Copy of Verses.
Come all you feeling hearted christians, wherever you may be,
Attention give to these few lines, and listen unto me;
Its of this cruel murder, to you I will unfold,
The bare recital of the same will make your blood run cold.
Confined within a lonely cell, with sorrow I am opprest,
The very thought of what I’ve done, deprives me of rest;
Within this dark and gloomy cell in the County Gaol I lie,
For murder of my dear wife I am condemned to die.
For four long years I’d married been, I always lov’d her well,
Till at length I was overlooked, oh shame for me to tell;
By Satan sure I was beguiled, he led me quite astray,
Unto another I gave way on that sad unlucky day.
I well deserve my wretched fate, no one can pity me,
To think that I in cold blood could take the life away;
I took a stake out of the hedge and hit on the head,
My cruel blows I did repeat until she were dead.
I dragged the body from the stile to a ditch running by,
I quite forgot there’s one above with an all-seeing eye,
Who always brings such deeds to light, as you so plainly see,
I questioned was about it and took immediately.
The body’s found, the inquest held, to prison I was sent,
With shame I do confess my sin, with grief I do repent;
And when my trial did come on, I was condemned to die,
An awful death in public scorn, upon the gallows high.
While in my lonely cell I lie, the time draws on apace,
The dreadful deeds that I have done appear before my face;
While lying on my dreadful couch, those horrid visions rise,
The ghastly form of my dear wife appears before my eyes.
Oh may my end a warning be now unto all mankind,
And think of my unhappy fate and bear me in your mind;
Whether you are rich or poor, young wives and children love,
So God will fill your fleeting days with blessings from above.
A short time since, some of the moral-mending crew of Parsons, Magistrates, Quakers, Shakers, Puritans, Old Maids, and highly respectable, and, now retired from active business “Young Ladies,” who now assume a virtue, though they have it not, and a variety of other goodly persons ever ready to compound for sins they are inclined to, by exposing those they have no mind to, living not 50 miles hence, determined on reforming doings, manners, and customs:—