The Sun.
London, England, 1839-10-07 00:00:00

MOON,. MONDAY 5 OCTOBER 7, i 839.

MURDER OF A WOMAN BY HER
HUSBAND AND SUICIDE OFTHE MURDERER.

It this week falls to our lot to I.ly before our readers
the details of one of the most distressing and shocking
occurrences which is to be found in the annals of crime,
an occurrence, the bare thought of which cannot but
impart a feeling of terror and dismay to every mind.
As soon as we heard of the circumstance, we took pains
to obtain the fullest particulars of the barbarous and
hloody tragedy.

On Thursday evening last, the villages of Rufford
and Tarleton, and the neighbourhood, were thrown into
a state of intense dread and consternation, by the
report that a man, named Robert Dawson, a labourer,
in the employ of Sir T. D. Hesketh, Bart., of Rufford
Hall, had murdered his wife, Phoebe Dawson, and had
afterwards put an end to his own existence, The report
unhappily, proved too true, as the following circum-
stantial particulars of the tragical event will show. The
wretched man resided with his wife and five of his chil-
dren, in a cottage, in the hamlet of Holmes Wood, in
the parish of Rufford, about twelve miles from Preston.
On the evening in question, Dawson came home about
nine o'clock when his wife was undressed, preparing
to go to bed, all the children at home being at the
time asleep, in a bed adjoining the one in which Daw-
son and his wife usually slept. He inquired for some
senna, which he bad requested her to send for to
Ormskirk, by a neighbour, and on her acquainting him
that she had forgotten to send for it, high words, and
ultimately a violent quarrel ensued. From the appear-
ance of the wounds, and other circumstances, it is
highly probable that there had been, on the part of
the wife, a stout resistance, and that a severe struggle
took place, before the wretched murderer accomplished
his horrid purpose. It is most likely, indeed, that they
had been quarrelling, and perhaps fighting, for some
time, and that the husband had somewhat gradually
worked himself up to a state of infuriated rage, nothing
short of madness. The children were awakened by the
scuffle, and they gave an alarm, when a sister of the
murderer entered the house, followed immediately by
other persons, relations and neighbours of the deceased.
When these persons entered, which was about half-pest
nine o'clock, they were affrighted by the horid spectacle
of both the husband and wife walking about
in the kitchen or " house" with their throats
cut. Dawson, alarmed, it is supposed, at
his wife's approaching end, and his own wound
not being sufficiently deep to cause death,
escaped during the consternation and went immediately
and hanged himself in the shippon adjoining the house,
with a cow-tie. When Mr. Barron, surgeon, of Tarle-
ton, arrived shortly afterwards, the woman was not
quite dead. She was perfectly sensible, knew her rela-
tions and friends, and told her mother that the quarrel
was simply on account of her not having sent for the
medicine to Ormskirk. The poor creature asked for
something to drink, and some water was given to her,
but as not only the windpipe was cut, but also the
passage to the stomach opened, the water ran
out of the aperture down ber neck. The bed
on which she lay was completely saturated
with blood, and there were several cuts on her chin,
and on the lower part of her throat, inflicted, it is
supposed, in the course of the struggle, and before the
mortal wound was given. Her right eye was also black,
and much swollen, as if from a blow. Search being
made for Dawson, the miserable man was -found sus
pended in the outhouse, as already mentioned, and
quite dead. The age of the man was about thirty-seven,
and that of his ill-fated wife about forty. They have left
behind them seven children, the eldest of whoa► is a girl
about sixteen years old, and the age of the youngest child
is about eighteen months. The unfortunate women was
at the time in a state of pregnancy. They had resided all
their lives in the neighbourhood, the father and mother
of Dawson occupying a farm near the cottage in which
the appalling tragedy occurred. Dawson has also five
brothers, and two sisters. The mother of the murdered
woman lives in the neighbourhood, and she has left six
brothers and three sisters. Her father (whose name was
Caunce) was killed about two years ago at Rufford, by
falling from a cart. The unfortunate couple had pre-
viously borne good characters, and she is spoken of by
her neighbours as having been a woman of a very
wild and patient disposition. Dawson was a favourite
servant with Sir T. D. Hesketh, Bart., as a preeaf
of which, we may state, that when, a short time
ago, he was sick, he was visited by the worthy Ba-
ronet, and although he had an allowance from an Odd
Fellows' Society, of which he was a member, Sir
Thomas kindly paid him his wages during the whole
period of his sickness. He was an active member of
the Wesleyan Methodists' Society, and had frequent
prayer meetings at his house. He had also been,
for about two year!, a member of a temperance so-
ciety. They had, as his wife had recently asserted
to a friend, lived very comfortably for the last six or
seven years ; but we are informed that at the early
period of their matrimonial career they had frequent
Quarrels, and were supposed to live very unhappily.

The neighbours do not speak of the murderer as having
be.-n a passionate man, nor was he at any time subject
to inso. nity or melancholy. An inquest will be held on
the bodies this day at Mr.Worthi.:gton's. Hesketh Arms,

R,4ord, before Al r.Palmer,Coroner. We:understand that
the bodies of the ill-f.ted pair are to beinterred on Sun:lay
next at Ruffird. The transaction, as may be well
iina;:ined, has excited an intensely painful sensation
throughout the whole neighbourhood, and scarcely any-
else is talked about.

Next week we shall l,y before our readers any further
particulars of the melancholy affair which may transpire
at the inqu,,st, or that we may learn from other sourcs.
-;--Preston Chronicle.

WESTERN WAGGERIES.

(JUST IMPORTED BY THE GREAT WESTERN STEAMER.)

AN UNDOUBTED FACT.—" Mrs. Hopkins told m,e
that she heard Green's wife say, that John Glacrie s
wife told her, that Fanny Hopkins heard the widow
Basham say, that Captain Weed's wife thought Colonel
Hodgin's sister believed that old Miss Quint reckoned
that Mrs. Samuel Dunham had told Spalding's wife
that she heard John Fink's daughter sav, that her
mother told her, that old Miss Jenks heard Grandfather
Cook declare that it was an undoubted fact."
VERY EXTRAORDINARY.—Our citizens have of late
become celebrated for absenc,, of mind, but the follow-
ing instance from the Boston Tomahawk shoots far
a head of all that went before it Mr. —, an
attorney, residing in this town, being requested to ap-
pear as nominal plaintiff in a matter in which he
among others was interested, owing to some unaccount-
able absence of mind, brought the action against him-
self, and never discovered his mistake till after he had
compelled himself to pay damages, issued execution
against, and actually incarcerated himself for not paying
his own costs."
PUFF SINGULAR.—" REFECTORY ON THE GREAT
WESTERN PLAN.—Luscomb and Sanborn opened rich
on Monday, with venison, turtle, terrapins, woodcock,
snipe, canvass backs, trout, and a variety of other little
notions ; together with an imperial sirloin of roast beef
and a most illustrious corned rump, to say nothing of the
i drinkables, in a gorgeous saloon, after the fashion of
the cabin of the Great Western ; and a small back
; room, for the exclusive accommodation of 4 noble swell-
; ing souls. There is no mistake at the Cornucopia,
28; Park row."

PUFF PLURAL._### A. correspondent grumbles at
paying Nolan, at the Tunnell, Yorkville, 50 cents. a
bottle for porter, which he calls " Philadelphia porter,
and bad porter, too." Serves him right. Let
him stay down town, and drink Ned Jones's at 25 cents.
Or, if he wishes to drink the pure stuff at home, let
him send an order to Jack Hunt's porter cellar, 123
Chapel (at Jack's), where it can be bought for 10s. a
dozen." _ _

~V
CAUTION.
Captain Gideon S. Holmes, of Boston,
was going by the railroad yesterday afternoon to Pro-
vidence to take command of the brig Levant, and in
looking out of the car window the railing of Neponsent-
bridge caught his head a whack that nearly knocked it
off his shoulders ! He was taken from the cars at the
next station, and Dr. Abbott bled him, but he continued
insensible ; and in that condition he was brought home
in all probability to die. The railroad bridges are no;
wide enough, and never were ; but when alluding to the
peril caused by this circumstance, a director sharply de-
manded What right have people to put their heads out
of car windows ?' This was a poser. We shut pan,
and said nothing."
CAPITAL IDEA !—The Chicago Sentinel says the
fever and ague malady is getting so ahead down there
that the settlers are going to turn its movements to
some useful purpose. It has been estimated that 12
men in the paroxysm shake sufficiently to propel a boat
of 100 tons. If this is correct, the days of steam are
numbered.
LIBERTY OF THE Patss.--The last Darien (Georgia)
Telegraph contains the following mysterious announce-
ment :—.‘ It is with mortified feelings that we have
to announce to our readers that we will discontinue
the publication of the Darien Telegraph. for the pre-
sent. Our friends may be assured that it is no slight
cause that leads to this course. When we say if we do
not do so, our house will be burned—our helpless in-
nocent children and beloved wife murdered—and the
few gallant friends we have sacrificed—and property
would be destroyed in the city, that fifty years
would not replace—we say the truth. But enough at
present."

On Friday morning an accident occurred in the
New-road, St. Marylebone, to a poor boy named James
Riley, residing in Mary-street, Hampstead-road, who
imprudently got up behind a chariot that had spikes
affixed to it, and in endeavouring to get down his foot
slipped, and three of the spikes perforated his stornaeb.
THE TYPOTACE.—The Bordeaux papers men-
tion that a young sculptor of that city had discovered a
method of taking casts of the human face, which,
without requiring that the features should be reduced
to a state of perfect rigidity, allows them to preserve
all their natural play, and thus produces an exact re-
semblance with the animation of lite. His name is
Pellet, and he designates his apparatus the Typoface.

DUTCH PAPERS.

THE HELDER, OCT. 1.--The Sardinian corvette,
Aguila, Capt. Millire, his Majesty's frigate Beilona,
Capt. Geesteranus, bound for the East Indies, and the
biigs Mercury and Snelheid, hound for the West Indies,
left the roads this morning with a good wind. A great
number of merchantmen sailed at the same time-

M. Van Eb is appointed Governor ot the cost ot
Guinea, with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel, in the
room of M. Bos, who at his own request has been ho-
nourably discharged from that post.
THE HAGUE, OCT. 3.—Hi; Highness the Prince of
Chimay is expected here every moment, as Belgian
Ambassador.

About a year ago it was proposed to the Minister of
the Coionies to bore Artesian wells on the coast of
Guinea to look for good fresh water, which is very
scarce in many parts of our possessions, without any
measures having been taken to remedy this evil. This
proposal has likewise in view to obtain some knowledge
of the geology of the country, and at the same time to
look for gold, which there is much reason to expect will
be found. This proposal, which we hear has been
approved by his Majesty, will be probably carried into
execution, and it will be considered whether it may be
necessary to execute similar operations in our other
transmarine possessions. _

We learn that the telegraphs in this country are to
be pulled down, and preserved, in order that this mode
of communication may be again employed, if necessary.
The persons employed in that service are to have pen-
sions assigned them.
The market to-day has been extremely unfavourable
to our own funds. At first they were at the same
prices as yesterday, but the eagerness of the sellers soon
caused them to fall. The greatest decline was in the
Four-and-a-Half per Cents. Amort. Synd. The shares
of the Commercial Company were offered in consider-
able quantities, but in general little business was done.
Spanish, notwithstanding the better quotations from
Antwerp and Paris, could not remain at yesterday's
prices, on account of the numerous sales, as it appeared
for English account, which caused them to fall to 27*
a being about lower than yesterday.—Dutch
Paper, Oct. 5.
ST. PETERSBURG, SEPT.23.—His Majesty the Em-
peror arrived, on the 10th of September, at Moscow,
where he was received by the joyful acclamations of
the citizens.

`El...t.i lAN k UN DS—BRussi.Ls, OCT. I
actual Debt, 24, per Cent
Botlischild's Loan, 5 per Cent. l,'l
Loan of Thirty Million,,, 4 pefCent.
3 per Cent. 7l
Loan of City, 1832, 4 per Cent O5
Society of Commerce, 4.,., per Cent lO9
Bank of Belgium, 5 per Cent 7414
National Society .
Brussels Papers, Oct. 4.
DUTCH FUNDS.—AMSTERDAM, Our. 4
Money. Mills.
ac,,,' liebt, 2X4 per Cent
Ditto, ditto 5 per cent.
...or r .iodic, 43 per cent......
Ditto, ditto, 3X4 per cent —
Commercial Company, 4'., per cent 173 171
Ditto (1332 and 1833) 5 per teat.
Ditto 1837. 5 per cent.
Loan 1637, 5 I,er cent. • OS• 9914
Exchange on London, One month l2
Two months
—Dutch Papers, Oct. 4.
tat.TRIAN FUNDS.—ViEsusfa, SEPT 25
five per Cents. Metalliques
Eater per Cents
Three per Conti..
P, ,: nk Shares
—4ll;emeine Zestung, Sept. '0
PRUSSIAN FUNDS.—BERLIN, Our. 1.
--

-..---...... . _
litils. Money.
St. Schuld. Sch., 4,. per cent it:S9i 103
Prussian F:ngiish Loan, 1830, 4 per cent. ;11•27/8 )1,2••
Ito:change on London, three unorittis 6 2UN, -
-Prussian State Gazette, 61st 2.

WEATHER IN DUBLIN.-It rained torrents
from about four o'clock this morning ( Wednesday) until
nine. The weather then took up, and the remainder of
the day has been exceedingly propitious—a bright sun
and a cluing breeze.—Thursday.—The weather con-
tinues, on the whole, good—the weather-vane has been
running about like a Tory trimmer—and the weather-
glass has been going back-and-forwards, like a carriage
n a railroad. There is nothing like stability; or that
promises consistency in appearances. On the whole,
however, we should repeat,good.—Dublin Evening Post.

The anniversary of the Wesleyan Chaptei, at
Maulden, was held on Sunday last. Mr. Lambert, of
Leighton, preached. To accommodate the congrega-
tion, a temporary gallery was erected, which came down
with a teirible crash, during the afternoon service.
The scene that followed is indescribable—some were
tren crawling out of the windows, and pulling others
a'ter them. One man had his head fearfully hurt. with
a nail, which laid his scalp completely open. We are
happy to say he is rapidly recovering. Many others
were hurt slightly.—Hertford Reformer.
Mr FLTLWAR CRAVEN.—This gentleman, who
is a Magistrate for the counties of Gloucester, Wilts,
and Berks, appeared on the bench, at Cheltenham, a
few days since (where he attended in his magisterial
capacity !!) to answer a charge preferred against him by
two policemen, for being in a state of intoxication near
the Plough Hotel, at about one o'clock on Saturday
morning, and also for swearing and using profane lan-
guage to some girls who were parading the street at,
that unseasonable hour of the night. A similar com-
plaint was made against. N. T. Morton, Esq. The facts
were clearly proved. When the policeman persuaded
the girls to go house, Mr. Craven (it appeared) asked
the policeman if he knew who he was? and being an-
swered in the affirmative, Mr. Craven said, " I have not
been on the bench lately, but I shall soon be there
again, and teach you policemen what is your duty. My
reason for not attending more frequently is, that I ant
too respectable to sit among the rest of the :'Magistrates,
and therefore I have cut the connection. He then said
he did not care a d— for the Magistrates, or for the
police. After some very boisterous proceedings, Mr.
Fulwar Craven was called upon by his brother Magis-
trates to know whether he meant to reply to the charge,
when he rema-ked that he was rather fresh at the time,
having been drinking wine with some friends ; and spoke
in strong terms of the brutality of the policemen. I
was (he said) dragged through the public streets by
main force, like a convicted felon, and during my way to
prison lost one of my shoes in the mud ; and on my
telling the policeman of my loss, he replied, Oh, never
mind your shoe ; you can afford to buy another, it you
have lost that." The policeman replied that no vio-
lence was used towards either of the defendants, but
they were taken in the same manner that all other drun-
ken persons were. He denied that Mr. Craven lost
his shoe, though he stated he had, having them both on
when he arrived at the station-house. The story about
the shoe was no doubt a deep trick or stratagem on the
part of Mr. Craven to induce the mob to release him,
as he stooped down, apparently in the act of looking for
that which was on his foot. The def.,ndants were fined
ss. each and costs, which they paid, and then left the
office.

Sir James Graham has been figuring off across
the border, amongst the descendants of those whom
Lord John Scott declares to have been the " most ho-
courable thieves in the world ;" and, as is usual with
him, contrived to turn a festive and social meeting into
an arena for the discussion of the dirtiest of party po-
litics, and the exhibition of his own spleen and disap-
pointment. It was intimated before the dinner took
place that polities were not to be introduced, and the
Duke himself, in returning thanks for the honour which
had been done him, said, " This is not a political
meeting—we have nothing to do with that." After
this, good taste would have dictated the most scrupu-
lous avoidance of all topics of a political tendmcy—
especially all mere party politics—and still more espe-
cially the slightest allusion to local and family party po-
lities. But no ;in season and out of season, at bed and
at board, sleeping and waking, at church and at market,
fair day and foul, the uppermost thing in Sir Jatne-
Graham's mind is to prove the closeness of his adhet
rence to his new creed of Toryism, and his presen-
devotion to the men to whom, and to whose prins
ciples, he had all his previous life been opposed.
Might there not also be another motive for his dabbling
in the foul waters of the Slitrigg? This is not
the first time he has rendered himself " odorous"
by wading in that dirty stream. His " cock-
shy" at the voters of Hawick at the commencement
of Session 1839 has not been forgotten, nor does he
forget the drubbing he received on that occasion in the
House of Commons. In the halls of the " bold Buc
cleuch," he was not likely to find a Mr. Elliot to con-
fute and confound him ; and yetc he was almost within
speaking distance of Mr. Elliot 's residence. He could
therefore kill two birds at one " cockshy"—a feat which
he failed to perform with the " snow-balls" which he
complained of having been thrown at the Sheriff of
Hayrick—and the opportunity for displaying such a feat
of dexterity was not to be lost. His abasement before
the shrine of Toryism could be exhibited before one of
the richest, if not the wisest, of its high priests, and a
political opponent, once a warm friend, could be vilified,
in a place where he had no opportunity of reply ; and
Sir James could not bring himself to refrain from the
indulgence of his morbid appetite for pleasing his new
allies, and kicking, however impotently, at his old friends.
—Carlisle 'Journal.
SERIOUS FRACAS.—Between one and two
o'clock on Friday morning an altercation ensued at the
Albion Tavern, Great Russell-street Covent-garden,
between Captain M'Neal and two gentlemen, said to
be officers in the army, but whose names have not been
allowed to transpire, which terminated in blows being
struck by each party, and during the contest Captain
M'Neal was thrown over the bannisters down the well
of the staircase, and sustained a severe fracture of his
right leg. He was conveyed in a cab to Charing-cross
Hospital. The cause of contention was a lady.
WALSALL.—With all the power of some of
the most influential Tories in Staffordshire opposed to
them, the independent electors of Walsall have ma-
naged by their energy and perseverance to obtain a
majority of 40 on this year's register. Such a result
ensures the re-election of Mr. Finch by a
majority of
from 60 to 80, let the election come when it may. And
' here we find another subject for congratulation ; for,
certainly, if ever a member deserved favour from a
constituency, it is the honourable gentleman who re-
presents the borough of Walsall.—Staffordshire
L.ra miner.

THE WEATHER AND THE 11ARVEsT..Some
slight interruption to the fine weather recently enjoyed
in the neighbourhood of London, has been experienced.
The quantity of rain, however, that has fallen is not
considerable. Friday was the worst
intelligence day we have had.
Our accounts from the country bring but slight ac-
cession to the harvest which has already
appeared in our columns. They are conflicting. In
some parts of England the crops, it is said, will give
more than an average quantity, whilst from Yorkshire,
Herefordshire, Lancashire, Cornwall, &c., Etc., the con-
dition and quantity of the corn are both indifferent.
The weather in many parts of England is reported
" changeable"—the fine days being few and far between.
This must operate injuriously on such crops as are not
gathered, as well as on those that are not yet cut, for
there still stands corn uncut. From Scotland and Ire-
land, we learn that the weather, though of a changeable
character, on the whole is pretty good. Admitting the
great difficulty of stating the exact condition of the
crops,. and of calculating the general result in produce
of the harvest throughout the kingdom, we think that
one fact alone is certain, and beyond all doubt—that
the harvest will turn out a bad one—to what extent we
pretend not to determine, or even to hazard a guess.
The first exportation of wheat and oats for the
English and Scotch market, this season, has been made
from our port, viz., to Liverpool and Glasgovr.—Lime-
riok Chronicle.