THE COLLEGE CRIMINALS 2. EUGENE ARAM by Jessie Dobson, B.A., M.Sc. Recorder of the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. IN THE MUSEUM of the Royal College of Surgeons is still to be seen the skull of Eugene Aram, who was executed at Knavesmire, near York, on August 6, 1759, and afterwards was hung in chains in Knavesborough Forest. Eugene was the son of Peter Aram, a gardener, and was born at Ramsgill, a little village in the West Riding of Yorkshire, in 1704, probably in the month of September. In a letter written by him to the Rev. Mr. Collins, Vicar of Knaresborough, not long before his execution, he claimed to be descended from the lords of the village of Haram or Aram, but whether this was true it is impossible to say. His education appears to have been scanty, but he seems to have been a studious and ambitious lad who made every endeavour to supplement by his own efforts the little teaching which he was able to obtain. At the age of 15, he was offered a post in London in the counting house of Christopher Blackett, son of Sir Edward Blackett, who had formerly employed Peter Aram as his gardener. After a year or so in this employment, Eugene was unfortunate enough to have an attack of smallpox and so returned home to recuperate. Here he occupied his time in further studies so successfully that, instead of returning to his former occupation, he became the recognised teacher for the children of the local farmers. Not only did he make himself familiar with the ordinary subjects necessary for the education of such pupils but he also acquired a knowledge of Greek and Latin. His circumstances were now sufficiently assured for him to consider taking a wife and on May 4, 1731, he married Anna Spence at Lockhouse, which was her birthplace. A year or two later, he received an invitation from William Norton to act as steward to his estate near Knaresborough. This he accepted, but he still continued his teaching and his studies and at this period seems to have acquired a knowledge of Hebrew. One authority states that " he was always looked upon and treated in a more genteel and respectable manner than People of his Station generally are. His way of living and outward Deportment were most remarkably un- blameable for many years." His domestic life, however, does not seem to have been so happy, for it is said that he considered his wife to be beneath him in station and would not speak to her if he met her in public. It was during this period when Aram was living in Knaresborough that he became acquainted with a man named Daniel Clark, a shoemaker or " cordwainer," who seems to have shared in some measure Aram's love of learning; and a further link was that they were both fond of gardening. Another acquaintance of these two was Richard Houseman, a flax-dresser and a man of little education, who lived in a house very near to Aram's 267 20 J. DOBSON

Fig. 1. school in Knaresborough. Daniel Clark, a young man of about 23, was a fairly prosperous tradesman and, moreover, had recently married a Miss Foster who was said to be possessed of what was then deemed a considerable fortune. It was therefore not unnatural that Clark should have ordered from the local tradespeople quite a large amount of goods, including silver tankards, leather goods, blankets, etc., all of which he received on credit. Clark, however, disappeared from Knaresborough on February 7, 1745, and it was at once assumed that he had absconded with either the goods or the proceeds, though the fact that his horse was still in the stable threw some doubt on this conjecture. Nevertheless, although Clark had hitherto possessed a blameless reputation among his fellows, the fact that he was missing and that none of the goods was to be found in his house, led public opinion to turn strongly against him. The fact of his disappearance was advertised in a local newspaper and the sum of £15 was offered as a reward to anyone giving information 268 THE COLLEGE CRIMINALS that might lead to the recovery of the goods. The angry creditors also searched the houses of Aram and Houseman and in both cases managed to find certain of the missing articles. One of the creditors, Francis Iles, who seems to have been himself a receiver of stolen goods, made great efforts to recover the stolen property, possibly with a view to claiming the reward offered. Obviously, much suspicion fell upon Houseman and Aram, as being associates of the man who had disappeared, and on February 10 Aram was arrested for a debt to William Norton, his employer. Much to the surprise of the officers who, like everyone else who knew him, considered him to be a poor man, Aram procured his immediate release by paying the money at once. Shortly afterwards, he was again arrested for being in possession of 'some of Clark's property, but for some reason, not revealed, the case was dropped. Although he did not immediately move away from Knaresborough, his position there evidently became so uncomfortable that after a little time he left the village, " without acquainting any person with his intention." Houseman, although about £45 worth of leather belonging to Clark had been found among his belongings, strangely enough was not arrested and he remained in the village. Aram now made his way to London and one of the suspicious circumstances of this period was the fact that he began to live in a much more extravagant way than had hitherto been his custom. " In short, he became the Gentleman, dressed well, and kept Genteel Company, to which he found easy Admittance." It has been suggested that he disposed of the rest of Clark's property which came into his possession to a Jew and that his prosperity was the result of the cash obtained for it. This mode of living did not last long, for apparently he again had to take up teaching. The Rev. Mr. Painblanc of Piccadilly seems to have been his employer and he was engaged to teach Latin and writing. He continued his study of languages and " soon became a tolerable master of French." In addition to teaching, he was apparently employed in transcribing Acts of Parliament to be registered in Chancery, which tedious work might be an indication that his income from teaching was not sufficient to supply his needs. Probably it was in these years that Aram wrote most of his poems and prose works. The most out- standing of these, from the point of view of scholarship, was his " Essay towards a Lexicon upon an entirely new plan." It is in this work that he investigates the history of language and puts forward the ideas so highly thought of by Dr. Richard Garnett concerning the affinities of the Celtic and other European languages. In the " Essay" he makes the following propositions: " that the ancient Celtae, by the numberless vestiges left behind them, in Gaul, Britain, Greece, and all the western parts of Europe, appear to have been, if not the aborigines, at least their successors, and masters, in Gaul, Britain and the west; that their language, however obsolete, however mutilated, is at this day discernible in all those places which that victorious people conquered and retained ; that it has extended itself far and wide, visibly appearing in the ancient Greek, Latin and 269 20-2 J. DOBSON English, of all of which it included a very considerable part; and, indeed, it still unquestionably forms a most important ingredient in all the languages of Europe ;" . . . " that the same Celtic, which, polished by Greece and refined by Rome, only with dialectic variation, flowed from the lips of Virgil and thundered from the mouth of Homer." So great was the estimation of his erudition that his name was included in the Biographia Britannica, as a result of which the editors of this work received some criticism. In reply to this, however, it was stated " that it was never understood that in the Biographia Britannica the lives of virtuous men only were to be recorded." By now, some 12 years had elapsed since he left Knaresborough so secretly and as he did not communicate with any of his relatives in Yorkshire, it was presumed that he was dead. After holding the post of usher in various schools near London, he obtained in December, 1757, a similar situation in Mr. Knox's establishment at King's Lynn. James Burney (1750-1821), later Admiral Burney, who sailed with Captain Cook on his second and third voyages, and who was the brother of Frances Burney, the authoress, was a pupil at the school and has stated that Aram was very popular with the boys, even though he was always melan- choly, seldom appearing in the public streets " but walked in the fields adjoining to Lynn by himself, muffied up in a horseman's great coat and a flapped hat." On August 1st, 1758, an event occurred which aroused again all the curiosity that had prevailed 14 years previously concerning the dis- appearance of Daniel Clark. On that day, a workman digging for stone at Thistle Hill, overlooking Knaresborough, found some human remains and an inquest was held on them. Several people gave evidence to the effect that they recollected seeing, some 13 or 14 years previously, a patch of newly-dug earth in that vicinity. One witness gave his opinion that as " no person either in Knaresborough or the neighbourhood had ever been missing in his time, he had great reason to believe they were the remains of Daniel Clark." Anna Aram, wife of Eugene, even stated that she did " believe him (Clark) to have been murdered by her husband and Richard Houseman." Richard Houseman, when questioned and being shown one of the bones, is stated to have said that " This is no more Dan Clark's bone than it is mine," and the story then circulated that the body was that of a Jew who had been murdered by Clark, Aram and Houseman. So great was the suspicion against Houseman that he was arrested and lodged in York Castle. He there made a statement that he and Aram, with Clark, had gone out together on the night of February 8th, 1745, and proceeded to a place called St. Robert's Cave " where Aram and Clark stopped, and there he saw Aram strike him several times over the breast and head, and saw him fall as if he were dead, upon which he came away and left them." It seems strange, if the above statement were true, that he was able to direct the officers to the exact place in the Cave 270 THE COLLEGE CRIMINALS where an altogether different skeleton was found. This new find was now presumed to be the remains of Clark since it was discovered at the spot indicated by Houseman. An inquest was held on it on August 18th when the jury of 16 found Richard Houseman and Eugenius Aram guilty of the murder of Daniel Clark, but no evidence was adduced to prove that this second skeleton was that of the supposed victim. The whereabouts of Aram had by now become known, for he had been recognised in King's Lynn by a Yorkshireman on a visit there. Apparently Aram was arrested when he was in the playground with his pupils, and a witness stated that the boys were in tears as he was taken away. When he arrived with the constables at Knaresborough, " the streets were so choaked with people that they could scarcely get down to the Bell Inn." Aram was taken to York Castle to await his trial which did not take place until August 3rd, 1759, almost a year later. At the trial, the case of Houseman was taken first and he was at once acquitted. Aram was then brought into court, where Houseman now became one of the witnesses. Aram had previously prepared a speech in his own defence which he proceeded to read. One of the main points which he mentions is that there was no real proof brought forward that the bones found were those of Clark: " Permit me next, my lord, to observe a little upon the bones which have been discovered. It is said, which is perhaps saying very far, that these are the skeleton of a man. 'Tis possible, indeed, it may-but, then, is there any certain known criterion which incontestably distinguishes the sex in human bones ? Let it be considered, my lord, whether the ascer- taining of this point ought not to precede any attempt to identify them." He went on to remark that there was nothing extraordinary in finding human bones other than in a recognised burial ground, and also to point out that the first skeleton that was found was quite as confidently asserted to be that of Clark. He concluded his defence as follows: " Now, my lord, having endeavoured to show that the whole of this process is altogether repugnant to every part of my life; that it is inconsistent with my condition of health about that time-that no rational inference can be drawn that a person is dead who suddenly disappears that hermitages were the constant repositories of the bones of the recluse-that the proofs of this are well authenticated-that the revolutions in religion or the fortune of war has mangled or buried the dead-the conclusion remains, perhaps no less reasonably than impatiently wished for. I put myself upon the candour, the justice, the humanity of your lordship, and upon yours, my countrymen, gentlemen of the jury." Many comments were made both contemporarily and subsequently upon this speech. It has been suggested that he did not write it himself. One noticeable fact was that he never once mentions Houseman, which led to the supposition that the speech was written long before the trial and that he had no suspicion that Houseman would prove false and give evidence against him. A writer in the London Magazine for August, 271 J. DOBSON 1759, says: "What this Eugene is remarkable for is having read a very extraordinary defence, which he had drawn up with great art, and in no inelegant style." Another comment was that " Aram's defence was so clever that he must have spent the whole fourteen years in preparing it." Such suggestions would seem to be entirely superfluous when Aram's scholastic attainments are considered. When the jury were instructed by the judge to consider their verdict "they immediately brought him in guilty " and over this decision there has been considerable discussion. It has been said " that no twelve men could now be found in England who would return a verdict of guilty against such a man as Eugene Aram on such evidence as was offered against him" and again; " Whether the learned culprit was actually guilty of the desperate crime of which he stood accused will probably never be known." The evidence against him was certainly deficient, and had such a case been tried at the present day there is no doubt that he would have escaped the hard penalty which he suffered. A writer in the Lancet in 1912 gives his opinion as follows: " He was, as is well known, a most unlikely murderer. A profound student, a philologist who, as Dr. Garnett has pointed out, was one of the first to bring the Celtic languages into the zone of the Indo-European family, a valetudinarian, a weakling, he seems the last person in the world whom one would have suspected of a deliberately planned murder, fiercely carried out at night with a great display of physical energy and boldness." On the morning of his execution, August 6th, 1759, Aram attempted to take his life by cutting his arm in two places with a razor, but, although very weak, he was restored sufficiently to be taken to the place of execution. This was the Knavesmire, situated near to York, and it, like many other spots devoted to this purpose, was known locally as " Tyburn," which has led some of the chroniclers to assume that Aram was brought to Tyburn in London for execution. After hanging, the body was removed to that part of Knaresborough Forest near to Thistle Hill and there hung in chains. These "chains " were in reality a kind of suit of iron bands so constructed as to keep the body intact for a considerable time. It is said that Mrs. Aram used to visit this place frequently and as the bones fell from the gibbet, she collected and interred them. The skull, however, suffered a different fate. There lived at that time in the village of Knaresborough, a Dr. Hutchinson who had a museum containing specimens of historical and medical interest. He was apparently anxious to obtain some relic of the notorious Eugene Aram and accordingly, on a dark night, made his way to the gibbet, presumably with a ladder, and managed to extricate the skull from its iron bands. Probably a considerable amount of force had to be used to do this, for there are to be seen on the skull numerous abrasions which, in view of its subsequent history, could only have occurred at this time. The skull remained in the possession of Dr. Hutchinson until he died and the following letter, 272 THE COLLEGE CRIMINALS dated December 9th, 1869, traces its story to the time when it came into the possession of the Royal College of Surgeons: Dear Sir, I have in my possession a relic which I have often thought ought to be in some public museum or anatomical collection. It is the skull of the celebrated Eugene Aram. My maternal grand- father, Dr. Hutchinson, was in practice at Knaresbro' where Eugene was hung in chains after his execution. The author of his life, Norrison Scatcherd, mentions seeing this skull in his possession. My paternal grandfather, John Walker, in his day and in mine a noted local anti- quarian (of the Antiquarian Society), a brother of Dr. Hutchinson's wife, died so late as 1842 and often identified it whilst in my possession. The late Mr. Effingham Wilson (of the Royal Exchange) a second cousin of mine, used often to teaze me to give it to him, as he remembered it and in his obituary notice in the papers it was stated (vide the Bookseller, July 1st, 1868, p. 459) that he assisted to cut down Eugene from the gibbet. It was exhibited by Mr. Richardson, late surgeon at Harrogate and founder of the Hospital there at a meeting of the British Association at Newcastle in 1838 and by him given to me (he married Dr. Hutchinson's widow and became my step-grandfather). These facts I mention for identification. If the Council of the Royal College of Surgeons Museum in Lincoln's Inn Fields will think it worth placing in their collection, I shall have pleasure in presenting it. He was notable enough in his day for a subject for Bulwer Lytton's novel. I am, Yours truly, John Walker. I lived until lately at Malton in Yorkshire and my brother-in-law, Mr. Basil Wood, late M.P. for Knaresbro' lives near the scene of Eugene Aram's gibbet." (Written from Bradwell Rectory, Gt. Yarmouth.) The offer was, of course, accepted and in a later letter (December 15th, 1869), Mr. Walker states that " Dr. Hutchinson died about 1797 when my mother was quite a child." Like Wild, Aram's story was immortalised in literature. He was the hero of Bulwer's novel " Eugene Aram," published in 1831, and Thomas Hood's poem " The Dream of Eugene Aram." Bulwer's novel was dramatised by William Moncrieff and was produced at the Surrey Theatre in 1832. The skull is lightly built and small and, except for the development of the brow ridges, of rather indeterminate sex characters (Fig. 2). It is of even ovoid outline with the characteristic contours of a skull small in absolute measurements but with a comparatively large cranial capacity. The facial parts, save for a small part of the left maxilla and nasal bone, and the mandible are missing. The closure of the sutures is in harmony with the known age of the subject. Those of the cranial vault are all closed, but not completely obliterated within. Without, they are closed but obliteration is only beginning in the pars obelionica of the sagittal suture. The mastoid processes are elongated but slender and the tip of 273 J. DOBSON that of the right side has apparently been cut off. The large symmetrical lambdoid ossa suturaria are conspicuous and in addition small epipteric bones are developed bilaterally. Measurements.- As determined by Sir William Flower: Length 185 mm. Breadth 140 mm. Height 130 mm.

Fig. 2.

Present investigation: Length 187 mm. Breadth 138 mm. Height 130 mm. Cranial capacity. As determined by seed by Sir William Flower .. 1,400 ccs. As determined by Manouvrier's formula from the measurements made in the present investigation .. 1,470 ccs. 274 THE COLLEGE CRIMINALS REFERENCES FRYER, MICHAEL (n.d.) The Triial and Life of Eugene Aram. HOOD, THOMAS (1829) The Dream of Eugene Arain. LYTTON, BULWER (1832) Eugene Aram. PELHAM, CAMDEN (1887) The Chronicles of Crime. ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS (1907) Catalogute of the specimnens illutstralting the Osteology and Dentition of Vertebrated Animals. Part 1. Man. WALKER, JOHN, MS. Letter. Museum Letters preserved in the College Library. WATSON, E. R. (1913) The Trial of Etigene Aramn.

MONTHiLY DINNERS Monthly dinners are held in the College on the Wednesday before the second Thursday of each month. The following are entitled to attend with their guests: all Diplomates and students of the College and Members of the Associations linked to the College through the Joint Secretariat. It is not necessarily intended that guests should be members of the medical profession. The dinners will be at 7 p.m. on the following Wednesdays: May 7, June 11, and July 9, 1952. The cost is £1 lOs. Od. which includes cocktails before dinner and wine at the table. Applications for tickets, accompanied by a cheque for the appropriate amount, must be sent to the Deputy Secretary at least a week before the date of the dinner. Cheques should be made payable to " Royal College of Surgeons of England." The dress is Lounge Suit.

DIARY FOR APRIL (15th-30th) Tues. 15 3.45 PROF. G. W. CAUSEY-The Anatomy of Respiration. 5.15 MR. K. I. NIssEN-Congenital Deformities of the Foot. 6.30 MR. N. C. LAKE-Flat Foot. Wed. 16 Second L.D.S. Examination begins. 5.15 MR. A. G. JESSIMAN-Water and Electrolyte Balance in the surgical patient. 6.30 MR. C. NAUNTON MORGAN-Fistulo-in-Ano. Thur. 17 5.15 MR. E. G. MUIR-Colonic Cancer. 6.30 MR. RALPH MARNHAM-Diverticulitis. Fri. 18 D.M.R.D. Examination (Part I) and D.M.R.T. Examination (Part I) begin. 5.15 DR. G. E. H. ENDERBY-Hypotensive Anaesthesia in Surgery. 6.30 MR. VERNON C. THOMPSON-Diagnosis and Treatment of Carcinoma of the Lung. Mon. 21 Dental lectures and clinical conferences begin. 3.45 PROF. T. NICOL-The Heart. 5.15 MR. T. CAWTHORNE-Surgery of Facial Paralysis. 6.30 MR. C. R. McLAUGHLIN-Surgery of Facial Paralysis. Tues. 22 3.45 PROF. G. HADFIELD-Immunity. 5.15 MR. WYLIE McKISSOCK-Fractures of the Anterior Fossa. 6.30 MR. J. R. ARMSTRONG-Lumbar Disc Lesions. 275