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XXIX. Copy of a curious Record of Pardon in the Tower of London. Communicated by Thomas Astle, Esq. F.R.S. and F.A.S. In a Letter, to the Rev. John Brand, Secretary.
Read March 20, 1800.
Dear Sir, Battersea Rise, March 17, 1800.
HEREWITH I send you a transcript of a record in the Tower, which contains a pardon for Cecilia Rigeway, who was indicted, at the assizes at Nottingham in 1357, for the murder of her husband, and because she would not plead, sentence was passed upon her, and she was remanded back to prison, where she remained, as the record states, for forty days without sustenance.
What collusion or intercourse might have been between Mrs. Rigeway and the keeper of the prison, must for ever remain a secret. But that she subsisted in prison, for forty days, without meat or drink, was believed to have been by a miraculous interposition in her favour; otherwise this solemn instrument, under the Great Seal of England, would not have passed.
To the Rev. Mr. Brand, &c.Pat.
