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1904 - Bridget Fleming
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Worcestershire Genealogy.
Dudley MBC
"While the cock with lively din, Scatters the rear of darkness thin; And to
the stack, or the barn door, Stoutly struts his dames before; Oft list'ning how
the hounds and horn, Cheerly rouse the slumb'ring morn.”
John Milton |
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"Joseph Penn, aged 32, was indicted for the wilful murder of Prudence
Hughes on the 24th of September last, in the parish of Sedgley, in this county.
Mr. Yardley and Mr. Huddleston conducted the case on the part of the
prosecution; and Mr. Allen [with whom was Mr. Keyson] appeared for the prisoner.
The prisoner, whose occupation was that of drawing coals, resided at Caddick's
End, near Dudley; and it appeared that an illicit connection had for some years
existed between him and the deceased, who lived at Sedgley, and that by her he
had several children. On the night of the 23rd of September last the prisoner
and the deceased were at a public-house in Birmingham Street, Dudley, called the
Hare and Mounds, where there yeas a woman named Ann Slater, who lived with the
deceased, and three men, Hill, Walker, and Ball. At about midnight the prisoner,
the deceased, Ann Slater, and Hill, left the Hare and Hounds, and proceeded
along the road towards Sedgley. There was much discrepancy in the testimony of
the witnesses to the state in which these four persons were at that time, some
declaring that neither of them were sober, and the others positively denying
that any one of them was in the slightest degree intoxicated. Slater and Hill
walked first, and the prisoner and the deceased followed. After they had
proceeded some distance along the road the deceased came up to Ann Slater and
Hill and showed her lip, which was cut through and slightly bleeding; at this
time the prisoner was about five yards behind them. Shortly afterwards Ann
Slater stopped at the house of a Mr. Cartwright, which was on the road, and the
deceased and Hill went on about forty yards, when the prisoner came up with
them. Hill walked after this time as far as a public house called the Green
Dragon, and on turning and retracing his steps in about ten minutes, saw the
prisoner and deceased on opposite sides of the road, and heard him say to her
"d**** your eyes, you ought to be ashamed of yourself." The prisoner then went
towards Dudley, and Hill immediately approached the deceased, who was crying,
and he remained with her for about ten minutes, and just before she parted from
him he noticed the prisoner walking on the opposite side of the road, in the
direction of Sedgley, and about five minutes afterwards the deceased left him
and proceeded on her way home. Hill and Ann Slater went along a different road.
The prisoner was dressed in a white smock-frock. About two, a.m. on the 24th,
that is on the same night, or rather following morning, a man, named Carter, who
lived at Gornal, hearing a scream proceed, as he thought, from a woman, rose up,
and going to his window, saw a man in a white frock, and a woman with him. The
man said to the woman "You d**** b****, I've been watching you," and then struck
her with his fist between the shoulders, but rather lower down on the back. The
blow sent her reeling. The woman said nothing then. The man then struck her
again with his fist in nearly the same place, and she fell to the ground.
Carter, on seeing this, opened his window, and cried out, "My man, you had like
to have done it," but received no answer. The woman said, "It's of no use, I
cannot go any farther." Carter then heard a trickling, as of water. The man laid
hold of the woman's left arm and helped her along. Carter saw another man, and
then a man and a woman pass his window. At seven o'clock Carter got up, and saw
on the road under his window, where the woman had been lying, some blood, and
about twelve yards further on, found traces of blood, and in one spot the track
was about one foot in width. The woman had on a dark shawl, and this the man
removed and threw over his own shoulder. Maria Cartwright, the post mistress of
Gornal, on the morning of the same day, heard under her window, which fronted
the road, a man's voice in anger, and heard a blow, in a moment afterwards she
heard a second blow, and a stifled cry of oh, in a female voice. She described
it as if the person who uttered the sound had her mouth covered with the hand.
Mrs. Cartwright heard a third blow, which was followed by another stifled cry,
in a female voice, of "murder." This occurred at about two o'clock. Two
policemen, Isaac Tomkinson and Francis Eager, who were on duty that morning,
found on the road near a field, the prisoner and the deceased. The deceased was
lying across the side of the path, and resting on a bundle containing blankets,
and the prisoner was standing beside her. Tomkinson asked the prisoner what was
the matter, and he said that she had been drinking in Birmingham Street, and was
intoxicated. Tomkinson, however, perceiving some blood, inquired what was the
meaning of that; when the prisoner stated that the woman was his wife, and was
miscarrying. Tomkinson then went for a cart, and meeting Ann Slater, sent her
for a surgeon. While Tomkinson was absent, Eager [the other policeman], with the
assistance of the prisoner and of a man named Wilcox, carried the deceased to a
public house called the Jolly Crispins, and soon after the surgeon's arrival and
the return of Tomklnson, conveyed the prisoner to the station at Coseley. Both
the policemen stated that the prisoner had on a white smock-frock, and the
deceased a dark-coloured shawl. There were marks of blood on the prisoner's
dress, which however might, as it was suggested, had been received while he was
assisting in the removal of the deceased, and holding her legs, as during that
time she was bleeding profusely. While at the station house at Coseley, the
prisoner made a statement to Maurice Costello, a policeman there, the substance
of which was that he accidentally came into the company of the deceased and Ann
Slater at Dudley - that they partly forced, partly induced him to go and drink
with them at the Hare and Hounds. That he wished the deceased to go home and
mind her children, and watched her on the road to see whether she would do so.
That at Gornal he went into a dark corner to see whether she would go home, and
in a few minutes, on coming back, saw her leaning against a wall, and a man
kneeling or sitting within a yard of her. The prisoner further stated that he
then asked her why she did not go home, and put his hand to her and pushed her.
That he might have struck her, but that he did not think he had done so, and
that he was very tipsy at the time. Having said this, the prisoner began to cry,
and expressed a hope that Costello would do the best he could for him. The
prisoner appears to have supported the children to the best of his ability, and
it was proved that be rendered every assistance in carrying the unfortunate
woman from the road into the Jolly Crispins. On the other hand, it was stated by
Walker and Ball, the two men who were at the Hare and Hounds on the same night
as the prisoner and the deceased, that he had said respecting her "She is a rum
one, and I'll make a rum one of her; I'll commit a hard by murder before I go to
bed." The injuries were described by Mr. Ballender, the surgeon, who was called
upon to attend the deceased on the morning of the 24th of September, as of a
very serious nature. The deceased stated to Mr. Ballender, that the injuries
were not done to her by the prisoner, but caused by a fall, and this statement
she made very soon after he was called in, be he gave it as his opinion that
they could not have resulted from a fall. The immediate cause of her death,
which took place at nine o'clock on the same morning, was haemorrhage, produced
by the rupture of two arteries, one of which, however, the surgeon considered,
could not have been injured by the external violence alleged to have been used
towards the deceased. Mr. Allen addressed the jury on behalf of the prisoner.
The learned Judge summed up, and after a short deliberation, the jury returned a
verdict of manslaughter. The sentence was deferred."
London Morning
Chronicle 20th December 1840
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