The Times
London, Middlesex, England

August 8, 1818

We are authorised by several respectable members of the Society of Friends, commonly called Quakers, to state, that Thomas Simpson, who committed the murder on Thomas Mayne, in the county of Cavan, as mentioned in our paper of the 21st inst., is not, nor ever was, a member of that Society, although his language in the account of the transaction appears as if he were. In the hand- bills that are in circulation describing his appearance &c. there is a flat contradiction, as they state, "he served some years in the Cavan militia," whereas it is a well known fact, that none of that society ever bears arms.- Belfast Newsletter

August 20, 1818.

CAVAN, Aug 11.
Bridget Murray, who was sentenced at the last Spring Assizes to be hanged, for aiding and assisting a paramour of hers, name M'Teague, in murdering her husband, was this day executed at the drop in front of the gaol of this town. This unfortunate woman was found guilty on the testimony of her own daughter, a child of about 12 years of age, and after her condemnation pleaded pregnancy. To inquire into the truth of her plea, to stay her execution a jury of matrons was empanelled, who gave a verdict in her favour, and about 3 weeks ago she was delivered of a female child. She protested her innocence to the last, declaring most positively and solemnly that she was "as innocent as the child unborn," that she "had neither hand, act, or part, in his death," and that she freely forgave her prosecutors. From the extraordinary circumstances, however, of her own child being the prosecutor, and the very clear and satisfactory evidence of so young a child in the details of the horrid transaction, we confess we consider the justice of her sentence questionable, though solemnly denied by her, and at so very awful a moment. Cavan Herald

Submitted by: County Cavan Newspaper Transcription Project