State Trials Part 38

VERNON--How long did you live with sir John?

MRS. STAFFORD--Three months, Sir.

GOODERE--Call Mr. Robert c.o.c.k.

THE RECORDER--What do you call him to prove?

GOODERE--My lord, in order to prove sir John Dineley a lunatic.

Mr. c.o.c.k, will you give an account to my lord and the jury what you know of the lunacy of sir John Dineley?

_Robert c.o.c.k, sworn._

c.o.c.k--My lord, I have known Mr. Dineley at Charlton for some years; I have been several times in his company; I have seen him do several acts of lunacy, as a madman.

VERNON--Where do you live?

c.o.c.k--I live in c.u.mberland, when I am at home.

VERNON--Are you of any business?

c.o.c.k--I am an officer belonging to his majesty.

VERNON--What kind of officer?

c.o.c.k--A salt officer.

GOODERE--I will not give your lords.h.i.+p and the jury much more trouble. I am entirely innocent; they have not proved that I was present at the death of sir John Dineley.

THE RECORDER--Don't deceive yourself; though they have not proved you was actually in the cabin, when sir John was murdered, yet they have given evidence of that, which (if the jury give credit to) will amount to presence in the eye of the law.

GOODERE--I shall now call some witnesses to my character, and likewise to shew how improbable it is that I should be guilty of the murder of my brother.

Call Mr. Pritchard.

_Mr. Pritchard_ had known Goodere many years; he always bore the character of a good husband, a good neighbour, and a kind friend.

_The Rev. Mr. Watkins_, three months or half a year before Sir John's death, had told Goodere that Sir John had told him that he had made his will and cut his brother off from everything, and had given his estate to the Footes. The witness had found Sir John a good neighbour, and a kind friend; he was a man of strong pa.s.sions, and if any one affronted him, he would let the party know that he did resent it. His tenants, and those the witness had conversed with, said that he was one of the best of landlords.

VERNON--I don't ask you, Sir, concerning his moral character; but whether he was in his senses or not?

WATKINS--In his senses! I saw him last Christmas, he was making up his accounts with several of his tenants; he was then in very good understanding. I take him to have been a man that always had his senses in a regular exercise.

VERNON--What have you heard the prisoner Mr. Goodere say in relation to Sir John's making his will?

WATKINS--I believe he told me that sir John had not the power to make a will; I told him it was my opinion, if they would be reconciled together, sir John's will would not stand.

_Mr. Thomas_ and _Mr. Ashfield_ and the _Rev. Mr. Rogers_ spoke in general terms to Goodere's good character.

_George Forcevil_ had known him for fourteen or fifteen years; he had a very good character in the neighbourhood; he constantly attended his church twice a day Sundays, and would be there at prayers almost every day. He thought him to be a good man.

_Goodere_ said he would not trouble the Court with any more evidence as to his character; he was deprived of some evidence by reason of his sickness in gaol, which prevented his friends from coming to advise him about his defence; also there were witnesses on board the s.h.i.+p who might have been of great service to him, but the s.h.i.+p had sailed before he got an order from the Admiralty ordering them to stay on sh.o.r.e.

_Frederick_ drew the Recorder's attention to the fact that there had been several aspersions in the newspapers to the prejudice of Goodere, and that a pamphlet had been published in Bristol called _The Bristol Fratricide_; but he hoped that the jury would not be influenced by such matters against the prisoner.

The jury declared that they had never seen any such pamphlet or newspapers.

VERNON--Mr. Recorder, we must beg leave to ask Mr. Jarrit Smith's opinion, as to Sir John's being a lunatic or not?

SMITH--I am surprised to hear it said by some of Mr. Goodere's witnesses that sir John Dineley Goodere was mad. I knew him fourteen or fifteen years, and conversed with him both in person and by letter; but never discovered that he was in the least disordered in his senses, I always took him to be a man of sound understanding. On the Sunday before his death, he expressed himself with a great deal of good nature and affection at the sight of his brother.

_Shepard_ proposed to call evidence to show that the place where the s.h.i.+p lay was not in the city and county of Bristol.

_The Recorder_ said that the evidence that had been given as to the service of writs, proved that the King's Road was within the jurisdiction, and it was admitted that the s.h.i.+p lay within the Road. If, however, the prisoner could show that any part of the Road was, or ever had been esteemed to be, within any other county than the county of the city of Bristol, he would hear him. He then asked Mahony if he had anything to say.

MAHONY--I hope your Lords.h.i.+p will consider that I was a poor, pressed servant, and that I was drunk when I made the confession, and I was frightened out of my wits.

MR. RECORDER--You say you were drunk when you made the confession; it is possible, that night when you were taken and brought before the magistrates you were in liquor, but it seems your confession was not taken until the next day.

_Vernon_ then replied on the whole case; confining himself to pointing out that if Goodere was abetting Mahony in killing Sir John, it made no difference that he was not in the cabin at the time that he was killed.

_Shepard_ replied, trying to distinguish Goodere's case from those which had been cited by Vernon, and suggesting that Goodere only brought his brother on board the s.h.i.+p in order that he might take proper care of him; but the Recorder stopped him, pointing out that he was going off from the point of law to matter of fact. He said that he should tell the jury that if they believed that Goodere stood at the cabin door to prevent any persons coming who might prevent the murder, or to encourage those within in the business they were about, they must find him guilty on the indictment. He then recapitulated the facts in some detail, but did not add any comment. He concluded by laying down the law as to whether Goodere was an accessory to what was done, in the sense already indicated, and told the jury that, in such a case as the present, they would be well-advised not to attach much weight to the evidence given as to Goodere's character.

The jury thereupon retired, and after a short s.p.a.ce returned, and found both the prisoners Guilty.

The next day Charles White was tried on a separate indictment for the same murder. He pleaded Not Guilty, but was convicted, chiefly on the evidence of Jones the cooper and his wife, and his own confession.

On the next day all three prisoners were brought up, and having nothing to say for themselves were all sentenced to death.

They were all hung at Bristol on the 15th of April, having confessed the fact. 'The body of Mahony is hung in chains near the place where the horrid fact was committed.'

FOOTNOTES:

[51] Samuel Goodere (1687-1741) entered the navy in 1705, served through the War of Spanish Succession, but in 1719 was found guilty by a court-martial of having been very much wanting in the performance of his duty in the attack on St. Sebastian in the same year. He was temporarily appointed to another s.h.i.+p for rank in 1733. He was then living with his father, who had quarrelled with John; and apparently John had quarrelled with his wife, who was supported against him by Samuel. The father's will disappointed both sons, and John, having cut off the entail of his estate during his son's life, after his death announced his intention of leaving it to one of the Footes, a cousin of the actor, which probably led to his murder. Samuel left two sons; it seems doubtful whether they succeeded to the baronetcy. The elder died insane. The younger became a poor knight at Windsor, and dropped the name of Goodere. He made himself conspicuous by the oddity of his behaviour. He believed that a small sum of money expended in law-proceedings would realise a fortune, and that that money would be obtained through a wife. He therefore frequented crowded places, and on seeing any woman or girl he did not know would present her respectfully with a printed proposal of marriage. He died in 1809.

[52] Sir Michael Foster (1681-1763) entered Exeter College 1705, was called to the Bar in 1713, and practised locally at his native town of Marlborough. He became Recorder of Bristol in 1735, and a puisne judge of the King's Bench in 1745. He enjoyed a great reputation as a master of Crown Law, and was the author of the well-known _Discourses_ on that subject.

[53] After mentioning certain obsolete rules relating to indictments, Sir James Stephen says:--'I do not think that anything has tended more strongly to bring the law into discredit than the importance attached to such technicalities as these. As far as they went, their tendency was to make the administration of justice a solemn farce. Such scandals do not seem, however, to have been unpopular. Indeed, I have some doubt whether they were not popular, as they did mitigate, though in an irrational, capricious manner, the excessive severity of the old criminal law'

(_Hist. Crim. Law_, vol. i. p. 284).

[54] It is curious that Shepard did not take the point that the prisoner was not described as a baronet, which he in fact became on his brother's murder. Till recently such an objection would have been fatal.