I I - American Memory

likBtinHaiuiMi
I 32 ]
Having thus made a full and ample ConfefTion, and
fign'd tlie fame on the 27th of March, his Mittimus
%vas made by Juftice Lambert, and he was committed to
Neivgate, whither he was carry 'd under a Guard of a
Serjeant and eight Soldiers, with Muskets and B.i)'onets
to keep oiFthe Mob, Avho was lb exafperatcd again!!: the
Aftors of fuch a Piece of Barbarity, that without that
' Caution it would have been very difficult to have car-
ry'd liim thither alive.
On Monday the 28th of March, after Mrs. Hayes was
committed to Ne-vjgate, being the Day after fVoscTs Ap-
prehenfion, Jofeph Mercer going to Neivgate to fee Mrs.
Hayes, (he told him as he was Thomas Billings''^ Friend
as well as her's, ihe defir'd he would goto him, and
tell him, 'twas in vain for him longer to deny the Mur-
der of her Huiband, for they were equally Guilty, and
both mull Die for it.
Billings hearing this, and that Wood was apprehend-
ed, and had fully confefled the whole AfFair, thought
it needlefs to perfift longer in a Denial, and therefore
the next Day, being the 29th of March, he made a
full and plain Difcovery of the whole AfFair, which is
as follows, viz.
' The Examination and Confeffion of Thomas
' Billings, taken before Oliver Lambert,
* and Gideon Harvey, Efqs; two of bis
' Majefty's Juftices of the Peace for the
' County of Middlefex, on Tuelday March.
' 29, 1726.
H O faith. That Catherine Hayes, Thomas
Wood, and this Examinant, about three Weeks
before the Murder of Mr. John Hayes, had confulted
to murder the faid Hayes, but not in what manner to
put it in Execution: That on the firil of this Inflant
March, he being in Mr. Hayes'i Room with Cathe-