to France on the night of March 17th planned his murder.
Mr. Lamb, for reasons not stated, changed his mind, and induced his
neighbour Mr. Grebble to take his place. On returning home and passing
the churchyard, Breeds rushed upon him and mortally wounded him with a
knife. The unfortunate man was able to walk home, but shortly expired
while seated in his chair. His servant was suspected of murdering him,
but Breeds's strange conduct soon brought the crime home to him. He was
tried, found guilty, and condemned to death, and to be hung in chains.
The gibbet was set up on a marsh situated at the west end of the town,
now known as "Gibbet Marsh." Here it stood for many years; but when all
the mortal remains had dropped away from the ironwork with the exception
of the upper part of the skull, the Corporation took possession of it,
and it is now in their custody.

Mr. Lewis Evans, has given, in his article on "Witchcraft in
Hertfordshire," an account of the murder of John and Ruth Osborn,
suspected of witchcraft. Notice had been given at various market towns
in the neighbourhood of Tring that on a certain day the man and his wife
would be ducked at Long Marston, in Tring Parish. On the appointed day,
April 22nd, 1757, says Mr. Evans, Ruth Osborn, and her husband John,
sought sanctuary in the church, but the "bigotted and superstitious
rioters," who had assembled in crowds from the whole district round, not
finding their victims, smashed the workhouse windows and half destroyed
it, caught its governor, and threatened to burn both him and the town,
and searched the whole premises, even to the "salt box," for the reputed
witches in vain. However, they were found at last, dragged from the
vestry, and their thumbs and toes having been tied together, they were
wrapped in sheets, and dragged by ropes through a pond; the woman was
tried first, and as she did not sink, Thomas Colley, a chimney sweep,
turned her over and over with a stick. John Osborn, the husband, was
then tested in the same way, and the trial was made three times on each
of them, with such success, that the woman died on the spot, and the
man a few days later. When the experiment was over, Colley went round
and collected money from the crowd for his trouble in shewing them such
sport.

The coroner's verdict, however, declared that the Osborns had been
murdered, and Colley was tried at Hertford Assizes, before Sir William
Lee, and having been found guilty of murder,