Eugene Aram

Eugene Aram (* 1704 in Ramsgill , Yorkshire , † August 6, 1759 in York ) was an English philologist who was convicted of murder and executed .

Early years

Aram, who had only had little school education, acquired significant self-taught skills. His father was a simple gardener, so his parents couldn't afford secondary school. In his youth, he married and worked as a school teacher in Netherdale while passing in the self-study Greek and Latin taught. He moved the school to Knaresborough in 1734 and then abandoned it after 1745. At the same time, a close friend of Aram's named Daniel Clark disappeared after receiving a large amount of goods from some local traders. There were also suspicions against Aram, in whose garden some of the missing goods were found. But the evidence was insufficient for a conviction, he was exonerated and soon released to London . He left his wife behind.

He then led an unsettled life as a private tutor. He traveled through much of England and occasionally worked as a substitute teacher in various schools. Eventually he took up employment at a school in King's Lynn, Norfolk . During his travel time he had gathered a large amount of material for a planned publication of a multilingual etymological dictionary , "A Comparative Lexicon of the English, Latin, Greek, Hebrew and Celtic Languages" . He was evidently very talented linguistically, as he recognized the relationship between the Celtic language and other European languages, which, however, was completely ignored by contemporary linguists. He was also able to describe the dependence of the Latin on the Greek language.

Condemnation

In February 1758 a skeleton was unearthed at Knaresborough and some suspected it was Dan Clark. Aram's wife had indicated more than once that her husband and a man named Houseman knew about Clark's disappearance. In 1759 Aram was charged with murder and convicted despite his brilliant defense speech. He cited that bones had been found on other occasions that had been found to be those of hermits .

On August 6, 1759, three days after the trial, Eugene Aram was hung from the gallows . In the cell he confessed what he had done and explained his motives. He testified that Clark and his own wife had an indecent relationship. On the night before his execution he attempted suicide to commit by opening the arm veins.

Inspirations

His fate inspired the poet Thomas Hood to write his ballad The Dream of Eugene Aram (1831) and the novelist Edward Bulwer-Lytton to Eugene Aram (1832). The well-known playwright William Gorman Wills wrote the play Eugene Aram in 1873 .

literature

• Aram, Eugene . In: Encyclopædia Britannica . 11th edition. tape 2 : Andros - Austria . London 1910, p. 317 (English, full text [ Wikisource ]).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Aram . In: Meyers Konversations-Lexikon . 4th edition. Volume 1, Verlag des Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig / Vienna 1885–1892, p. 739.