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At the Devon Assizes in March, 1800, a Bill was preferred before the Grand Jury against Thomas Bowerman, for the Murder of Mary Gollop, a Bastard Child of Sarah his Wife, by another man, previous to her marriage, at the parish of Uffculme, in the said County.

Mary Gollop lived with her mother, the wife of Thomas Bowerman, in Bowerman's house, at Uffculme, and had been often noticed on account of the ill treatment she was known to experience from Thomas Bowerman. About Michaelmas, 1797, being then about fourteen years of age, she was reported to have died suddenly in her father's house, and she was accordingly buried on the first day of October, 1797, in the church-yard of Uffculme.

In January, 1800, Thomas Bowerman was committed to the Devon Bridewell, at the suit of the overseers of the poor of Uffculme, on a conviction for having ran away and left his children chargeable to the parish of Uffculme. His wife was at that time dead, and Elizabeth, one of his children, about twelve years old, had been removed to the parish workhouse, and was there maintained at the expense of the parish. Elizabeth Stark, the mistress of the workhouse, in a conversation with Elizabeth Bowerman, mentioned to her, that on her father's return from Bridewell, after the expiration of his sentence, she would be sent to her father's house to be by him maintained and clothed. Elizabeth Bowerman burst into tears, saying she could never again live with her father if he did return, as she was afraid he would murder her as he did her sister. She then stated that her father killed her sister, Mary Gollop, by pushing an awl into her head. She saw him do it, and he made her mother and herself wipe up the blood, and said he would serve her the same if ever she told of it.