The important results of an elaborate investigation into the mysterious case of Elizabeth Fenning: being a detail of extraordinary facts discovered since her execution, including the official report of her singular trial, now first published, and copious notes thereon. Also ... strictures on a late pamphlet of the prosecutor's apothecary [J. Marshall] ... With ... letters, written by the unfortunate girl while in prison / ... By John Watkins.

Date:
1815
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The important results of an elaborate investigation into the mysterious case of Elizabeth Fenning: being a detail of extraordinary facts discovered since her execution, including the official report of her singular trial, now first published, and copious notes thereon. Also ... strictures on a late pamphlet of the prosecutor's apothecary [J. Marshall] ... With ... letters, written by the unfortunate girl while in prison / ... By John Watkins. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    53/268 (page 35)
    90. Q. Did you say any thing to her while you were there that day respecting the dumplings? A. I exclaimed to her, Oh these devilish dump¬ lings ! supposing they had done the mischief. She said, “ Not the dumplings, but the milk, madam.” I asked her, “ What milk ?” She said, “ The half-penny worth of milk that Sally had fetched, to make the sauce.” 91. Q. Did she say who had made the sauce ? A. My daughter. I said, that cannot be, it could not be the sauce. She said, “ Yes, Gadsden ate a very little bit of dumpling, not bigger than a nut, but licked up three parts of a boat of sauce with a bit of bread.” 92. Q. [To Mrs. Turner, Junr.] Was any sauce made with the milk that Sarah Peer fetched ? A. It was. I mixed it, and left it for her to make, ROBERT GREGSON TURNER Sworn. 93. Q. Did you partake of the dumplings at dinner ? A. Yes I did. Q* 90, 91* The prisoner’s answers, referring the mischief to the milk which composed the sauce, and imputing the illness of Gadsden to the “ three parts of a boat of sauce that he had licked up,” are strictly consistent with the girl’s answer to Orlibar Turner, (see Q. 69.) as it was natural for her to conclude that, as Gadsden had eaten so small a quantity of dumpling, and so lai'ge a proportion of sauce, that the poison was in the sauce, and not in the dumpling. (See Q. 69■) The extreme illness of Gadsden may easily be accounted for, notwithstanding he ate so small a quantity of dumpling, from the circumstance of his not receiving any medical assistance, until after his return from Lambeth, there¬ by affording time for the poison to operate on the coats of his sto¬ mach. But, after all, might not the poison he in the milk, as well as the dumplings ?