Thank you for visiting SNEWPapers!
Sign up free
The Virginia Gazette Foreign News December 5, 1751
Richmond, Richmond, Virginia
Cautionary note: execution and mob violence; murder of a woman accused of witchcraft; era-typical superstition
What is this article about?
Thomas Colley was executed at Gubblecut-Cross for the murder of Ruth Osborne, whom he killed on suspicion of witchcraft; he signed a declaration renouncing belief in witches, and a mob had earlier delayed his execution.
Quality green show the numbers
Measured from the scan
— how cleanly the OCR engine read the characters
- Mean ink quality
- 99.0% The length-weighted average confidence across the OCR lines — the mean of exactly the per-line scores whose tails the two figures below report. Typical is 99%.
- Illegible ink
- 0.0% Text sitting in OCR-detected lines that scored below 80% confidence — very shaky reads. Weighted by line length, so one long bad line counts for more than a short one.
- Uncertain ink
- 0.0% Text in lines that scored 80–90% — somewhat shaky reads.
- Matches source
- 97.21% How closely the served text matches the raw OCR of the same boxes, letter by letter, after collapsing spacing and case. This measures agreement, not correctness: the OCR is often wrong and the extractor corrects it, so 100% does not mean perfect, and a low figure usually means poor scan text was rewritten rather than that text was lost (length vs source shows loss).
- Length vs source
- 99.58% Below 100% means text was dropped from the OCR; above means text was added to make it read.
Assembled by the extraction model
— whether the stitched-together text holds up; catches layout and segmentation errors, which the scores above cannot see
- Transcription confidence
- 96.0% (typical 96%) How cleanly the extractor could assemble what it was given. Low here with clean ink scores points at layout analysis — the characters were read correctly but grouped or ordered wrongly.
- Comprehension
- 95.0% Whether the piece reads coherently start to finish. Can stay high while transcription confidence drops, when only part of the component is affected.
Clipping
Full Text
August 24. This Day Thomas Colley, for the cruel Murder of Ruth Osborne, on Supposition of her being a Witch, was executed at Gubblecut-Cross, near Marston-Green, in the Parish of Tring, in Hertfordshire.
About 10 on Friday Morning he received the Sacrament at Hertford, administered to him by the Rev. Mr. Edward Bouchier, when he signed a solemn Declaration of his Belief relating to Witchcraft; which he desired might be carried to the Place of Execution, and was there publicly read, at his earnest Request, just before he was turned off, by the Rev. Mr. Randall, Minister of Tring, who attended him in his last Moments. He was escorted by 108 Men belonging to the Regiment of Horse Blue, with their Officers, and two Trumpets; and the Procession was slow, solemn, and moving. Friday Night he was lodged in St. Alban's Gaol; at Five the next Morning was put into a One-Horse Chaise, with the Executioner, and came to the Place of Execution about Eleven, and after half an Hour spent in Prayer he was executed, and immediately after hung up in Chains on the same Gibbet he was hanged on. The Infatuation of most of the People in that Part of the Country was such, that they would not be seen near the Place of Execution, insisting that it was a hard Case to hang a Man for destroying an old Woman that had done so much Damage by her Witchcraft. It was said, he was to have been executed a Week sooner, but when the proper Officers came to convey him from the Gaol, a prodigious Mob assembled, and would not suffer him to be taken out of Prison.
His Declaration, above-mentioned, was as follows.
Good People,
BESEECH you all to take Warning by an unhappy Man's Suffering; that you be not deluded into so absurd and wicked a Conceit, as to believe that there are any such Beings upon Earth as Witches.
It was that foolish and vain Imagination, heightened and inflamed by the Strength of Liquor, which prompted me to be instrumental (with others as mad-brained as myself) in the horrid and barbarous Murder of Ruth Osborne, the supposed Witch, for which I am now so deservedly to suffer Death.
I am fully convinced of my former Error, and with the Sincerity of a dying Man, declare, that I do not believe there is such a Thing in being as a Witch; and pray God, that none of you, thro' a contrary Persuasion, may hereafter be induced to think, that you have a Right in any Shape to persecute, much less to endanger the Life of a Fellow-Creature.
I beg of you all to pray to God to forgive me, and to wash clean my polluted Soul in the Blood of Jesus Christ, my Saviour and Redeemer.
So exhorteth you all, the dying
Thomas Colley.
About 10 on Friday Morning he received the Sacrament at Hertford, administered to him by the Rev. Mr. Edward Bouchier, when he signed a solemn Declaration of his Belief relating to Witchcraft; which he desired might be carried to the Place of Execution, and was there publicly read, at his earnest Request, just before he was turned off, by the Rev. Mr. Randall, Minister of Tring, who attended him in his last Moments. He was escorted by 108 Men belonging to the Regiment of Horse Blue, with their Officers, and two Trumpets; and the Procession was slow, solemn, and moving. Friday Night he was lodged in St. Alban's Gaol; at Five the next Morning was put into a One-Horse Chaise, with the Executioner, and came to the Place of Execution about Eleven, and after half an Hour spent in Prayer he was executed, and immediately after hung up in Chains on the same Gibbet he was hanged on. The Infatuation of most of the People in that Part of the Country was such, that they would not be seen near the Place of Execution, insisting that it was a hard Case to hang a Man for destroying an old Woman that had done so much Damage by her Witchcraft. It was said, he was to have been executed a Week sooner, but when the proper Officers came to convey him from the Gaol, a prodigious Mob assembled, and would not suffer him to be taken out of Prison.
His Declaration, above-mentioned, was as follows.
Good People,
BESEECH you all to take Warning by an unhappy Man's Suffering; that you be not deluded into so absurd and wicked a Conceit, as to believe that there are any such Beings upon Earth as Witches.
It was that foolish and vain Imagination, heightened and inflamed by the Strength of Liquor, which prompted me to be instrumental (with others as mad-brained as myself) in the horrid and barbarous Murder of Ruth Osborne, the supposed Witch, for which I am now so deservedly to suffer Death.
I am fully convinced of my former Error, and with the Sincerity of a dying Man, declare, that I do not believe there is such a Thing in being as a Witch; and pray God, that none of you, thro' a contrary Persuasion, may hereafter be induced to think, that you have a Right in any Shape to persecute, much less to endanger the Life of a Fellow-Creature.
I beg of you all to pray to God to forgive me, and to wash clean my polluted Soul in the Blood of Jesus Christ, my Saviour and Redeemer.
So exhorteth you all, the dying
Thomas Colley.
What sub-type of article is it?
Execution
Crime
Social Customs
What keywords are associated?
Witchcraft Murder
Thomas Colley Execution
Ruth Osborne
Tring
What entities or persons were involved?
Thomas Colley
Ruth Osborne
Rev. Mr. Edward Bouchier
Rev. Mr. Randall
Where did it happen?
Tring, Hertfordshire
Foreign News Details
Primary Location
Tring, Hertfordshire
Event Date
August 24
Key Persons
Thomas Colley
Ruth Osborne
Rev. Mr. Edward Bouchier
Rev. Mr. Randall
Outcome
thomas colley executed and hung in chains for the murder of ruth osborne.