Account of the Crimes of Mary Bateman (Tried and Executed for Murder)

Crimes against the Perigo’s

October 14, 1808

The National Register

WITCHCRAFT, MURDER AND CREDULITY.

An artful and villainous plot, accompanied by the most unprecedented utterances of credulity that ever engaged public attention, was lately developed before the Magistrates at the Rotation Office, Leeds. The parties were Mary Bateman, of Campfield, near this town, and William Perigo and his wife, of Bramley; she, the witch, and they the dupes. It appeared that in August, 1806, an application was made to this woman by Perigo, to cure his wife of a complaint which was not stated on the examination, but which we suppose to be what is called among people of her rank, “nervous,” and amongst their betters “the hip”. Mary, with becoming modesty, declined to undertake the cure herself; but said, that she had a friend at Scarborough, a Miss Blyth, who could “read the stars,” and collect from them the knowledge requisite to remove all corporeal and mental maladies, and as a preliminary step required that Perigo’s wife should send her flannel petticoat to Miss Blyth, in order that she might from that article of dress collect a knowledge of her disorder; the petticoat was sent, and a answer returned, wherein it was required that the Medium, Mary Bateman, though which all communication betwixt the Astrologer and Patient was to be made, should have four guinea notes presented to her, and she was in return to give Perigo four other guinea notes in a small bag, into which if either his own curiosity or the still stronger curiosity of his wife should induce them to look, the charm would be broken, and sudden death would be the consequence. Strange as it may appear, the wife of Perigo never looked into the enchanted bag to the day of her death. Soon after the four guineas had been given to Mary Bateman, a letter arrived from Scarborough, directing that another guinea should be paid into her hands. Similar requests were repeated and complied with, till forty guineas had been thus extorted from these infatuated people, under a promise, however, that they should by and by be allowed to open the bags and these bags, they were told, would be found to contain all the money they had advanced.

About six months had now expired, and the business of fraud and delusion still went on. Miss Blyth could not, while certain planets ruled, sleep on her own bed; and in order to promote the comfort of the “wise woman,” Perigo was to buy her a new bed, with all the necessary appendages, and sent it to Mary Bateman, through whose hands it was to be transmitted to the nymph at Scarborough. The bed &c., which cost eight pounds was bought and notes to the amount of thirty pounds more, paid at various times into the hands of the Imposter. Unbounded in her extortions, she next demanded a set of china; this was also furnished to her; but she complained that the tea canister was not sufficiently handsome to set before the genteel company kept by a lady of her distinction, and demanded a tea-caddy in its stead; which demand was also complied with.

Perigo and his wife, thus drained of all the money they had in the world, and all the sums their former good credit had enabled them to raise, and the wife’s health still growing worse rather than better, they became impatient to look into the mysterious bags and extract from them the wealth they contained. Their curious impatience probably became troublesome, when, to silence their importunity, Mrs. Bateman received, as she said, a packet from Scarborough; this packet contained a powerful charm, which was to be mixed up in a pudding, to be prepared for the purpose, and of which Perigo and his wife were to eat, but on no account allow any person to partake with them. They did eat, and there is but too much reason to suppose that this vile woman had said within herself in the day you eat thereof you shall surely die. The husband ate sparingly, he did not like the taste, but his ill fated wife, less scrupulous, ate freely, they both became sick almost immediately and continued in the most deplorable situation for twenty-four hours; the wife lost the use of her limbs, and after languishing five days, died on the 24th of May 1807, a victim of credulity. Perigo recovered partially, but from that time to the present has never had the perfect use of his limbs. Part of the pudding was, by way of experiment, given to a cat, and it died; some fowls also picked up other parts of it and shared the same fate. Contrary to the direction of Mary Bateman, Perigo appealed to a surgeon in this town for advice; and was told by him that he had taken poison, but fortunately not in a quantity sufficient to occasion his death.

After the death of his wife, it is natural to suppose that the husband would have possessed sufficient fortitude to emancipate himself from the fangs of this wicked woman; this, however, was not the case, she had thrown her coils over him, and though the wife might not have been, as she supposed, bewitched, it is pretty evident the husband was under some such influence. From May 1807, till Wednesday last, the charm continued to operate and the spell could not be dissolved.

At one time he went to Manchester by the direction of this Jezebel; at another he sent her one of his wife’s gowns, again she contrived to coax or frighten him out of another gown, a petticoat, and the family bible! And last of all she demanded from him half a bushel of wheat, with three seven shilling pieces inclosed. His creditors, at length, became impatient, and the hopes of getting any part of his property back failing, he determined to brave all danger and look into the mysterious bags–but what must have been his surprise and vexation to find that the contents of these bags were not worth one penny!! And to find himself a pauper, without property and with a ruined constitution.

The bubble now burst; and after having kept the business an entire secret from every soul living, his wife alone excepted, for upwards of two years, he laid his hopeless case before some of his neighbours; by their direction Mary Bateman was apprehended; when brought before the Magistrates she in part confessed her delinquency, and admitted that there was no such person as Miss Blyth in existence but that the whole was a mere phantom, conjured up to forward her vile purposes. The Magistrates have committed the offender to the House of Correction, whether to be tried for swindling practices, or to be removed from there to the County gaol there to take her trial for wilful murder, we are not informed.

On searching the house of this woman (who has a husband and several children) the bed and some other articles, the property of William Perigo, amounting to the value of about 10 or 12l., were found and will be restored to the owner.

It is worthy of observation that Mary Bateman is the person whose hen laid an egg, about two years ago, at the Bank in this town, bearing the marvelous inscription “Christ is coming.”

MORE WITCHCRAFT.

October 26 National Register

We last week exposed to public view some of the wicked and diabolical arts practised by Mary Bateman of Campfield, near Leeds, upon the distressed and ruined family of William Perigo, of Bramley.

We have another atrocious act of the same kind to communicate.

James Snowden and his family have also been the dupes of Mary Bateman, in a degree little inferior to Perigo; living at the next door to this artful woman, she learnt that Snowden’s wife had a sort of presentment that one of her children would be drowned, and offered her services to avert so heavy a calamity. The agency of Miss Blyth was called in here again. Mary pretended to write to her at Thirsk, and received a letter directing that James Snowden’s silver watch should be sowed up in the bed by Mary Bateman;--next, money to the amount of twenty guineas was demanded, and obtained in a manner a good deal similar to the way in which it was extorted from Perigo; this was also to be sewed up in the bed. By and by, it became necessary, Miss Blyth said, in order to prevent their son being drowned, and their daughter becoming abandoned, that Snowden’s family should leave Leeds and go to Bowling, in the neighbourhood of Bradford, taking the bed with the watch and money in it with them, but leaving a considerable portion of their property in their house at Leeds and giving Mary Bateman the key. At length, they expressed their wish to Mary to be allowed to look into the bed and take out the watch and money, but the time had not yet arrived; and before this inspection was to be made, the family of Snowden were to take a dose, which was at that time in preparation for them, and was to have been administered during the present week! Happily, this dose was never taken. On Saturday last, James Snowden was passing part of his evening at a public house in Bradford, and the Leeds Mercury being produced, one of the company undertook to read the article which had produced so much conversation during the day, under the head “Witchcraft, Murder, Credulity:”--Snowden heard the narrative with violent emotion; when it was finished, he started from his chair and made the best of his way home. HIs first care was to open the folds of the bed, when lo! Instead of his watch and money, he found–at Coal! He next came over to Leeds, and found his house, which he had left in the care of Mary Bateman, plundered, and on a search warrant being procured, part of the property was found in Bateman’s house;--John Bateman was in consequence apprehended, and remitted to York Castle to take his trial for the offence. The dark history does not end here.

Judith Cryer, a poor need widow, in Meadow-lane, in this town, who earns her livelihood by getting up linen, was another dupe. In the month of April last the grandson of this poor widow, a boy 11 years of age, had occasioned her some uneasiness, this being observed by Winnifred Bond (a kind of agent to the sorcerer) she recommended to her Mary Bateman, as a person who could remove the cause of her distress; Judith consented to see this wicked woman, who having learnt the nature of her uneasiness, recommended an application to MIss Blyth. Miss Blyth again! This being consented to, Mary Bateman undertook to write to her dear friend. In a few days an answer was received from this lady, which shocked poor Judith beyond description: the letter contained a representation of a gallows, with its usual appendage, a rope, accompanied by the horrid denunciation that the grandson would be executed on the gallows before he attained 14 years of age, and that his fate could only be averted by four guineas being raised by the old woman, and appropriated as Miss Blyth should afterwards direct. It was in vain that this poor woman declared her inability to raise so large a sum; the sorceress was inexorable; the sum was at length obtained with extreme difficulty, it was then put into a leather bag, and sewed up in Judith’s bed, where it was to remain untouched and unlooked at until the boy had attained the age of 14 years. The former part of these instructions were immediately carried into effect, the money was deposited as directed and if the detection and apprehension of the witch had not occurred the latter part, as far as depended on this poor woman, would have been scrupulously observed; but the apprehension of the sorceress having dissolved the charm, the unfortunate victim of her spells ventured on Saturday se’nnight to unsew the bed and look for her money; it is hardly necessary to add, that she looked in vain–it was not to be found.

Mary Bateman, not content with plundering this poor widow of her last mite, actually prevailed upon her to wash for her three months, to defray the expense of the postages incurred in effecting the infamous robbery.

A circumstance has been mentioned since the commitment of Mary Bateman that has given rise to no small share of conjecture and surmise, and which has not, we are happy to say, escaped the attention of the Magistracy.

In the month of September 1803, Miss Kitchen, a shop-keeper near St. Peter’s-square, in this town, along with her sister and mother, who came over from Wakefield to visit her, were taken suddenly ill and all three of them died within ten days, of a complaint then said to be cholera morbus; a Physician of eminence was called in, to visit the last surviving sister, entertained, however, a different opinion, and was so strongly impressed with the belief that their sickness and subsequent death proceeded from some poisonous drug having been received into the stomach; that he examined with much care, many of the vessels in the house, and asked if any water for poisoning flies had been in used, and expressed a wish to open the body. The family being all dead, and no persons at hand who thought themselves authorised to give this permission, the corpse was interred unexamined, and with it probably the opportunity of detection, unless by means inescapable to human wisdom. It must be remarked, that Mary Bateman was on terms of the strictest intimacy with Miss Kitchen, and although she had no visible business there, here anxiety about the fate of these unfortunate females, kept her constantly about the house, and led her to procure for the sister who died first, a medicine from some country Doctor, Miss Blyth perhaps, After the death of the family it was discovered that all Miss Kitchen’s books were missing and her property so much diminished by plunder that her creditors divided eight pence in the pound.

In manners Mary Bateman is very plausible; of an appearance sedate and respectable, and, as Shakespeare says of Richard,

“Seems a Saint when she must plays the Devil.

Indictment

January 15, 1809

The Examiner

On Friday se’nnight, Mary Bateman was examined at the Town Clerk’s Office, Leeds, before the Magistrates of that borough, on the charge of murder, by wilfully administering poison to Rebecca Perigo, wife of William Perigo, of Bramley, near that town, in the month of May, 1807. The particulars of this transaction we have already laid before the public. After a long examination, she was committed to York Castle, to take her trial at the next assizes, on the charge of wilful murder.

The Trial, Sentence & Execution

From the Trial of Mary Bateman reported by Mr. Vincent. Attorney, present at the Execution (1809).

The trial of Mary Bateman began on March 13, 1809 in York. She was convicted of murder and the Judge passed the following sentence:

Prisoner, You have been tried on an indictment of the most aggravating kind that ever was brought into a court of justice; you have had a fair trial of twelve hours, and every case materially weighed, the balance, if any, would have turned in your favour, but alas! There is none. You are accused of witchcraft and sorcery,and having an intercourse with spirits in the supernatural kind all which has proved mere deception and wickedness. You have carried your deceptions on with Miss Blyth of Scarborough of which there is no such lady; you have forged her name to certain letters in order to carry on your wicked and mischievous plot; making yourself a second agent when you are yourself the principal. All this you have turned out to your own advantage: you have dealt subtlety with the deceased and her husband by your credulity; and taken advantage of their weakness and ignorance by fraud, by cruelly and by death itself. You have been tried by a wise and discreet jury of your country, who have wisely discharged their duty in their verdict; it therefore remains for me to conclude the painful task of passing the sentence of the law upon you as your crimes justly deserve–That is: That you be taken from the bar of this court to the prison from whence you came; that you be removed on Saturday next to the usual place of execution, there to be hanged until you are dead; that your body is then to be give to the surgeons’ for dissection–and the Lord have mercy on your soul.

This sentence the prisoner heard without any emotion; and immediately addressed the Judge, pleading an extension of time for that she was twenty-three weeks gone with child.

A jury of matrons were immediately impaneled, who returned a verdict of –NOT QUICK.

The trial lasted twenty-four hours, and we never see a court so crowded as on the present occasion.

After sentence, when the prisoner was found guilty, she was visited by her friends, professors of the same opinions.

She pretended that she had a second sight of that bright angelic being who would convey her soul to eternity and glory. She produced a seal and wore it near her heart: a child about a year old was sucking at her breast. She was continually in the vision trances and sights of angelic beings; and would not hold conversation with any one but the followers of Johanna Southcote.

The evening before she was to suffer, the worthy clergyman that attends the prisoners in the castle of York, warned her of her unhappy end, to confess the crime of which she was to suffer for, to make her peace with God and die in peace with all mankind. She answered him, all this she had taken care for, but assured him that she should not die in that way. She likewise begged him not to trouble her as she was a woman approved of by the Most High.--The clergyman could make no impression on her, therefore he left her.

ACCOUNT OF THE EXECUTION.

On Saturday, March 18, at 7, they prepared to execute the sentence of the law, the chapel bell tolled for prayers, but the prisoner would not attend service. The service being ended, she was summoned to the press-yard. The child who was sucking, she gave up without a groan–what a dreadful scene of a mother parting with her child just as she was going to be launched into eternity. She was then conveyed to the place of execution, all this she bore without a symptom of sorrow. She ascended the platform on the castle with quick and firm steps; she was attended by a minister and a great concourse of people from Leeds, and many of her followers, who declared in the presence of many people that she would be delivered before the executioner could perform his office, that her soul would be delivered from the body by supernatural power, or that she would fly off the scaffold in a cloud, or on a BROOM, and be saved by the interposition of heaven. She denied being guilty of murder, and in opposition to all her supposed tenets, she died extremely hardened and unrepenting.--After hanging the usual time her body was delivered to the surgeons.--She made no speech at the scaffold–was dressed in white, and showed no marks of sorrow, but appeared as cool and happy as if going to a wedding.--Upwards of 20,000 spectators were pressed at the execution–at Leeds 10 pounds was offered for a chaise.