1777-12-19 (static/transcriptions/1777/12/048.jpg)

1777. Sessions. Friday Dec. 19th

Friday December 19th 1777.
Betty & Peggy.
Indicted for the Murder of Susannah by Scalding with hot water out of a Kettle.

Present
Impey
Chambers
&
Hyde.

Susannah who was kill’d was the Slave of Betty, and was about Eleven or Twelve Years Old: Betty was a woman kept by an Englishman, Peggy was another woman kept by another Englishman, and Betty and Peggy lived in the same house.
I have some little doubt whether the Indictment is right in stating no wound, but saying only “scalding and burning”: and I have also some doubt whether it is right in stating that Betty and Peggy both assaulted and scalded Susannah, the Kettle being in the hand of Peggy, and that Betty was present aiding and abetting; when the fact was that Betty was in a Chamber next to the room where Peggy scalded the Girl, but separated from it by a Wall through which there was no door. Lawrence, Clerk of Indictments said he had shewn this Indictment to Impey
and