The National Register.
London, England, 1817-10-20 00:00:00

HORRIBLE MURDERS !

• LOUTH. OCT. 9,—Tn the night of Tuesday, the Tth Instant,
'l'llolllRa Hall, aged about seventy, and Mary Grant his house-
keeper. of about the same see, who had many years resided
by themselves in a very lonely cottage in ilieddlethorpe,
about 12 miles from Louth, in Lincolnshire, were most inhu-
manely murdered by some diabolical monster or monsters in
human shape, who entered the hack wall of the house by a
breach made therein for the bloody purpose. 'I he dead
bodies of these unfortunate victims were first discovered
about three o'clock in the afternoon of Wednesday the nth
instant, by some labourers, who experit'll Hal: to meet them,
at a previous hour, to assist in some work in a drain, near his
house, and who, after waiting beyond the time appointed for
his attendance, proceeded to ascertain the cause of his ab-
sence by calling upon him, when, site, observing tarsi. quan-
tities of blood, which had streamed through the floors of the
upper romps upon the floors and furniture of those below,
they advanced op stair: into the two beil•chambers, hi OUP of
at Bich they beheld the appalling spectacle of the mangled
corpse of the hooskeeper, placed in a sitting posture upon
the floor, with her back against the wall, having on her stays
and tinder petticoat, and, in the other, the still noire ten itic
object of her dead toaster, lying with his face upon the fluor,
and ha vine on no apparel hut his shirt.
Upon the arrival of the Coroner and jut y to view this scene
of carnage, on the 9,1 i lost., the bodies, but more particularly
that of Mr. Hall, exhi itited almost every conceivable mark of
the louse sruzilioary barbarity. Many sa -age blows had been
inflicted upon hi. head and face. an trireme 1 had been made
to cut his throat, in defending which he was deeply stabbed
in various parts of both arms. and one of his fingers was nearly
severed by a ant ; iii his shoubleis, lees, mid thizdts he hod
also many deep stabs; but the most unions attar:. ap-
pears to have been upon the truck of his body, where
four sleep wounds were discovered, one large enough to
'Omit three or four fingers quite throirOi into the stomach,
another on the left side of the naval, and two more (the fatal
wounds) which penetrated between the ribs, ou the left side,
through the left lobe of the lungs into the left ventricle of the
heart. Dreadful blows had been inflicted upon the head and
face of dm housekeeper, who was also stubbed quite through
one of her arms, mid terribly stabbed in various lido r parts
of her both, the fatal stab having been directed through her
left nostril into the b aim
'rhos terminated the existence of those aged, harmless, and
inoffensive people, whose struggles to save their list's against
this nnirderons.attack must have been very great ; and there
is hardly a doubt but the person or persons who committed
these bloody deeds must have been wounded in the conflict,
particularly as the prongs of a hayfork, which Hall used to
keg p in his bedroom, were Mond near him newly broken
from the shaf,, ami covered with blood; but neither the shaft
nor any other instrument nhidi had been used in the murders
could he :liscoveriol. The various scuba in the bodies seemed
to have been inflicted by such a knife as hoteliers use in
slaughtering cattle ; and, from some circumstances, it is sup-
posed that when the murders had been completed, the de-
linquents proceeded to minimise the house in search of mo-
ney and oilier valuables, as there were fotind upon the bed
where flail hail shpt, a tea pot containing two 101. notes, and
jest by the test-pot one other 101. note,and scattered upon the
tloor, near the body, seven suing as in gold, and several silver
table and tea--ponds : but that, soddenly alarmed by the songs
and shouts of some persons who were returning try Hall's
house from a harvest simper, between 11 and 12 o'clock in
toe night of the .ders, the barbarians instantly extinguished
their light, and ilecanieejl without their plunder.
At present no clue has been found to trace the perpetra-
tors id this unparallelled outrage upon domestic security
in the sites, boor of sleep. The coroner's inquest is therefore
adjoiti ucd ; and it is to he hoped that such means Will be im-
mediately used us may lead to a spi•eity detection of the of-
Gliders. Every person who regards his ono life and safety.,
and who resides at or in the vicinity of Thedillethorpe, should
exert bin-elf in order to discover nity one who may have
been recently wounded, or whose clothes may hove been
marked with blood toidar suspicious circumstances, and make
partimilar inquiries as to the cause of sec le wound or mark.
A dog whieli Mr. Hall kept in his house in the night time,
of a let•iviirus temper, Was fuueul ashen the discoverers of the
murder entered, licking op the blood from the floor below;
what h souiew hat 11.11411 kettle, the dog was not but t, which
hidoee. a siispicimi shut he either knew the 1111 l rilerers, or by
some artifire eras 'pouted by Mein ; otherwise, in all Pro bas
bility, he would have *tin( !.eel, and colt, r lease rept:lied, or
bet Is killed ty them.

- A man who was apprehend...al at Louth, upon sttapieion of Praying
perpetrated the horrid murders at Theddlethoepe, was skin to the
latter Oar- on Saturday se'nnight, and the Niagistrate aut.:lliad there
to obtain all the evidence po.oble. The bodies of the unfortunate
wietinis were interred at Theddletlnpe, the same day, after which
solemnity a most impressive discourse Wits delivered by the Rev. S.
Watit. The man was to undergo another examination bet Ore the
hlagi,tratcs at Louth, on the Wet inst. The country is all alive to
discover the perpetrators of the murders
itOJIIIERY.On or about the 27th of Sept. a young man named
Henry Boonaparte Orger. who lived servant with Mr. Liked!. of
West Smithfield, abocunded with 6281. the property of his employer.
Information of the robbery was given to God; the o!ficer of Unatti-
hall, who inimediately set out in search of the thief, from which he
returned on Thu:-.llv, having succeeded in tracing him to l'aris,
where, at the house ()Nile British ambassador, Go:TS:LW a letter which
bad just been receivo4 from Orger, stating that he had been robbed
by an historian who lodged in the same house. with hint, who had
broken oven his trunk, and plundered it of 5301. and praying the aid
wf the police for the recovery of his property.. This letter enabled 1
Got/ to trace Orger to his lodgings, where, on inquiry, he found that
the thief 1144 really been plundered ; but it appeared that he had also
been informed of Goes intendedvisit, and hail again absconded.—
GaX trawl Litt to flavre de Grace, and then learned that only a few
hours before Orger had embarked on board a vessel which had sailed
Lie Aa.-riea.
The spring tide, was extremely high on many parts of the coast,
firth on Saturday and Sunday se'nnighte but more partieuktrly in the
afternoon of the latter day. its natural height on the north eastern
coast was considerably augmented by a strong wind ('rent several
points in succesdon from the wes.tward to the eastwanl of North, anti
the effect was • tremendously heavy sea, which broke with: raging
widen against the cliffs, and over the embankments, uniting, in
ID ory places unoppoied to its fury, its whitened surge with the very
verge of toe Lod. Front the precautions previously taken, we do
not yet learn that any damage has lwen sustained on the Kentish
coast, although fun the quaritil of wreckage driven on the shore,
it is feared NOM.: worth has lawn lost at sw. The water, of the
Thant a and Medway were also much ineveased from the impulse of
the thrive winds, which, seed ing fryer the gvai northern ocean. hi:rig
Stich a body of water, that the ilicrownons of the straits of Dover,
with the head of sea kept on in the 'henna] below by the inclination
d the wind to the west, will not le'an't efflux :it consequently
...Xdo along thd north-east cuaa, and influences the height of the