The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1818-08-01 00:00:00

the Prisoner was not connected with the transattion
himself, how could he know who was or was nut ?
The first witness. Alr. David Thomas. stated,
that he lived next door so the tate 11r. Bird, in the
High-street, Greenwich. The decee.ed was shout
83 years of age, and kept the late Mary Simmons,
ano was 50 years ohl, so his servant, witness ar-
rived in Greenwich at ten o'clock on the Saturday
night, and nearly one o'clock on the Sunday, the
brother of Mr. Bird came to him with the ;wish
beadle, and expressed his astninsliment at the
windows of the house being shut sip. They
all then went together. and found the back port of
Mr. Bird's premises all secure ; on going to the
front door, they could not pick the luck. the key
being inside. They afterwards broke open • pas.
sage door, and entered through the kitchen win-
dow. On going into the kitchen, and advancing
from thence towards the hall, he saw the hotly of
Mary Simmons, lying with her head towards the
stairs, and her feet towards the street door. On
entering the parlour, they saw the body of Mr. Bird.
There was • great inanity of blood in patches in the
hall. and it appeared as if moved by drawing the
body along the passage. The woman's head had
several cuts at the hock part, and her ear was split,
the banister of the entire near her was broken,
and part of it will banging to the roil ; there wits
also • candle nearly whole ni the parlour; it seem-
ed merely about eighth part burnt down. There was
also a broken candle lying 'Derr Mr. Bird's body,
and also his spectacles broken ; on she table was •
purse or small pocket-book, which appeared to
hose been opened, and a lottery ticket lying by it;
there was no watch in his fob; a small penknife
lay near his pocket. On going up to the little
room over the parlour, he observed is large tin
hoe over the padlock, and several papers tying
about, sod some of the drawers of an micro-
lair. open. In the bed-room there was • double
chest of drawers. all of which were half opriir
said the things in them tinned over and left in
disorder. Two or three keys lay about, odd near
them were some spots of blood. The bed was
made, and ready for sleeping in. The street-door
was only on the spring, as if slapped to by some
body going our. The table-cloth was on the sup-
per-table, de if for present use. Mr. Burst's slippers
lay
ed

dose by, and in the oven there lay a few roast.
potatoes, and a kettle full of water. He saw
some plate taken out of a drawer in the house by a
Gentleman present ou the Sunday : this spewed the
haste of the person who had been iu the house and
committed the murder.
Cron-e.rainiced by Mr. NOLA*.
They entered the house on the Southey by about
one o'clock. as the people were reto►ntug frosts
morning church. The bannister appeared broken,
as if the woman had laid hold of it. She had seer.
ral wounds about her, which looked as if ioltictrii
by a blunt weapon. The places below stairs seemed
to have been examined, some of the things moved
from their proper placer, and others not touched ;
a little table lay half turned over in the parlour.
Raexassined.—The bannister which had been
broken was at the foot of the stairs.

Mr. Richard Smith said, he was s Magistrate of
the county of Kent. re-irling io Greenwich. About
one o'clock, immediately after morning service,
lie was informed in the vestry-room of this murder.
Ho iostassily repaired to Mr. Bird's house, where
lie saw the last witness. On goiiig through the
passage from the hack part of the oh.
served a body lying on the floor, which
was covered with a great deal of blood, that serm-
ed to be trailed inwards from the door to the
loot of the stair-case near the broken bannister.—
He also corroborated the last witness's description
of the state of the house, and the sittia,ion of the
dead bodies. The wounds seemed to hove been
inflicted by an instruments one part of which was
blunt, mud the other riot very sharp. hut certainly
not blunt. He had since seen the barmier which
was found, and it was exactly that sort of instru-
ment which would give there wouuds. The woman
had seven wounds, and the skull of Mr. Bird ap-
peared to be fractured. The witness had since ob-
served that any- person sitting at the window of the
Tiger's Head, must have a view of any body
examining the bureau in Mr. Bird's study. He
also said that on examining some of the drawers up
stair, several Bank mom sod some plate were found,
111141 many things looked as if turned round in haste
and confusion. The back parlour did not seem to
have been entered at all ; some twelfth-cake or
pound-cake lay on the table, and there was a glass
of wine poured nut. In the kitchen the ser-
vant's work lay where one would expect to find
it ; there was a table-cloth lying on a chair, a tinder-
box, and Mr. Bird's slippers. On the 13th March
two watches and a piece of broken buckle were de-
livered to witness by Godwin, the brother-in-law ol•
the Prisoner, at Peckkam.—[Here the worms, de-
livered into Court the watches.]

Cress-exanoined by Mr. ADOLPHUS.
The woman seemed to have been struck in six or
seven places and the mall in three. It was quite
evident that the room. (except the imams') had
been hastily inspected and ransacked. His exa-
mination of the premises occupied one wad• or an.
other, about an hour; he went over the rintnts sere.
ral times, and into the garden, during this space of
time. _ _

Mr. Frederick Finch said he was a surgeon, re-
siding at Greenwich. On the Sunday he went to
Mr. Bird's house about one o'clock. Mr. Bird's
body was then lying on the ground ; there were two
remarkable depressions or italentions on the head—.
on a more minute examination on the following
day he found • long fracture from the orbit of the
eye to the back of the head, and there %salsa wound
on the parietal hone, from which a part of the brain
escaped. He observed at the time that the wounds
were inflicted with an instrument having two ends,
one a blunt cutting edge, and the other ti smooth
face, just such as a hammer would inflict. The
wounds certainly caused the death of the man.
The woman wit% particularly struck in the forehead,
and evidently with the same instrument ; some of
them obliquely struck, as if with • hammer, land
others directly with the cutting edge. Fit. jugu-
lar vent of the woman seemed bruised exactly as it
might have been by such a hammer as he hall .4,,ee
seen; she hod also vomited : the latter was always
a Dymptuin of a concussion of the head.
Cress-examined by Ilk. NOLAN.
lie thougot the vomitatig might be tostantatiertus
brier a were blow, even though the patty was