The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1862-05-27 00:00:00

SOMISREETSHIRE COUNTY COURTS, JUNE, 1862.

Asbridge Wednesday, 18th, at 11.
Bridgwater ... ... Friday, 20th, at 9.
Chard Saturday, 28th, at 10.
Cre w kerne Fri.hy, 27th, at 11.
Langnort Wednesday. 25th, at 10.
Taunton ... ... Monday, 23rd, at 9.
Temple Cloud Mo ,day 16th, .t 1.
Wellington ... Tuesday, 24th, at 10.
Wells Tuesday, 17th. at 10.30.
Weston-super• Mare ... 'Thursday, 19th, at 10.
Williton Saturday, 21st, at 11.
Yeovil ... Thursday, 28th, at 10.

NOVEL METHOD OF ROBBING AN EMPLOYEE.
Miry Saunders and Dinah Sibley, of Ashington,
tis latter of whom did not appear, were charged
before the county Magistrates on Friday,
with stealing half-e-pint of milk, the property of
Mr. A. Brown, of Asbington. Both prison,rs were
employed to milk the cows, and suspicions having
been aroused. P.C. finish was directed to watch
them, when they were observed to pour some milk
into ginger beer bottles, and each to secrete one on her
person, Both had admitted their offence to prose-
cutrix's daughter since, and as they appeared
penitent, (in addition to which Miss Brown on the
part of her mother, did not wish to pram the charge),
they were discharged with a caution.
AN ACCIDENT TO A CHILD.— On Monday an acci-
dent took place to a little girl, between six and
seven years of age, the daughter of John Giles, re-
siding in Yeovil, by falling over a stile, by which
she sustained a fracture of the leg. The juvenile
sufferer was promptly attended by Mr. P. S. H.
Cohner, physician and surgeon, of this town, under
whose care she is progressing favourably.
MARTOCK.—Mr. John C. B. Johnson, of this town,
passed the fird h.lf of the profeaaional medical ex-
amination, at Glasgow, on the 7th and Bth inst.
PRESTON. FIEF.—On Friday night a fire was dis-
covered in a cottage in Watercombe Lane, in this
parish. The cottage had been used for many years as a
turnpike house, but the toll bar having been lately re-
moved, it had recently been let ass private cottage, and
MILS in the possession of a man named Norman, who
was to enter upon it the following day, having taken
the greater part of lila goods there for that purpose.
The fire was discovered about midnight, hut before
assistance could ha rendered the whole bullring was in
flames, and we are sorry to say that all the furniture
was destroyed. The origin of the fire is unknown.

WINCANTON. Tug MARIIIAGIC LAW. A
diatressing case hat recently occurred in the Wincanton
Union. In the year 1846 a man married his deceased
wife's brother's daughter, by whom he has had nine
children. In the month of March List he deserted them,
whereby they became chargeable to the parish, were
sent to the union workhouse, and there placed under
order of removal to the woman's maiden eettlement.
The marriage being illegal, and all the children conse-
quently illegitimate, they retain their mother's settle-
no until they respectively attain the age of al :teen
yarn, when they will be removable to the parishes in
which they were born. Were this poor woman to
desert these unfortunate children she would be
punishable as • rogue and vagabond under the statute 7
end S Vie., cap. 101, see. 6, but for the man, the author of
all the misery and expense incurred by his desertion,
there is no criminal punishment whatever. Surely this
is not as it ought to he, far in all such cases, if the
legislature will not legalise these marriages, they
certainly ought at least to award the same punishment
to the man as to the woman for deserting the issue of
them.

DIM MANIMERTER MURDER.—The murder that has
just occurred at Manchester is one of the bloodiest
murders that ever fell to the lot of • public journalist
to chronicle. In the extort of it.; sscritlee of life, it is
more dreadful than those commuted with the name of
Meant Wilma. et .Brough, it Yeemenaes.ln
*Mb Ihrinfrii***/**l4 et MAAR% it cq(
'

I

Palmer; mege daring and deliberate than any we have
heard 41 anise James Bloomfield Jr ugh ,walked into the
.dining.tocun at Staidield Hall, and shot down the
-Jerinyte famey one after another. At helf-past eight
, on Friday morning a lionse• agent, seined Mellor, left
is housfat Old Tr..fforit, and proceeds," to the offices
which he occupied with Ids son in South Hinrstreet,
Manchester. He ascended the staircase, but on the
second-Boor landing ha found a man and his wife,
William Robert and Martha Anne, Taylor waiting for
him. The man was armed with • large knife some ten
inches long, mad the wesnimis. said to have held a sia•
&maimed revolver:tardier husband's use. Mr. Moller
Matlls to have been it mice attacked by
the pair. He
was repeatedly stabbed, and d down stain calliug fsr
porter named Hoofiy ran to his assistence,
and the as-scam n fired the revolver at him, a baU lodg
n-
ing in Hooley's aria. The was then a rush of rantl
around the man Teylor, and he was at once secured,
but the woman, strangely enough, was allowed to walk
away. She Is now, however. in eeetody. On being
conveyed to the police-office, Taylor coolly inn his ad-
dress, pointed to one of the keys taken from lion as
belonging to a hack bedroom in his dwelling, and told
the officers shot if they med.'s-search there the 7 would
, find something. They did, indeed, Ind something, and
of a usost ghastly and appalls; nature, On going to
Taylor's hostile, which was in a district called Strain&
ways. the police discovered in the back bedroom alluded
to, the dead bodies of three children, two girls and a
boy, aged respectively twelve, eight, and five years, and.
strange to say, laid out in clean white nightgowns, with
black ribbons round their vides. They had probably
been poisoned. On the breast of each was ipiened •
piece of paper stating their names and ages, and on one
was the following hideous scrap of incoherence: "We
, are six, but one at Hisrptry lies. Moller and Sons are
I our cruel murderers, but Gad and our laving parents
will avenge us. Love roles here. We are all going to
our sieterto part no more." The walls and staircases of
the house are said to have been found daubed with
bleak, and what few objects the house contained—for
the goods and furniture had been sold some time pre-
vionsly under an execution—was all smashed to pieces,
as though some maniac had been exercising his unre-
strained fury in the place. It is said that Taylor's mind
had become affected by the loss of one of his children,
a girl, who had been killed some time before by the
bursting of a boiler which he bad in vain entreated the
house agent to repair. Then it is stated that he had
claimed compensation for the iujury done ' • that Mailer
and Son had refused to grant it; and that the attack
upon poor Mr. Metier, senior, was • vendetta. But
shy should lie hare wreaked his sanguinary vengeance
, on his unoffending children? We can perfectly under-
stand how a grievance so trilling'sta the refusal of corn-
' pensation for a boiler that has burst may lead a man
of violent passions to take • desperate revenge. It was
' but the other day that a soldier at Aldershot endea-
voured to murder his sergeant because a certain part in
some private theatricals lied been taken away from hire,
at his, the sergeant's instigation. But, from • variety
of circumstances which have owns to light, we are
warranted in the assumption that the man Taylor, at
least, is a maniac. The part taken by his wife who is
only twenty-five years of age, puzzles us indeed; but
the acts of Taylor, and the language lie has held since
his capture, can be only those of • madman. He is raid
to have exclaimed, when brought to the pollee-office,
"Thank God, I have finished nay work ! and the
papers pinned on the breasts of the murdered children
offer strong proof of a deranged intellect in the writer.
The previous career of Taylor accounts for the ate imps
manner in which he and his wife have abstained from
mixing in the society of their neighbours, and the life of
seclutnon they have been living. It appears that he was
at one time a schoolmaster at Dunater, Somersetsliire,
and misbehaved himself in sonic way that lost him the
appointment. At Crediton he was traveller for five
years to a respectable firm, but was apprehended and
tried at the Devonshire winter assizes, held at Exeter
in 1859, on a charge of aiding a servant girl to protium
abortion, and was equated. After his acquittal be
became traveller to an 'Exeter wine merchant, but was
discharged for embenlement In 1861 lie was a wine
and spirit merchant at Bideford, North Devon, obtain-
ing goods on promissory notes. Before the notes became
due, however, be lied sold the goods to realise money,
and absconded, He wee married in March, 1861, to
Martha Giles, (his present wife), the daughter of a ,
farmer at Wincanton, in Somersetahire, with whom lie
had £lOO as a marriage portion. He was afterwards
charged w;th forging a hill of exchange in the name of
his father-in-law. He was brought before the magis-
trates on this charge on the 22nd of May, 1861, but air
nears to have been discharged, and on the 10th of Jane,
1861, he is known to have been in Manchester. Of his
wife, who is a very handsome woman, little is known
beyond lair devotion to her husband and his late chil-
dren (who were by his first wife.) It was stated in evi-
dence that after the warder she smeared one band with
blood, and then went and tried to persuade the police
that she, and not her husband, had comuiitted the-
horrible crime. In the dock she seemed to regard
everything lie did and said with affectionate interest,
and it is believed weed readily sacrifice her life to save
his.

WELLS.—A man named Radford, a baker's
assistant at Wells, has been committed for trial,
charged with having defrauded his master to the
evtent of from £l3O to £l4O. Radford was en-
trusted with the duty of delivering bread and Hour
to customers, and it sppears that for the past six.
teen months be has represented the Rev. T. B.
Stuart, a elergymus at Wookey, as having been re-
ceiving his bread on credit, which was not the case,
as in every instance Radford received the money
when he delivered the goods. Mr. Stuart's account
was sent at Christmas, but, Radford having been
bearer of the document, it was never delivered.
Other letters were sent by the mum hand, and met
the same fate, but at last a letter which had been
sent by post demanding 'payment brought the
baker and his customer together, and the dishonesty
of the servant, in whom implicit confidence bad been
placed, was discovered. Radford bad been in the
employment of the man he defrauded for nearly five
years.

TAUNTON.—MTSTERIOI3B DISAPPICABANCH OF A
FRAIALE.--Great excitement has been occasioned in the
neighbouring village of Bishop's Hull by the sodden and
mysterious disappearance of a female, once a servant in
the homehold of the late Lady Dance, where it is said
she succeeded in accumulating some £.lOO or £4OO. On
the death of her mistreas, sod the consequent reduction
of the establishment, she located herself in the village,
opening a small shop for maintenance, and was favourably
looked upon by the neighbouring gentry. In an evil
hour for her, a drilling toaster in a gar ol in the village,
doubtless having heard of the sum she had in store, paid
attention to ber,ond at length succeeded in winning her
affections. This having become known to her patrons,
to whom the match for certains reasons was highly
objectionable, they remonstrated with her, and this had
-the effect of breaking off the match. Since then she
had been subject to fits of melancholy, and moods of
abstraction, which called forth the remarks of the
villigers, who bad not hesitated publicly to say that she
was hemming bereft of her senses. A few days since
the shop was not opened as nsuel in the morning, and
this excited suspicion and alarm. Her late mistress's
daughter (Miss Dance) was informed of the eircurostan•e,
and on her repairing to the house, and forcibly opening
it, a letter was seen upon the table for Hiss Dance, sea-
ting that'slie was gone away for a month, and if she did
not return at the end of that period her possessions were
to be disposed of, Miss Dance keeping the proceeds.
Inquiries have since been instituted in every direction,
but no clue to her whereabouts bag been discovered,
and those who knew her best have the most gloomy
forebodings of her having come to an untimely end.
PENSIONIIRS.—The West Somerset Commit); of Pen-
sioners. (first divisioss) assembled in Taunton ow Thurs-
day for eight days' training and exercise. The second
division were out on Monday. They ate under the
aommend of Major Baca.

•
80MERTON.—Rme iff&Tetr.—A match came
off on Friday, at the Batts, between &sporting land-
lord, well-known for his exploits in the field, and a
member of the 24th Sonterton Rifle Corps. Five
shots each at 200 yards. The sequel proved that
although the rifleman had had but little experience,
the regulated method with the rifle for correctness
of aim will beat all field sporting practice. The
following is the score :
Sportsman 0 2 4 0 0-6
Rifleman ... 23 0 0 2-7
The rifleman thus winning by one point. This
appeared to give as much satisfaction to the loser as
to the winner, the stake being spent over the con-
vivial board by the parties, principal and secondary,
at the Globe Inn, the same evening.
The 24th Somerten Rifle Corps will proceed to
Wells for battalion drill on the 2nd of June, pre-
paratory to their going to Bristol on the 17th. This
corps being above the number, 60, a good muster is
expected on the occasion.
On Thursday the anniversary of the Somerton
Provident Society was held, when they assembled
at the National Schoolroom, and after the names had
been called, proceeded to St. Michael's Church. A
special service was held, a very appropriate sermon
being preached by the Rev. R. Atthill, M.A., Vicar.
Aftet church the members perambulated the town,
beaded by the Yeovil braise band, and with their
beautiful banners and staves, adorned with a pro-
fusion of ribbon, the whole had a very pleating
effect. Os returning to the schoolroom they foetid
an exoellent dinner served up for them by Host Par-
sons, of the Bell Hotel, whose catering for this society
so many years is sufficient proof of his capabilities.
After thd yearly statement of the society had been
read by Mr. Feltham, the secretary, the members
re-formed, and paraded the town till evening. The
neat appearance and good behaviour of the men—
upwards of 200—was commented on with great ap-
probation by the gentlemen whom they called on.
The performance of the band, too, gave great satis-
faction.

BATH.—ALLan ED INC EN DIARISM. —A fire took
place on Wednesday afternoon at 8, St. George's
Place, Upper Bristol Road, under circumstances of a
suspicious character. It appears that on an alarm
being raised some persons who were passing ripbed
into the house and extinguished this flames, so that
by the time the police arrived all danger was over.
On the rooms being examined it was found that each
side of a wooden partition dividing the floor into
moms, pieces of stick and rag, with turpentine on
them, had been laid and set On flre; in other places
wood had been ignited. The circumstances
altogether were so strongly suspicious that orders
weregiven by the chief of the police for the appre-
hension of the owner, a man named Brinkwortb,
who, however, has managed to get out of the way.
The ownership of the house is a matter of dispute.
Brinkworth, it appears, married a widow, whose
deceased husband left the house in question to his
children. The deeds were left in the custody of
Mr. Cox, solicitor, and some three or four years
age Briukworth applied for them, and, failing te
obtain them, went to the length of writing letters to
Mr. Cox, threatening to shoot him if he did not
surrender the deeds. For this offence lie was com-
mitted fOr trial.

BRISTOL—Lewin'. Mead has furnished another
;saw auSiNE 410 e if • Teri serious ohs-
- 91.01441. 4Pg mama
. •

qparrelkd Ws house ia that noterions quarter of the
city, about one of Its female residents. and cominetmed
tai figh4. One of the men, after having been twice
knocked clown, drew a razor and indicted a seems
wound apes the neck and face of his antagonist. The
'wounded man was taken to the Infirtnery, and hie
assailant wad apprehended on the spot.