425. The Trial of HAAGEN SWENDSEN, at the Queen”s-Bench, for forcibly taking away and marrying Mrs. PLEASANT B.AWLINS, 1-ANNE, A. D. 1702.* ON Wednesday the 18th of November the .- 1-and jury of Westminster foetid the bill of indictment against the defendants. On ”that day an Habeas Corpus was moved for, and left at Newgate, and the keeper refused to bring up the prisoner on Thursday, but brought him on Friday morning ; and then he was arraigned, and pleaded not guilty : and the court then appointed the trial to be on Wednesday the 25th, that being the last day that he could be tried, to have sentence given against convicted per-sous in that term. Mr. Swendsen moved for a longer time, alleging, That a German, a material witness for him, was gone into Yorkshire. The court then told him, that if any person would swear, that anyof his witnesses could not be at the trial on Wednesday, the court would put off the trial ; but no oath thereof being made, the trial came on upon the day appointed. The court being sat, at which were present j the right honourable the lord chief justice Holt, sir John Powell, sir Littleton Powis, and sir Henry Gould : Haagen Swendsen being brought to the bar, proclamation was made for silence ; and he being a foreigner, claimed, as his right, the benefit of a party jury ; which was allowed him and leave to challenge whom he would. He challenged some ; and the gentlemen sworn were, viz. George Ford, esq. Enoch Roofe, gent. Ti mothy Thornbury, esq. Abraham Falcon, gent. John Pack, esq. James Boyneth, Francis Chapman, Erasmus Johnson, Robert Barn pton, Matthew Boddin, Thomas Pitts, Henry Henderson, gents. Cl. of Arr. Haagen Swendsen, hold up thy hand. (Which he did.) * See 7 Mod. 101. Holt, 319. Treniaine, 34. See also the following Case, Cl. of Arr. Gentlemen of the jury, look upon the prisoner at the bar. Be stands indicted by the name of Haagen Swendsen, late of the parish of St. Giles in the fields, in the county of Middlesex, yeoman ; for that bn the 6th of November 1702, one Pleasant Rawlins, gentlewoman, and a virgin, and unmarried, grand daughter and heir of William Rawlins, sen. then deceased, and daughter and heir of William Rawlins jun. before then also deceased, was above the age of sixteen, and under the age of eighteen, and then had substance and estate in moveables and in lands and tenements, viz. in money, goods, and chattles to the value of 2,0001. and in land and tenements to the value of 201. per annum, to her and the heirs of her body. And that the several persons, Swendsen, Baynton, Hartwell, Spurr, and Tho. Holt, the said 6th day of November, with force and arms, the said Pleasant Rawlins, as aforesaid, being unmarried, and heir, and having substance and estate at the parish of St. Giles in the fields, in this county, for the lucre of such estate and substance of the said Pleasant Rawlins, did unlawfully, feloniously, violently, and against the will of the said Pleasant Rawlins, take, carry, and lead away, with intent to cause and procure the said Pleasant Rawlins, against her will, in matrimony to the said Haagen Swendsen to be joined, and to him to be wedded and married ; and that the said Haagen Swendsen, being a man of a dishonest conversation, and of none, or very little estate or substance, then, and there, by the help and procurement of the other defendants, did feloniously marry the said. Pleasant Rawlins, and was joined to her in matrimony ; and then and there her did carnally know ; to the great displeasure of God, against the laws of the queen, to the disgrace and disparagement of the said Pleasant Rawlins, and to the great grief and disconsolation of all her friends, to the evil ex- 561] for forcibly marrying Mrs. 12 ample of all others, against the form of the statute, and against the queen”s peace, her crown and dignity. And that the said Tho. Holt, after the said Pleasant Rawlins had been so unlawfully, violently, and feloniously taken, carried, and led away, and to the said Haagen Swendsen married and wedded as, aforesaid ; well knowing the said Pleasant Rawlins to have been so taken and led away against her will, and to the said Haagen Swendsen to be wedded and married, afterwards, viz. the said sixth day of November, in the said first year of the reign of this queen, at the parish aforesaid, the same Pleasant Rawlins, and also the said Haagen Swendsen, did wilfully, knowingly, and feloniously receive, abet, comfort, conceal and as sist the said Haagen Swendsen, with the said Pleasant Rawlins to lie, and her carnally to know, then and there did feloniously incite, abet, help, cause, and procure, against the form of the said statute, and against the queen”s peace, her crown and dignity. Cl. of Arr. Upon which indictment he bath been arraigned, and pleaded not guilty, put himself upon God and you the jury at the bar, being half foreigners and half natives. Cryer. 0 yes ! If any one will give evidence on behalfofour sovereign lady the queen, against the prisoner at the bar, let them come forth, and they shall be heard ; the prisoner stands at the bar for his deliverance. Swendsen. Pray, my lord, let me have pen and ink, I am not allowed counsel. (Which his lordship granted.) My lord, I would beg the favour of your lordship, that the evidence may be examined apart. Sol. Gen. (Sir Simon Harcourt.) Is it not your lordship”s pleasure ”to call the other jury, the facts are so twisted together, and have such a dependence one upon another, that there will be an inconvenience to us, if it be otherwise? Serj Darnel. They may stand at the bar by themselves. Mr. Montague. Or else it will break our evidence : they may stand on the other side. L.,C. J. Holt. He must be tried single. So/. Gen. May it please your lordship, and j gentlemen of the jury, I am of counsel for the queen : it was formerly reckoned a less crime to steal a fortune of 10,0001. than to steal 12d. of her money or goods ; but in the third year of the reign of king Henry 7, to cure this defect in the law, an act of parliament was made, whereby the taking away a woman, having goods or lands, or being an heir apparent, contrary to her will, and afterwards marrying her, is made felony, and upon this law the present indictment is grounded. Pleasant Rawlins was the daughter of Mr. William Rawlins ; he having left her a considerable estate, appointed George Bright and William Busby to be her guardians. Mr. Bright being dead, the other guardian, Mr. Busby, for the better education of Mrs. Rawlins, placed her under the care of his sister Sabina Busby. Mrs. Busby and Mrs. Rawlins have lodged about three years last at the house VOL. XIV.atulins. A. D. 1702. [562 of the widow Nightingale. Haagen Swendsen, with Mrs. Baynton, lodged at Mrs. Blake”s in Holbourn, and there they first projected and contrived how they might make a prey of this young gentlewoman. The first step they took towards executing this design was to get lodgings at Mrs. Nightingale”s house for Mrs. Baynton ; for which purpose she was to pass fir a country gentlewoman of a plentiful fortune. One Mrs. St. John was sent to Mrs. Nightingale to take lodgings for Mrs. Baynton, commending her to be a very good woman ; and that having the misfortune of a lawsuit, and being obliged for that reason to attend it in town, it was her greatest care to lodge in so reputable a house as Mrs. Nightingale”s was. Under this pretence, lodgings were there taken for her. At her first coming, she was forced to put on a disguise ; she seemed to live a virtuous life, that she might ingratiate herself into the favour of the family, as often as she had an opportunity of conversing with any of them : she pretended she had a brother of a good estate, one of the best men in the world ; and she hoped he would shortly come to town, that she might see him. In a little time after came this Swendsen (being nothing related to her) and appeared as her brother, and frequently visited her under pretence oftbat relation. But Mrs. Baynton was too well known in town to continue long undiscovered ; notice was soon given to Mrs. Busby of the vicious life Mrs. Baynton had led, and that she was not fit to be in the same house with her. Mrs. Baynton having discovered this, and finding she had no time to bring about her designs by frauds and wiles, and that no other ways were left but open force, the prisoner at the bar and she took measures accordingly ; and in order thereto it was agreed, that a writ should be taken out against Mrs. Rawlins. Mrs. Baynton contrives to get Mrs. Rawlins and Mrs. Busby into a coach, and at a place appointed a signal was given, and the writ executed, and Mrs. Busby, Mrs. Rawlins, and Mrs. Baynton, were all carried in the coach to the Star and Garter tavern in Drury-lane, where particular care was taken to separate Mrs. Busby and Mrs. Rawlins, be.. cause unless they did that, they could not hope to accomplish their designs. Mrs. Busby was by force kept at that tavern, without any process against her, till the marriage was over; but Mrs. Rawlins was forcibly carried to Hart-well”s the bailiff”s house. Mrs. Baynton pretended to be much concerned for Mrs. Raw-, lins, and went in all haste to call some of her friends to be bail for her. Some time after Mrs. Rawlins was got to Hartwell”s, in comes Mrs. Baynton, pretending that by mere aceident she had discovered her being there, hear-, ing her name as she was passing by the door ; that she had been in search, but could find no help ; and that her last hopes was her dear brother Swendsen, and she doubted not but he would bail her : he by agreement had been placed near the bailiff”s, and so was soon found, and brought thither, and was very ready to assist 20 563] 1 ANNE. Trial of Haagen Swendsen, [564 her. lu order to her discharge, the prisoner, the bailiff, and Mrs. Baynton, carried Mrs. Rawlins to another tavern, where they had a parson ready for the purpose ; and there this young gentlewoman, through...
