Volume III
|
for Murder 1 of Richard Coleman, who, our readers will recollect, suffered death for the murder of Sarah Green. Two years had passed since Coleman had been ignomini- ously laid in his grave before his memory was rescued from disgrace. Circumstances then, and not before, arose which proved that James Welch, Thomas Jones and John Nichols (the latter of whom was admitted as evidence for the Crown) committed this abhorred murder; and the discovery without a search, so inscrutable are the ways of Providence, was thus effected: Welch, one of the murderers, and a young fellow named James Bush, while walking on the road to Newington Butts, their conversation happened to turn on the subject of those who had been executed without being guilty; and Welch said: " Among whom was Coleman. Nichols, Jones and I were the persons who committed the murder for which he was hanged." In the course of conversation Welch owned that, having been at a public-house called Sot's Hole, they had drunk plentifully, and on their return through Kenning- ton Lane they met with a woman, with whom they went as far as the Parsonage Walk, near the churchyard of Newington where she was so horridly abused by Nichols and Jones that Welch declined offering her any further insult. Bush did not at that time appear to pay any particular attention to what he had heard, but soon afterwards, as he was crossing London Bridge with his father, he addressed him as follows: " Father, I have been extremely ill; and as I am afraid I shall not live long, I should be glad to reveal something that lies heavy on my mind." Thereupon they went to a public-house in the Borough, where Bush related his story to his father, which was scarcely ended when, seeing Jones at the window, they called him in and desired him to drink with them. He had not been long in their company when they told him they had heard he was one of the murderers of Sarah Green, on whose account Coleman had suffered death. Jones trembled and turned pale on hearing what they said; but soon assuming a degree of courage said: " What does it signify? The man is hanged and the woman dead, and nobody can hurt us." To which he added: " We were connected with a woman, but who can tell that was the woman Coleman died for? " In consequence of this acknowledgment Nichols, Jones and Welch were soon afterwards apprehended, when all of them steadily denied their guilt ; and, the hearsay testimony of Bush being all that could be adduced against them, Nichols was admitted evidence for the Crown. In con- sequence of which all the particulars of the horrid murder were developed. The prisoners being brought to trial at the next assizes for the county of Surrey, Nichols deposed that he, with Welch and Jones, having been drinking at the house called Sot's Hole on the night that the woman was used in such an inhuman manner, they quitted that house in order to return home, when, meeting a woman, they asked her if she would drink; which she declined unless they would go to the King's Head, where she would treat them with a pot of beer. Thereupon they went and drank both beer and geneva with her, and then, all the parties going forward to the Parsonage Walk, the poor woman was treated in a manner too shocking to be described. It appeared that at the time of the perpetration of the fact the murderers wore white aprons, and that Jones and Welch called Nichols by the name of Coleman -- circumstances that evidently led to the conviction of the unfortunate man of that name. On the whole state of the evidence there seemed to be no doubt of the guilt of the prisoners, so that the jury did not hesitate to convict them, and sentence of death was passed of course. After conviction these malefactors behaved with the utmost contrition, being attended by the Rev. Dr Howard, Rector of St George's, Southwark, to whom they readily confessed their offences. They likewise signed a declaration, which they begged might be published, containing the fullest assertion of Coleman's innocence. They were executed on Kennington Common, on 6th of September, 1751. |