The National Register. — London, England, 1813-01-03 00:00:00

14 POLICE. Gurttnsta...-Yesterday, Mary Knowling, a young women of s 'widowed and disconsolate aspect, applied to Alderman Smith for summons, to compel the Overseers of the Parish where she resided, ••• afford her parochial assistance. She told her story with great carne *less and modesty.--fier parents resided near Waterford, and were i affluent circumstances. Some years ago, a young maii, by tract: a plaisterer, married her and loyought her to London, .vhere he followe. his vocation, and was remarkably sober and industrious. Ore mnrning, several months since, he went from his habitation to work. and lie never returned. All her inquiries after him were fruitless. Thus was she cast upon the world pennyless, and remote from those who would be glad to befriend her, she could produce certificates of the propriety of her conduct before marriage, and she could prove by a respectable neighbourhood, that she had been sober, industrious an d offpod report since her unhappy journey to London. Since the loss of her husband, she had endeayoarred to subsist upon the fruits of her needle, but found it impossible from the difficulty of finding employment, and the dearth of the necessaries of existence. The good Alderman was moved by this piteous tale directed to him by one very uncomfortably attired, and hunger pinched, he accord irgly ordered the summons to be made out. nrosr CURIOUS DISCOVERY._ Pe netc-oart E, Bo w• aver. —Thursday, Mr. Naves, the Sitting Magistrate, was occupied nearly the whole day in investigating several charges of an intricate and complicated nature, of robberies at the Gene ral Post Office. The snbstance of the circumstances are as follows : For some time complaints have been made at the Post-Office of letters, containing Bills of Exchange, Country Bank-notes, and Bank of Eng land Notes, not having come to hand, and also that notes had been taken out. Every possible attenticn and assistance was given to the parties complaining by the Agents to the Post-office, as is always the case ; but no trace could be made of the stolen property. Several persons belong irg to the Post-office were suspected ; but the ground of suspicion was not sufficiently strong to take them ;leo custody. At length some Bank of England notes that had been paid for some of the country bank notes that had been stolen, were traced to William Griffiths, the beadle and chapel-clerk of Bridewell Hospital ; and although be was considered a respectable man, yet he, not giving a satisfactory account, as to how he became possessed of them, he was taken into custody on the 21st inst. The account he gave of the notes was, that he received them from his wife, whom he did nut cohabit with. it being learnt that she re•ided in Park Place, Kennington, early the following morning. Vickery went to the house destgribed. lie was answered by a female servant, who said her mistress was at home, but nut up. Vickery proceeded to her bed-room, and fount/111er and a man fast asleep, and snoring in bed to gether ; a dog in bed wit'a them, and two dogs on the pillows, fast asleep. The officer soon awoke the whole tribe, when a very un common scone was presented; the dogs barked violently, and flew at Vickery. Mrs. Griffiths went into fits ; but the officer, having assistance iu some of the patrole at hand, soar secured her and her gallant, who was in bed with her. fie afterwards preceeded to search the premises. and in the bed-room where they were in bed, he found a number of Bank of England notes. He secured his prisoners, and Thursday was the clay appointed for a full investigation and examination. The mys tery was to a great measure explained by the man found in bed with Mrs. Griffiths, who proved to helang to the General Post-office. William G riffiths, the husband, being admitted an evidence for the Crown, his deposition was read over, from which it appeared, that he and his wik had separated in October, 1811, by mutual con. sent. For scathe tune past she had applied to hint to get bills and notes changed for her. On the morning of Saturday the :BTh of Isla limber last, she called on irrn, and asked hint to get her some coun try notes changed. He replied, he wished all the notes at the Devil : however, or, her pressing him, and his examining them, and finding they were Wercester and Evesham bank-notes, and as he got a New bury note to get changed, and had to go into the city, he agreed to get them changed, which he did, but not all en the same day. He took the Pnel( of England notes he nal received for the country notes to his wife, to her house in Park Pla,:e•, hut was not positive they were the identical notes he had received for the country notes, as he had mixed them with the notes he got in exchange for the Newbury note. This was on the Wednesday following. when he stopped and slept all night with his wife. He denied receiving any . part of the notes, or in any way participating of the amount for his . trouble, except that he did not pay his wife so mach as a separate maintenance since he had been in the habit of getting note,; changed for her, she telling him she received them tram a friend. The way his wife got money besides what lie allowed her was by letting lodgings. The other pri soner, limn . ,Johns, 'edged with her. At one of his interviews with his wife, at her house in Park Place, when Henry Johns was he told his %vile he had pai.i her 31. too much in their last f.r notes she pot eschniged, A filch i-henry Johns acknnw and said they had towel it out after he was gone, and it was a;„ iXjtlitr conversation tt •Natt; oh,sertiedi r y. , . present, hi stttlement 'edged, am rct..;')::d THE NATIONAL RF.CITSTER. 6 simmiimmienimouni ` inimennon .TAN... that the person concerned with Johns ought not to receive half the amount of the rotes, as he ran no risk in getting them changed....:- 1 . hen he got some of the I:.st Worcester notes change:l at Robarts and Co's bank, in Lombard-street, Mr. Curtis, junior, brought a printed list of lost bills, and examined those he was presenting for payment. However, his note ; were paid. He mentioned this cir cumstance at his wife's, which ap:tieareil to create some alarm. Mrs. Griffiths was asked whit she had to say to her husband's statement. She replied, apeat deal of it was true, and a great deal of it was false. She admitted, that she gave him the notes :o get changed, and that he was not a participator. She went into a long history, and a deal of extraneous matter, about the cause of her sepa ration from her husband, &c. about some persons who had said she was mad, and had endeavoured to have her confined in Bethlem Ilos pital. She attributed her husband's conduct to jealousy, and that he had said he would be revenged. She refused to tell who she received the notes from ; she denied most solemnly that she received them from Henry Johns, and he %a as perfectly innocent. She persisting in refusing to tell whoshc received the notcs from, Henry Johns was brought into the office and placed at the bar by her side, and the evi dence of William Griffiths was about to be read over to him, but on its being known that he was very deaf, he was allowed to leave the bar, and to stand close to the clerk while it was read ; and after his listening to it he denied the statement relative to himself. He re mained to hear the other evidence. Mr. Hope, of Persher, in Worcestershire. raid, that on the 27th of November last, he put into a letter different bank -notes, to the amount of 1551. and put it into the Post Office, directed to Messrs. Robarts and Co. Lombard-street, to pay to them on account of tlib Tewkesbury Bank. Miss Hope, his daughter, corroborated this testimony, and proved the numbers and full description of the notes. The corresponding clerk belonging to Robarts' bank in Lombard street, stated that all letters relative to the business of the house rass through his hands, and no such letter came to him on the T.Stir Nov. which would have been the regular course of the post, nor had it since. Several of the notes in this letter were proved to have been exchanged for Bank of England notes by William Griffiths, which he had re ceived from his wife. The Inspectors of the General Post Letters Deliverers proved that the prisoner had belonged to the General Post-Office about ten years, and it was customary to promote some of them to be Sub -sorters, and he, being considered a very steady and respectable young man, %vas made one of them. He was on duty as sorter on Saturday morning, the `2Bth of November, when all the letters directed to kol)arts's house must have passe d through his hands, and at which time, and in due course of post, Mr. Hope's letter would have passed through the Post-office. Vickery, the officer, produced a number of bank notes which he found in the bedroom where Mrs. Griffiths and Henry Johns were in bed together, and they were proved to have been got in exchange for the notes that had been stolen from !otters. The prisoners were committed for further examination. Williarn Griffiths was discharged on his producing two securities in 20j1. each for his appeaeance at the Sessions to give evidence. ACCIDENTS AND OFFENCES. HORRID MURDERS NEAR FROME.—OD Monday evening Mr. Webb, a respectable farmer, at Roddenbury .hill, near Frome., was intudered whilst sitting in his chair. The dreadful deed was discovered in the following manner :—On Tuesday morning a young woman called on her sister, who lived in the farmer's s:r vice ; her repeated knocks a; the door being unnoticed, she opened it, and found Mr. Webb on the floor by the side of his chair, weltering in his blood—having been shot through the arm, and his head dreadfully shattered. On her alarming the neighbourhood, a further search was made : when the body of the female servant was discovered in a bucket well, with her throat cut ! It is supposed that she was endeavouring to esc ipe from the scene of horror, when the villains overtook her and deprived Her of her existence. The Jury sat upon the bodies. Verdict—Wilful mur der against some person or persons unknown. The House is quite detached from any other, and the farmer and the servant were the only inhabitants. His dog having been heard barking loudly about six o'clock on Monday evening, leads to the conclusion that the tragical event was then being perpetrated. if booty was the object of the assassins, they were disappointed, as Mr. Webb, though in opulence, was generally known to keep very little cash in the horse ; the drawers, boxes, &c. had been, however, completely ransacked. Mr. Benjamin Robins, of Kinfare, was shot, and afterward, robbed by a footpad, Friday se'nnight, when on his return from Stourbridge Market (Worcestershire). The villain trembled to such a degree, that had not Mr. It. been severely wounded, he might easily have secured him. We arc sorry to state Mr. Robins died on the Monday following. The perpetrator of the horrid ast remains undiscovered. Muarn4.—Thd following are the particulars of the late murder perpetrated at North Shields :—The wife of John Thoburne, in the employ of Mr. Crawford, miller, having died on the Friday, she was buried on the aiurday, when a report was prevalent that she had