The National Register. — London, England, 1813-06-06 00:00:00

JUNE 6., point, admitted that it wits probable the fresh wound on the prison er's forehead had b:Tn received as stated, fl'Olu the- Manlier in which lie came"in contact with the tround: On being qiieStioned as to his conduct on the way to town, the . . prisoner admitted that he lett'Cluslchurst a little after eight o'clock, and that he refreshed himself and' the horse three times on the road, himself with three glasses of rum, and the horse with three pints of porter'', and notwith'standhig this, it 4appeafed both froth Ins' oWn admission, and from information derived from Mr. Astley Cooper, that he' performed the whole of his journey in about forty minutes. He first went to Mr. Cooper 16 give that gentleman information of his mistvess still exhibiting-signs of life, and atter thkit he went in qie,t of. Dale, a butler, whom Mr. Boner had lately :discharged from his service for improper conduct. He found him at the Red Lion public-honse, and told hint he was glad he was there,..as his twts.ter and mistress hail been murdered, and ihat he '(Dale) -was sus pected. Nicholson said, he nest went-to, giie notice at Bow-street of the murders, and to request proper officers might be sent down to Chislehurst. Here the prisoner was reprimanded for baying gone to look after Dale, wlm was at least a suspicious .character, before he went to Bow-street, which gave hint the opportunity, in case he had been guilty, of absconding, and eluding justice. • After giving the ne• cessa*r3c information at Bow-street, instead of returning home to Chisleiturst, he repaired to Whitechapel, to call on his friends, stitli whoa' he was making merry when lie was taken into custody. The prisoner stated to be an IrLditnan,•and pile an ac count of the several pLecs iti which lie had lived since he hell the Ittli Dragoons, to which he belonged, and from which he was dis charged in consequence of a broken wrist. All qnestions which were deemed necessary having been put to the prisoner, he was sent to. Chislehurst, in custAy of Adkins and another officer, to give evidence before the Coronet's Jury, who were to sit on the bodies of the deceased at six o'clekk in the evening. Til E NATidN, CORONER'S' INQUEST. The Coroner's Inquest sat on Tuesday night, at the house of Mr. sonar, to enonife into the peroeteation of the late atrocious mur ders. The Jury were sworn about twelve o'clock, by Mr. Martyr, the Coroner ; and after proceeding to inspect the bodies, returned to hear the examinatiou of witnesses. Mr. Stafford, Chief Clerk of Bow-street, was present to contribute his able assistance towards the discovery of this horrid business. The foreman of the Jury was Mr. Reeves. • The first witness called was Mary Clarke; she had been Lady's maid in the family for two years, first as servant to MiAs Bonar, and afterwards to the old Lady. Mrs. Bonar always retirei late to bed, dametimes at one, sometimes at two, and now and then, though very seldom, at three o'clock. MC. Bonar generally went to bed earlier, at about 12 o'clock : the last time she saw him alive was on Sunday et ening, at ten o'clock, when Ile W.lll reading prayers to his servants in his sitting room ; she does not exactly know what time lie retired fur the night. About 20 minutes after 12 o'clock Mrs. Bonar rang her hell, and the witness went to her dressing-room, which adjoins the bed-chamber ; Mrs. Bonar said, she had ordered the footman, Phillip Nicholson, to shot the lawn door, but that lie had not done it; wit ness offered to go and du it, but her mistress said it was unnecessary as she had locked the other door herself', Meaning as the witness sup poses, the folding diior, which is between the lawn door and the hall; svitness then went into the room, and undressed Mri:Bonar and warm ed her bed ; Mr. Bonar was then in his bed in the same room ; the witness then went into her own room as usual, to lie down till Mrs. B.7nar should ring a second time ; about twenty minutes past one the bell rang again, when oiliness went into her mistress's dress ing-room, and folded up her clothes,—Mrs. Bonar was then in her bed-room ; in about a quarter of an hour the bell rang again; her mistress was in bed, and the witness gave her the string which corn ntunicates with the door to open it retire or less : she then went out of the room, being first desired to call her mistress at half-past seven o'clock ; she lielited the rush-light as usual in the anti room, and went to bed, he according to eastom the doors both of the bed-room and anti-room wide open : witness on going to bed, waked the housemaid wha sleeps with her, and asked her to call her at hall-past seven o'clock : the house-maid waked her as she had requested, and tall her there was a bad smell in the anti-room coming-frontate bed-cleonber of her mistress: and asked the wit ness whether she had lit the rush which was gone; and whe ther she had locked the door of the anti-room on the outside : at the same time she toll the - witness that there were footmarks in the anti-room. Witness immediately was much alarmed, and riled out (as she is told, for she was too much agitated to have any re collection 'Of the circumstance) that there had been, murder. The sanusaukcircumstauces which had been mentioned tohrr induced her to 4L 11,EGt .~ ~.. • :',!• ; - :~~ think that something dreadful had been done. She went up stairs with the housemaid, and knelt down on. the.fioor of the anti-room, to . see what the marks were, and thought they looked like blood : she -does not know whether she then looked into the bedroom ; thinks she did, as.' saw the toilet thrown over and some Wags lys tug on thefloor ; but does not recollect whether this was the first or second time of, going - up : the housemaid was with her to . the auti•-room. Witness then went to the wash-house, to the laundry maid, and asked her to go back with her, to see what was the mat ter ; they proceeded together to the bei l room, when the laundry Maid went M and opened one. of the window-shutters, when ma looking back, ilie clakipedlier hands together and screened : wit ness saw the bed-clothes and other things on the floor : she they ran down stairs, leaving the laundry-maid behind : in the servant** hall she saw the the coachman, who made her sit down, as she was fainting : when she ',recovere d herself she saw the foo: man,- Ni. cholson, coining into the servants' ball, with what she thought were bloody sheets in his hands • he took a sheet from his. bed, (he - sleeps in the hall,) and' folded ;he bloody sheet or sheets in it: the footman then said t 9 witness, " Mrs.. Clarke, go to . your mistress, she is still alive, perhaps she may be recovered;' she then ran up stairs, and saw her master's body covered with, she believes, a blanket on the floor ; her mistress was in bed, anti.still breathing ; did not see her mistress afterwards, till she was dead; had not ace*. the footman since,. .. • Susannah Curnitk was next sworn: she had been a housemaid is the family three .weeks last Saturday: the footman was in the place before she came : she never heard him express any anger of disappointnient against her master : sl‘e put the rush-light in its usual place in the anti-room about ten o'clock : it was grackedabout half-way t(srn : she . wept to bed between ten and eleven : she remembered Mrs. Clarke coming to bed, and desiring to be called at half-past seven : she rose herself about ball-past six, leaving Mrs. Clarkein bed : in passing through the hall she observed the hove door about half open, a circumstance the had never seen before : she shut the door, and then went to the lawiedoor, which was shut s but the shutters were open. The . window shutters in the library were all closed : she then went into the drawing-romn, were all the windows were shut but one iu the centre, which was wide open : the windows are low and only raised one step from the lawn : she went up stairs, and found the anti-room locked, with the key out side : she opened the door, and saw foot-marks on the floor, and the rusidigla gone from his stand : she thought that perhaps Mrs. Clarke had been there : the bed room door was nearly wide open : she then went into the room next the bed-room : there was a dread nil smell in the place : she left. the room, and went down stairs, arid after clearling, the alressing,room and the library, she went again into the anti-room to take away the dust. She then repaired to her own. room to call Mrs. Clarke, to whom she told the circumstances of the appearance and condition of the anti-room. Mrs, Clarke ex claimed in great alarm and agitation," Then my master and mistrelt arc murdered I" She helped Mrs. Clarke on with her gown, and they went-together to the .bed-room, Mrs. C. was afraid to go in, and witness did not go ii) as she had never been accustomed so to do. They knelt down and saw that the footsteps were bloody. They then went together to the pantry. Witness did not go up again tiil after the footman came down with the sheets. The footman cried out for assistaince, saying his mistress was not yet dead. - She saw him with the sheet or sheets covered with blood, which be wrapt _up in scalething, she : does not know what. The footman left the bundle in the. hall, and.said he would go to Mr. Astley Cooper, and for his master's partner, as he said he was• the properest person to know what had happened. He then went down the yard with the ... coachman. The poker in the bed-room lay between Itur master and the blaeket, on the floor. She had never seen it before. All the pokers belonging to the house were in their place. Had ni'ver seen any4hing particular in the footman's conduct. Saw him both be fore and after the discovery in the morning; he appeared sober. He looked rather sharp at her when lie first passed, but that was usual with iiim when any one passed him. Penelope Folds had been lani.lry-maid in the family fifteen years. She rose a little after four o'clock on the Monday morning, and soon after the washer-woman came, who let herself in by the limn dr) -door. About half-past seven Mrs. Clarke came to witness in the laundq, and said she was afraid something was amiss ; and asl , - - " witness to go up stairs with her. She did so, and went ins. • ' room, and opened part of one of the window-shutter master's body lying on the floor, and blood on ' ' She came dower stairs and %seat vp 0.- - ' man covering her master with P ' meddling with the clothe ['tress still breadline' .1 iA - -