Old Bailey Court System

To Be or Not To Be Guilty; That is the Question

Samuel Street was accused of assaulting and raping Elizabeth (Betty) Harvison on August 2nd, 1725. Betty, at the time, was seventeen years old when she claimed that he had hurt her. Betty was classified as a dwarf idiot. She had no use of her limbs and had to be carried to and fro. This paper will explain the treatment of women, objectification of women, treatment of people with disabilities, how easily it was to accuse a person of rape, and describe the justice system during the eighteenth-century England.

Rebecca Harvison and her daughter Betty were eating dinner at a neighbors house when Samuel, the accused, walked in and started kissing Betty. Rebecca saw Samuel walk in, but did not see the kiss. Samuel and Rebecca were not friends, but were a little more than acquaintances. Samuel rented a room from Rebecca's friend Elizabeth, so they came in contact with each other on a daily basis. About an hour after dinner, Rebecca, Samuel, Elizabeth Saxby, Elizabeth's husband and Betty went to the alehouse. Elizabeth's husband carried Betty to the alehouse that night. Rebecca, Elizabeth and her husband left Samuel and Betty in the alehouse while they went to do errands. Rebecca did not think there was a reason not to trust Samuel with Betty because of her demeanor. They returned about a half hour later, and learned that Samuel had carried Betty out of the alehouse. Rebecca and Elizabeth's husband went back to their lodge, while Elizabeth went to look for Samuel and Betty. Elizabeth told the court that she found Samuel on top of Betty by a wall in a churchyard.

Rebecca's testimony differed from Elizabeth's, however. Rebecca had the same story that Elizabeth did up until the part where Elizabeth said she went looking for Betty. Rebecca testified that she had went back home, and Samuel carried Betty back in a timely fashion, no mention of foul play. While Rebecca was changing Betty for bed, she noticed that Betty was covered in blood, abused, and had the "foul disease". "The symptomology of early modern syphilis--a constructed pathology most commonly known to English writers as the "pox", the "French disease", or the "foul disease" (Milburn). She said the next day, Samuel had come up to Rebecca and confessed, but begged for her forgiveness and that he would make it up to her.

Rebecca had taken Betty to a midwife to have her examined. The first midwife testified that Betty had been penetrated about three inches. The second midwife, Anne Hains, was a little frightened to examine Betty because of the way she looked. She was not aware of Betty's conditions beforehand. Anne also found that someone had abused Betty.

In the morning, a watchman went to Samuel's room to take him prisoner for the crime. When the watchman entered his room, Samuel was passed out on the table with a bloody apron and shirt on. The watchman asked Samuel why he would have his way with Betty. The watchman then said to Samuel, "What a stomach you must have, says I, to meddle with that Idiot. Why, I would have kissed twenty women, and twenty times twenty, before I would have anything to do with such a creature". Afterwards, Samuel confessed to the watchman, but begged him not to take him away, because he was going to make it up to the family, and jail would ruin him. Two weeks after the incident, Rebecca had Betty examined again. The midwife testified that she fully examined Betty, and there was an attempt at penetration, but it was not successful. Two days after that, the same midwife did another examination and found that Betty had the foul disease. While word spread that Betty had the disease, a professional surgeon went to examine Samuel in prison. The doctor reported that Samuel had no signs of any disease and it was near impossible for him to be cured in such a little time, but at the same time it was possible.

At the end of the trial, the jury found him not guilty on the accusation of rape. On the other hand, Samuel Street was indicted for a misdemeanor, which was done accordingly. There was no information in the court case stating what misdemeanor Samuel was charged with.

"It is familiar Ð''wisdom' in modern Western society that women should not go alone in certain areas and at certain times. A woman who violates such a constraint is said to Ð''ask for' such violence as she may suffer. The threat of rape in this way limits women's freedom and increases their dependence on men" (Clark 135). It has been a well-known fact for hundreds of years by women that going anywhere alone is a very dangerous thing to do. If it is totally imperative that a woman had to go to a sketchy place, she at least knew that there was strength in numbers and would bring someone along. In the case of Betty Harvison, she was abused and was not doing anything wrong or walking anywhere alone. Betty was trusted in Samuel's care at a public alehouse, but Samuel took advantage of her mother's trust.

It was said in the case that Betty had been examined by a few midwives and was recognized as having the "foul disease". Through research, it was found that the disease in question is an early case of syphilis. The first symptoms of syphilis show up within ten days to three months in the form of little red painful sores. One of the midwives in the case stated that she noticed the foul disease on Betty seventeen days after the rape. So Betty very well may have had the disease; but what about Samuel? As stated before, a professional gave him an examination and there was no trace of the disease and it is almost impossible to be treated and cured in that amount of time. Something just does not match up here. Maybe the midwife sympathized with Betty and her mother and lied to have Samuel sentenced. Maybe the surgeon at the prison lied about Samuel being clean so he would not be sentenced to death. There is no way to tell with the information presented.

In the eighteenth-century men and women were not treated as equals. "The idea of the superiority of men and their ownership of women is eloquently and terribly supported by a glance at English laws involving women. In 1782, Judge Buller declared that it was perfectly legal for a man to beat his wife, as long as he used a stick no thicker than his thumb" (Jarett 125). If laws were on the books that stated that a man could beat his wife, then it seems as if in this time period there were no strict rules protecting women and their well-being. Women were treated as subordinates, and looked down upon in England in the eighteenth-century. If women were looked down upon as lesser creatures, poor Betty Harvison must have been