And indeed so
certainly does the revenge of God pursue the abominated murderer,
that, when witnesses are wanting of the fact, the very ghosts of the
murdered parties cannot rest quiet in their graves, till they have
made the detection themselves. Of this we are now to give the reader
two remarkable examples that lately happened in Yorkshire; and no
less signal for the truth of both tragedies, as being confirmed by the
trial of the offenders, at the last assizes held for that county.
The first of these murders was committed by William Barwick, upon the
body of Mary Barwick, his wife, at the same time big with child. What
were the motives, that induced the man to do this horrid fact, does
not appear by the examination of the evidence, or the confession of
the party: only it appeared upon the trial, that he had got her with
child before he married her: and 'tis very probable, that, being then
constrained to marry her, he grew weary of her, which was the reason
he was so willing to be rid of her, though he ventured body and soul
to accomplish his design.
The murder was committed on Palm-Monday, being the fourteenth of
April, about two of the clock in the afternoon, at which time the
said Barwick having drilled his wife along 'till he came to a certain
close, within sight of Cawood-Castle, where he found the conveniency
of a pond, he threw her by force into the water, and when she was
drowned, and drawn forth again by himself upon the bank of the pond,
had the cruelty to behold the motion of the infant, yet warm in her
womb.
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