The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1858-01-19 00:00:00

THE LEIGH WOODS MURDER.

At Taunton, on Tuesday morning, at 9 o'clock,
John William Beale suffered the extreme penalty of
the law for the murder of Charlotte Pugaley on the
scaffold of the county gaol of Somerset.
Although there is reason to believe that before the
trial the wretched man made a statement to his legal
adviser from which his guilt could not have been
doubted, since his conviction up to a late hour
Monday evening he resolutely abstained from mak-
ing any formal confession. The Rev. It. Mant,
chaplain of the gaol, was unremitting in his endea-
vours to bring Beale to a true sense of his awful
position, in addition to which he received many
visits and much earnest entreaty from the Rev. H.
P. Liddon, M. A., of Christ Church College, Oxford,
and Vice-Principal of the Theological College, Cud-
desdon, nephew of the surgeon to the gaol, who hap-
pened to have known the prisoner when living in
the service of Mr. W. P. King, of Clifton, and also
in his last situation. The nearest approach to any.
thing like a confession was a statement by the
prisoner to the latter gentleman, intimating that he
(Beale) was not the actual murderer, but a mere ac-
cessory to the foul act. There is, however, not a
shadow of evidence to support such a supposition.
On the Ist inst. the prisoner was visited by his wife,
and on Friday week bat his mother and sisters saw
him for the last time. At both interviews the pri-
soner preserved that surprising composure which he
manifested throughout the trial, and WM the least
moved of any present. He listened calmly to the
exhortations to repentance and confession, but made
so sign.
The "condemned sermon" was preached on Sun-
day by the Rev. H. P. Liddon, who selected as his
text, Dwiesimiertes xii., 7. The prisoner paid marked
attention to the disconme and is said by his spiritual
advisers to have manifested a desire to profit to the
utmost by their counaels, and to adopt all their advice
short of an actual acknowledgment of his guilt as a
murdat
C was the executioner, and he arrived in
Tann n in the course of Monday. At midnight
the e tion of the drop was commenced, and from
that ho until the time appointed for executing the
sentence of the law persons began to assemble in
front of the gaol. At the moment of the execution
there could not have been leas than from 8,000 to
10,000 persons present, of whom about a fifth were
women and children. The prisoner was visited on
Monday evening by the chaplain, the Rev. R. Mont,
and also by the Rev. H. P. Liddon. The latter
gentleman remained with the convict till half-past
11 o'clock, and returned to him again at 6 in the morn-
ing. During the night the prism. er had some broxen
rest, but slept soundly from about 2 to 3 o'clock,
and on the governor going to his cell at a quarter to
6 he was not then awake. Shortly after his convic-
tion it seems that he complained that his life had
been sworn away, and that his witnesses had not
been called. He also referred to the case of Nation,
the last criminal hanged at Taunton, and expressed a
wish that the knife found in his pantry at Daventry
should be analyzed, and that his letters might not be

published as Nation's had been. The father of the
prisoner saw him on the evening of his conviction,
and since then Beale had written frequently to him
and his wife. He expressed his gratitude to the
governor and officers of the gaol, and spoke in ap-
propriate terms of the kindness manifested towards
him by the chaplain and the Rev. H. P. Liddon.
As the clock struck 9 the tolling of the prison bell
announced to the crowd outside that the procession
had left the chapel, and in a few minutes afterward
Calcraft ascended the drop, followed by the prisoner
and two turnkeys. Beale walked firmly, and took
his place under the fatal beam without trepidation.
The cap was drawn over his face, the rope adjusted,
the executioner and his assistants withdrew, and,
the bolt having been withdrawn, the drop fell. For
a second or two there was no movement of the body,
then a convulsive plunge, and life was extinct.
After hanging for an hour the body was cut down,
and in pursuance of the terms of the sentence was
afterwards interred within the precincts of the gaol.
The crowd assembled on the occasion consisted
almost entirely of the working class, and the
majority departed as soon as the murderer had
ceased to exist. Some remained to witness the
cutting down of the body, and when that operation
was performed the multitude dispersed.

iitZbire.
nu: MILLS' TESTIMONIAL—A meeting of sub-
scribers to the above testimonial was held at the
Townhall, Warminster, on Saturday week, to con-
sider the course to be adopted in disposing of the
amount raised. The Rev. Prebendary Lowther pre-
sided, and there was a numerous attendance of the
principal agriculturists of the neighbourhood. The
following letter from Mr. Stephen M. Mills was
read:—

Elston, January 7, ISM.
My Dear Sir,—Understanding that you are kindly
about to preside at a meeting to be held at Warminster,
on Saturday next, in reference to the proposed testimo-
nial to the memory of my late dear father, and that a
desire has been most considerately expressed to consult
the wishes of his sorrowing relatives on the subject, u
to what would be the most gratifying way of disposing
of the fund that may be raised, I beg to say that we
oonsider there could not possibly be anything that we
should so highly value as a good 'likeness of my dear la-
mented father, if it be possible to obtain one.
We have several representations of him, but not one
that is good; it has been suggested, however, by friends,
that a good artist could furnish something much more
perfect from those we have. We are not at all aware
what the amount raised for the purpose of the testimo-
nial may be, but we should wish to leave the disposal of
the surplus (if any), entirely to the discretion of the
committee._