The Sun.
London, England, 1862-03-14 00:00:00

SUN, LONDON; FRIDAY EVENING, MARCH 14, 1862.

ASSIZE 1141TELLIGEACE.

HOME CIRCUIT.—CHELMSFORD, March 13.
CROWN COURT.
(Before Mr. Justice Erle.)
MURDER.
Rebecca Law, 24, described as of no occupation,
was indicted for the wilful murder of her husband,
Samuel Law, by chopping him on the head with a
wood chopper. She was also charged with the wil-
ful murder of Alfred Law, her child, 16 weeks old,
by beating it on the head with a hammer.
The wretched prisoner appeared in a dreadful
state of exhaustion and distress when she was
placed at the bar, and she was evidently hardly
conscious of what was going forward. When she
was called upon to plead she hesitated for some
time, and at first seemed inclined to say that she
was guilty, but eventually a plea of not guilty was
taken.

Through the kind interference of Mr. S. S.
Lescher, the high sheriff of -the county, she was de-
fended by Mr. Ribton ; the prosecution was con-
ducted by Mr. Walford and Mr. Philbrick.
The learned counsel for the prosecution, in open-
ing the case, said the facts lay in a very, narrow
compass, and he was afraid that when the Jury had
heard the evidence that would be laid before them,
they would not entertain the slightest doubt that
the prisoner had destroyed both her husband and
child, and the only question that, in the result,
they would have to dispose of would be whether at
the time the fearful act was committed she was in
such a state of mind as to render her criminally
responsible.
The witnesses for the prosecution were then ex-
amined, and the facts disclosed were undoubtedly of
the most painful and distressing character. It ap-
peared that the deceased, at the time he met his
death, was about 28 years of age, and he and the
prisoner had been married seven years, and four
children were the result of their union. When the
melancholy affair took place two children only sur-
vived, one aged 16 weeks, and the other about six
years. The husband was a labouring man, and he
and the prisoner and the two children oceupied a
miserable cottage at Clavering, near Saffron Wal-
den. It seemed that the unfortunate man was fre-
quently out of work, and the family were in a state
of great distress, and it appeared that in December
of last year the husband was convicted of breaking
a gate, probably to be used for fuel, For this
offence he was fined 10s. by the magistrate, and in
default of payment was committed to Hertford Gaol
for a month, and the consequence of this conviction
was that the prisoner and her two children were
sent to the union workhouse. The term of im-
prisonment to which the husband had been sen-
tenced expired on the 10th of January, and it
appeared that on the 12th the deceased went to
the union workhouse and took the prisoner and his
children away from that establishment. On the
same day they proceeded to the cottage of the father
and mother of the deceased, and had their dinner,
and in the same afternoon the prisoner, the children
and the deceased proceeded to their own wretched
home, and the latter was never again seen alive.
This was, as above stated, on the afternoon of the
12th of January, but the exact time when the fear-
ful deeds were committed by the prisoner—although
it is conjectured they must have occurred at a late
hour on the following night, the 13th, and that
very probably the attack was made upon the hus-
band while he was asleep—has not been ascertained.
The first thing that was seen of the prisoner after-
wards was between one and two o'clock on the
morning of the 14th of January, when she made
her appearance at the house of her own mother,
who occupied a cottage in a village called Langley,
a few miles from Clavering, carrying in her arms
her eldest child, She was covered with blood, and
in a most distressed and excited condition. It
should be stated that on the day when the deceased
fetched the prisoner and the children from the
union, while they were at the house of the father
of the deceased, he read some portions of the Bible
to the prisoner, and made some reference to that
portion of the Holy Scriptures in which the devil
was represented to have tempted our Saviour, and
the prisoner made use at that time of the expression
that " the devil frequently tempted people to cut
their throats, and that he had tempted her is that
manner, and she should cut her own throat or her
husband's before long." Having aroused her
mother when let in, the prisoner exclaimed, "Oh,
dear mother, some one has broke into the cottage,
and has cut poor Sam all to pieces, and a cart came
by, and I got into it and got away." The prisoner
was put to bed by her mother, but she continued in
a very excited condition, and after a short time
had elapsed she addressed her mother, and said,
" Dear mother, do you wish to know what I
done it with ? if
,you did you would tear the
hair off my head.' She continued raving and
talking in a most incoherent manner, and among
other observations she made use of was one that she
wished her mother had killed her when she was
born, and said if she had done so, it would have
been much better for her. The mother asked her
what had become of the baby, and she replied that
she had killed it, and she only wished she was as
sure of going to heaven as that child was.
Mr. W. H. Codlin, a tradesman at Newport, near
Clavering, deposed that upon receiving information
of the prisoner's conduct at her mother's house, he
proceeded to her cottage at Clavering, and arrived
there about 9 o'clock on the morning of the 14th of
January. The first thing he heard upon entering
the cottage was a child crying, and upon going
into the lower room he observed a large quantity
of blood, which appeared to have flowed completely
through the floor and the ceiling of the upper room.
Upon going up stairs he saw the marks of several
bloody footsteps, as though some person had been
walking about from one room to the other. When
he entered the bedroom he saw the body of the
deceased lying extended on the floor, with the feet
partly under the bed, and he observed that there were
a great number of deep gashes upon his head and
face, 50 at least in number, and he was quite dead
and cold. The room was dark, and he felt for the
child and found it lying on the bed, and at that
time it was alive. Having wrapped .up the body
of the child, he returned to the house of the pri-
soner's mother at Langley, and found her still there.
When she saw him, she laid hold of his hand, and
burst into tears, and said, " Poor dear Sam is gone,
ain't he ?" Witness made her no answer at that
time, as there were a good many people about and
the prisoner was in a very excited state, and he
procured a vehicle, in order to convey her to New-
port and place her in the charge of the police. As
tney were going along, the 'prisoner address, d him
and said, " Poor Sam is gone ?" and witness replied,
" Yes, he is." The prisoner then put the question,
"And the child too ?', and he said that it was. The
prisoner then said, "Yes, I hit the child on the
head with a hammer, and poor Sam, while he laid
lasleep, I took a chopper and hit him across the
head; and when I hit him, oh dear, how he
'scrunched' up his shoulders, and I splashed on to
him as hard as I could, and he struggled about very
much. All the time I was hitting him what a noise
there was on the stair; they kept on blundering up
and down stairs." Witness asked her who she meant
was blundering up and down stairs, and she replied
" The devil, but I was not afraid, for I stopped in
the house an hour and a half after it, and then I
went upstairs again, took hold of his arm, and said,
' Poor dear Sam, do you know me ?' He made a
kind of a groan, and, oh dear, how I did splash on
to him again." The prisoner afterwards said, " I
saw this murder committed' two or three months
ago. I saw it as plain as I saw it last night, and I
heard his shrieks and cries, but I did not think I
had got to do it." As they were proceeding on their
journey the prisoner again addressed him, and said,
" I left my cottage about 12 o'clock at night. I went
through the fields and thrtragh the wood, and took
my other child with me. I looked at a good many
places to try to find a place to drown it, and when
I. found a place I thought that if I threw it into the
water some one might hear its shrieks and cries."
,Witness then said to her that he wondered she did
not drown herself; and she replied, " I intended to
do so, but I thought that if I had but one
day out of hell—but one day out of torment, it
would be betterifor me." The prisoner made the
same statement several times as they were going
along, and she also told him that her husband had
used her very ill, and that he had told her that if
she should die, and he had another wife, he should
treat that wife much better than ho did her.
Mr. Robinson, a surgeon residing at Newport,
proved the dreadful nature of the injuries that were
received by deceased, and also that they were all of
At character likely to have been inflicted by a wood-
chopper that was produced, and which was found in
prisoner's cottage, covered with blood, on the morn-
log after the dreadful occurrence. The child's death,
it appeared, had been occasioned by a blow from a
blunt instrument such as a hammer. This gentle-
man also proved that he attended the prisoner
professionally after her confinement with the
deceased child, and that she was, from cer-
tain causes, suffering from great exhaustion and
weakness, and her state was such as to have been
likely to lead to a morbid condition of the brain.
Ile also said that he considered the prisoner was
naturally a woman of weak intellect.
Mr. Walford having intimated that this was all
the evidence he considered it necessary to produce
in support of the prosecution, Mr. Ribton said that
pe believed tie surgeon of the Union, and a clergy-
manehePrisoner while she was in
present, and he should like to
have them examined.
seweenr
e workhouse, who
had
Mr. Justice Erie said that if their evidence was

at all calculated to throw any light upon the con
tion of mind of the prisoner, he thought they ought
by all means to be called as witnesses.
Mr. Walford said he would readily agree to his
lordship's suggestion.
Mr. F. Walsh, medical officer to the Saffron
Walden Union, was then examined, and he stated
that during the period the prisoner's husband was
in gaol, she was under his charge in the workhouse,
and he considered that her mind was deranged, and
that she was subject to delusions to such an extent
that he felt It necessary to place her under some
restraint, and to direct that she should be watched.
Before she left the union she was, getting much
better, but the master of the workhouse would not
allow her to leave the establishment until witness
had giuen a certificate that she was in a lit condi-
tion to do so 4 Sho was getting much better, and
he considered she was likely to recover more rapidly
in her own home than in the union workhouse.
The Rev, Mr, Holdernesse, who had seen the
prisoner while she was in the union, gave similar
evidence, and he also said his ovirn irOptession was
that the mind of the prisoner was 'Very much
deranged.
The learned Judge said it appeared to him that
upon the facts of the ease, and the evidence already
before them, the jury would feel themselves justified
in returning a verdict acquitting the pi isoner on the
ground of insanity, and that it was not necessary for
Mr. Ribton to address them.
The jury expressed themselves perfectly satisfied
with the evidence that had been already adduced,
and they accordingly at once returned a verdict
that the prisoner was not guilty, on the grouhd of
insanity.
A similar verdict was then taken against the pri-
soner upon the second indictment for the murder of
her child, and the learned judge directed that she
should be detained in custody during her Majesty's
pleasure.
The wretched woman, who cried bitterly, and
seemed to be suffering acute mental anguish during
the proceedings, was then removed from the dock by
the turnkeys in an almost unconscious state.

CHILD MURDER.
Eliza Ann Cheverton, 28, a rather good-looking
woman, described as a widow, was indicted for the
wilful murder of her illegitimate child, Emma
verton, by drowning it.
Mr. Pearce and Mr. Martin prosecuted. The
prisoner was defended by Mr. Philbrick.
The jury, after a very-brief deliberation, returned
a verdict of not guilty.
The prisoner was ordered to be discharged.
THE MURDER AT Dum
Henry Eagle, a determined-looking young man,
was charged upon an indictment, and also upon the
coroner's inquisition, with the wilful murder of Jas.
Barber.
Mr. Walford and Mr. Pilbrick tato:united, and
the prisoner was defended by Mr. Woolletf.
The offence imputed to the prisoner was only
committed on last Saturday, and. the facts will be
fresh in the recollection of the public. An applica-
tion was made to the learned judge on Wednesrlay
by the prisoner's counsel that the trial might be
postponed to the summer assizes, but his lordship
said he had looked at the depositions, and did not
see anything in them that appeared to Justify him
ill consenting to the postponement of the case ; but
if the prisoner desired to have an opportunity of
producing witnesses, and made the application on
that ground, he would readily &weed to it. Mr.
Woollett subsequently withdrew his application,
and the trial was consequently proceeded with.
The j ury found the prisoner guiltyof manslaughter,
and he was sentenced to 10 year's penal servitude.

CIVIL SIDE.
(Before Mr. Justice Wightman and a Special Jury.)
SANDERS V. THE EASTERN COUNTIES RAILWAY

COMPANY.
This was an action brought by the plaintiff, who
is an old man engaged in the occupation of a well-
sinker, to recover damages from the defendants for
loss he had sustained by reason of his son being
killed upon their railway, as was alleged through
their negligence.
Mr. Sergeant Shee and Mr. Butler Rigby were
counsel for the plaintiff; and Mr. Bovill, Q.C., and
Mr. Bushby appeared for the company.
.The case on the part of the plaintiff was that on
the night of the 20th Dec. his son was in the act of
crossing a tramway near the Victoria Docks, when
a goods train was shunted upon it without any
notice, and the consequence was that he was
knocked down and killed. The case on behalf of
the company was that the parties shouted loudly to
him, that lights were held up, and every reasonable
precaution taken, but that the deceased walked on
across the lines smoking his pipe, and that the ac-
cident that happened to him arose entirely from his
own want of caution.

The jury returned a verdict for the defendants.

OXFORD CIRCUIT.—STAFFORD, March 13.
CROWN COURT.
(Before Mr. Baron Channel.)

THE GOVERNMENT PROSECUTION OF THE REV. H. S.
FLETCHER.

Horatio Samuel Fletcher, 55, clerk, was arraigned
charged with being then trustee of the several and
respective sums of money hereinafter specified, for a
certain public purpose (that is to say), for the sav-
ings bank at Bilston, did unlawfully, with intent to
defraud, convert and appropriate the sum of £lOO,
on the Ist, Bth, 15th, 22d, and 29th Jan., 1859, all
respectively, and on the 25th March, 1861, to and
for his own use and purpose, in all £6OO.
Mr. Sergeant Pigott and Mr. Dowdeswell were
for the prosecution, and Mr. Matthews was for the
prisoner.
The learned sergeant said that he appeared on
behalf of the Crown officers to prosecute the pri-
soner, and was charged witha serious misappropria-
tion of money which had come into his hands as
officer of the Bilston Savings Bank. Mr. Fletcher
was apparently a person who had gained the con-
fidence of the greater part of the residents of Bil-
ston, and was elected by them to the perpetual
curacy of Bilston some time before the year 1838.
From that time to this Mr, Fletcher had filled the
office of perpetual curate. There was established in
Bilston in the year 1838 a savings bank. In 1839
Mr. Fletcher became trustee of that bank, and, in
the same year, secretary also. In 1848 he became
further the treasurer as well as secretary ; and he
continued to fill the several offices named up to
July, 1861 ; and filling those offices, and not being
subject to the wholesome checks which should have
surrounded him, he was able to commit the irregu-
larities—he was induced to say frauds, but the jury
would have to say if they were—with which he
was now charged. After the 20th of N0v.,1844, the
prisoner received £5O a year.for his services as secre-
tary. It was a part of the prisoner's duty to keep
a deposit book in which the several items deposited
were entered against the names of the respective
depositors, and also to enter the same item in each
depositor's pass book. The deposit bock and the
depositors' pass books must therefore correspond.
It was, however, also necessary that an annual
statement shouldbe made out and' supplied to the
Commissioners for the Reduction of the Notional
Debt, and also pnblished. Fortunately, and as a
further check to the annual returns, the Commis-
sioners for the Reduction of the National Debt
wisely resolved in 1854 to ask—for they could not
compel--the managers of savings banks to furnish
them with a weekly statement of the affairs of the
bank, the last weekly statement to be made up to
the 20th of-November each year. Mr. Fletcher had
conducted the affairs of the hank for 13years without
any practical supervision, no one interfering except
occasionally the name of Mr. Heafleld appeared in
the weekly returns as a witness to their accuracy ;
but that gentleman didnot test their accuracy, taking
it for granted that they were correct as presented
to him. The proceedings were brought net under
the Savings Bank Act, but under the Fraudulent
Trustees Act, because under the Savings Bank Act
he would have to be charged for not having accounted
to the treasurer. Seeing, however, that he was trea-
surer as well as secretary, and that he could not
well be said not to have accounted to himself, he
could not be charged under that act. Fortunately
the Fraudulent Trustees Act, which was of very
recent date, provided for such an emergency, and
made the misappropriation by any trustee of any
property a misdemeanour, an offence with which
Mr. Fletcher was now charged. Matters continued
to be conducted at the Bilston Bank in the loose
manner he had indicated up to April, 1861, the pri•
soner holding the respective offices of trrustee, ma-
nager, secretary or actuary, and treasurer. At that
date a new committee of management was appointed.
Then the discoveries were made. The frauds which
were then brought to light had a double applica-
tion. The deposit ledger and the depositors' pass
books having of necessity to agree, the entries in
those books were correct, but those in the weekly
and annual returns were falsified. The amounts re-
ceived were returned as less than the real amount,
and the amount of outgoings was returned as less,
and in this
propriated. A writ had been served upon Mr.
Fletcher by
way upwards of £B,OOO had been misap•
the trustee and committee of manage-
ment for even a larger sum than had been disco-
vered to have been abstracted, and he had allowed
indgment to go by default, thus confessing his guilt.
Evidence was given by Mr. J. Tidd _Pratt, Mr.
John Hawksford (the present actuary), and the
Rev. J. H. Heafield (the trustee and manager re-
ferred to by Sergeant Pigott)t and it bore out the
opening.
It transpired that a dividend of the value of lls.
had already been paid, that a further dividend of
about 2s. 6d. was already in hand; mad that but for
this prosecution the committee of management had.
hoped to have realised the full 20s. in the pound.
His Lordship remarkedupon the position in which
the committee of management would be placed if it

could be successfully shown that they were attempt-
ing to treat this offence as a civil case.
Mr. Matthews, before addressing the jury, main- I
tained that neither according to the terms of his
appointment as trustee of the bank, under which
he vas treasurer. had the prisoner offended against
the terms of the Fraudulent Trustees Act.
Sergeant Pigott, having to leave for theNisi Prius
Court, the reply devolved upon
Mr. Dowdeswell, who maintained that the pri-
soner in his double capacity of trustee and secretary
was trustee to all intents and purposes.
His Lordship admitted that the case was a very
grave and serious one, and adjourned the case till
the following morning ; in the meantime he would
confer with his brother Crompton.
The prisoner was admitted to bail till the next
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