THOMAS GORDON, THE YOUNGER.
EXECUTED FOR MURDER.
MR. GORDON, the father of this wretched youth, was a surgeon and apothecary in London, from whence he removed his family into Northamptonshire not long before the fatal circumstance, which is about to be described, happened.
Mr. Gordon continued to practise in the country, and soon became envied and disliked from his being a stranger; and the consequence was, that frequent quarrels took place. At length a justice’s warrant was obtained against the father on a pretended charge of assault, and the constable went to Mr. Gordon’s house in order to apprehend him; but the wife and son told the officer he was not at home. The constable, however, knew that he was in the house and went away, but soon returned with some neighbours, and with them was about to make a forcible entry, when the mother and son opposed them, the latter being armed with a gun. The populace threw stones at the windows, when the mother, in an unlucky moment, bade her son fire: he did so, and killed the constable on the spot.
Both mother and son were tried, and found guilty of the murder; but Baron Thompson, who presided on the bench, observing that the mother was indicted as an accessory before the fact, and that the evidence proved that she was a principal, he had doubts whether she was properly convicted, and therefore reserved the case for the opinion of the twelve judges, who, upon solemn argument, confirmed the sentence against the son, but at the same time adjudged the indictment against the mother to be bad; and the poor youth received sentence of death. He was three times reprieved; from which he hoped, and the world flattered him with an opinion, that his pardon would ultimately follow; but an order at length came for his execution, and although he was in a state of insanity at the time, brought on by the cruel suspense in which he had been kept as to his fate, he was executed at Northampton on the 17th of August, 1789, aged only nineteen years.
THOMAS PHIPPS, ESQ. THE ELDER, AND THOMAS PHIPPS, THE YOUNGER.
EXECUTED FOR FORGERY.
THESE malefactors were father and son; and their final exit from this life was attended by circumstances of the most heart-rending and melancholy description. The father was a man of good property, and lived on his own estate at Llwyney Mapsis, in Shropshire; and he and his son were indicted for uttering a note of hand for twenty pounds, purporting to be that of Mr. Richard Coleman of Oswestry, knowing the same to have been forged.
It was proved on their trial that Mr. Coleman never had had any transactions with Mr. Phipps that required the signing of any note whatever; that about the Christmas before, Mr. Coleman was served with a copy of a writ at the suit of Mr. Phipps the elder, which action Mr. Coleman defended, and for want of further proceedings on the part of the plaintiff, a non pros. was signed, with two pounds three shillings costs of suit against Phipps. Upon this an affidavit was drawn up and sworn by Phipps the elder, Phipps the younger, and William Thomas, their clerk, for the purpose of moving the Court of Exchequer to set aside the judgment of non pros. and therein they swore that the cause of action was a note of the said Coleman’s for twenty pounds, which was given as satisfaction for a trespass by him committed in carrying some hay off the land of one of Mr. Phipps the elder’s tenants.
The Court thereupon granted a rule to show cause why the judgment should not be set aside; but Mr. Coleman insisting that the note was a forgery, the present prosecution was instituted against the father, son, and Thomas.