The National Register.
London, England, 1817-11-17 00:00:00

TOWN-HALL, GODALMING.

George Chennel the younger was brought up, charged before Lord
Viscount Nlidd'emu, on suspicion, with the wilful murder of George
Chennel, his father. and Elizabeth Wilson, an elderly woman, house-
keeper to the deceased.
'the young man was put to the bar : he is about 30 ; he looked
much down, and paid great attention to the evidence adduced, from
which it appeared that he was in the freqmmt habit of quarrelling
with his father, which, when the dreadful event was ascertained,
caused great suspicion. A pair of stockings damp with blood, shoes,
and other articica, were produced.
The prisoner said, that on Monday night at nine o'clock he was
absent from home, having gone to a slaugnter-house near Godalming.
On his being questioned, lie said he was positive in this fact, that he
was not in llrytige-street the night mentioned by the witnesses ; that
the shoes produced he did not wear ; the shoes he had on were
those he stood in : lie wore the shoes produced last Saturday : the
stockings he has not worn some time. On being asked what
occasioned the damp appearance, be said they were wet when they
were put by in the closet : be could not say any thing of the specks
of blood.

It further appeared, that the prisoner on the night of the murder
had passed Elizabeth Murray very hastily, and pushed against tier
elbow paming by the Richmond Anne.
Sarah Carter, another witness, often heard the housekeeper. Eli-.
zabeth Wilson, say, she dreaded the prisoner ever coining home.
The prisoner was remanded for further examination.

POLICE.
MANSION-HOUSE.
HORIMILE DEPRAVITY.—A wretched looknigereature, named
Margaret Crouch, was on Friday week brought up on a charge, the
detail of which excited at once the pity and indignation of all who
!laird it. The particulars are as follow :—On the day of Camber-,
well-fair, about three months ago, Mrs. Allen, a respectable woman,
living in St. Martin's-le-grand, sent her daughter, a child, nine years
old, to Fleet-market to purchase provisions. She did not return, and
the mother being dreadlidly alarmed, not only went herself, but dis-
patched others in all diructiorus in search of the infant. No tidings .
however, could be gained of the child until It o'clock on the night
following, when she returned in the care of a 111:421 named Griffiths.
an acquaintance of the mother. The story told by the child to her
mother was, that on her way to Fleet-market she was accosted by the
prisoner, of whom she had some little knowledge as a neighbour, who
asked her where she was going. She told her • upon which the pri-
soner said the was going to Camberwell-fair, and with much persua-
sion induced the child to accompany her, upon a promise to return at
night. That night„lhowever, and the next day passed on, and still the
prisoner delayed to return, until about 10 o'clock in the evening,
when they set oft on the road home. They had not proceeded far
before they were joined by a well dressed man. who had pre-
viously had some conversation with the prisoner at the fain--
They had got about half way between Camberwell and the Elephant
and Castle, when they suddenly turned into a lone held. Here &con-
sultation ensued between the prisoner and her hiend, which ended in
the latter pulling out a purse, front which he took a Bank note and
handed it to the child, and some silver to the prisoner. These •• mon-
sters in the human form" then seized the defenceless object of their
diabolical designs and threw her OR the grass, where by her cries and
struggling she soon became exhausted. The poor infant was at length
suffixed to rise, and immediately, with all the strength she had, be-
gan to cry out •• murder." A patrol passing at the time heard the
cry, and ha aening to the spot succeeded in securing the prisoner, but
the man escaped. The party then proceeded homeward, but had not
gone far when they were met by Griffiths, the man mentioned above ;
and the little girl on seing him, instantly recognised him, and leal.ing
into his anus, cried out, *• Oh, Sir, I know you! pray take me to illy
dear mother." They kept on the. journey until they came to Black-
friars-bridge, and here the trod left them. The prisoner was taken
charge of by Griffiths• flout whom, however, she emtrived to escape
before they got to their journey's end. The child was put to bed ex-
tremely ill, and surgical assistance procured, butt ws, of no avail.
She lingered until about 5 weeks since, when she expired; and from
the testimony of the mother, backed by the opinion of the medical
attendant, no doubt can be entertained but the violence she experi-
enced on the night in question was die immediate cause of her death.
She never afterwards left her room.
A neighbour of the mother stated, that the deceased ch:l.l was of
delicate apprarance, but good constitution, and remarkably reserved
and decorous in her manners. Another woman named Davis stated,
that the prisoner had several times attempted to lure a child of her's
about the same age from her home, hut t'utnnatcly without Abet.
The prisoner defended herself in these words, •"fhere was nothing
done to die child at the fair."
Mr. Alderman Ansley, who sat for the Lord Mayor, said he could
not had language su'Eciently strong to express what he felt at hear-
ing the horrid detail. The worthy Magistrate ordered the prisoner
to be brought up on a future day, when the medical gentlemen by
whom the body of the child was examined, snbsequent to Its 'leash,.
would bciu &mac/Alla.

Martha Crouch underwent a second examination on Wednesdly.—.
The mother appeared in deep mourning, and was in the deep 'A af-
fliction.
A letter was produced signed by the surgeon of the General Dis.
petwary, stating, that the child had been immediately after the vio.
lence which formed one of the grounds of the charge, afflicted with an
inflammation in the bowels, which subsided alter some time, but was
succeeded by a consumption that prom! fatal. The letter also stated.
that the inflammation was not produced by external violence. The
mother of the deceased here cried out, ticit her child had been mur.
dered by the prisoner and the villain to whom the prisoner sold her
babe for 11. ss. ; that if there W:IS justice to be found on earth she
should have it, as well sea lion Heaven where the crime was regis.
tcred.

The Lord Mayor expressed much compassion for her situation.
and asked in what manner she thought his interference could be ser-
viceable. She said that Martha Crouch had admitted her villaitip
and that she had given to an officer, who upon hearing the .hrieks of
the child tan up, a part of the money received from the pollutot as a
recompense fur his silence.
The Lord Mayor asked who that officer was
One of the city police said, that upon application at Union-hall
every inquiry had been made. The officers of the district were all
called out, but the accomplice after the fact was not identified
amongst them.
The mother of the infant begged for the love of mercy, that One
vengeance of the law might be visited upon the prisoner, and said
there was sufficient argument of her guilt in her aesnowledgement.
The Lord Mayor said the case was a truly dreadful one. lie had no
doubt of the abandoned conduct of Crouch ' • but the child, who
could be the oily evidence, was dead; and the letter of the surgeon
who had attended her, stated the opinion, that her death was not
caused by the violence she had described to her mother as having
taken place. Under such circumstances, the prisoner must be con-
signed over to her own conscience thr her punishment. It was, in-
deed, a pity the law could not interpose a more effectual means of
pro:uring public justice.
The mother said, the wretch at the bar bad admitted every thihg
of which she was accused. In the presence of God here stands,"
said this distressed parent, " the murdererer of my child." Upon
hearing that Crouch was to be discharged, she cried most bitterly.
"I'll pray for the justice of Heaven, since there is no security on
earth—no protection against the shedding the blood of infants."
The Lord Mayor observed, that there was no alternative. It was
a needless task to addrtas Crouch upon her wickedness. The crime
was one without a parallel ; and sorry he was that sho must be left
to conscience, which, howevq, would one day, most probably, per-
form its pal t. She was discharged.

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