To Be or Not to Be Guilty

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