All the defence which the prisoner made, was only this, that he was
threatened into the confession that he had made, and was in such a
consternation, that he did not know what he said or did. But then it
was sworn by two witnesses, that there was no such thing as any
threatening made use of; but that he made a free and voluntary
confession, only with this addition at first; that he told the Lord
Mayor, he had sold his wife for five shillings; but not being able to
name either the person or the place where she might be produced, that
was looked upon as too frivolous to outweigh circumstances, that were
proofs to apparent.
**The information of Thomas Lofthouse, of Ruforth, taken upon oath the
twenty-fourth day of April, 1690,
WHO sayeth and deposeth, that one William Barwick, who lately married
this informant's wife's sister,came to this informant's house, about
the fourteenth instant, and told this informant, he had carried his wife
to one Richard Harrison's house in Selby, who was uncle to him, and
would take care of her; and this informant hearing nothing of the said
Barwick's wife, his said sister-in-law, imagined he had done her some
mischief, did yesterday go to the said Harrison's house in Selby, where
he said he had carried her to; and the said Harrison told this informant,
he knew nothing of the said Barwick, or his wife, and this informant doth
verily believe the said Barwick to have murdered her.
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