The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1860-08-28 00:00:00

THE MURDER AT STEPNEY.

Up to Wednesday evening nothing had transpired
positively tending to implicate any one in the murder
of the unfortunate woman Mrs. Ernsley. For the pre-
sent, indeed, the matter is invested with almost as much
mystery as the tragedy at Hoed, although some of the
most experienced detective officers from the head-quar-
ters of the metropolitan police in Scotland-yard, in
addition to the local divisional police, are actively en-
gaged in endeavouring to throw fresh light upon it. A
rumour was current last night in the vicinity of the
murder that the relatives .4 the deceased intend to
offer some considerable reward for the apprehension and
conviction of the assassin. This, or a similar step on
the part of the Hume Secretary, would doubtless stunu•
late exertion, and the more so if it were offered quickly,
when the matter is fresh in the public mind. It is said
there are circumstances pointing to a certain conclusion,
but as to the nature of them, and the course of action
being taken, the authorities occupied in the investiga.
thin are obliged for the present to manifest a necessary
reserve, WI well to prevent their exertions being baffled,
as, in the event of being on the wrong scent, to
keep secret the fact that they were ever set on foot in
that direction, lest, in a matter so delicate, suspicion
should possibly alight upon an innocent person. Those
engaged in the inquiry seem sanguine of success, and
there is a general belief that the murderer will, before
long, be in the hands of justice. On Monday evening,
after the inquest had been adjourned, the body of the
deceased, at the instance of Mr. Hose, who had acted as
her solicitor, was placed first in a leaden and then in an
oak coffin, and removed from her late residence to the
Tower Mandeb. Cemetery, not, however, for immediate
interment, but to be placed in a repository there, and so
to remain for the present. It is suppoeed by those best
acquainted with her affairs that she might have had £5O
or 21U0 in the house on the Monday night on which it
is presumed the murder was committed. The nnunier
in which the £4S odd was found secreted in her coal
cellar on Monday morning last, when the house was
being searched, assuming it was placed there by her
own hands, is • little summetive of her penurious turn
of mind, and it may be of an apprehension that the
knowledge of her wealth might conduce to an attempt
at rubbery or violence. It was discovered underneath
about a tun of coals- -E3'2 of it, in gold, being wrapped
in a piece of wash-leather, and 216 2s. in silver, was in
a tin cane; the whole being rolled in a piece of dirty
printed cotten. It was her habit to lodge sums of money
in the London and Westminster Banks, on deposit notes,
but never for any length uf time, for she held bankers'
interest in sniall esteem, and—the money being readily
available in that shape—she was always seeking tipper
tunitiea for a more profitable investment of it. With
this view she bought little patches of house property in
&one of the most wretched parts of Bethnal-green and
the surrounding neighbourhood, the rents of which she
spent most of her time in collecting personally from a
humble class of people, to none of whom 611 C gave, on
any pretence, more than • week's grace, and in case of
non-payment had immediate recourse to a speedy process
of ejectment unknown to the law. She owned whole
street.' in sonic .4 the most poverty-stricken districts in
the east of London, in one of which, Barnsley-atreet.
she was engaged in collecting rents on the afternoon of
Monday week, the day on which she was last seen alive;
and she had also property at itomford, Dagenham, Bark-
ing, Peckham, and other plasm within • moderate
radius of London. Except • niece, she appears to have
had no blood relations; but since her death several per-
sons have turned up to claim kindred to her, none of
whose pretensions as yet stand the text of examination.
Not long wei she intimated to a friend her intention to
devote most of her wealth to the endowment of an alms-
house after her death, and it is said consulted her solici-
tor as to the preparation of • will carrying out the views
in that sod other respects, but her violent death super-
vened before the wish was embodied in lepil form. All
her deeds and mu ll i 11l ents she kept deposited in her own
house, and on an examination on Wednesday by her
solicitor, they were all found in order and intact. About
17 years ago, being then a widow, she was married to
her second husband, Mr. Enisley, now dead, and on that
occaeion sonic property she had in her own right was
settled in her interest in trustees, who have ever since
continued to act for her. The second marriage is said
not to have been a happy one, and since her husband's
death she has maintained little or no intimacy with his
relations. About the beginning of this month she bought
£l6O worth of peperliangings, part of • bankrupt's
stock, which she kept stored in her housein Grove-road;
and it is thought that this had something to do with her
death, the suggestion being that the murderer had ob-
tained admission to her house on the pretence of buying
some of the paper, and that it was while a bargain was
being made for it that she received the blow which de-
prived her of life.
On Friday • communication was received by Captain
Lalialmondiere, Assistant Commissioner of Metropolitan
Police, at Scotland-yard, from Mr. Clive, Under-
Secretary at the Hume-office, intimating that the
Government had decided upon offering a reward of £lOO
for the discovery and apprehension of the murderer or
murderers of Mrs. Euisley, and a free pardon to any
one who may have been privy to the crime, short of the
pereon by whom it was actually committed. Mr.
Whittaker and Mr. Faith, two of the relatives of the
deceased by marriage, also intimated to the authorities
at the Home-office yesterday evening their intention to
offer a reward of in additon to that of the Govern-
ment. Up to 11 o'clock last night the murder was still
undiacoverell, and it remains to be seen what effect the
offer of £3oomay have in solving the mystery. Fresh
applications continue to be made by persona who claim
kindred with the deceased, but as yet it is understood
that no one has established his relationship by blood,
and the probability at present is that the property she
held in her own right, independent of that left her by
her husband, and which is so considerable that the
value of it has never yet been accurately ascertained,
will go to the Crown.