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

I!"' .384 NATIONAL - PE HORRIBLE MURDER OF MR. AND MRS. THOMPSOIq BONAR, 'OF CHISAE , HURST, KENT. . . . The murder which it is now our painful task to relate for the inform •mation of the public s equals both in mptety and in horror any of.the ;mist atrocious which of late years disgraced the criminal annars.of this country. it appears that, on Sun d ay evening, Mr. Thomson Boner went to bed at hiS usual honr ; MrS. Bonar (lid not follow him till two o'clock, when she ordered her female servant to call her at 7 - &Chick in the morning. The servant, as she had been directed, at the appointed time went into the bed-room of her master and mis tress, and found Mr. Bonar mangled and dead upon the floor, and his lady wounded, dying, and insensible in her bed. A bent poker which was lying on She ground, as well as the fractured condition of the - beads of the unfortunate victims, plainly denoted with what instru ment the act had been committed. As there Were some remains of life in Mrs. Bonar, servants were sent express to town for surgical assistance. Mr. Astley Cooper arsived with all possible dispatch, but it was too late: the wound was mortal, and she expired at eleven minntes past one o'clock, having been during the whole previous time insensible and only once uttering the exclamation of" Oh ! dear We never witnessed such a scene of horror as the bed room presented. 'Almost the first object which met the eye on entering, was the dead body of Mr. Rollos, with the head and hands steeped in blood ; the scull was literally broken into fragments, in two or three places ; and there was a dreadful laceration across the nose, as if effected by the edge of a poker. His hands were mangled in several nieces, ap parently by the same instrument; there was also a severdi wound on • the right knee. From the numerous wounds in the lAtly of Mr. Ho star, from the swoln state of his month, and the convulsive adhesion of his bands and knees, it is clear that he had struggled with all his force against his horrid murderer. The Most shocking circumstances connected with this spectacle was the appearance of the night cap, which lay a few paces from the head, drenched in blood, with a lock of grey hair Sticking to it, which seemed to have been struck from the smell by the violence of the blow of the poker. The pillow of his bed lay at his feet completely dyed in blood. The manly athletic person of Mr. Bonar,—for though advanced in life he seems to have been a powerf u l man,--give an increase of horror to this afflicting sight. The view of Mrs. Bonar, though equally distressing, excited snore pity than terror : though her head had been fractured iu a dreadful manner, yet there was a calm softness in her countenance ' more tesembling a healthy sleep than a violent death : it might base been supposed that her life had parted from her without one painfol effort. The linen and pillow of the bed in which she lay were co vered with blood, as was also the bed of Mr. Bonar. They slept in small seqarate beds, but .placed so close together that theme was Scarce room for a person to pass between them. The interval of floor between the beds was almost a stream of blood. No slight ad-.! elitional horror arose from the contrast of the spacious handsome apart ment in which this:scene of death was exhibited. The most heart moving spectacle yet remained. About 7 o'clock in the evening, , 311 r. Honor, jun. arrived from Faversham, Obese he was on duty as Colonel of the Kent Local militia. In spite of the efforts of Mr. An- • gerstien, jnn. amid some other Gentlemen, he rushed up stairs, ex , ! claiming, " Let me see my father : indeed I must see hint," It was impwsible to detainatim ; he burst into the bed-chamber, and imme diately locked the door after him. Apprehensions were entertained his safety, end time door was broken open, when he was seen kneeling with clasped hands over the body of his father. His friends Sore him away, and hurried him, tottering and fainting, to an ad joinins, chamber. W :learn on very accurate information, that about seven 'clock in the morning, when the alarm' was raised among time servants, the , foetruan, Phillip Nicholson, rode express to London on one of the , best horses in the stable ; he went first to Mr. kstley Cooper,- then To the Red Lion, near Bedlam, where he saw Dale, a man who has lately heen discharged from the service of Mr. Bona, and to whom lie used, (as is reported.) these remarkable expressions :—" The deed i 3 done, you are suspected : but you are not in it." He then pro ceeded to the office at Bow-street, to give information of the mur der ; and stated that he had seen Dale at the Red Lion, together With what had passed, which induced the officers afterwards to go to Dale. Nicholson appeared intoxicated at the office c indeed he had • been seen to take three glasses of rum at the halfway horse. The officers then directed him to follow them but lost sight of him in Brydges-street. A warrant was issued to apprehend him, his room and box were searched, and from some papers there fotmd, it was see!) had been discharged from the dragoons as an invalid last and had since that period lived with Mr. Tyrrell, the Re- 4:lsiTrrt JUNE 6. membrancer ; I.e hail been only tbreir weeks iu the family of Mr. Bonar. Dale, to whom the officers went, in consequence of what fell from Nicholson, had been a butler in the family of Mr. Bonar, and was discharged about a fortnight ago on suspicion of ill conduct. Mrs. Bonar, it is said wished to have him prosecuted, but Mr. Bonar was content to send him away. He came down Kith two of the Bow street officer.ead tfuderwentOn examination before the Magistrates; but was dismissed, as we understood, because he had clearly esta blishedan alibi, Mewing that he was at the Red Lion from It o'clock on Sunday evening ti;l 6 o'clock on Monday morning. He was, therefore, suffered to go aVeaf to his wife, who resides in the village of Chislehurst.• The unfortunate subjects of this narration, bad iesided at Chisles hurst about eight'or nine years : their mansion is . called Camden 'place, and is remarkable at beitg the spot from which the late Lord Camden, who resided there, took - his title: Mr. Bonar, we learn, was upwards of 70 years old. Perhaps scarce a man exists inssliose praise a more generally favourable testimony could not be houses Both he and his lady have died regretted by all their equals, and (what is, 'berhaps better still) by all ranks in the vicinity of their residence. . . In consequence of the disappearance Of Philip Nicholson and of the warrant granted by the Lord Mayor for his apprehension, Forrester, one of the city officers, went in quest of him. After a • diligent enquiry, on Monday, the officer traced him to Whitechapel, where he found him on horseback. drinking at the inn door of the Three Nuns, with an old acquaintance. The Officer laid hold of the bridle of the horse, and after a smart scuffle, in which Nicholson received some slight bruises, he was secured, and conveyed him to Giltspur-street Comp ter. The prisoner was in a state of intoxication, approaching to insanity, Sir Charles Flower, and Mr. Astley Cooper, saw him there, and asked him various questions ; but nothing like.a confession, or admission of guilt, could be drawn from him. On the same day he was examined before the Loid Mayor ; but such was the drunken state of the prisoner, that a rational answer could not- be extracted from him, and he was re manded for a further hearing next clay. • Wednesday, he was again brought to the ?lansims House. From the question put to the prisoner, it appeared that he had conducted himself, since thedeath of his master and mistress, in the most ins prudent and unfeeling manner, which tended mote to induce suspi cion than any other evidence brought against him. He said, 'that the night preceding the murder he wilt to bed about twelve o'clock, and knew nothing of what had happened untilcalled up by the housemaid, about eight o'clock next morning. He was the only male servant that slept in the home. Some of the windows he hail fastened inside at the usual hour, and the rest were attended to by the housemaid. On the murder being discovered, and the servants assembled, he with others went to the rood where lay his master and mistress. The former was found quite dead in a mangled state, and the latter just discovered signs of life; he was able to ascertain the fact by Owing his ear near to the mouth of his mistress. The floor was covered with blood and other matter which had come from his mas ter. He conceived he was doing right in taking the sheets off his master's bed, and With them to clear away the nuisance ; having done so, he took the soiled linen to the room where he slept. 'The groom was present, and assisted him to pull the upper sheet from his own bed to wrap those of his master's in. The sheets altogt the r l • he put under his own bed. Upon this point lie was close pressed, and was desired to explain his particular motive fur using the sheets to absorb the blood, and then afterwards to fold them In the linen from his own bed, when-he ought to have known that in such cases ' nothing should be disturbed about the persons of the deceased. He answered he was ignorant of that : what he had done was with the best intent, conceiving as lie did ,that so horrid and unpleasant a sight would have been oflensive to any person having occasion to enter the room. The other servants, he admitted, would toncit I nothing, and did not think theniselves justified in doing so. • His night-shirt, he said, lie lett in his bed when he got up, and might I be found: He •was then asked as to the foot-mark in blood which i appeared on the stairs leading trom his apartment to that in which the murders were committed. He said, if there were any, it might have been done when lie went backward and forward with the soiled sheets : but he was told, that the mark had hem seen be fore he left his room in the first instance. He was stripped and ex. amined in a private room, in order to see if he had any bruises about him, which lie might have received in the conflict with Mr. Sonar. Triflinss bruises were•found on his person, particularly one . m , on his forehead : but those were explained to have been received in ft the scuffle. with Forretter. The City officer being - called to this .~ • r that he h 4ansary, I