ARAM, ELTOENE, was b. in 1704 at Ramsgill, in Yorkshire. His father was a gar dener, and could afford to keep A. at school only for a short time; but even while assist ing his father, he contrived to gratify his passion for learning. At an early period of his life he married, and became a schoolmaster, first in Netherdale, and afterwards at Knaresborough, where he continued to reside till 1745. In the town of Knaresborough lived one Daniel Clarke, a shoemaker, and an intimate acquaintance of A.'s. On on occasion Clarke happened to purchase a quantity of valuable goods, which he easily obtained on credit; but, to the surprise of everybody, he soon after disappeared, and no trace of him could be discovered. Suspicion lighted upon A., not as Clarke's mur derer, but as his confederate in swindling the public. His garden was searched, and in it was found a portion of the goods which Clarke had purchased. A. was arrested and tried, but acquitted for want of evidence. He now left his wife at Knaresborough, and went to London, and other parts of England, in his capacity of schoolmaster; and, in spite of his nomadic mode of life, contrived to acquire a knowledge of botany, heraldry, Chaldee, Arabic, Welsh, and Irish, and was planning a great etymological work, to be entitled A Comparative Lexicon rf the English, Latin, Greek, Ifehrew, and Celtic Languages, when he was suddenly dragged away from his ushership of Lynn academy, in Norfolk, and committed to prison on a charge of murder.
The circumstances of the remaining portion of the story are pretty well known. In 1750, a skeleton was dug up near Knaresborough, which the inhabitants suspected to be that of Clarke, for they had now come to the conclusion that the unfortunate man had met with foul play, especially as A.'s wife had, on several occasions, made strange state
ments to the effect that her husband and a man. named Houseman knew more of Clarke's disappearance than they chose to admit. Houseman was now confronted with a bone of the skeleton which had been discovered. He very emphatically denied that it was Clarke's. People naturally wondered how he could be so positive, the bones of skeletons being, to the uneducated eye. so similar in appearance. They became convinced that if the skeleton was not Clarke's, Houseman must know where the latter was. At last he confessed that he had been a spectator of the murder of Clarke by A. and one Terry. He named the place where the body had been hidden. It was searched, the buried skeleton was dug up, and A. was tried at York, for the murder of Clarke, on the 3d Aug., 1750. What has given so extraordinary an eclat to this trial, is the fact that A. conducted his own defense. He attacked, with great acumen, plausibility, and curious erudition, the doctrine of circumstantial evidence; but to no effect, for a verdict of guilty was returned, and he was condemned to he executed three days afterwards. In the interval, he confessed his guilt to the clergymen who attended him. While in the condemned cell he wrote a defense of suicide; but failed in a practical illustration of the doctrine, which he forthwith attempted.