ARAM, EUGENE (17o4-1759), English scholar, and mur derer, was born of humble parents at Ramsgill, Yorkshire. In when he was schoolmaster at Knaresborough, a man named Daniel Clark, his intimate friend, after obtaining a considerable quantity of goods from some of the tradesmen, suddenly disap peared. Suspicions of being concerned in this swindling trans action fell upon Aram. His garden was searched, and some of the goods found there. As, however, there was not evidence suffi cient to convict him of any crime, he was discharged, and soon after set out for London, leaving his wife behind. For several years he travelled through parts of England, acting as usher in a number of schools, and settled finally at Lynn, in Norfolk. During his travels he had amassed considerable material for a projected Comparative Lexicon of the English, Latin, Greek, Hebrew and Celtic Languages. He was undoubtedly an original philologist, who realized, what was then not yet admitted by scholars, the affinity of the Celtic language to the other languages of Europe, and could dispute the then accepted belief that Latin was derived from Greek. But he was not destined to live in history as the pioneer of a new philology. In Feb. 1758 a skeleton was dug up at Knaresborough, and some suspicion arose that it might be Clark's• Aram's wife had more than once hinted that her husband and a man named Houseman knew the secret of Clark's disappearance. Houseman was at once arrested and confronted with the bones that had been found. After denials, he confessed that he had been present at the murder of Clark by Aram and another man, Terry, of whom nothing further was heard. He also gave information as to the place where the body had been buried in St. Robert's Cave, a well-known spot near Knaresborough. A skeleton was dug up here, and Aram was immediately arrested, and sent to York for trial. Houseman was admitted as evidence against him. Aram conducted his own de fence, and did not attempt to overthrow Houseman's evidence, although there were some discrepancies in that ; but made a skil ful attack on the fallibility of circumstantial evidence in general, and particularly of evidence drawn from the discovery of bones. He brought forward several instances where bones had been found in caves, and tried to show that the bones found in St. Robert's Cave were probably those of some hermit who had taken up his abode there. He was found guilty, and condemned to be executed on Aug. 6 1759, three days after his trial. While in his cell he confessed his guilt, and asserted that he had discovered a criminal intimacy between Clark and his own wife. On the night before his execution he made an unsuccessful attempt at suicide by opening the veins in his arm.
His story has been romanticized in verse by Thomas Hood ("The Dream of Eugene Aram") and in prose by Bulwer Lytton (Eugene Aram). Reports of the trial are in (Borrow's) Celebrated Crimes, the Newgate Calendar, Tyburn Chronicle and similar publications. The best study is E. R. Watson, Eugene Aram (1913) .