The Sun.
London, England, 1837-10-07 00:00:00

MIDDLESEX SESSIONS.

Yesterday, James Bardell, Joseph Bardell, and Martin
Sanderson, were indicted for taking illegal possession of a
turnpike-gate, and holding the same open while persons
passed through who had not paid toll. In a second count
they were charged with assaulting Thomas Shepherd, the
collector of tolls at that gate. Several witnesses were exa-
mined, and various conflicting statements made. The
Chairman then summed up, and the Jury returned a ver-
dict of Guilty of an assault against James Bardell, and at-
quitt ql Joseph Bardell and Sanderson. The Court sen-
tenced James Bardell to pay a fine of 1.5/. to the Queen.
The money was immediately paid.
John Per tins, indicted with Robert Filcher, surrendered
to take his trial on a charge of keeping a common gaming-
house in the parish of St. James, Westminster. The pro-
secutor, Yusef, as usually happens in cases of this kind,
did not appear when called upon. -
The defendant was of course acquitted.

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.

MANSION-HO USE.

On Tuesday morning, as. City policeman Darlingson, No.
11, was passing along near Bishopsgate Church, he saw
three men, Smith, Connor, and Hatton, issue from the porch
of the church at half-past nine o'clock, one of them carry-
ing a bag with apparently heavy contents. The man thus
occupied was assistant to the grave-digger of that dense
parish, and the officer, suspecting that they might have
been visiting somebody who required no further ceremony
of the kind, followed them. Smith, who carried the bag,
turued down Artillery-lane, covered by the other two,
wheeled into the premises of a plumber, and, throwing
down his bag, pulled out a quantity of coffin lead and
offered it for sale. The officer immediately seized the lead
and secured the prisoners, and an investigation was instantly
made at the church by Mr. Smart, the vestry-clerk, In-
spntor M‘Lean, and the churchwardens, and the following
facts were detailed.

Fletcher, the gravedigger, has been employed not only
to dig the graves but to toll the evening bell and to clean
out the porch, for the purpose of performing which offices
he had been entrusted with the keys of the outer church-
door on Monday, which keys ought to have been in the
custody of the sexton. The prisoners had not only availed
themselves of those keys to visit the church, but had de-
scended into the deep vaults under the church, and, after
tying encountered vast difficulties, succeeded in effecting
a passage into another vault, and removing two leaden cof-
fins piecemeal from the shells in which the ashes of two
parishioners—one of whom had died nearly fourteen years
ago—were deposited. Upon close examination, Mr. Smart
and the inspector observed that the clay had been recently
disturbed, and in a distant part of the large vault they ob-
served a flap door, from which the staple had been drawn,
and near which lay a spade. Upon raising up the flap they
perceived a stone of immense size, which it is evident had
been lately disturbed, and, with the assistance of other per-
sons (four being necessary to displace so great a weight),
they pushed it aside. They then discovered an aperture,
from which much earth appeared to have been taken, and
on one side was a brick wall, through which had been
broken a bole, large enough to admit a full-grown man.
Through that hole they passed, and from thence descended
into a vault, six feet deep, by a flight of steps. They were
then amongst the leaden coffins, and they soon saw that
two had been taken away. It appeared to them that the
lead had been pplled off from time to time, and hidden in
different parts of the adjacent earth, until opportunities
occurred of removing it, without causing suspicion, from
the hiding place.
Mr. Smart then went to examine the lead found upon
the prisoners. It had been folded and packed together
with great strength and care, and the prisoners stated that
they had found it in the ground of another church, but upon
being unfolded it presented the same of an old inhabitant
of Bishopscrate, who had lain in the vault which had been
just visited upwards of fourteen years. The weight was
Albs. Mr. Smart believed the gravedigger who employed
the prisoners was employ ed in other churchyards.
The Loan MAYOR—liave you not, in so large a pa-
rish as Bishopsgate, a gravedigger of your own ? Mr.
Smart—No. The sexton employs a gravedigger, and the
gravedigger, the moment he heard that these men were in
custody, ran away.

The Loin MiYoft—Fellows who could do as these have
donc:would steal any thing. If they could get any thing for
the bodies they would not hesitate about pulling them out.
Mr. Smart—lt must haVe been a most desperate job.
The lead had evidently been buried in the earth, but it
had been freshly cut, so that they must hare taken the
coffins away in many pieces. It was the most systematic
of robberies. The policeman found a jemmy, or crow-bar
near the spot.
The LORD M A YOR—I trust that this abominable plan
of burying in churches will give place to the practice of
burying in cemeteries, where nothing of this kind can
happen.—Remanded.