Transcribed from the 1817 Hay and Turner edition by DavidPrice,
THE
SENTENCE
AND
AFFIDAVIT
OF
JOHN CHURCH,
The Obelisk Preacher,
FOR ANATTEMPT TO COMMIT AN
UNNATURAL CRIME
ON ADAMFOREMAN, AT VAUXHALL.
TOGETHERWITH
JUDGE BAYLEY’S IMPRESSIVE ADDRESS
TO THE PRISONER, AT FULLLENGTH.
AT THE COURT OF KING’S BENCH,NOV. 24, 1817.
TAKEN ISSHORT-HAND
By Joseph A. Dowling,
OF CLEMENT’S INN.
London:
PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY HAY AND TURNER,
11, NEWCASTLE STREET, STRAND.
1817.
PRICE THREEPENCE.
p. 3SENTENCEON JOHN CHURCH,
THE OBELISK PREACHER.
COURT OFKING’S BENCH,NOVEMBER 24, 1817.
This morning the celebrated John Church was brought up before the Court,for the purpose of receiving its judgment, in pursuance of hisconviction at the last Croydon Assizes, for an attempt to commitan unnatural crime.
During the greater part of the morning the Court was occupiedby passing judgments on offenders against the Excise Laws; and itwas not until one o’clock, that the Court proceeded topronounce sentence on the above defendant.
Lord Ellenborough, who had triedthe case, then read over all his notes taken on the trial, andthe defendant then handed in an affidavit to the officer of theCourt, for the purpose of inducing their Lordships to pass alenient sentence on him.
This affidavit, after reciting his conviction at theabove-mentioned Assizes, on the 10th of August last, complainedof the title pages of several accounts of his trial, which hadbeen printed and published, p. 4and which were strongly calculated toexcite popular prejudice against him. It stated that thedefendant was a married man and had several children, and thathis wife had kept a school for the instruction of young females,at Hammersmith, and while she so kept such school, she receivedthe following anonymous letter.
“London.
“Madam,
“If you have any respect for the children who are underyour care, you will remove from the house you are now in, thatthey may not be present at the punishment of your husband.
“Believe me yourFriend.”
And that soon after this, a mob assembled before the house of