Evidence Type: Newspaper Report
18 November 1824
POLICE OFFICE, TUESDAY.—Mrs. ANNE WHITING, a very gaily attired lady, attended by her own servant, Miss MARY COLE, appeared to answer the following very disagreeable charge. Mrs. MARY ANNE HUMPHRIES, a very matronly discreet sort of a personage, who resided at the very next door to the aforesaid Mrs. ANNE WHITING; was seized or possessed of three ducks, which ducks Miss MARY COLE seized by the advice of her mistress, and very ungenteely drove in to her (Mrs. WHITING’s) house, and there cruelly cut off their heads. Mrs. HUMPHRIES finding that the birds had flown, and suspecting whither, employed two constables to search Mrs. WHITING’s house for the wanderers. Upon entering the house, and stating to Mrs. WHITING, that they “wanted the ducks just driven in,” she assured them she knew of no ducks—not she indeed! she was not one of that sort. Upon proceeding, however, to the bedroom the constables discovered Miss MARY COLE plucking the plumage from two of the deceased birds, and the third occupying a very inglorious portion of the apartment, being wrapt up in a cloth not of the whitest hue underneath the bed. Mrs. WHITING then, for the first time, remembered she had just bought three ducks; but her memory was treacherous, and neither she nor her maid knew of[f] whom. This exceedingly unpleasant piece of business happened Monday afternoon. The Magistrate ordered Mrs. ANNE WHITING and her maid to be amused at the Factory for three months.
CITATION
Female Factory Online, (femalefactoryonline.org), “Law Report of ANNE WHITING,” https://femalefactoryonline.org/law-reports/p18241118-2/, accessed [insert current date].
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