The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1861-01-22 00:00:00

THE DIJNI)ItY MURDER.

On Monday week, the two prisoners, Cherie* and
Matthew Wellinore. the former a di serter Irmo the Ma.
rifle Artillery. and the latter • Bristol tray lumper,were
brought before the magistrates at Pectirton, char gest
with the brutal murder cif their aunt and the attempt
to murder their uncle, George awl Sarah Waterman,
aged persons, who had be ii liviog in a :solitary cottage
at Ounslry. The old man is better. The itiaAistrateat
court was well attended during the day by a large
number of the respectahle inhabitants of the neighbour-
hood, by whom the aged pair were much esteemed.
The eroansit Ilarriet Francie, at whose house the fedoes
stayed on the night after the murder. awl with *lawn
it 114111111 the stolen property had been left, was ap-
prehended on the charge uf It•ving it in her pustseetuou,
I but has sinw been liberated. The prisoners *ere
formally cot iiiii Wed for trial. If hey are atrone
muscular fellows, and were apparently insensible of the
peril in which they etancl. They appeared supremely
indifferent to the proceedings, and although they were
undefended by • profeesicnial man, declined to sett of
I the witnewes any questions. They were at the conclu-
sion of the hearing cautioned in the usual 'neither, and
when asked if they had anything to say respectively, re-
plied in the negative. They were committed urn both
charges. The adjourned inquest was the next clay re.
stinted at the Dundry Inn, before Bruges Fry, Est.,
coroner for North Somerset, but the evidence was
mainly a repetition of that given before the magistrates'
court of inintry 1/11 the day preceding. The only achli•
tional facts of interest *ere elicited were that the
Peninaule medal, the property of the injured titan,
George Waterman, the husband of the deceased, and
aloe nearly lOU eovertigns belonging to the egett couple,
the rumour respecting which is supiecsed to have excited
the cupidity of the muicierers, have been found safely
concealed on the 'eternises. After hearing the evidence,
the jury returned • verdict of "Wilful Murder" against
Charles and Matthew Wedmore, and they were conveyed
to the county gaol at Taunton on Tuesday mortang,
there to await their teal at theescsuing Somerset asaises.
The unfortunate woman want buried on Tuesday at
Landry.
We learn that the condition of George Waterman,the
husband of the WOl/11411 so brutally murdered on the
evening cof the 9th Met., and who W:01 himself very
severely beaten, has undergoue run unfavccur cble change.
On Thursday morning eymptons of /111 alarming nature
presented tbeinselvea and it was feared that Waterway
wocild not survive.
SIIRArCLOUS EACAPE.—On Friday morning whilst
the evidence of George Waterman, the man who was so
brutally assaulted by the murderers of his wife at
Dunclry, was being taken at his becleine, on invident
occurred, but for what may be considered shlm.. La l'lo-
- interposition, might have been atieucled with
the most disastrous and fatal conseluences. It will be
remembered that ^tenni' the stolen property were tao
pistols, and one of them was found on the primmer
Matthew Wedmore, fully charged and capped. The
'chat& were produced for the perige.e of being identified
by Waterman, but it Cecilia he could not do tat without I
examining the 'Weide. The cep had lwen previously •
taken off, and the pistol was lISLI.:CtI Icy P.C. Perrott to
the magistrate present, with • caution to be I•artful.
Mr. Mortlaunt, however, thought that as the sup WU
off there was 110 clanger, and he pulled back the hammer
for the purpose of showing the nipple to Waterman.
I Suddenly, to the conxternation of all, the charge in the
pistol exploded. but, strange to say, although it con•
tallied several shots of a large else, and there ,1,111.1 a
Inumber of people in the room, no one was injured.
Five shots were picked up from off the ground, and it
is supposed that the exploeion was caused by some des
topatirtg powder from the cap.

BRISTOL. SON ET II ING MA RV 111.1.0U8. A corres-
pondent (whale name we have) tella an a story %chid),
we cod sac, looks like the marvellous. lie sap that on
the eve of Twelfth Niglit, having often lie.iril of the
phenomenon, he and others went to Coa'piit Heath to
see the sudden blossoming of a tree of the Holy Thorn
species—in fact, • plant or cutting"( the (anions one
at Glastonbury. Witrei our informant arrived at Coal-
pit Heath on Saturday evening lie found hundreds
crowding to the garden in which the thorn is. After
waiting some time, he said be heard a rustling noise
close to the tree, Anil lire4ently the closed buds of tha
thorn opened, and threw out thick Idinminis. which,
, after remaining on the branches for about an hour,
dropped off. How, this is the story, which our informant
(who, by the way, is • Methodist) tells us ; whether be
himself Man deceived by some trick, we cannot say. but
we do not think lie meant to deceive us. He said the
time the thorn blosioined was twelve o'clock on last
Saturday night ; and lie ileacribes the efflorescence as
inatantaneous, and that the tree was covered wth
flower like a hawthorn bush in su 11111 l er.—Briaiol