Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-12-23 00:00:00

DECENTI3ER 23, 1857.

BRUTAL.CASE OF WIFE SLAUGHTER.

At the Durham assizes, on Saturday, before Mr. Justice Cramptou,
James Megee, pitman (sa), was indicted for the e Will murder of
Dorothy Megee. his wife, at flewsworth, near the city of Durham, on
the 9th August Mr. l'avison having opened, the case, Margaret
Weatherburn stated: I am the wife of the landlcrd of the Red Lion
Inn, Plaweworth. The prisoner aid his wife were in our houses on
the night of the Sth August. They came in about eleven o'clock at
n ght. About twelve o'cleck the Mile was sitting sleepieg, leaning on
her hns'saed's sho .ks_e e Shortly after, the prisoner was taking his
wife out. My bnab nd took hold of her and be ught her back. The
prisoner said he was quite qualitied to take care of her himself. My
hnsband then went to bed. About half an hour after, I bevel, from
another room, Megee going to take his wife out. I went into the
kitch n. The prisoner was trailing his wife. He held her by the
hair, and dal led her head upon the flagged floor. He then took her
by the right hand, and trailed her outside. I shut the deer after
them: I went up stairs about leaf an hour afterward!, 'and looked
out of a bay window upon the road in front. Megan's wire was oa
the g ound. Megee was kickin,e her; he did so several times ; she cried
to him to give over. I vent to my husband. On returning to the
window, the orisoner had remoosd his wife further down the road
Site was lying on the ground: Wheu the prisoner went out he had
had drink, but did not appear to be drunk. The deceased was very
drunk. Robert Weathereurn, husband of the lets witness, sated
that he told w .en he was taking his wife out of the house,
that she was so drum she was not fit to 'e o. Witness brought her
back into the kitchen, and the prisoner retut ned into he same room.
When witness looked out of the window, the deceased was lying
below the window ; the prisoner was pressing her to get up. She
sai she woull n't He then- trailed her aline the turnpike ab :ut
ten yards. Next morning, he found a quantity of blood a, hair on
the ternpik road. There was a good deal of rain that night.
Another witness corroborated the two witnesses. Mary Ann Megoe,
the prisons 's danzhter, said : My mother was 53 years of age. My
brother Thomas, my sister Slizebeth. and myself, were living with
me father and mother at Waldridge Fell in August last. Pe arrived
home alone about ten minutes past four o'clock in the morning of
of 015 9th of Anzust. Ile appeared to know what he was about
though he bed had drink. Elizabeth was in bed, a•d he told her to
go to the litt'e house betide flasworth, where my mother was lying.
I knew the place he meant. There are two roads to Plaswortb, one by
the fields and the other by the lane. Thomas w:nt by the fields,
and I west with my sister by the lane. There is a blacksmith's
:shop on the read, before coming to the Fed Lion Inn. When we
got to the blacksmith's shop, we met my brother resting with my
mot ter. I think she wait alive at that time. She did not speak.
My sister Flizaeeth spoke to her, but she gave no Forever. My
sister and me assisted Thomas in telling, my mother home. We
c ,rried her easefully. and arrived home between five and six o'cleck,
Elizabeeh laleeee"corroboetted the last witness, an her boo her,
Thomas Megee, spoke to finding his mother or the real. Robert
Clauaham proves the Ilndiez come hair and a bsinnet ribbon on the
road. Henry Smith also spoke to finding a la-ge quantity of hair.
Pole:a-constable Ellison aeprabendoe the prisoner. and produced
the clethes he wore that night. The shirt was bloody on the right
arm and breast. W. It. :-heist', surgeon, said, on the 9th August he
footed tha deceased dca I is bad with part of ter clothes on. The
back part of her flannel j eltrt was staned with blind abeu' the
neck. I exam ned the b.ely at Viet time. 'There were several marks
of discoloration of the skin on ho h the 'ocs and arms. The
mares on the write' were the largest The sin on the Lee was
abraided, and part'c es of mud were adhering to she brolasn skin.
Tee alorasien was about the 4Z3 of a crown. On the left eye-brow
there was a contueed cut ab .us half an inch in ex .e t. Oa the
other eye, there were twt cuts of the same bind. about the elm,
in extent. They were severe, and passed down to the one. There
was cons'derable swelling on tee left temple. The head and the
scalp were very much hr. iced. The scalp was torn from the
eked', commencing at t e back east, about an inch from the nape of
the neck. ('sensation.) At the commencement the torn part was
three inch-s broad,. The sale was then torn forw -rd, to the fore-
he id. The length of the free portion of the scalp was ten inches.
Upon this loose porti n of the scalp were three wounds, cutting
through to the bore 'I here was no injury to the bo- e below. On
the right tide of the head were two other contused wounds, one going
down to the bone. The remaning p ire of the scalp was 100-e, and
whetted the finger being passed between the skull and the scalp.
There were two or three place where the hair had eon torn off
The scalp is not easily removed from the skull. In this CSS3 a con-
eiderab e amount of violence hat been used to ramose it. The next
day I made a post mirtem examination of the 13 sly. 01 the left s:de
of the sseull, corresponding with a swelling, the temporal muscle was
in a gelatinous state, and contained a quantity of effused blood. Tke
mnsc'eo also passing from the nape of the neck up to the head were
very muds braised, and co tamed effaced blood. I then removed the
skull. The membranes covering t• e ]Train were eonge-ted, and the
b-ain itself with the exeeptio t of that peculiarity, was healthy.
Nothing particular was found in othes parts of the body. In
my opinion, the cause of death was severe injects to the, head. In
my jnelg ment, the injuries were sufficient to cause death. In
the state the scalp w us, draggi"g the body by the hair of
the head would be very likely to tear the scalp from the skull.
Tke toe of a shoe would be very likely to produce the wounds over
the eyes. There were other wounds which might have been prodnced
by kicking. The swaging on the left tide of the head might have
been produced by lifting it up and dashing it on a stone floor. C ross•
mut nined I don't aorib it' death to congestion of the brain, but to
the shock to the nervous system. Congestion of the brain some-
times causes death, and, no doubt, was nine element in this case.
Violent intoxicie ion will produce congestion of the brain. A heavy
tall, backward. by a person intoxicated, might cause death. Mr.
Hudson, surgeon, was also examined. Mr. Liedeli then addressed
the jury at considerable length. poin'iog out that there was ne
motive for the prisoner to kill his wife, that there were s veral hours
unaccounted for by the evidence, and suggesting that the wife's
injuries had been cancel by her falls and tumbles, whilst her
drunken hu -band was endeavouring to get her home. His Lordship
having summed up, the jury retanad a verdict of -` Manslaughter;
and the prig :ner was sentenced to twenty years' penal servitude.

DESTRUCTION OF FARM BUILDINGS AND

STOCK BY FIRE, NEAR PRESTON.

During the night of Sunday the barn, shippons, and stables of the
farm called Blash us. i t Penwartham, three miles ,on the road to
Liverpool from Preston, and occupied by Mre. Breakell, eerier the
trustees of the late Colonel Raw.to•ne were totally destroyed by fire.
The first intimation of the disaster wee, the failirg in of the roof of the
barn about ten o'clock; which awoke oae of Mrs. preakell's sons,
who imineoiately race to a.certain the cense of tins noise, ard found
the barn a mere shell, awl the whole of the other outbuildings in
flames. He alarmed the rest of the family, and Mrs. Breakoil, in au
;Tony of fright, ran across some fields in her night dress to Itep:ise
the residents et another farm of the calamity. Previous to th • fereily
retiring to test, there was not the slig'ite•t smell or sign of fire.
Tidings of the mishap wore conveyed to the fire brigade station, in
Preston, and Mr. Marriott, the superintendent. and a body of firemen.
hastened to the farm, which they reached abent half east eleven
o'clock. with one eneine. But there was a great scarcity of water in
the neighbourhood, and the firemen, after e•iiwying two ponds, • had
recourse is a sillies near the premises, and succeeded in getting the
flames well under about two o'clock the next morning. AU the
outbuildings and most of their contents were utterly destroyed,
iecluding the stele of hav and wheat in the barn, aed four
fine calving caws in ens of the shippons. There- were fifteen
cows upon the premises. but eleven of them were fortunately
Out that night. Tee shrieks and moans of the unfortemate animals,
which were being literally nested alive, were pit ous, and very
great but unsuccessful efforts were made to• save them. • All the
tools and aericultaral implements contained in the buildings burnt
down were of coarse destroyed. "1 ferni•ure in the house, which
adjoined the outbuildings, was xemoved during the regress of the
fire, but, through the timely arrive' of the firemen, and the judicious
direction given to t elr labours, the homestead escaped without a ,y
further damage than the slight scorching of one of the gables, and a
small portion of the 100 f. The firemen continued to play upon the
ruins till nearly twe ve o'clock on Monday. With respect to tkie
origin of the fire, nothing prnisely is known; but as there were
some retcetch-re in the barn ,on eueday evening, aid as they asked
for a lantern to Icok for e ferret they had lost, it in suspected that
they dropped a spark from the cantle anion{ the hay, and that it
stir ,u'd-red until after the family retired to res•. We are informed
that Mrs. Breakell is not iipured. The full extent of her lost has
not yet been ascer feriae, but it must be very considerable.

DARING ATTEMPT AT BURGLARY IN
WORCESTERSHIRE.

On Thursday night laat a very audacious attempt was made by a
gang of, it is believed, five desperate fellows to break int the resi-
dence of the Misses Ande-ton, Belle Walk, Moseley. Fortunately,
however, it was unsuccessful, and through the gallant exert ons of
Hawkes, followed np by the activity of two other officers in the same
force of the Worcester constabulary, two of the thieves were appre-
hended, and are new awai in 4 their trial. Their names are Thomas
Smith and James Pettifer, and they describe themselves as boatmen.
The particulara-of the occurrence were detailed before two magis-
Arates for the County of Worcester, at Balsall Heath, on Saturday.
The principal witness was, of course, police constable Hawkes, who
Witted that about a quarter-past one o'clock on Friday morning,
whilst on duty at Mosely Wake Green, he passed the hack of the
Misses Anderton's house, and as he was doing so heard a noise
resembling that of a door being tried. He went ncross the road
towards the garden, sod wood in the ahwiew of a wall to listen, and
had not been there more than a few seconds when the garden door
was wrenched opon, and a man cautiously mode his appearance. Ho
looked irouud him to see that ull was clea-, and thin observed,
"Now then. co ae on ; it', all right." Elawkes stepped from

his concealment, and turned his light full upon the man, whom
he now pesitively identified as the prisoner Smith. Smith
immediately turned back across the garden, closely followed
by Hawkes, but the letter had not gone many yards when he heard
footsteps behind him, and on 100 ing round he perceived another
fellow c ose behind him in the net of raising a fomaidable bludg on to
gra.: him. The blow, which he had not time to avoid or resist,
deec.eid d heavily upon him, and h- was fellcd to the ground. This
person was about such another person in appearance as the prisoner
Pettifer, but be could not swear it was the same. He speedily
recovered himself, and the men having in the meanwhile escaped, he
called up Matthias Yardley, the Misses Anderton's servant man, and
started off with him in pursuit. On the way, he called police-
constables Lane and Humphries to his assistance, and described
'minutely the personnel of the eepredators. His search, however, was
unsuccessful; but about three o'clock Lane, who, in company with
Humphries and another officer, had been on the alert, met the pri-
soners near the Mos2ley toll-gate, walk ng ,t a rapid rate towards
eirmingham. From the desetiption given him by Hawkes, he was
induced to stop them. and ask where they came from, and what their
names were, They said they had come from Worzester, and had gone
there with a boa', and paid off there, and received 7s, o' which Smith
said he had 6s remaining. I.ane then inquired what places they
came through, ar.d they said they could not tell. He then ; eked
them the name of tho man who paid them, and they said the; did
not know. Smith then said " What's the matter ?" to which Lane
replied, "There is something of importance the mutter, and you
must go back with me." The prisoners ..id they were willing'to
go ;and were taken to Miss Anderton's, ald remained till police.
consta',l6 Hawkes came. Hawke. on se.ieg Smith immediately
identified him, and expressed himself morally certain that Pettifer
was the one by whom he was assaulted. They were afterwards
removed to the lock-up at K ng's Heath, and on being formally
charged with attenuating to break into the Misses Anderton's house.
they se'd they had never been near the place, and repeated their
story. relative to having waked from Worcester. A subsequent
esanematicn of the premises and grolendt by daylight resulted in the
discovery that one of the panels of the front door had been drilled with
a centre bit, 'tut owing to the fact that the back was plated wits iron
the plan of effecting, an entrance by these means was prevented.
An attempt laud evidently next been made to force the door open by
leverage, and failing in this, the rogues had then tried to Hit the sash
of one of the winclowe by similar means, but without effect, and they
then directed their attention to the garden gate so as to get at the
house in a different direction. In the garden a crow-bar, with which,
upon examinAion, these operations had clearly been made, and a
heady bludgeon, we, e found; andlaot prints were also traced to the
garden on comparing the prisoners' boots, with which, under the
direction of Superintendent Humphries, they were found unmlstakab'y
to :correspond. This being the whole of the evidence a;anst the
prisoners, they, in reply to the charge, declared that they were as
"innocent as babes unborn." They were then committed for trial at
the next sessions,—Birmingham Post.

'UNION WORKHOUSE AT 11IJD5 EESFIZLD —thr Friday, at
the fortnightly meeting of the guardians of the Hudders-
field Union, a letter was read-from the Poor Law Board,
asthoriving the guardians to purchasa a site, and erect a
suitable workhouse thereon. After some discussion, a
resolution was carried, by a majority of 19 to 5, that the
workhouse should accommodate a number not exceeding
500, and the cost of land and buildings not exceed Lio,goo,
The requisite form was then filled up, and eigaed by the
guardians who had voted foethe resolution.