Читать книгу True Crime Chronicles - Camden Pelham - Страница 58

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ABOUT the time at which this man met his most deserved punishment, the public journals teemed with accounts of the impudence and crimes of the parti-coloured tribe of servants denominated footmen. To such a daring pitch had their impudence arrived, that they created a riot at the theatre in Drury Lane, even in the presence of the heir-apparent to the throne. One evening when the Prince and Princess of Wales, the father and mother of King George III., attended the performance, these miscreants commenced a dreadful uproar. It was then the custom to admit servants in livery into the upper gallery gratis, in compliment to their employers, on whom they were supposed to be in attendance; and not content with peaceably witnessing the performance, they frequently interrupted those who had paid for admission, and, assuming the prerogative of critics, hissed or applauded with the most offensive clamour. In consequence of these violent proceedings, the manager shut the door against them, unless they each paid their shilling. Upon an occasion when that part of the royal family already mentioned were present, they mustered in a gang, to the number of three hundred; broke open the doors of the theatre, fought their way to the very door of the stage, and, in their progress, wounded twenty-five peaceable people. Colonel De Veil, then an active magistrate for Westminster, happened to be present, and in vain attempted to read a proclamation against such an outrage; but, though they obstructed him in his duty, he caused the ringleaders to be secured, and the next day committed three of them to Newgate.

At the ensuing sessions they were convicted of the riot, and sentenced to imprisonment.

In the mean time, the choler of these upstarts was raised to such a pitch, that they sent the following threat to the manager:—

“To Mr. Fleetwood, in Lincoln’s-Inn-Fields, Master of the Theatre, Drury Lane.

“Sir—We are willing to admonish you, before we attempt our design: and provided you use us civil, and admit us into our gallery, which is our property, according to formalities; and if you think proper to come to a composition this way, you’ll hear no further; and if not, our intention is to combine in a body, incognito, and reduce the playhouse to the ground; valuing no detection—we are indemnified!”

The manager carried this letter to the Lord Chamberlain, who ordered a detachment of fifty soldiers to do duty there each night, and thus deterred the saucy knaves from carrying their threats into execution.

At the Edinburgh theatre it was also a custom to admit men wearing the badge of servitude into the gallery gratis; and when Garrick’s inimitable farce, “High Life Below Stairs,” wherein the waste and impudence of domestic servants of rich men is completely exposed, was performed there, a most violent clamour broke out in the gallery, so as entirely to interrupt the performance, and put the other part of the audience in fear of the consequences. The hardy Scotchmen, however, laid hold of the rioters, and kicked every footman, who alone were concerned, out of the house, where, without paying, they never more entered.

Having thus referred to an evil which existed in 1751, and which even to this moment continues to exist to a considerable extent, namely the over bearing insolence of the fellows who usually fill the situations of domestic servants in the families of the rich, it is time to proceed to the history of the subject of this sketch. Ross was born of decent parents in Inverness, and received an education by which he would have been fitted to fill a situation in a merchant’s counting-house. The difficulty in obtaining such employment, however, induced him to enter the service of a lady, who had always exhibited great kindness towards his family; and he soon afterwards accompanied her son to the Continent in the capacity of valet-de-chambre. He continued in this situation during about five years, when he returned to Scotland, and was employed by an attorney in Edinburgh; but having contracted an intimacy among other servants, from their instruction he acquired all the fashionable habits of drinking, swearing, and gaming, and was dismissed on account of his impudence, and the irregularities of his conduct.

He was subsequently engaged by a Mrs. Hume, a widow lady of good fortune, whose residence, during the summer, was at Ayton, a village about four miles from Berwick-upon-Tweed. The extravagance of our hero, and an unfortunate intercourse which he had with a fellow-servant, soon compelled him to look for some other means of procuring money, besides that which was honestly afforded him by his mistress; and having exhausted the patience of his friends by borrowing from them repeatedly, he formed the resolution of robbing his employer. It would appear that Mrs. Hume slept in a room on the first floor, and that the keys of her bureau were usually placed under her head for safety. Sunday night was the time fixed upon for the commission of the robbery, and, waiting in his bed-room without undressing himself, till he judged the family to be asleep, he descended, and leaving his shoes in the passage, proceeded to his lady’s bed-chamber. Upon his endeavouring to get possession of the keys, the lady was disturbed, and being dreadfully alarmed, called for assistance; but the rest of the family lying at a distant part of the house, her screams were not heard. Ross immediately seized a clasp-knife that lay on the table, and cut his mistress’s throat in a most dreadful manner. This horrid act was no sooner perpetrated than, without waiting to put on his shoes, or to secure either money or other effects, he leaped out of the window, and after travelling several miles, concealed himself in a field of corn.

In the morning the gardener discovered a livery hat, which the murderer had dropped in descending from the window; and, suspecting that something extraordinary had happened, he alarmed his fellow-servants. The disturbance in the house brought the two daughters of Mrs. Hume down stairs; but no words can express the horror and consternation of the young ladies upon beholding their parent weltering in her blood, and the fatal instrument of death lying on the floor.

Ross being absent, and his shoes and hat being found, it was concluded that he must have committed the barbarous deed; and the butler therefore mounted a horse, and alarmed the country, lest the murderous villain should escape. The butler was soon joined by great numbers of horsemen; and towards the conclusion of the day, when both men and horses were nearly exhausted through excessive fatigue, the murderer was discovered in a field of standing corn. He was immediately secured, and being brought to trial, he had the effrontery to declare that he was admitted to share his mistress’s bed, and that his custom was always to leave his shoes at the parlour door. That on the night of the murder he proceeded as usual to her room, but on entering it his horror was aroused at discovering her to be murdered. He leaped out at the window to search for the perpetrators of the deed, and dropping his hat he thought it better not to return until night. Having been found guilty, he was sentenced to have his right hand chopped off, then to be hanged till dead, the body to be hung in chains, and the right hand to be affixed at the top of the gibbet, with the knife made use of in the commission of the murder.

Upon receiving sentence of death he began seriously to reflect on his miserable situation, and the next day he requested the attendance of Mr. James Craig, one of the ministers of Edinburgh, to whom he confessed his guilt, declaring that there was no foundation for his reflections against the chastity of the deceased. Six weeks elapsed between the time of his trial and that of his execution, during which he showed every sign of the most sincere penitence, and refused to accompany two prisoners who broke out of jail, saying he had no desire to recover his liberty, but that on the contrary he would cheerfully submit to the utmost severity of punishment, that he might make atonement for his wickedness. The day appointed for putting the sentence of the law into force being arrived, Ross walked to the place of execution, holding Mr. Craig by the arm. Having addressed a pathetic speech to the populace, and prayed some time with great fervency of devotion, the rope was put round his neck, and he laid his right hand upon the block, when it was struck off by the executioner at two blows. He was immediately afterwards run up to the gallows, when, feeling the rope drawing tight, by a convulsive motion of the arm he struck his bloody wrist against his cheek, which gave it a ghastly appearance. The sentence was subsequently fully carried into effect.

The execution took place on the 8th January 1751.