BOOTY'S CASE.
(Vol. iii., p. 40.)
I cannot refer Demonologist to an authentic report of Booty's case, but I believe none is more so, than that in Kirby's Wonderful and Eccentric Museum, vol. ii. p. 247.
The following extract is given from the journal of Mr. Spinks:—
"Friday, 15th May, 1687. We had the observation of Mr. Booty this day. Captain Barrisby, Captain Bristowe, Captain Brown, I, and Mr. Ball, merchant, went on shore in Captain Barnaby's boat, to shoot rabbits upon Stromboli; and when we had done we called all our men together by us, and about half an hour and fourteen minutes after three in the afternoon, to our great surprise, we all of us saw two men come running towards us with such swiftness that no living man could run half so fast as they did run, when all of us heard Captain Barnaby say, 'Lord bless me, the foremost is old Booty, my next-door neighbour;' but he said he did not know the other that run behind: he was in black clothes, and the foremost was in grey. Then Captain Barnaby desired all of us to take an account of the time, and put it down in our pocket-books, and when we got on board we wrote it in our journals; for we saw them into the flames of fire, and there was a great noise which greatly affrighted us all; for we none of us ever saw or heard the like before. Captain Barnaby said he was certain it was old Booty, which he saw running over Stromboli and into the flames of Hell. It is stated that Captain Barnaby told his wife, and she told somebody else, and that it was afterward told to Mrs. Booty, who arrested Captain Barnaby in a thousand pound action, for what he had said of her husband. Captain Barnaby gave bail to it, and it came on to a trial in the Court of King's Bench, and they had Mr. Booty's wearing apparel brought into court, and the sexton of the parish, and the people that were with him when he died; and we swore to our journals, and it came to the same time within two minutes; ten of our men swore to the buttons on his coat, and that they were covered with the same sort of cloth his coat was made of, and so it proved. The jury asked Mr. Spinks if he knew Mr. Booty. He answered, 'I never saw him till he ran by me on the burning mountain.'"
The chief justice from April, 1687, to February, 1689, was Sir Robert Wright. His name is not given in the report, but the judge said—
"Lord have mercy upon me, and grant that I may never see what you have seen: one, two, or three may be mistaken, but thirty never can be mistaken. So the widow lost her suit."
An action for slander of a deceased husband, brought by the widow, and the defendant held to bail, is a remarkable beginning. The plea of justification, that Booty ran into Hell, is hardly supported by evidence that he ran into the flames at Stromboli. The evidence was, that the defendant said that one of the two runners was Booty; it does not appear that the other witnesses knew him. The witnesses must have kept a good look to observe the buttons of Booty's coat when he ran more than twice as fast as any living man could run. Finally, as the time of the death and the observation "came to the same within two minutes," and Stromboli is about 15° east of Gravesend, Booty must have run to Hell before he died.
I have no doubt that "the case is well known in the navy." The facts are of the sort usually reported to the marines; but the law such as was unknown before 9 & 10 Vict. c. 95.
H. B. C.
U. U. Club, Feb. 11.