Grace Shaw in 1721; convicted of manslaughter and his hand burned From the 1764 Select Trials
This case recalls that of the Cock Lane Ghost in 1762 (see William Bristow, The Mystery Revealed; Bristow, 1742), where local politics and infighting influenced the course of a trial. The principal witnesses against Fabricius hoped to see him convicted because he had blocked up a passage which had formerly been a public right of way; their testimonies were clearly influenced by personal resentment. The complication, to modern eyes, is the harsh treatment accorded servants as a matter of course: the severe beatings Shaw received at Fabricius’s hands may not have caused her death directly but they would today be considered a grave crime in their own right; in the eighteenth century they were thought as part of a servant’s unhappy lot. (The complete entry is given here.)
THEODORE CHRISTOPHER FABRICIUS, FOR MURDER, JULY 1721
Theodore Christopher Fabricius, of St Leonard, Shoreditch, Gent. was indicted for the murder of Grace Shaw, by striking, wounding and bruising her, with a wooden staff, on the head, face, neck, back and belly, on the 18th of June 1721, of which striking, wounding and bruising, she languish’d till the 26th of the same month, and then dy’d. He was a second time indicted on the coroner’s inquest for the said murder.
Elizabeth Wilson. I liv’d next door to the prisoner, who is a mad doctor, and the deceased liv’d with him as a servant; but I can’t tell whether she was under cure, or not; but thus much I know, that I have often heard her shriek out, and have seen the Doctor beat her several times a day, and even upon Sundays too; sometimes with his fist, and sometimes with a whip; and above all I remember, that, upon the 18th of June last, he us’d her very barbarously, for which I took him to task; but he up and told me, That it was no business of mine, and he’d make me hold my tongue, that he would.
Sarah Morris. I saw the prisoner beat the deceased severely in the garden—I think it was with a whip, and then he took and shov’d her in a doors [i.e. indoors], and I heard him give her some strokes in the house—This was on the 24th of June.
Benjamin Green. About seven or eight weeks ago I went into the prisoner’s house, with a couch-bed, and was lock’d in a room with the deceas’d. She was black about the eyes, and told me, that her master did it, and that he would be the death of her before he had done.
Katherine Green. I did not see the prisoner strike the deceas’d, but (as I verily believe) I heard him almost every day, for two months together, and particularly on the Sunday before her death, I heard a great noise of beating and crying, and then I saw the deceas’d run out from the Doctor.
Mary Cowell. My house looks into the Doctor’s garden, and as Grace Shaw was weeding in it, about three weeks before her death, I saw the Doctor go to her, pull off her headcloaths and strike her with his hand, seven or eight times upon her head.
Elizabeth Ward. On the 20th of May, I saw the deceas’d wheeling a barrow in the garden, and the prisoner go to her, and give her about a dozen blows with a broomstick, beat her hat and headcloaths off, and almost choak’d her with the strings of her hat.
John Deval. Between eleven and twelve o’clock, on a Sunday morning (about five weeks before the death of the deceas’d) I heard a dismal cry in the Doctor’s house, and by and by the deceas’d came running out o’doors, all over bloody, and crying, For the Lord’s sake beat me no more, for I cannot bear it.
Francis Frampton. The Thursday before the deceas’d dy’d, she cry’d out murder, and ran out of the kitchen, into another room, all bloody, with her cap in her hand.
Susannah Smithiman. I saw the prisoner beat the deceas’d three times; once he struck her down with his hand in the garden, another time when she let him in, he beat her from the gate into the house, and the last time that I remember was on the Sunday seven-night before her death.
Mr Troughton. I often visited the Doctor, and once I saw him beat the deceas’d with a stick or a whip, I cannot be certain which, but if it was a stick, it was a small one, and he did not misuse it at that time. Another time he beat her about the head, because she had killed a hen with feeding it. I have often saw him beat her about the face, and every where else with his hand. She had an imposthume1 in her ear, and being in the kitchen one Sunday, between eleven and twelve o’clock, the Doctor broke it with a blow of his hand, so that the blood and matter ran out. He was not then in a passion, but what he did was, as I thought, only with a design to open the imposthume; she cry’d out indeed, but did not run away. He was very angry with her the Sunday evening before her death. She would not work except she was forc’d to it. She was not in her right senses, and I have seen him use her both roughly and gently.
Margaret Pike. I went to lay the deceas’d out, and found that she had black places on her head, face, arms, neck, shoulders, back and legs, she had a sad2 ear, and her cap was bloody; I said that she had been us’d barbarously, but they told me, that those bruises were occasioned by a fall.
William Hobbs. I was the prisoner’s gardiner. I have often seen him strike the deceas’d over the shoulders, and the small of the back, with his walking cane, and sometimes in the face with his fist, when I could see no manner of occasion for it. Once he beat her with the thick end of a stick, and, she crying out, he said, Damn ye, do ye cry out? and thrust the other end of the stick into her mouth, so that the blood ran out. Another time, as she was weeding in the garden, he came up to her and said, Damn ye, can’t ye kneel? and then struck her down with his fist and stamp’d upon her.
Elizabeth Knighting. The prisoner frequently used to beat the deceased. I knew her voice, and have often heard her shriek. And when I have look’d out to see what was the matter, the prisoner has put up his window-shutters. He made her one day set up a very heavy ladder, and he went up it, in order to feed his pidgeons, and called her to bring him a bowl of water; she accordingly went five or six steps up the ladder, gave the bowl into his hand, and he at the same time kick’d her down again. I cannot indeed say that I saw his foot touch her, but I saw it push’d out when she fell from the ladder, and besides, he beat her intolerably on the same day.
Mr Fremoult. I went to view the deceas’d, and found her head, her temporal muscles and her ear contus’d. She had a bruise too betwixt her shoulders, a small wound on her lip, and had lost a tooth. ’Tis my opinion that those wounds and bruises were the occasion of her death.
Prisoner. Did you see any single wound or bruise about her that was mortal?
F. I cannot say that.
Prisoner. Had not she an imposthume in her ear?
F. Yes.
P. And might not that alone have prov’d the cause of her death?
F. I can’t say but it might.—’Tis true, that her temporal muscles were much contused, but then I found no fracture.
Prisoner. Of what shape are the temporal muscles? – To this the witness made no answer.
Robert Baker. I saw the body in the coffin, but view’d the head only. One of the fore teeth of the upper jaw was wanting, there was a wound on the inner part of the lip, and another small one on the scalp. I believe the cartilage of the nose was broke; but there was no wound that was mortal.
Mr Wallis. The deceas’d dy’d on a Monday, and I saw the body on the Thursday following. I found two contusions under her ear, her nose was broke and her temporal muscles were bruised, but I cannot say, that she had any wound that was mortal.
Mr Fletcher. I found several contusions in her face, the cartilage of her nose was broke, a tooth was out and her ear and temporal muscles bruis’d, but I cannot say that any of these were the cause of her death.
The Prisoner’s defence.
He said that the deceas’d was brought to him as a lunatick, and he was to have her service for her cure; that she had liv’d with him some time; that she was bruis’d by falling down stairs upon her face; that if he did but hold up a stick, she would cry out murder, and that she was subject to fits, in which she used to fall down and beat herself very much.—Then he call’d his witnesses.
Jane Grover. The mother of the deceas’d desir’d me to speak to the Doctor to take her daughter in, and let her have her cure for what service he found her capable of doing. She had often assaulted her mother in bed, and beat her so, that her life was in danger from her. One morning she ran away from the Doctor’s to her brother’s, from whence her mother brought her to me, that I might go with her once more to her master’s, but while we were talking, the Doctor himself came in, to enquire after her, and she went to him again willingly. She had some black marks on her nose, and other parts of her face, and a swelling in her ear. I ask’d her how she came by them, and sometimes she said by a fall, and sometimes by a blast.1 I acquainted her mother with it, and she went next day to the Doctor, and told him she was willing that her daughter should continue with him, but desir’d him to correct her moderately, and not strike her in the face. The deceas’d told me that she fell down a ladder, but made no complaint of her master. She was ill and had a purging upon her for four or five days before her death. On Sunday I went to see her at her master’s house; she was sitting with her head leaning on a chair, and said that she was not well. I left her a-while, and coming in again, I found her a reading to her master. The next day I was sent for in haste, and when I came she was dead. The Doctor then told me, that she had had two convulsion fits, that he recover’d her from the first, but that she died in the other. He sent me to call her mother, and said that she should not be mov’d till her friends came.
Prisoner. Did you never hear her say, that she had another fall before that from the ladder?
J.G. Yes, but she did not tell me how it happen’d.
Prisoner. I desire E. Knighting may be ask’d, if I did not stop up a passage in my house, that had been a thorough-fair?
Elizabeth Knighting, again. Yes, the house, the Doctor lives in, had been a public house before, and the neighbours had a passage thro’ it; but now that passage is stopp’d up, and they are forc’d to go a great way about.
Prisoner. And therefore several of the neighbours have bore me ill ever since.
Alice Rogers. I saw the Deceas’d fall off the ladder, and when the Doctor took the bowl from her, he did not stir his foot; my eye was intent upon them, and, if he had kick’d her, I must have seen it.
Anne Grover. The deceas’d was put to the prisoner to be cur’d, for which he was to have nothing but her service. She was so stubborn and stomachful at home, that her mother told me she was forc’d to put her into the workhouse.
Mr Seadon. The deceas’d had several inconsiderable bruises on her face, head and neck; that on the ear was bad, but whether or no it was from an imposthume I cannot be certain. There was no fracture in her skull, nor any wound that affected her life.
Mr Tanner. I and the surgeons on the King’s side were present at the same time. – There were some slight bruises on her face, two stripes across her shoulders, which might have been made by a whip, or rattan. Her temporal muscles were not contused, her lips not swelled nor black, there was no bruise on her nose, nor any thing that appear’d fatal or injurious.
Mr Simmons. I was present with Mr Tanner, and the other surgeons, and am of the same opinion with him.
Henry Grutchman. I used to visit the Doctor, and was at his house when the maid was dead, and both he and I receiv’d very ill usage from the neighbours.
Thomas Braithwait. I went to the Doctor’s house and saw the steps of the ladder, they were not three foot perpendicular. I saw a whip which was a very slight one, and a small stick, which the neighbours told me, the Doctor us’d about his patients; they were extreamly enrag’d against him, said that he had shut up the passage; that he was a conjuring rogue, and dealt with the Devil. Elizabeth Knighting in particular rail’d at him excessively.
Joseph Reeves. I was formerly under the misfortune of lunacy, the Doctor cur’d me effectually, since which I have been conversant with him at his house, and I never saw any thing misbecoming, nor did I ever hear the deceas’d make any complaint of ill usage.
Charles Deering. I heard John Deval express himself very hotly and maliciously against the Doctor, and complain’d of the stopping up the passage, which made them go a great way about.
The prisoner call’d several others to his reputation, who gave him the character of a mild, well-temper’d man, and mention’d several cures that he had performed.
The jury found him guilty of manslaughter. Burnt in the Hand.