Celebrated trials of all countries, and remarkable cases of criminal jurisprudence / Selected by a member of the Philadelphia bar [i.e. J.J. Smith].

John Jay Smith

Date:: 1835

Credit: Celebrated trials of all countries, and remarkable cases of criminal jurisprudence / Selected by a member of the Philadelphia bar [i.e. J.J. Smith]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

95/612 (page 85)

$had been made of the milk that had been fetched by Sarah Peer ? A. She did not. I asked her if any person but herself had mingled or had any thing to do with the dumplings'? She expressly said, no. Cross-examined by Mr. Alley.—Q. In the conversation you had with the prisoner, did not you tell her that two months before you had missed the poison] A. I did not.—Q. You say it was her duty to light the fire in the office; did the clerks keep the door locked when they were not there* A. I do not know. Roger Gadsden sworn.—Q. Do you remember seeing in a drawer in the office a paper with arsenic ? A. I do, with Arsenic, deadly poison, upon it. The last day I saw it was on the 7th of March. I missed it in a day or two after.—Q. Did you mention it in the office that you had missed it? A. I did, sir.—Q. On Tuesday, the 21st of March, did you between three and four go into the kitchen? A. I did, sir. I had dined at two.—Q. When you went into the kitchen, did you observe any thing there that came from the parlour table? A. I observed a plate there; in it was a dumpling and a half. I took a knife and fork up, and was going to cut it, to eat of it. The prisoner exclaimed, Gadsden, do not eat that; it is cold and heavy; it will do you no good. I ate a piece ^bout as big as a walnut, or bigger. There was a small quantity of sauce in the boat: I took a bit of bread and sopped it in it, and ate that. This might be twenty minutes after three.—Q. How soon after that time did any of the family become ill ? A. I went into the office. Mr. Robert Turner came into the office about ten minutes after, and said he was very ill. They were all up-stairs in the parlour. Not the least alarm of anybody being ill then.—Q. How soon were you taken ill ? A. About ten minutes after that; but not so ill as to vomit. In consequence of the distress of the family, I was sent off for Mr. Turner's mother. I was very sick going and coming back. I thought I should die.—Q. Had the prisoner made any yeast dumplings for you the night before? A. She had, for supper. I, and the other maid, and herself, partook of them ; they were quite different from these dumplings in point of colour and weight, and very good. Q. [By one of the jury.] When the poison was missed, did you make any inquiry about it of the prisoner? A. I did not. Cross-examined by Mr. Alley.—Q. Do you usually keep the door locked when you are out of the office ? A. No.—Q. [By Mr. Gurney.~\ Who made the fire in the office? A. The prisoner. No person could go into the office until I did. Any person might go in and out in the day. At night it was locked.—Q. What was kept in that drawer in which the arsenic was kept? A. Paper.—Q. Court. Then your seeing her go to that drawer would not strike you as any thing extraordinary ? A. No; I should not watch her to see what she did there. Margaret Turner sworn.—Q. Upon this melancholy occasion you was sent for ? A. I was.—Q. When you arrived you found your husband, son, and daughter extremely ill, did you not? A. I found them extremely ill.—Q. I believe, madam, you found the prisoner ill and vomiting ? A. Very soon after I was there she was ill.—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 dumplings ! supposing they had done the mischief. She said, Not the dumplings, but the milk, madam. I asked her, What milk ? She said, The halfpenny worth of milk that Sally had fetched, to make the sauce ?—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.—Q. [To Mrs. Turner, JunJ] W^as 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.—Q. Did you partake of the dumplings at dinner ? A. Yes, I did.—Q. Did you eat any of the sauce ? A. Not any H$