| Notes |
("Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette" 03 Oct 1776, page 2):
Friday was committed to Glocester goal, by Geo. Nayler, Gent. Coroner, Joseph Armstrong, on suspicion of having poisoned the lady of Capt. A'Court, with whom he lived a servant, and who was then at Cheltenham. This lady had been ill ten days, but no suspicion of poison was suggested till the morning after her decease, when information was given by an apothecary of that place, that the servant had bought some arsenic at his shop the day preceding her first attack of illness, and again in the course of the following week. On receiving this intelligence, the man, who had that morning got leave of his master to set out for London, in consequence of a letter he had received from his friends there, was pursued to Frogmill by Col. Bradford, the lady's father, and after some time was apprehended in a neighbouring wood, whither he had fled on seeing the Colonel drive up to the house in a chaise and four. Upon being interrogated for what purpose he bought the poison, he prevaricated very much, and since his confinement has been in several different stories. Upon an examination by several gentlemen of the faculty, it is said the lady's bowels were found mortified.
("Northampton Mercury" 24 Mar 1777, page 1):
Extract of a Letter from Gloucester, March 17.
At our Assizes Joseph Armstrong was tried before Mr. Baron Perryn, for the Offence of Petty Treason, in poisoning his Master's Lady, Mrs. A'Court. The Prisoner was hired into the Family of Capt. A'Court, and shortly after attended his Master and Mistress to Cheltenham in this County. The unfortunate Lady had often expressed her Dislike at the Prisoner's Conduct, and had frequently intimated to her Husband a Wish that he might be discharged from their Service. This Conduct of the Lady, Armstrong was determined to be revenged of, and by infusing small Quantities of Arsenic into his Mistresses Beer and Tea, she contracted a Disorder which carried her off in about ten Days. After a Trial which lasted eight Hours, the Evidence was summed up in a very masterly Manner by the Judge to the Jury, who found him Guilty, to the Satisfaction of a very crowded Court. He is to suffer this Day.
("The Ipswich Journal" 29 Mar 1777, page 1):
On Monday morning, about 7 o'clock, Joseph Armstrong, who was that morning to have been executed for poisoning his mistress, Mrs. A'Court, desired the keeper to give him leave to have 2 or 3 minutes to himself to devote to prayer: This request seemed so reasonable, that after securing his garters, and even the string with which his links were supported, they left him, and stood on the outside of the door; but no sooner was the door shut than he took a little strap, which it is imagined his mother hid in the straw, and tying this round his neck, he fastened it to a nail in the wall, and then by a sudden jerk dislocated his neck, and died before the people could open the door. Tho' he had positively denied that he had been guilty of the crime for which he was to suffer, on Sunday evening, yet just before he destroyed himself, he owned his guilt to one of the keepers, and acknowledged to one of the prisoners he had been guilty of other villainies worthy of death. His body is hung in chains at Cheltenham.
(Burial Register Extract):
1776, September 26. Katherine, wife of Capt. A'Court.
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- 1776
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