, , England, to JS and Quorum of the Twelve, [, Hancock Co., IL], 10–21 Jan. 1844; handwriting of ; docket in handwriting of ; twenty-four pages; JS Collection, CHL.
Page 11
at 2 O Clock P.M. Dec 26 I Left and Returned to Wher I Labored in the offic in answeri[n]g some score of Letters that had accumilated in my absence I chartered a vessell and made arrangements for fitting up the Births for the Emigrants and on the 1st of January I accompanied Elder to Chester Castle with mr Rowe the attorny to Defend the prisnors at their trial that Commenced on the 1 2nd. day of Jan the inditement was Laid before the Grand Jury With all the Witneses for the pressecution present some secret Enemies of the Church had gone to great Expnce in procuring a survey of the ground and a Large map of the Same to persent to the Court with this aditional Evidence and what was given at the Coriners inquest the grand Jury found a against the prisnor Jonathen Pugmier & Thomas Cortwright for killing and slaying Sary Cortwright on the Evening of the 23d of November at monks Copenhall Near Crewe in cheshire Mr Justice Whiteman gave the folowing charge to the grand Jury in the case he stated that there <was> one case in the calendr that was of a pecular nature in which two men Named pugmier & cortwright were charged with manslaughter of Sarah Cartwright the wife of one of the prisnors by Drowning from what he had Read in the Deposissions he geathered that the two prisnors belonged to a Religeous sect caling them selves mormonites but with there <thier the> pecular tenates of these people he was totaly unaquaintd With the Exception that from the Deposissions he found that Baptisem Was one of them it seamed inde[e]d that During the performance of that Rite the Dec[e]ased had met With her death the Question for them would be whether the Death had not in Reality been caused by puer [pure] accident by some circumstance over which the accused had no Controle or whether it had orriginated in an Illeagal violence during the immersion of the woman if they were of oppinion that Either of the two former suggestions Was the Real cause of death it would be at once their Duty to throw out the Bill. the Learned Judge informed the attorney General that this would Be the first to Be tried on the following morning Jan 2 and Requested him to have all the [p. 11]