, in consequence of which he beat her with great severity: but this producing no alteration in her conduct, he had recourse to drinking, with a view to avoid the pain of reflection on his situation. In the interim his wife and the young fellow continued their guilty intercourse uninterrupted; but, considering the life of her husband as a bar to their happiness, it was resolved to remove him by poison; for which purpose the wife purchased a quantity of arsenic; and Mr. Hutchinson being afflicted with an ague, and wishing for something warm to drink, the wife put some arsenic in ale, of which he drank very plentifully; and then she left him, saying she would go and buy something for his dinner. Meeting her lover, she acquainted him with what had passed; on which he advised her to buy more poison, fearing the first might not be sufficient to operate; but its effects were too fatal, for he died about dinner-time on the same day. Her mother visiting her on the day that the unhappy man died, and being suspicious, from her former conduct, that some indirect methods had been used to destroy him, she said "I am afraid you have done something to your husband;" to which Mrs. Hutchinson only said "What makes you think so, mother?" The deceased was buried on the following Sunday, and the next day the former lover renewed his visits; which occasioning the neighbours to talk very freely of the affair, the young widow was taken into custody the same day on suspicion of having committed the murder. The body of the deceased being now taken up, the coroner's jury was summoned, and the verdict they gave was, "That John Hutchinson had died by poison:" on which the woman was committed to the gaol at Ely. She had counsel to plead for her on the trial; but the evidence against her being such as satisfied the jury, she was convicted, and ordered for execution. After conviction, she confessed the justice of those laws by which she had been condemned. She was attended by a clergyman, to whom she acknowledged the magnitude of her crime, and professed the most unfeigned penitence. Though it does not appear that the base seducer of this unfortunate woman was brought to punishment, yet we are sure that his conscience haunted him with stings to the very last hour of his guilty life. Amy Hutchinson was burnt and strangled at Ely on the 7th of November, 1750.
The miserable woman, willing to make atonement for her crimes, left a written
paper with the clergyman who attended her in her last moments, on which
was the following excellent advice to her own sex:
"All the good I can now do, after my repentance and abhorrence of my abominable crime, and prayers to God is, |