RICHARD PATCH. EXECUTED FOR THE MURDER OF MR. BLIGHT.

THE case of this offender is one of those which fully prove, that the most wicked caution, the most deliberately planned scheme, or the most artful preparatory measures to attach suspicion to some other than the real cause, or to make it fall upon the guiltless, will never conceal murder.

Richard Patch was born in the year 1770, at the village of Heavytree, Devonshire, within two miles of Exeter, and his family had a name somewhat respectable among the yeomen of the county. The grandfather of Patch had a freehold estate in land, of the value of fifty pounds per annum, in a neighbouring village. His father, according to the custom of many of the petty farmers who reside on the sea-coast in the distant counties, was a smuggler, and he was noted for a fierceness and an unusual degree of intrepidity; but as the life of a smuggler is variable in its scenes, so he was doomed to change his bold deeds and his unlawful proceedings for a quiet sojourn in the New Gaol at Exeter, where he was sentenced to be imprisoned for twelve months, on a conviction obtained at the instance of the officers of Excise. At the termination of the period of his imprisonment, he was engaged by the keeper of the prison as a gaoler, and he continued to occupy that post until the period of his death. He left several children, of whom our hero was the eldest. He had been bound apprentice to a butcher at Ebmere, a small village, the most notorious in the county for the immorality of its inhabitants, and it is exceedingly probable that his mind was early inured to thoughts of evil deeds. Upon his father’s decease, he quitted his service as a butcher, and taking possession of the property, to which, as the eldest son, he was entitled, he became a farmer. His efforts, however, in this line were attended with no success, and he was soon obliged to mortgage the property which he possessed for more than one-half its value.

Some years were afterwards passed at Ebmere, when an accident drove him from his home. From motives which it is unnecessary to examine, he had quarrelled with the rector of his parish, and, in order to be revenged, he removed the produce of his farm from his land, without setting out the tenths for the rector; or, in other words, he refused to pay the tithes. The consequence was a lawsuit, and an immediate action in the Exchequer. Patch, shuddering at the expense of the litigation, and the certain result which awaited him, and already somewhat embarrassed in his circumstances, quitted Devonshire, in the spring of the year 1803.

Upon his coming to London, he immediately presented himself at Mr. Blight’s, with whom his sister, at that time, lived as a menial servant; together with a brother of his who was brought up a baker, but, for some reasons which it is unnecessary to enter into, was now in the service of Mr. Blight, as a kind of overseer or superintendant in the shipping business.

Mr. Blight, it appears, had formerly been a West India merchant, and had failed; upon which he engaged in the ship-breaking business, and was at this time carrying it on with great success.

Patch had not long entered the service of Mr. Blight, when, from jealousy or some uneasiness, his brother quitted it. He had been disappointed in endeavouring to set up for himself in the business of a baker to which he was bred; and this mortification, aggravated by the conduct of his brother Richard, excited such a disgust in his mind, that he immediately went to sea, sailed to the West Indies, where he soon died a victim to the yellow fever.

The thoughts of a partnership with his employer ere long struck our hero, and he was induced to look upon the scheme with some anticipations of its realisation, hoping to be able to purchase a share of the business with the proceeds of his estate in Devonshire. He, in consequence, proceeded into that county, and having disposed of his land, he cleared off all its encumbrances, and received a sum of 350l. as the surplus, after the payment of all expenses. On his return to London at the close of the year 1804, he made his desire known to his employer, and he paid over to him a sum of 250l. as a portion of the purchase-money, and deposited the remainder in the hands of a banker.

The exact nature of the agreement made does not appear, but whatever the negotiations may have been, they were suddenly stopped by the murder of Mr. Blight, who was mortally wounded, while sitting in his own house, by a pistol discharged by an unseen hand, on the 23rd September 1805. The extraordinary nature of the murder, and the still more singular method of its perpetration attracted universal attention, and a minute investigation of all the circumstances having taken place before Mr. Graham a magistrate, suspicion fell upon Patch, and he was committed to prison.

His trial came on at the Surrey assizes, continued by adjournment to Horsemonger-lane, in the Borough, on Saturday, 5th April 1806. In the mean time the interest produced in reference to the case was of the most extraordinary nature.

By five o’clock in the morning of the trial, a vast concourse of the populace had assembled, and on the opening of the Court it was with the utmost difficulty that the law-officers and others could obtain an entrance. The Dukes of Sussex, Cumberland, and Orleans; Lords Portsmouth, Grantley, Cranley, Montford, William Russel, Deerhurst, and G. Seymour; Sir John Frederick, Sir John Shelley, Sir Thomas Turton, Sir William Clayton, Sir J. Mawby; Count Woronzow, the Russian ambassador, and his secretary, were present. The magistrates had made every accommodation that the Court would admit of: and a box was fitted up for the royal family.

The prisoner was conducted into court soon after nine o’clock, and took his station at the bar, attended by two or three friends. He was genteelly dressed in black, and perfect composure marked his countenance and manner. Precisely at ten o’clock, the Lord Chief Baron Macdonald took his seat on the bench; and to the indictment the prisoner pleaded, in an audible voice, “Not guilty.”

He peremptorily challenged three jurors; after which a jury was sworn, and the indictment read.

The first witness called was Mr. Richard Frost, a publican, who kept the Dog and Duck. The first part of his testimony related merely to the fact of the death of Mr. Blight. He stated, that on the morning of the 23rd of September last, he was sent for by the prisoner, in consequence of the deceased having been killed by a pistol-shot: he went, and found him leaning on his hands and wounded.

Mr. Astley Cooper said he was called in to the assistance of Mr. Blight. Upon examining him he found he had received a wound near the navel, and another in the groin. He observed that they were gun-shot wounds; and as the body of the deceased was considerably inflated, he pronounced them mortal: he observed the bowels coming through the wounds. The next morning, at seven o’clock, Patch came to him, said the deceased was in extreme pain, and wished to know whether anything could be done for him. The witness told him he feared there could not; but he rose and went to him, and found him in a very swollen state. He promised to return in the afternoon with a physician. He went to town, and came back with Dr. Barrington; but Mr. Blight had been dead about three quarters of an hour. He had not the smallest doubt that the wounds were the occasion of his death.

Richard Frost was again called up to speak to the firing of the gun. He stated that on Thursday, the 19th, “there was a report of the firing of a gun at Mr. Blight’s house;” he went out to ascertain the cause, but did not perceive any person coming from the premises; and he was in a situation in which, had the person who fired it attempted to make his escape, he must have observed him; it was about eight o’clock in the evening, and it was dark; but he was near enough to have seen any one run away, or climb the wall.

Miss Ann Davis and Miss Martha Davis, sisters, who happened to be walking by the premises in a different direction from the last witness, stated, that they also saw the flash, and heard the report of a gun, and must have seen any person attempting to escape; but all was quiet, and they concluded that the gun was fired by some one on the premises.

After this head of evidence, to establish that the gun fired on the Thursday preceding the death of Mr. Blight, was not by any stranger, but by the prisoner, witnesses were called to relate the circumstances which occurred on the 23rd.

Mr. Michael Wright stated that he was going past Mr. Blight’s house a little after eight, when he heard the report of a pistol in the house; and having become acquainted by the rumour of the former attempt, he was induced to go up to the house with a view to offer his assistance. He knocked for some time and was not admitted; but insisting on having the door opened, Patch made his appearance, and began informing him what a dreadful accident had happened. The witness was impatient at hearing this story; he thought that some means should be rather adopted to pursue the murderer, and recommended Patch to commission him to apply to Bow-street, as an inquiry taking place instantly after the assassination would most probably be attended with success. Patch seemed reluctant, and thought that no good effect could result from it. The witness therefore went away.

Hester Kitchener’s evidence applied to the two days. She stated that on the 19th she had been ordered by the prisoner to shut up the shutters of the house earlier than usual. Her master and mistress were then at Margate. At eight o’clock the prisoner sent her out for some oysters; and as she returned, she heard the report of a gun, but she did not see any one. When she saw Patch, he cried, “Oh, Hester, I have been shot at!” She rejoined, “Lord forbid!” They then looked for the ball, which she found. The witness continued to state that her master returned to town on the Monday morning; that in the evening he and the prisoner drank tea together in the back parlour, and afterwards had some grog. Her master was fatigued, heavy, and sleepy with his journey and the liquor; and Patch came down in a hurry to her in the kitchen, and complaining of a pain in his bowels, wanted a light to go into the yard. She gave it to him, as also a key of the counting-house, through which it was necessary he should pass. She heard him enter the back place and slam the door after him, and immediately after, she heard the report of a pistol. Her master ran down into the kitchen, exclaiming, “Oh, Hester, I am a dead man!” and supported himself upon the dresser. She ran up to shut the door; and as she was half-way down the passage, on her return, she heard Patch knocking violently for admittance. He asked what was the matter; she told him; on which he went down and offered his assistance. He asked the deceased if he knew of any one who could owe him a grudge? Mr. Blight answered, “No, as he was not at enmity with any man in the world.”

Mr. Christopher Morgan said that he was passing by when the fatal shot was fired; he went to the house, and saw Mr. Blight lying in a wounded situation, and recommended Mr. Patch, in the first instance, to search the premises all over. Patch told him to go and search an old ship that was off the wharf, as he had reason to think that the perpetrator might have escaped there; for he heard a noise in that direction on the night when the gun was previously fired; and he went, but found that the ship was lying at the distance of sixteen feet from the wharf; that it was low water: that from the top of the wharf to the mud was ten feet; that the soil was soft mud, and that any one who might attempt to escape that way must have been up to his middle. Besides, the mud did not bear the appearance of any one having passed through it; and he was, therefore, perfectly convinced that no one escaped over the wharf towards the water.

Six other persons, who happened to be in different directions leading from Mr. Blight’s house to the public roads, most distinctly proved, that when the shot was fired which killed Mr. Blight, everything was quiet on the outside of the premises; that there was no appearance of any person attempting to escape; and if there had been, that there was no possibility of his eluding observation.

The next series of evidence went to show that the prisoner was carrying on a system of delusion and fraud against the deceased, in respect to certain pecuniary transactions between them. It was proved by Mrs. Blight, the deceased’s widow, that her husband, who had fallen into some embarrassments, had, in order to mask his property, made a nominal assignment of it to Patch; but the assignment was not to be carried into effect, unless the trustees of his creditors should, as he apprehended, become importunate. This confidential assignment Patch wished to convert into an absolute sale, for consideration given on his part; but Mrs. Blight declared that he had never paid her husband any money, excepting two hundred and fifty pounds, part of one thousand two hundred and fifty pounds, the consideration for a share of his business.

The next branch of evidence referred to the stockings which the prisoner had on the night that Mr. Blight lost his life. It was proved that he generally wore boots; but the witnesses’ memory enabled them to say that he had white stockings on during the evening of the 23rd. Mr. Stafford, of the police-office, stated that, on examining the bed-room of Mr. Patch, they were folded up like a clean pair, but that, on opening them, the soles appeared dirty, as if a person had walked in them without shoes: the inference from this was, that the prisoner had taken off his shoes in order that he might walk out of the necessary without being heard by the maid.

The last important fact was the discovery of the ramrod of a pistol in the privy, and the proof that that place had not recently been visited by any person suffering under a bowel complaint. This, and a vast variety of circumstantial evidence, concluded the case on the part of the crown.

The prisoner being called upon for his defence, delivered in a long and elaborate address, supposed to have been written by his counsel, which he requested might be read by the officer of the court: it began by thanking the learned judge for moving his trial from a place where prejudice might have operated against him; complained much of that prejudice having been excited against him by premature reports in the public journals; and then entered into a general train of argument, inferring, that in a case of life and death, a jury ought not to convict upon circumstantial evidence; the more especially where the proof appeared, as in the present case, so dubious. He stated that whatever might be the result of their judgment upon the evidence, it was almost a matter of indifference to him on his own account; for he was borne down and subdued by the unjust prejudices of the public, by the long imprisonment he had endured, and by the enormous expenses to which he had been subjected; but he had those relations who made life dear to him: he had children who looked to him for support, and who would not only be dishonoured, but ruined by his death. The only evidence which he adduced was that of three persons who spoke to his general character.

The Lord Chief Baron summed up the evidence in the most perspicuous manner, occupying nearly two hours in commenting upon every part of it; when the jury retired for about a quarter of an hour, and on their return pronounced a verdict of Guilty.

His lordship then proceeded to pronounce the awful sentence of the law. He observed, that the prisoner had begun his career of guilt in a system of fraud towards his friend; he had continued it in ingratitude, and had terminated it in blood. He then directed that he should be executed on Monday, and that his body should be delivered for dissection.

Patch, who had the appearance of a decent yeoman, and was about thirty-eight years of age, during the whole of the trial never betrayed the slightest symptom of embarrassment: his appearance evinced a seeming composure, which innocence alone could manifest, or the most consummate villany could counterfeit. He heard the dreadful sentence with a degree of apathy, as if he had previously made up his mind to the event. The execution was eventually deferred till the next Tuesday, it being deemed advisable that he should suffer with a man and his wife, Benjamin and Sarah Herring, who had been convicted at Kingston, March 28, of coining, in order to obviate the inconvenience of having two public executions following each other so closely. It was in consequence of this suggestion of Mr. Ives, the keeper, to the Chief Baron (who, with the Dukes of Sussex and Gloucester, retired to his house after the trial), that his lordship was induced to order the respite, which he wrote thus on the margin of the first order for execution:—

“Let the execution be respited till Tuesday, the 8th day of April, 1806.

“A. Macdonald.”

It seems that Herring and his wife had carried on the trade of coining to a great extent, at their own house in St. George’s Fields. On searching their premises, a complete set of coining implements, punches, aquafortis, &c., were found, besides upwards of seventy shillings, a quantity of dollars, half-crowns, and sixpences, all ready for circulation.

But to return to Patch.—This criminal, after condemnation, remained perfectly calm and unembarrassed. He slept well during the greater part of the Saturday night, rose at nine o’clock on the next morning, and attended divine service at half-past ten. About a quarter before eleven, the Rev. Mr. Mann, the ordinary, preached the condemned sermon, in a style the most impressive and affecting; to which Mr. Patch paid becoming attention. On his return, he looked the gaoler steadfastly in the face for about two minutes, and then ejaculated, “I am innocent;” but he appeared composed as usual during the remainder of the day. He continued to preserve a sullen silence until Monday afternoon, when that composure which had marked his countenance left him. He was informed by the ordinary of the gaol, that his friends approached to take their last farewell of him for ever, when he gave up all hope of a reprieve, and exclaimed, “Is no mercy to be expected?” His relations, viz., his sister, who had lived with Mr. Blight, a younger brother, who bore a strong resemblance in person to the unfortunate man, and a brother-in-law, with his wife, a nephew, and another distant relation, were admitted to him, and remained with him until three o’clock, when they took their last farewell. Patch was now most sensibly affected, and the scene was truly distressing. He embraced each of his relatives, and wept bitterly, clinging to them until the moment had arrived when their absence was required. After this affecting scene, Mr. Ives, the governor of the prison, went to his cell, and Patch here uttered an expression adequate to a confession of his guilt. He said, “I have confessed my sins to God; man can give me no relief.” He was also visited by the Rev. Mr. Mann, and three dissenting ministers. In their interviews with him he evinced the strongest proofs of a penitent sinner; but invariably declined to give any answer to the urgent entreaties of the clergymen to acknowledge the crime for which he was to die. Mr Graham, the magistrate who committed him to prison, was the last person admitted to see him on this night. Before they parted Mr. Patch took him by the hand, and said, emphatically, “We shall, I trust, meet in Heaven.”

The three dissenting ministers remained with him during the night, and he appeared extremely penitent and devout.

At about half-past six o’clock on Tuesday morning, the Rev. Mr. Mann, and the curate of the Rev. Mr. Rowland Hill, came to the prison, and after a short interview Patch and Herring received the sacrament, Mrs. Herring, who was a Catholic, being left with a priest, the Rev. Mr. Griffiths.

About five minutes before nine o’clock the high-sheriff demanded the bodies of the unfortunate sufferers; and immediately after, they began to move in the usual order, followed by Mr. Ives, the keeper of the prison. When they got to the open yard, Herring and his wife were placed on a sledge, and drawn to the entrance of the stair-case leading to the apparatus for the execution, from which they ascended the stairs with as much firmness as could be expected. Patch displayed his usual intrepidity.

While Jack Ketch was fastening the ropes, the Rev. Mr. Mann attended Patch, and, for the last time, attempted to draw from him a confession, but with no better success. The sheriff then went to him, and entreated him to confess; but he steadfastly refused. At this time the cap was drawn upon his face, and everything prepared to launch him into eternity. Apparently displeased at being pressed so much upon the subject, he now threw himself considerably back with impatience. From the violent motion of his body, some of the spectators supposed that he meant to break his neck, as Avershaw did on Kennington-common; Mr. Ives immediately went to him and said, “My good friend, what are you about?” and they conversed together for about a minute and a half. The unfortunate prisoners were then immediately put to death by the falling of the drop.

The execution took place on the 8th of April, 1806.

The body of Patch, after hanging the usual time, was taken to the hospital of the prison, in order to be anatomised by the county surgeon. He was an athletic, broad-shouldered man, about five feet seven inches high, and to the last maintained his florid looks, which, however, were constitutional, and not the effect of any extraordinary degree of determination.