George Forster
(or Foster) was found guilty of murdering his
wife and child by drowning them in Paddington Canal,
London. He was hanged at Newgate on 18 January 1803,
shortly after which his body was taken to a nearby
house where it was used in an experiment by Italian
scientist Giovanni Aldini.
At his trial the events were
reconstructed. Forster's mother in law recounted
that her daughter and grandchild had left her house
to see Forster at 4pm on Saturday 4 December 1802.
Joseph Bradfield, in whose house
Forster lodged, reported that they had stayed
together that night and gone out at 10am on the
Sunday morning. He also stated that Forster and his
wife had not been on good terms because she wished
to live with him.
Various witnesses saw Forster
with his wife and child in public houses near
Paddington Canal during the day on the Sunday. The
body of his child was found on the Monday morning
and, after the canal was dragged for three days, his
wife's body was also found.
Forster claimed that upon leaving
The Mitre he set out alone for Barnet in order to
see his other two children who were in the workhouse
there, though he was forced to turn back at
Whetstone due to the failing light. This was
contradicted by a waiter at the Mitre who said the
three left the inn together. Scepticism was also
expressed that he could have walked to Whetstone in
the time he claimed.
The jury found him guilty, even
though the evidence was entirely circumstantial. He
was hanged on 18 January, shortly before which he
made a full confession. He said he had come to hate
his wife and had twice before taken his wife to the
canal but his nerve had both times failed him.
After the execution his body was
given to Giovanni Aldini for experimentation. Aldini
was the nephew of fellow scientist Luigi Galvani and
an enthusiastic proponent of his uncle's method of
stimulating muscles with electric current, known as
Galvanism. The experiment he performed on Forster's
body was a demonstration of this technique.
The Newgate Calendar (a record of
executions at Newgate) reports that, "On the first
application of the process to the face, the jaws of
the deceased criminal began to quiver, and the
adjoining muscles were horribly contorted, and one
eye was actually opened. In the subsequent part of
the process the right hand was raised and clenched,
and the legs and thighs were set in motion."
Several of those present believed
that Forster was being brought back to life (The
Newgate Calendar reports that even if this had been
so, he would have been re-executed since his
sentence was to "hang until he be dead") and one man,
Mr Pass, the beadle of the Surgeons' Company, was so
shocked that he died shortly after leaving.
Wikipedia.org
GEORGE FOSTER
Executed at Newgate, 18th of January, 1803, for the Murder of
his Wife and Child, by drowning them in the Paddington Canal;
with a Curious Account of Galvanic Experiments on his Body
THE unfortunate George Foster,
whose conviction, as stated by the Lord Chief Baron in charging
the jury, was most entirely upon circumstantial evidence, was
put upon his trial, on the horrid charge above-mentioned, at the
Old Bailey, January 14, 1803.
The first witness was Jane Hobart, the mother
of the deceased, who stated, that she lived in Old Boswell-court,
and that for some time back, the deceased and her infant lived
with her, but that she generally went on the Saturday nights to
stay with the prisoner, who was her husband; that she left the
witness for that purpose a little before four o’clock, on the
evening of Saturday the 4th of December, taking her infant child
with her; and that she never heard of her from that time until
she was found drowned in the Paddington canal. The prisoner had
four children by her daughter -- the one above alluded to,
another was dead, and two were in the workhouse at Barnet.
Joseph Bradfield, at whose
house the prisoner lodged, in North-row, Grosvenor-square, saw
the deceased with him on the Saturday night of the 4th of
December, and they went out together about ten o’clock on the
Sunday morning. The prisoner returned by himself between eight
and nine o’clock at night, which did not appear remarkable, as
the deceased was not in the habit of sleeping there, except on
the Saturday nights. This witness did not consider them to be on
very good terms, arising, as he believed, from the deceased’s
wishing to live with the prisoner: she used to call at his
lodgings once or twice in the week, besides the Saturdays, on
which nights she always waited to get some money from him. On
the Sunday following, the prisoner and another person went with
the witness to see his mother at Highgate, and on their return,
the prisoner asked if his wife had been at his lodgings; but
which, on his cross-examination, he admitted might arise from
his being surprised at her not coming as usual.
Margaret Bradfield, wife of the last witness,
corroborated his testimony, with the addition, that on the
Wednesday she saw the child which had been found in the
Paddington canal, and which she was positive was the same that
the deceased had taken out with her on the Sunday morning.
Eleanor Winter, who kept what was usually
called the Spotted Dog, but which is now called the Westbourne
Green tavern, between two and three miles from Paddington, along
the canal, swore that she perfectly recollected the prisoner
coming to her house on the morning of the 5th of December, with
a woman and a child with him: they staid at her house, where
they had some beefsteaks, beer, and two glasses of brandy, till
near one o’clock. -- While they were there, she observed the
woman to be crying, and heard her say, she had been three times
there to meet a man who owed her husband some money, and that
she would come no more. This witness had seen the body of the
woman that was found in the canal, and she was certain of its
being the same woman, who was with the prisoner at her house, on
the above morning.
John Goff, waiter at the Mitre
tavern, about two miles further on the canal, related, that the
prisoner, with a woman and child, came to their house some time
about two o’clock on Sunday the 5th of December: they had two
quarterns of rum, two pints of porter, and went away about half
past four. The Mitre is situated on the opposite side of the
canal to the towing path; and when the prisoner and the woman
went away, they turned towards London on that side of the canal,
though there was no path-way, and it would take them at least a
quarter of an hour to get to the first swing-bridge to cross
over; there was a way to pass through a Mr. Fillingham’s grounds,
which would lead them to the Harrow-road, and which he believed
to be much nearer than the side of the canal: but then persons
going that way got over the hedge, and he perceived from the
kitchen window where he was standing, the prisoner and the woman
go beyond that spot. They had no clock in the house, but he had
no doubt as to the time, from its being very near dark when they
went away. On being questioned by one of the jury, he said, that
besides thc place to which he alluded for passing through Mr.
Fiilingham’s ground, there was a gate about one hundred yards
farther on, and to svhicb the prisoner and woman had not got
over when he lost sight of them.
Hannah Patience, the landlady of the Mitre
tavern, recollected seeing the prisoner there on Sunday, Dec. 5,
with a woman and child: they had been there a good while before
she saw them. She served them with a quartern of rum, and they
had a pint of beer after it. They left the Mitre about half past
four, as far as she could judge from the closing of the evening,
for they had no clock. She also recollected Sarah Daniels coming
to buy a candle to take to her master: they were then gone, and
as they were going out, the woman threw her gown over the child,
saying, ‘This is the last time I shall come here.’ In a minute
or two the prisoner came back to look for the child’s shoe,
which could not be found, and then followed the woman. This
witness took no particular notice of them, but thought she had
seen them at her house two or three times before.
Sarah Daniels, aged nine years,
was examined by the court as to her knowledge of the sanctity
and solemnity of an oath, and being satisfied with her answers,
she was sworn, and said, that she met a man following a woman
with a child, walking by the canal, as she was going from Mr.
Filiingham’s to the Mitre; and, from the circumstance of its
being near their time of drinking tea, she was sure that it
could not want much of five o’clock.
Charles Weild, a shopmate of the prisoner,
stated, that he met him a little after six o’clock, in Oxford-street,
on the evening of Sunday the 5th of December, and that they went
together to the Horse Grenadier public-house, where they
continued till after eight.
John Atkins, a boatman employed on the canal,
said, about eight o’clock, on the morning of Monday, he found a
child’s body, under the bow of the boat, at the distance of a
mile from the Mitre; that in consequence of some directions
which he received from Sir Richard Ford, he dragged the canal
for three days, on the last of which close under the window of
the Mitre, he pulled up the woman’s body, entangled in a loose
bush. He had before then felt something heavy against the drag,
at near 200 yards towards London from the house, but he could
not ascertain whether that was the body or not.
Sir Richard Ford produced the examination
which the prisoner signed at Bow-street office, after being
questioned as to its being the truth, and cautioned as to the
consequences it might produce. The account which the prisoner
then gave was as follows:
‘My wife and child came to me
on Saturday se’nnight, about eight o’clock in the evening, and
slept at my lodgings that night. The next morning, about nine or
ten o’clock, I went out with them, and walked to the New Cut at
Paddington; we went to the Mitre tavern, and had some rum, some
porter, and some bread and cheese. Before that we had stopped at
a publichouse near the first bridge, where we had some
beefsteaks and some porter; after which she desired me to walk
further on by the cut, so I went with her. I left her directly I
came out of the Mitre tavern, which was about three o’clock, and
made the best of my way to Whetstone, in order to go to Barnet,
to see two of my children, who are in the workhouse there. I
went by the bye lanes, and was about an hour and a half walking
from the Mitre to Whetstone. When I got there, I found it so
dark that I would not go on to Barnet, but came home that night.
I have not seen my wife nor child since; I have not enquired
after them, but I meant to have done so to-morrow evening, at
Mrs. Hobart’s. -- I came home from Whetstone that evening
between seven and eight o’clock; I saw no person in going to
Whetstone; nor did I stop any where, at any publichouse, or
elsewhere, except the Green Dragon, at Highgate, where I had a
glass of rum. My wife had a black gown on, and a black bonnet;
the child had a straw bonnet, and white bedgown. My wife was a
little in liquor.
(Signed) ‘GEORGE FOSTER.
‘Witness, Richard Ford,
December 27, 1802.’
‘Prisoner says, before he left the Mitre Tavern, on the said
Sunday his wife asked the mistress of the inn whether she could
have a bed there that night, which the prisoner afterwards
repeated; that she asked half a crown for one, which the
prisoner and his wife thought too much, and the latter said she
would go home to her mother.’
The latter part of this was
positively contradicted by the landlady, not a single word about
a bed having passed between her and the deceased.
W. Garner, a shopmate of the prisoner, called
upon him at the Brown Bear, in Bow-street, after he was taken
into custody; to whom the prisoner said, he was as innocent of
the charge as the child unborn; and that if any one would come
forward to say, or swear, that he was at such a place on that
night, he should be cleared immediately. The witness understood
him to refer to the Green Dragon, at Highgate.
James Bushwell, a coachmaker,
declared, that the prisoner was one of the most diligent men he
had ever employed; and, from his having so very good an opinion
of him, on hearing he was in custody, he went himself to see if
he could render him any service; that upon his making that offer,
the prisoner replied, that if it was not too much trouble, he
would thank him to go to the Green Dragon, at Highgate, and
enquire if a man was not there on the Sunday evening, who had a
glass of rum, and asked after Mrs. Young: with which he complied;
but, as the rules of evidence would not admit of Mr. Bushwell’s
giving the answer, Elizabeth Southall, who keeps the Green
Dragon, was called, who said she perfectly recollected such a
circumstance, but she could not exactly say what Sunday it was;
and, besides, the man who did so enquire, had a woman with an
infant in her arms with him, and to whom the man turned round
and said, That is Bradfield’s mother.
The prisoner made no other defence than
contradicting some parts of the evidence of the waitcr at the
Mitre.
George Hodgson, Esq., coroner of the county,
and before whom an inquest on these bodies had been taken, said
there was not the least mark of violence upon either the woman
or the child; of course, the report of the latter’s arm being
broken was false.
From being acquainted with the place, he was
examined particularly as to the way through Mr. Fillingham’s
grounds and which he affirmed to be far the nearest way to town.
He could not undertake to say what the actual distance from the
Mitre to Whetstone was, but he was sure it could not be less,
even through the lanes and over the fields, than seven or eight
miles, and about the same distance from Whetstone to town.
Four witnesses were called to
the prisoner’s character, who all agreed in his being an
industrious and humane man.
The Chief Baron, in summing up to the jury,
said, that this was a case which almost entirely depended upon
circumstances, but in some cases that might be best evidence, as
it was certainly the most difficult, if not impossible, to
fabricate; they, however, would deliberately judge how far they
brought the charge home to the prisoner, so as not to leave a
doubt on their minds before they pronounced him guilty. His
lordship noticed some inconsistencies in the written paper which
the prisoner had signed, observing, that in one part of the
story the prisoner was contradicted by several witnesses; and
that it was scarcely to be presumed that the prisoner could walk
such a distance (from the Mitre to Whetstone) in so short a
time. There were other traits of the story which were also
extremely dubious. The learned judge then went through the whole
of the evidence, remarking thereon as he proceeded; and the jury,
after some consultation, pronounced a verdict of guilty.
This was no sooner done, than the Recorder
proceeded to pass sentence upon the prisoner; which was, that he
be hanged by the neck, next Monday morning, until he be dead,
and that then his body be delivered to be anatomized, according
to the law in that case made and provided.
This unfortunate malefactor was executed
pursuant to his sentence, January 18, 1803. At three minutes
after eight he appeared on the platform before the debtor’s door
in the Old Bailey, and after passing a short time in prayer with
Dr. Ford, the ordinary of Newgate, the cap was pulled over his
eyes, when the stage falling from under him, he was launched
into eternity.
When he ascended the platform his air was
dejected in the extreme; and the sorrow manifested in his
countenance depicted the inward workings of a heart conscious of
the heinous crime be had committed, and the justness of his
sentence.
From the time of his
condemnation to the moment of his dissolution, he had scarcely
taken the smallest nourishment; which, operating with a tortured
conscience, had so enfeebled him, that he was obliged to be
supported from the prison to the gallows, being wholly incapable
of ascending the staircase with out assistance. Previous to his
decease, he fully confessed his having perpetrated the horrible
crime for which he suffered: confessed that he had unhappily
conceived a most inveterate hatred for his wife, that nothing
could conquer, and determined to rid himself and the world of a
being he loathed: acknowledged also, that he had taken her twice
before to the Paddington canal, with the wicked intent of
drowning her, but that his resolution had failed him, and she
had returned unhurt; and even at the awful moment of his
confession, and the assurance of his approaching dissolution, he
seemed to regret more the loss of his infant, than the
destruction of the woman he had sworn to cherish and protect. He
was questioned, as far as decency would permit, if jealousy had
worked him to the horrid act; but be made no reply, except
saying, that ‘he ought to die'; and dropped into a settled and
fixed melancholy, which accompanied him to his last moments. He
was a decent looking young man, and wore a brown great coat,
buttoned over a red waistcoat, the same in which be was tried.
He died very easy; and, after hanging the
usual time, his body was cut down and conveyed to a house not
far distant, where it was subjected to the galvanic process by
Professor Aldini, under the inspection of Mr Keate, Mr Carpue
and several other professional gentlemen. M. Aldini, who is the
nephew of the discoverer of this most interesting science,
showed the eminent and superior powers of galvanism to be far
beyond any other stimulant in nature. On the first application
of the process to the face, the jaws of the deceased criminal
began to quiver, and the adjoining muscles were horribly
contorted, and one eye was actually opened. In the subsequent
part of the process the right hand was raised and clenched, and
the legs and thighs were set in motion. Mr Pass, the beadle of
the Surgeons' Company, who was officially present during this
experiment, was so alarmed that he died of fright soon after his
return home.
Some of the uninformed
bystanders thought that the wretched man was on the eve of being
restored to life. This, however, was impossible, as several of
his friends, who were under the scaffold, had violently pulled
his legs, in order to put a more speedy termination to his
sufferings. The experiment, in fact, was of a better use and
tendency. Its object was to show the excitability of the human
frame when this animal electricity was duly applied. In cases of
drowning or suffocation it promised to be of the utmost use, by
reviving the action of the lungs, and thereby rekindling the
expiring spark of vitality. In cases of apoplexy, or disorders
of the head, it offered also most encouraging prospects for the
benefit of mankind.
The professor, we understand, had made use of
galvanism also in several cases of insanity, and with complete
success. It was the opinion of the first medical men that this
discovery, if rightly managed and duly prosecuted, could not
fail to be of great, and perhaps as yet unforeseen, utility.
NOTE:-- An experiment was made on a convict
named Patrick Redmond, who was hanged for a street robbery, on
the 24th of February, 1767, in order to bring him to life. It
appeared that the sufferer had hung twenty-eight minutes when
the mob rescued the body and carried it to an appointed place,
where a surgeon was in attendance to try the experiment
bronchotomy, which is an incision in the windpipe, and which in
less than six hours produced the desired effect. A collection
was made for the poor fellow, and interest made to obtain his
pardon, for it will be remembered that the law says the
condemned shall hang until he be dead; consequently men who,
like Redmond, recovered, were liable to be again hanged up until
they were dead.
The Newgate Calendar |
