1777-12-20 (static/transcriptions/1777/12/060.jpg)

1777. Sessions. [Saturday] Dec. 20.

with Child, and I agree to this as to what she may now say, but if before the deceased was kill’d, the Convict had told persons by way of common discourse that she was with Child, this I think would be some kind of Evidence, because it would be unsuspicious, and may be known to the woman herself before the signs are visible to other Persons.
The Jury return’d soon with their Verdict, that the Convict was not with Child.
I mention’d to day, and also yesterday that I thought, the meaning of the oath of the Jury of Matrons in the words “with Quick Child” meant, that, if they were satisfied she was with Child, they were to find her “with Quick Child” except they could be convinced the Child was dead in the woman, and were not to apply the words to their sence in this case as applied in common discourse, to mean only, the case of a Child which had been felt to move in the womb, and my reason for this opinion, which appears contradictory to the opinion in many Law-Books, is that the proper source of the word “Quick” is “above”
and