The National Register.
London, England, 1815-12-24 00:00:00

Tilt NATIONAL REGISTER.

VEt. i 4

ACCIDENTS, OFFENCES, &c.

4 .—.........- .
SHOCKING MURDER.—The following extract from the informs
tion of J. Pryor, under .gamekeeper on Mr. Whitbread's estate, at
tiouthill, taken before W. Wilshere, Esq. give the particulars of
the whole transaction of the murder of the gamekeeper.
C. Dines, he head gamekeeper at Southill, lived in the park.
I live about if a mile from the park, with J. Gurney, who was
usually emp ed by Dines as an assistant when be went out at
night. On Saturday evening, Dec. 9, Dines told us that h e bad
heard tweguns fired in the park, ane another as he was coming
along. Gurney and I went With hiM. Dines and Gurney each
took a double barrelled gun ; I took a pistol. We walked about
the park till halfipast ten, without hearing any thing. We then sat
down to rest, in a shed near the cottage, and almost immediately
afterwards heard a gun ; from the sound, we thought it to hare
been tired near the head of the take. •I took the gun from Gurney,,
and we ran in that. direction. When we got to the head of the lake
we stood and listened, in a fewminutes we heard the sound of foot.
steps : we &armed the direction of the sound, and soon heard
another gun ared ; and after a short interval, a third, in a thick
plantation aciAlning the park pale. Dines said," I know they are
here." 'He called' Gurney and me to come to him, and directed us
to go into the wood abreast with him. He said, " mind what you are
going about; do not shoot any man, unless you see him point his
gun at you." A voice called out, " Come on." I looked towards
the side from which the voice came, and saw several men ; I
thought as many .as six or seven : they were not more than ten
yards distant; there was a moon, but the sky was cloudy ; the men
stood still in a body. Dines said to them,' Don't you consider that
you are imposing upon roe uncommonly?' No answer was given
to that. We stood a minute or two looking at them, without any
thing more said on either side. One of them said,' We will go off,',
Dines answered,' I hope you will go off the premises directly :'
they turned, and walked' towards the park pale. They were not
more thati fifty yards from the. pale. Dines, as they were going,
said, we are not strong enough for you to-night, but we will be as i
strong as you another night.' One of them said, in reply to that,
• if you bring twenty men, we will bring forty,' they then get over
the pale into the road. We got over immediately after them : I
then saw that two had guns. We were within about eight or ten
yards of them: Dines said,' I insist upon tyouagoing offthe manor.'
One of them answered,' If you fetch all the men in Southill parish,
we will not go off.' Dates ordered me to call George Daley, who
keeps the White-Horiein Southill) within 150 yards of the spot on
which we stood); I ran to the house and called Dilley and his sun.
I returned immediately. • Wheal had got about half way hack, I
heard the sound of a gun, and at the same moment heard Dines
cry out, ' Lord have mercy upon me, I am a dead man.'
Immediately: afterwards, I heard two reports -of a gun. I. very
often, and almost every day, heard the sound of Dines's gun, which
was a very good double-barrelled gun. It Winded differetly from
an ordinary gun, and I have no doubt that the last two reports
were' from Dines's gun : his gun was loaded when I left him, and
I found it laying by him, with both barrels discharged. I heard
the men running away, before I could reach Dines. I heard him
call to Gurney, For God's sake come as soon as you can.' Gur-
ney had been knocked down, and wounded, and 'was creeping to-
wards Dines. I reached Dines first ;he was lying on the ground :
he said to me,' My dear fellow, give me your hand, lam a dead
man.' I asked if they had shot him : he put his hand on his belly,
said' Yes,' faintly, and shook his bead. I lifted him up, and Gur-
new, who had then got on his legs, helped me to hold him. I in-
utareci hew it kad happened : ho said that after he had been shot,l
liehsal tired both barrels, and thought be must have wounded some
of dam. It had apeared, that the whole charge of the gun fired
at Dines, had entered the right side of his belly : he died the fol.
lowing day, about six in the evening. I
A Coroner's inquest sat on Monday the 11th, on the body of
Dines. and no proof having been then obtained against any indi-
visival, the verdict was, ' Wilful murder by persons unknown."
On Monday evening some cirumstances of suspicion arose against
a gang of notorious and desperate poachers, at Biggleswade.
Warrants were issued against them by Mr. Wilshere, the Ma-
gistrate ; before day-light next morning two were taker, and in the
eourse of that day four others.
It appears that the gang consisted of E. Chamberlain, J. Twelve.
trees, J. Hopkins, W. Albone, 'l'. Jeffries, J. Sutton, and J. Hum.
bersone, all of Biggleswade. That they set out from Biggleswade
about 10 o'clock on Saturday night to shoot pheasants at Southill
t Which is at the distance of four miles), that 'two had guns and the
rest bludgeons ; tbantley lratitnered Into au agriement to stand

by each other, and ,
mots before they were
named, were taken o'
by Mr. Wilshere, and committed to Bedford gaol, together with
H. Albone (the brother of William), who though nut present at tho
time of the murder, is implicated ;---:Sutton and Humberstone are
still at large.
}dmund Chamberlain has acknowledged himself to be the man
who fired at Dines. It appears from the account •of T. Jeffries,
another of the ging, that upon Dines saying he would see them off
the manor, Chamberlain snatched a stick from Sutton, another of
them, with which he struck Gurney on the head, and knocked him
down ; that he immediately afterwards threw down the stick, 'le-
velled his gun, and fired it at Dines ; that Dines, after having cried
out that he was a dead man, sunk down on one knee, and fired both
the barrels of his gun. He must have taken very steady aim, 'hav-
ing wounded Twelvetrees, Hopkins, Jefferies, and William
hone ; Hopkins was found to have received more than 100411ot/in
his back, spreading from the neck to the loins. W. Albone received
part of the charge of the first barrel on his left .shoulder, and part
of the second on his right arm. Jefferies was'shot in the right
shoulder and arm, and ens shot passed through his right ear.
Twelvetrees received a few on his loins, and one on his right.tbutula ;
they are none of them materially wounded.
The prisoners were conveyed to Bedford gaol, under a military
escort sent on purpose from Bedford, and numerous constables
from Biggleswade ; just as the delinquents were marched oft So
prison, the bell commenced tolling for the funeral of poor Din%
who was a respectable character and faithful servant.

On Wednesday evening. between five and six o'clock, as Captaia
Irving, of the Royal Navy, Was travelling in a Hownslow post.
chaise, near Colnbrook, in Buckinghamshire, he was stopped by
two footpads. Capt. I. resisted the attack of the villains. Vire
robbers were armed with pistols, and endeavoured to discharge
them; but fortunately it was a wet evening, and in-consequence,
both the pistols flashed in the pan. Having failed in their murde-
rous intent, they resorted to other desperate means, by attacking
the Captain with the handle of their pistols, with which they cut
open his head, and wounded and braised him in several putts of the
body : he in consequence became exhausted, Which enabled them
soon to overpower him, and they succeeded in emptying his paCk-
ets of his property, among which 'were bank-notes and cash to the
amount of 301. his watch, &c. ; they then left the Captain in nearly
a lifeless state.

On Monday morning, the Leeds Union Cost* was oVertibiltd
near Ferrybridge. Hope, the coachman, and a passenger named
Nicholson, are since dead. A servantimaidswas most dreudfisily
Mangled, and some other passengers math hurt. There Warne
misconduct on the part of the coachman. Theiorses took fright
from sonic cause unknown, ran away, and upset the couch. The
guard observing his perilous situation, sprung from the coaoh, nut
. a Woman, with two children, placed in the guard's seat, happily es-
caped unhurt.
SUDDEN DEATIL—An awful instance of sudden.death occurred
on Tuesday se'nniglut at the office of Mr.-Ferrier, 137, Fenelinrcit
street. Mr. John Coates, a young man, aged 20, -in his employ,
while seated at the desk, and to all appearance in perfect health,
fell down and instantly expired.
Friday se'night, about eleven o'clock, a considerable number 'Ol
the inhabitants of Northampton were alarmed by the watchmen
springing their rattles, and a cry of fire ; fortunately, the alarm
was of short duration ; as soon it was discoved to hate been given
by a respectable person in Bradshaw's-street, who in her sleep ua
undressed, had got out at a one-pair of stairs small window upon
the leads of a bow window directly under, where, in a most peril-
ous situation, she was calling out for help for God's sake, as the
house was all in flames. The house was immediately broken into,
and theadventurons sleeper happily extricated from her
dangerous situation.
The House of C. M. Wentworth, Esq. at Sunning hill; has been
discovered to have been robbed of Various articles for some time
past, consisting of the most choice wines, china, linen, wearing
apparel,and at length a silver aread-basket,of the value of 501. He
caused an enquiry to be made, and Richard Westbrook, of the
Bow-street Office, going down there, discovered that Mr. W.'s
housekeeper and her husband (a livery-servant) were the robbers ;
and several articles of the stolen property were found in the house
of their mOther, in the neighbourhood. On Monday, Westbrook
took them before Mr. Schutz, the Magistrate at Reading, who
committed them to the prison of that town to take their trial at
the ensuing Berk-shire assizes.

41911
milliCsax======
not to be taken; that they had killed two phew.
fere pursued. Chamberlain and the four next
n on the 12th, and were, on the 13th, examided