The wanton performer of the pretended spirit merited severe punishment, for, with the frogs to the mischievous boys, who were pelting them with stones, they might truly have said, 'It is sport to you, but death to us.'  Besides, the poor man who lost his life being mistaken for this mimic ghost, Smith was condemned to die for the murder.

     One poor woman in particular, who was far advanced in her pregnancy of a second child, was so much shocked, that she took to her bed, and survived only two days.  She had been crossing near the churchyard about ten o’clock at night, when she beheld something, as she described, rise from the tomb-stones.  The figure was very tall, and very white!  She attempted to run, but the ghost soon overtook her, and, pressing her in his arms, she fainted; in which situation she remained some hours, till discovered by some neighbours, who kindly led her home, when she took to her bed, from which, alas! she never rose. 

     The ghost had so much alarmed a waggoner belonging to Mr. Russel, driving a team of eight horses, and which had sixteen passengers at the time, that the driver took to his heels, and left the waggon and horses so precipitately, that the whole were greatly endangered.

     Neither man, woman, nor child, could pass that way for some time; and the report was that it was the apparition of a man who had cut his throat in the neighbourhood above a year ago.

     Several lay in wait different nights for the ghost; but there were so many by-lanes and paths leading to Hammersmith that he was always sure of being on that which was unguarded, and every night played off his tricks, to the terror of the passengers. 

     Francis Smith, doubtless incensed at the unknown person who was in the habit of assuming this supernatural character, and thus frightening the superstitious inhabitants of the village, rashly determined on watching for, and shooting, the ghost; when unfortunately he shot a poor innocent man, Thomas Millwood, a bricklayer, who was in a white dress, the usual habiliment of his occupation.  This rash act having been judged as wilful murder by the coroner's inquest, Smith was accordingly committed to gaol, and took his trial at the ensuing sessions at the Old Bailey, January 13th; when Mr. John Locke, wine-merchant, living in Hammersmith, stated, that on the 3d of January, about half past ten in the evening, he met the prisoner, who told him he had shot a man, whom he believed to be the pretended ghost of Hammersmith.

     A rumour of a ghost walking about at night had prevailed for a considerable time.  He went with the prisoner, in company with Mr. Stowe and a watchman, up Limekiln Lane to Blacklion Lane, where the deceased was lying apparently dead. 

     The witness and Mr. Stowe consulted together upon what was proper to be done, and they directly sent for the high constable.  The body had no appearance of life; there was a shot in the left jaw.  The prisoner was much agitated. The witness told him the consequences likely to be the result of his misconduct.  The prisoner replied, that he fired, but did not  know the person whom he had shot; he also said that, before he fired, he spoke twice to the deceased, but received no answer. 

     Mr. Const, for the prisoner, cross-examined this witness.  For five weeks previous to this melancholy catastrophe, the ghost had been the subject of general conversation in Hammersmith.  He had never seen it. The dress in which the ghost was said to appear corresponded with that worn by the deceased, being white.  The deceased had on white trowsers, down to his  shoes;  a  white apron round him, and a flannel jacket on his body.  The ghost sometimes appeared in white, and frequently in a calf's skin. 

     The prisoner was so agitated when the witness met him, that he could hardly speak.  The deceased, after the prisoner called out, continued to advance towards him, which augmented his fear so much that he fired.  The witness described the evening as very dark: Blacklion Lane was very dark at all times, being between hedges; and on that evening it was so very obscure, that a person on one side of the road could not distinguish an object on the other.

     The prisoner, when he first mentioned the accident, expressed to the witness his wish that he would take him into custody, or send for some person to do so.  The prisoner was a man mild and humane, and of a generous temper.

     William Girdle, the watchman in Hammersmith, after stating that he went to the spot with Mr. Locke, described the posture in which the deceased was found.  He was lying on his back, stretched out, and quite dead.  His left jaw was broken by a shot.  The prisoner came to the witness, and said he had hurt a man, and he was afraid very badly.  Previous to this the prisoner told him he was going to look after the ghost.  The witness replied that he would join him, after crying the hour, and that they would search the lanes together.  They agreed on a watch-word: 'Who comes there?--A friend.--Advance, friend.'  The witness went his rounds, and just before he got to Blacklion Lane he heard the report of a gun.  He took no notice of that circumstance, as he frequently heard firing in the night.  He did not see a gun lying by the deceased.  The prisoner offered to deliver himself up.

     On his cross-examination, the witness said that he himself was armed with a pistol, as other watchmen are.  He had seen the supposed ghost himself on the Thursday before, being the 29th of December.  It was covered with a sheet or large table-cloth.  He encountered it opposite the four-mile stone, and pursued it, but without success, as the spirit pulled off the sheet and ran.  The alarm had been very great for six weeks or two months, and many people had been terribly frightened.  He knew the prisoner, and he was nothing like a cruel man. 

     Anne Millwood, sister to the deceased, was next called.  The Lord Chief Baron lamented that any questions relative to this melancholy affair should be put to her, but for the ends of justice they were rendered indispensably necessary.  She stated that she lived with her father and mother; between ten and eleven of the evening of the third of January, her brother called; he had been to inquire for his wife, who was at Mr. Smith's, the outrider.  The witness and her mother were going to bed, and her mother asked the deceased, whether his wife had come home?  He replied, that she had not.  She then desired him to sit down, and wait for her half an hour.  He sat till the witness heard the clock go eleven.  She then desired him to go home; and he got up and went away, wishing the witness a good night.  He shut the door behind him, and the witness directly went and opened it, stepped out, and stood on some bricks, looking after him.  At that instant she heard a voice exclaim, 'Damn you, who are you, and what are you?  I'll shoot you, if you don't speak.'  This address was directly followed by the discharge of a gun.  The witness, exceedingly alarmed for her brother's safety, called out 'Thomas' three or four times.  The witness then went into the house, but she could not persuade either her father, mother, or a gentleman who lodged with them, that any accident had befallen her brother.  She went out alone, and found him quite dead.  She ran for assistance to a neighbour's house, and in returning from it she saw the prisoner, Mr. Locke, Mr. Stowe, and the watchman.

     Her brother was in his usual working dress, as described by the first witness in his cross-examination.  The witness added, that she had heard great talk of a ghost stalking up and down the neighbourhood, all in white, with horns and glass eyes, but she did not know that any body had ever watched in order to discover and detect the impostor. 

     Mr. Flower, a surgeon at Hammersmith, saw the body the day following the accident; and on the 6th of January examined it by order of Mr. Hodgson, the coroner.  He found that the deceased had received a gun-shot wound on the left lower jaw, with small shot, as he thought, No. 4, which penetrated to the vertebra of the neck, and injured the spinal marrow, which is a continuation of the brain.  The face of the deceased was black, and that blackness was occasioned by the discharge of powder from a gun.  The wound in the jaw was doubtless the cause of Milwood's death.  He knew Smith; he was not a vindictive, but, on the contrary, a remarkably mild man.

     A  constable then stated that the prisoner had surrendered to him, and that he had been two days in his custody.

     This finished the case for the prosecution.

     The prisoner, having been called upon for his defence, said he would leave it to his counsel; but, on being told that they could not speak on his behalf, being only allowed to examine the witnesses, he stated that he went out with no bad design or intention; and that, when the unfortunate accident happened, he knew not what he did.  He solemnly declared his innocence, and that he had no intention or idea of taking the life of any one.

     The prisoner's counsel then called Mrs. Fullbrook, mother-in-law to the deceased: she said that, on the Saturday evening before his death, he told her that two ladies and a gentleman had taken fright at him, as he was coming down the Terrace, thinking he was the ghost.  He told them he was no more a ghost than any of them, and asked the gentleman if he wished for a punch in the head.  The witness advised the deceased in future to put on a great coat, in order that he might not encounter any danger. 

     Thomas Groom was called, as it would appear, to prove that some super natural being actually visited the town of Hammersmith.  He said he was servant to Mr. Burgess, a brewer, and that as he and a fellow-servant were going through the churchyard, one night, something, which he did not see, caught hold of him by the throat. 

     A number of witnesses were then called to the prisoner’s character, which they described as mild and gentle in the extreme. 

     One of these witnesses said he had known the prisoner for fifteen years; and, during that period, his life had been marked by singular acts of humanity and benevolence.

     The Lord Chief Baron, then proceeded to address the jury.  His lordship observed, that nothing which had been stated, or had appeared in this case, could possibly change the nature of the offence from murder.  Although malice was necessary to make out the crime of murder, yet it was not necessary, according to law, to prove that the prisoner had known the deceased, or had cherished any malice, or, as was vulgarly called, spite against him.  If a man should fire into the hall where he was now sitting, and kill any body at random, such a deed was murder.  On the same principle, if a person was killed by design, without any authority, but from a supposition that the person ought to be killed, such an act was also murder, unless the killing was accidental.

     If a man went out armed on the highway, intending to shoot robbers, and should decide in his own mind that an individual whom he might see was a robber, and should kill the man who actually was not a robber, such an act would be held as murder.

     However disgusted the jury might feel in their own minds with the abominable person guilty of the misdemeanour of terrifying the neighbourhood, still the prisoner had no right  to construe such misdemeanour into a capital offence, or to conclude that a man dressed in white was a ghost.  It was his own opinion, and was confirmed by those of his learned brethren on the bench, that if the facts stated in evidence were credible, the prisoner had committed murder.  In this case there was a deliberate carrying out a loaded gun, which the prisoner concluded he was entitled to fire, but which he really was not; and he did fire it with a rashness which the law does not excuse.  In all the circumstances of the case, no man is allowed to kill another rashly.

     His lordship here recapitulated the evidence, and commented on the defence made by the prisoner, which he remarked was singular.  The prisoner had gone out persuaded that he was to meet a man, and yet when he did encounter him, he was so terrified as to be unconscious of what he did.

     The prisoner had received an excellent character; and here his lordship explained the reason why no witness but one could speak to his character farther than two years.  The prisoner was an excise-officer, and, as such, liable to be removed and shifted from one situation to another, so that it was a great chance if he remained long in one place.

     His lordship was afraid that his good character could not avail, in point of law, in that place, whatever effect it might have in another quarter, which did not become him to conjecture.

     The jury retired for above an hour, and returned a verdict 'Guilty of Manslaughter.'

     On hearing this verdict, it was stated by the bench, that such a judgment could not be received in this case; for it ought either to be a verdict of murder, or of acquittal.  If the jury believed the facts, there was no extenuation that could be admitted; for supposing that the unfortunate man was the individual really meant to have been shot, the prisoner would have been guilty of murder.  Even with respect to civil processes; if an officer of justice used a deadly weapon, it is murder, if he occasions death by it even although he had a right to apprehend the person he had so killed.

     Mr. Justice Rooke.----'The Court have no hesitation whatever, with regard to the law, and, therefore, the verdict must be--‘Guilty of Murder,’ or ‘A total acquittal from want of evidence.' 

      Mr. Justice Lawrence.----'You have heard the opinion of the whole Court is settled as to the law on this point, it is therefore unnecessary for me to state mine in particular.  I perfectly agree with the learned judge who stated the law in so clear and able a manner.  If an officer kills a person whom he had aright to apprehend, upon suspicion of felony, he is guilty of murder, except in particular cases.  Now this man was not even attempting to run away, supposing it had been the very person guilty of the misdemeanour; there was, therefore, no excuse for killing him.  But though it had been the person who was alarming the neighbourhood, the prisoner had no right to kill him, even if he should attempt an escape, for the crime is only a misdemeanour.  Upon every point of view, this case is, in the eye of the law, a murder, if it be proved by the facts.  Whether it has or not is for you to determine, and return your verdict accordingly.  The law has been thus stated by Justice Foster, and all the most eminent judges.'

     Recorder.----'I perfectly agree with the learned judges who have spoken.  Gentlemen, consider your verdict again.” 

     The jury then turned round, and, after a short consultation, returned their verdict 'Guilty.' 

     The Lord Chief Baron.----The case, gentlemen, shall be reported to his majesty immediately.' 

     The Recorder then passed sentence of death on the prisoner in the usual form; which was, that he should be executed on Monday next, and his body given to the surgeons to be dissected. 

     The prisoner, who was dressed in a suit of black clothes, was then twenty-nine years of age, a short but well-made man, with dark hair and eyebrows; and the pallid hue of his countenance, during the whole trial, together with the signs of contrition which he exhibited, commanded the sympathy of every spectator.

     Several of the prisoner's relations were present, and apparently in great distress.

     The sessions-house was crowded in every part by nine o'clock; and the yard was filled with an anxious multitude, all making inquiry, and interested in the fate of the prisoner; who, affected by shame and remorse, was now and then so seriously agitated, that he could with difficulty support himself.  When called upon for his defence, his voice faltered, insomuch that it was not without a considerable effort he could articulate a word.  On the retiring of the jury to reflect on his case, and the return of the verdict, he betrayed such apprehensions of real danger, as to deprive him of the power of sustaining himself without the friendly aid of a byestander.

     When the jury returned, he made a sort of desperate effort--stood up, and endeavoured to attend to the verdict given.  When the dreadful word 'Guilty!' was pronounced, he sunk into a state of stupefaction exceeding despair.  He at last retired, supported by the servants of Mr. Kirby. 

     The Lord Chief Baron having told the jury, after they had given their verdict, that he would immediately report the case to his majesty, was so speedy in this humane office, that a “respite during pleasure” arrived at the Old Bailey, before seven o’clock, and on the 25th he received a pardon, on condition of being imprisoned one year.