Trial and Sentence of Constance Kent. Constance Kent
On Friday, July 21st, Miss Constance E. Kent was placed at the Bar of the Salisbury Assize Court, charged with the murder of her brother, Francis Saville Kent.
The Clerk of the Assize, addressing the prisoner, said: How say you, are you guilty or not guilty? The prisoner in a voice scarcly audible, said—Guilty.
A profound silence then ensued in court, which was broken by Mr Coleridge, the prisoner’s counsel, standing up and saying, I desire to say three things before your Lordship pronounces sentence. First, solemnly before Almighty God, she wishes me to say that the guilt is her own alone, and that her father and others, who have so long suffered most unjust and cruel suspicions, are wholly and absolutely innocent; and secondly, that she was not driven to this act by unkind treatment at home, as she met with nothing there but tender and forbearing love, and I may add that it gives me a melancholy pleasure to be the organ of these statements for her, because, on my honour, I believe them to be true.
The Judge, with much emotion, then said—Constance Kent, it is my duty to receive the plea which you have deliberately put forward. I can entertain no doubt that the murder was committed under great deliberation and cruelty. You appear to have allowed your feelings and anger to have worked in your breast, until at last they assumed over you the influence and power of the Evil One. It remains for me to pass the sentence which the law adjudges. The learned Judge then passed upon her the usual Sentence of Death. During the passing of the sentence, prisoner burst into a violent flood of tears, sobbing aloud.
Oh, give attention, you maidens dear,
My dying moments are drawing near,
When I am sentenc’d alas to die,
Upon a gallows gloomy and high.
Oh what s sight it will be to see,
A maiden die on the fatal tree.
I am a maiden in youth and bloom,
I a wretched murderer to die am doom’d,
And in the city of Salisbury,
My days must end on a dismal tree.
My little brother, a darling sweet,
That fatal morning did soundly sleep,
I was perplexed. I invented strife,
Fully determined to take his life.
To the dirty closet I did him take,
The deed I done caus’d my heart to ache,
Into the soil I did him thrust down,
Where asleep in death he was quickly found.
My own dear father they did suspect,
That he would suffer they did expect,
I was apprehended, but I got clear,
Tho’ I was the murderess of my brother dear.
Long, long I pined in deep distress,
At length the murder I did confess,
The vile Road murder, as you may see,
Committed was no one but me.
Farewell my father, my father dear,
I know for me you will shed a tear,
Yes, your wicked daughter in shame must die,
For that cruel murder on a gallows high.
How many maidens will flock to see,
A female die upon Salisbury’s tree.
Constance Emily Kent is my dreadful name,
Who in youth and beauty dies a death of shame.
I must go to my silent grave,
Father, is there no one your child to save,
Oh the awful moments are drawing near,
Father, forgive your daughter dear.
Oh, God in heaven, look down on me,
As I stand on the dreadful tree,
Forgive the crime, I, alas, have done,
Wash me with the blood of thy blessed son.
I must not live, I am bound to go,
I must be hurried to the shadows below,
My guilty heart long did quake with fear,
Why did I kill my little brother dear.
I see the hangman before me stand,
Ready to seize me by the law’s command,
When my life is ended on the fatal tree,
Then will be clear’d up all mystery.
Disley, Printer, High street, St. Giles, London.