Historical Mysteries | Page 7

could not carry it in John Gilpin's fashion; and, whatever
else was denied, it was admitted that from the first Elizabeth mentioned
the pitcher. The statement of Mr. Willes, that Adamson brought in the
pitcher, was one that no barrister should have made.
The Natus pair were now brought in to say that they slept in the loft
during the time that Elizabeth said she was there. As a reason for not
giving evidence at the gipsy's trial, they alleged fear of the mob, as we
saw.
The witnesses for the gipsy's alibi were called. Mrs. Hopkins, of South
Parrot, Dorset, was not very confident that she had seen the gipsy at her
inn on December 29, 1752. She, if Mary Squires she was, told Mrs.
Hopkins that they 'sold hardware'; in fact they sold soft ware, smuggled
nankin and other stuffs. Alice Farnham recognised the gipsies, whom
she had seen after New Christmas (new style). 'They said they would
come to see me after the Old Christmas holidays'--which is unlikely!
Lucy Squires, the daughter, was clean, well dressed, and, teste Mr.
Davy, she was pretty. She was not called.
George Squires was next examined. He had been well tutored as to
what he did after December 29, but could not tell where he was on
Christmas Day, four days earlier! His memory only existed from the
hour when he arrived at Mrs. Hopkins's inn, at South Parrot (December
29, 1752). His own counsel must have been amazed; but in
cross-examination Mr. Morton showed that, for all time up to
December 29, 1752, George's memory was an utter blank. On January
1, George dined, he said, at Abbotsbury, with one Clarke, a sweetheart
of his sister. They had two boiled fowls. But Clarke said they had only
'a part of a fowl between them.' There was such a discrepancy of
evidence here as to time on the part of one of the gipsy's witnesses that
Mr. Davy told him he was drunk. Yet he persisted that he kissed Lucy
Squires, at an hour when Lucy, to suit the case, could not have been

present.
There was documentary evidence--a letter of Lucy to Clarke, from
Basingstoke. It was dated January 18, 1753, but the figure after 175
was torn off the postmark; that was the only injury to the letter. Had
there not been a battalion of as hard swearers to the presence of the
gipsies at Enfield in December-January 1752-1753 as there was to their
absence from Enfield and to their presence in Dorset, the gipsy party
would have proved their case. As matters stand, we must remember that
the Dorset evidence had been organised by a solicitor, that the route
was one which the Squires party habitually used; that by the confession
of Mr. Davy, the prosecuting counsel, the Squires family 'stood in' with
the smuggling interest, compact and unscrupulous. They were 'gipsies
dealing in smuggled goods,' said Mr. Davy. Again, while George
Squires had been taught his lesson like a parrot, the prosecution dared
not call his sister, pretty Lucy, as a witness. They said that George was
'stupid,' but that Lucy was much more dull. The more stupid was
George, the less unlikely was he to kidnap Elizabeth Canning as prize
of war after robbing her. But she did not swear to him.
As to the presence of the gipsies at Mrs. Wells's, at Enfield, as early as
January 19, Mrs. Howard swore. Her husband lived on his own
property, and her house, with a well, which she allowed the villagers to
use, was opposite Mrs. Wells's. Mrs. Howard had seen the gipsy girl at
the well, and been curtsied to by her, at a distance of three or four yards.
She had heard earlier from her servants of the arrival of the gipsies, and
had 'looked wishfully,' or earnestly, at them. She was not so positive as
to Mary Squires, whom she had seen at a greater distance.
William Headland swore to seeing Mary Squires on January 9; he fixed
the date by a market-day. Also, on the 12th, he saw her in Mrs. Wells's
house. He picked up a blood-stained piece of thin lead under the
window from which Elizabeth escaped, and took it to his mother, who
corroborated. Samuel Story, who knew Mary Squires from of old, saw
her on December 22 in White Webs Lane, so called from the old house
noted as a meeting-place of the Gunpowder Plot conspirators. Story
was a retired clockmaker. Mr. Smith, a tenant of the Duke of Portland,

saw Mary Squires in his cowhouse on December 15, 1752. She wanted
leave to camp there, as she had done in other years. The gipsies then
lost a pony. Several witnesses swore to this, and one swore to
conversations with Mary