The celebrated Lady Abbess of St. Giles’s; with a curious Description, Regulations, &c., of her singular Establishment. An account of her Funeral, &c. Interspersed with numerous Anecdotes of Living Characters, Visitors of Mother Cummins’s Nunnery,—Capt. Shiels and the Forty-four Nuns—Poll Hankey and Sir Charles Stanton,—Jane Sealey and an Illustrous Person, &c.—With an Account of some of the principal Nuns of the Establishment; particularly Mrs. Throgmorton and Lord Al...n..y—Bell Chambers and the D... of Y...,—Miss Wilkinson and Captain Featherstone—Marianne Hempstead, the Scotch Beauty—Miss Weltern Davis and the Rev. Mr. H...l..y Be..rs..d—Mary Thomas, the Female Chimney-Sweep, and Captain T...t...s, &c.
THE TRIAL, SENTENCE, FULL CONFESSION, AND EXECUTION OF
BISHOP & WILLIAMS,
BURKING AND BURKERS.
The month of November, 1831, will be recorded in the annals of crimes and cruelties as particularly pre-eminent, for it will prove to posterity that other wretches could be found base enough to follow the horrid example of Burke and his accomplice Hare, to entice the unprotected and friendless to the den of death for sordid gain.
The horrible crime of “Burking,” or murdering the unwary with the intention of selling their bodies at a high price to the anatomical schools, for the purpose of dissection, has unfortunately obtained a notoriety which will not be soon or easily forgotten. It took its horrifying appellation from the circumstances which were disclosed on the trial of the inhuman wretch Burke, who was executed at Edinburgh in 1829, for having wilfully and deliberately murdered several persons for the sole purpose of profiting by the sale of their dead bodies.
APPREHENSION OF THE BURKERS.
On Tuesday, November 8th, four persons vis., John Bishop, Thomas Williams, James May, and Michael Shield, were examined at Bow Street Police Office on the charge of being concerned in the wilful murder of an unknown Italian boy. From the evidence adduced, it appeared that May, alias Jack Stirabout, a known resurrection-man, and Bishop, a body-snatcher, offered at King’s College a subject for sale, Shield and Williams having charge of the body in a hamper, for which they demanded twelve guineas. Mr Partridge, demonstrator of anatomy, who, although not in absolute want of a subject, offered nine guineas, but being struck with its freshness sent a messenger to the police station, and the fellows were then taken into custody, examined before the magistrates, when Shield was discharged and the others ultimately committed for trial
THE TRIAL.