Duncombe, Elizabeth Harrison and Anne Price, and hanged in 1733 From St James’s Evening Post (February and March 1733)
Called ‘A Lady MacBeth in Low Life’, the 22-year-old Sarah Malcolm strangled Duncombe, her eighty-year-old former employer; Harrison, Duncombe’s companion; and slit the throat of Price, their seventeen-year-old maid. Her case made the headlines because she so cold-bloodedly insisted on her innocence up until she was hanged, testifying in court that the blood-stains on her shift (the main evidence against her) were menstrual, not the result of this crime – although the amount of blood on the dress belied her claim. William Hogarth visited her at Newgate as she awaited execution, and sketched her for a popular engraving: ‘I see by this woman’s face that she is capable of any wickedness.’ She was hanged at Mitre Court, near the scene of her crime, and her body was dissected by the Royal College of Surgeons.
Yesterday came on at the Old Bailey, the trial of Sarah Malcolm, for the murder of Mrs Duncombe, Elizabeth Harrison and Anne Price, in the Temple, and also for breaking open the chambers of Mrs Duncombe, and stealing several things of great value. The first evidence was her master Mr Carroll, who gave an account of his finding plate and linen in a close-stool in his chambers, which she acknowledged to be her’s, pretending they were taken out of pawn; upon which, and hearing of the murder, he caused her to be secured. Mrs Love, who was invited to dine with Mrs Duncombe on the Sunday, deposed, that the plate found was Mrs Duncombe’s. Roger Johnson, an apothecary, and several other witnesses were examined, who corroborated the fact; and after a trial of about five hours, the jury brought her in guilty. She behav’d in a very extraordinary manner on her trial, oftentimes requesting the court for the witnesses to speak louder, and spoke upwards of half an hour in her own defence, but in a trifling manner. She confessed she was guilty of the robbery, but not of the murder, only standing on the stairs.
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Sarah Malcolm is order’d to be executed to-morrow se’nnight in Fleet-street, facing Mitre-Court, which leads down to the King’s Bench Walks; and the other eight are order’d to be executed on Monday next at Tyburn; and on Saturday night the dead warrant came down to Newgate accordingly. She is remov’d out of the Old Condemn’d Hold into a room in the Picts-Yard; and yesterday she declared herself a Roman Catholick, but desir’d however that she may take the sacrament to-morrow se’nnight, the day of her execution, from a minister of the Church of England, in confirmation of her assertion that she was no actress in that horrid tragedy, but that it was done by the two Alexanders and Mary Tracy; we hear that she has bespoke a shroud to be made for her, declaring that she intends to go to the place of execution in no other dress.
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Yesterday Sarah Malcolm was executed on a gibbet erected over-against Mitre-Court in Fleet-Street. We don’t hear that she made any confession of her being guilty of the murder of Mrs Duncombe and her maids; but just before she was turn’d off,1 she deliver’d a paper, written with her own hand, to the Rev. Mr Piddington, minister of Little St Bartholomew’s, which she said contained something that was necessary for her to acquaint the world with; and desir’d, that as the same had been seal’d up in Newgate, in the presence of several gentlemen, it might also be open’d before them and the Sheriffs. She receiv’d the sacrament in the morning, and declar’d at the place of execution that she died a Protestant. She was very desirous to see her master Mr Carrol, and looked about for him, whom she acquitted of all manner of aspersions or imputations laid on him at her tryal; but confess’d nothing concerning the murther. After she had talked some time with the ministers, as she was going to be turn’d off, she fainted away, and was some time before she was brought to her senses; but being afterwards recover’d, after a short stay she was executed. She was cut down after she had hung somewhat more than half an hour; and her body was carried back to Newgate under a strong guard of the mob. Several of the nobility, and other persons of distinction, saw the execution from the neighbouring houses; and there was as great a concourse of common people as ever was seen on the like occasion. Many of the spectators were hurt by the breaking down of a scaffold; and very few of the ladies and gentlemen but had their pockets either pick’d or cut off.
The same afternoon, about four o’clock, the Rev. Dr Middleton, the Rev. Mr Piddington and Mr Ingram, waited on the Lord Mayor, in order to break open the confession of the said Sarah Malcolm before his lordship, which shall be inserted as soon as made publick.
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In the copy of the paper deliver’d by Sarah Malcolm2 the night before her execution to the Reverend Mr Piddington, Lecturer of St Bartholomew the Great, declares, That on Sunday the 28th of January, after her master, Mr Carrol, was gone to commons, Mary Tracy came to her and drank tea, and then it was she gave consent to that unhappy act of robbing Mrs Duncombe, but declares she did not know of the murder. On Saturday the 3d of February being the time appointed, they came about 10 o’clock at night, and Mary Tracy came to Mr Carrol’s chambers, and they all four went to Mrs Duncombe’s, and on the stairs Sarah Malcolm met Mrs Duncombe’s maid, who ask’d her, whether she was going to the old maid, she answer’d Yes; and as soon as she thought the maid had got down stairs, would have gone in herself, but thought that would give some suspicion, and so ask’d which would go in, and James Alexander replied, he would, and the door being left open for the maid, against her return, she gave James Alexander directions to lie under the maid’s bed, and desired Mary Tracy and Thomas Alexander to go and stay for her at her master’s door until her return, which they did accordingly, and when she came, desired they would go and stay for her at Mrs Duncombe’s stairs, who, on her return found them there, and there they waited till after two o’clock on the Sunday morning, which was the 4th of February, and then Sarah Malcolm would have gone in, but Thomas Alexander and Mary Tracy interrupted her, and said, if you go in, and they awake, they will know you, and if you stay on the stairs, it may be that some one will come up and see you; but she made answer, that no one lives up so high but Madam Duncombe.
At length it was concluded that Mary Tracy, and the other Alexander should go in, and shut the door, and accordingly they did, and Sarah Malcolm remained until between four and five o’clock, when they came out, and said Hip, and when she came higher up, they ask’d which way they should shut the door; and she told them to run the bolt back, and it would spring into its place, and accordingly they did, and when they came down, they asked where they should divide what they had got; she asked how much that was; they said, about three hundred pounds in goods and money, but said they were forced to gag them all.
She desired to know, where they had found it; they said, that fifty guineas of it was in the old maid’s pocket, in a leathern purse, besides silver, that they said was loose; and above 150 l. [£] in a drawer, besides the money that they had out of a box, and the tankard, and one silver spoon, and a rug which was looped with thread, and one square piece of plate, one pair of sheets, and two pillow-beers1 and five shifts, which they divided near Fig-Tree-Court, after which Mary Tracy and the Alexanders said to Sarah Malcolm, be sure that you bury the cole and plate under ground, until the robbery is over; for if you be seen flush of cole, you will be suspected.