Broadside entitled 'Lamentation of Elizabeth Banks'

Transcription

Lamentation

OF               

Eilizabeth Banks,

Presently lying under Sentence of Death in the Calton-Hill Jail, and who is
to be Executed Edinburgh on Monday the 3d day of August next, for
the Horrid and Barbarous Murder of PETER BANKS, her husband, at
Pathhod, by giving him a quantity of Arsenic in a doze of Epsom Salts
on the 28th of April last, of which he died the same day in great agony.

ELIZABETH M'NIEL or NIEL, of BANKS or BAULKS, was ar-
raigned at the liar of the High Court of Justiciary, on Monday the
13th day of July 1335, on a charge of wilfully, wickedly, and feloniously
mizing a quantity of arsenic in a doze of Epsom salts, which she adminis
tered to Peter Banks or Baulks, her husband, on the 28th of April last, in
consequence of which he was immediately taken violently ill, and died on or
about the same day.

The purchasing of poison by the prisoner, under the pretence of killing
rate, was proved by Mr Otto, surgeon,Pathhead, by Mrs Otto, and their
daughter Sarah; and the mixing of a whitish powder along with the salts
was deponed to by a. sow of the deceased by a former wife, and his severe
pain and vomiting, and consequent death.?Ann M'Gregor, the house-keeper
at Chesterhall, gave the prisoner a shilling as charity, and the Ottos depos-
ed to. the prisoner tendering a shilling in payment of the arsenic, she receiv-
tenpence in change.?Jean Scougall, a very old woman and next door neigh-
bour, deponed to the state in which she saw the deceased, whose illness the
prisoner said was cholera, but that he would not hear of a doctor.?-The
prisoner had a discoloured eye at the time, for which she accounted in vari-
ous ways : but she had been heard to say that her husband bad struck her,.
and that he would repent it.?Mr Alexander Watson, surgeon, opened the
body of the deceased, in presence of Mr J. P. Rae, upon which there was no
external marks of injury, but in the stomach there was a considerable quan- .
tity of arsenic?much more than sufficient to cause death.?Mr Rae and
Professor Traill had no doubt that the deceased had died from arsenic.          |

The pannel was then sentenced to be executed on Monday the 3d day of
August next, at the usual place of execution in the Lawn-Market, or at
such other place as may be fixed upon by the Magistrates of the City.

The unfortunate culprit, who is of a meagre like appearance, and of about
fifty years of age, heard her awful doom pronounced with little visible dis-
composure,?Since her condemnation she has attempted to starve hereself
she resolutely refused all food until the Friday, when she at length yielded
to the cravings of hunger,?and recommenced the course on Saturday, but
has since again given in.

Dear friends, bear my sad moaning,
In prison I lie groaning,
By death to make atoning
For murder of my spouse.

Take pity, now, I pray, friends,
For short, short is my stay, friends ;
I'11 soon be In the day, friends,
Beneath prison house.

0 when I married first, friends,

I thought that I was blest, friends,
But here I lie half curst, friends.

In chains, alas! I'm bound,

Sore, sore, I now repent, friends,
For fear to h?I I'm sent, friends ;
My heart is like to rent, friends,
            { dream of devil' sound.

O, wives, take an example,

Of bad wives I'm a sample;
When hang'd they'll on me trample,
In prison tinder ground.

" The hour it fast approaches,"
I dread the sound of coaches-
O pity such poor wretches,
Like me few can he found.

My Peter he had no fault-?
That day I drank too much malt,
Which made me mix the death salt
For which I'll soon be hang'd.

O pray, friends, for a mortal,
To you it can't be hurtful;
My crime it was most dreadful?-
Pray that I'll not be d?d,

Sanderson, Printer, High Street, Edinburgh.

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