An Account of a Dreadful Murder, Committed by Thomas Smith, Aged 21...
Murder and Infanticide in Berkshire: No Copies Located on OCLC or Library Hub [Broadside]. [Crime]. Smith, Thomas [b.1814?]. An Account of a Dreadful Murder, Committed by Thomas Smith, Aged 21, on the Body of Eliz. Young, Aged 18 at Sutton, In Berkshire, On Thursday, February the 5th, 1835. Reading: Walker, Printer, [1835]. 10" x 7.5" (25.3 x 19 cm) broadside mounted on a slightly larger) backing sheet. Text in single column below headline, followed by two columns of verse separated by ornamental rule. Light toning, faint fold lines, minor dampstaining to corners (just touching the headline). A well-preserved example. Rare. $1,850. * This gripping and graphic broadside details a tragic case of murder and infanticide in Berkshire. Thomas Smith and Elizabeth Young were both employed as servants in a "respectable" household when their intimate relationship resulted in Young's pregnancy. Seeking to end the affair after shifting his affections to a local farmer's daughter, Smith lured the eight-months-pregnant Young into the woods and stabbed her in the chest. According to the text and accompanying verses, the crime took an even more horrific turn: "...it appears by his confession and other circumstances, that in her dying agonies she was delivered of a living child which the hard harted monster [sic] dashed on the ground." A highly significant survival of 19th-century street literature. No references to this specific crime or the execution of Thomas Smith have been located in contemporary newspapers or standard genealogical records, suggesting this ephemeral broadside may be the only surviving historical account of the event. No copies located on OCLC or Library Hub.Unrecorded in the primary British and American crime fiction/broadside collections, including Oxford University (Bodleian), the British Library, and Harvard University.
Price: $1,850.00
Book number 85929