brickbat – The Sage Page

This Day in History – 9th September 1742

A quarrel over carrying malt ended in tragedy when Thomas Griffiths threw a brickbat at Judith Haswell in 1742. She survived for days before dying after developing a fever. With disputed medical evidence, Judith’s plea for mercy and even a courtroom lie from Griffiths’s mother, the jury chose manslaughter over murder.