The Sun.
London, England, 1854-11-11 00:00:00

THE ESSEX MURDER.

-- -
We noticed in 27 Sun of Wednesday last, the murder
of It woman named Hempstead, which Ler husband was
said to have perpetrated. A coroner's inquest has sine.:
been held, before whom several witnesses were examined,
and a verdict of wilful murder against her husband was
found. The following is the evidence of the principal
witnesses :

Thomas Hempstead, son of the prisoner, a lad about
14 years old, who deposed —Aly father is a weaver.
I heard my father go down stairs, without his shoes,
about four o'clock on Saturday. I was awake at
the time, and I asked him what o'clock it was. He
told me five minutes to four. I then went to sleep,
but soon after I heard him go down again. My
sister then called to him about the time, and be
answered her that it was near six. A hammer that was
hung up the previous night in the kitchen we missed that
morning. My sister went into mother's bed-room, and
found my mother dead in the bed. She made an alarm,
and I went in, and I saw wounik on my mother's head.
They looked as if done by a hammer. My father and
mother did not live comfortable together. I have heard
him say several times lie ,tn,uhl itke to wash his hands
in toy mother's blood. [Tice pri,oner here rose and said
in a firm voice, " I beg leave to correct that."] Wit-
ness proceeded—l have often seen him strike her, but I
did not hear them qrarrel on Friday last. I went to
bed before them, about nine o'clock.
Mr. Shepherd here examined the witness, but elicited
nothing particular beyond the evidence given.
Elizabeth Hempstead sworn-1. am the daughter of
the deceased. I heard a . knocking. in my father and
mother's room ; it was a tiull,l.lnd of sound. I heard
my father go down' and I asked him the time, and he
said it was six o'clock. 1 got up and dressed myself by
moonlight, and went down stairs and opened the door,
and by the moonlight I could see what o'clock it was, and
it was but twenty-five minutes past four. I went up to
my mother's bed-room, and found the door ajar. I called
out to my mother, but she did not answer. My brother
told me to shake her, but I said I would not disturb her.
My sister got up and went into the room, and put her
ear to the pillow, and could not hearmy mother breathe.
She they put her hand on her face and on the pillow,
and found it bloody. She cried out, "My mother is
killed." We ran down to our neighbours and got a
light, and entered the room and found our mother dead,
lying on her side in the bed. There was a quantity of
blood on her night-dress and under her hand. My
mother did not appear to have struggled. She looked
as if she were asleep. We could not find the hammer,
which hung up in the kitchen the night before. It was
a large claw hammer. I have often heard my father
and mother quarrelling, but I cannot say what it
was about. It was generally father's fault. I
have not seen him strike her for the last twelve
months, but before that frequently. I was with him
on Friday evening front a quarter-past six until
bedtime. I went to bed just before nine. There had
been no quarrelling that evening, nor did I hear any
during the night. They went to bed at the same
time as I did. We left my brother Isaac at his work in
the middle floor. I have heard my father say several
times " I should like to wash my hands in my wife's
blood." [Prisoner again interrupted, and said, " That
is an incorrect statement ; if von give evidence, give it
correctly."] Witness proceeaed—l. have often heard
my father say he would kill my mother—that he would
catch her when she was asleep.
Examined by Mr. Shepherd—l have often known my
father get up in the night and go out walking about. I
have thought him to appear strange in his manners. My
mother used to think it temper. Sometimes I have
known him to sit half an hour very quiet, but when
mother spoke to him to get him into a good temper he
would burst out in a rage.
By the Coroner—l thought his strangeness nasty
temper.
The Foreman—Did he take beer ?—No, not for the
last two months.

Mr. Shepherd—Did you ever hear your father say
anything about the youngest child ? Did you know him
to dislike it ? • No.

Isaac Hempstead was next sworn. [This was another

son of the prisoner ; his whole air and manner was any-

thing but consistent with the position he occupied.] My
father is a weaver i • my mother was about 49. I was
with them both all day on Friday. They went to bed
about nine. I continued at my work, and went to bed
about eleven. My father had been working for Mr.
Burney, in his garden, the last three weeks. That's all
I have got to say to it.—On being further questioned
by the coroner, he said—l sleep‘in the adjoining room,
and heard my father go down about a quarter past four
o'clock. My sister called out about the time. I heard
her call out to my mother. I heard my other sister
cry out, " Oh, my mother is killed." I then got up and
got a light, and we went into my mother's room and
found her dead in the bod. . (The witness here repeated
what the former witness had said ; and then remarked
again, "That's all I have got to say about it.") On
being further examined by Mr. Shepherd, he said a Mr.
Forster had called on him to talk to his father on Friday
afternoon, and in the course of conversation he had ad-
vised his father that if he had those thoughts come on
again, to go to the doctor and take some medicine. That
he had sudden changes come ever him—sometimes he
would be very fond of his wife, and then again suddenly
show bad temper. He coaxed her down the face, and
said he would have her asleep. They quarrelled about
two months ago, but he had never talked of having his
father confined, because malt to be abroad. When his
father's " thoughts" catue on ho was kind to his wife,
lint did not seem to know what I,e was about. 'Witness
had never heard that any of hi, :amity were insane.
By a juror—Did you ever know your mother to find
a razor under the pillow ? No. But after quarrels
mother used to lock up the knives in the cupboard. She
was afraid of her life.
Mr. Robert Stedman, town-clerk of Sudbury, exa-
mined—l was summoned by the mayor to the Town-
hall, on Saturday afternoon, at two o'clock, where I
found the prisoner. In the pr,ence of the mayor, after
duo caution, the prisoner made the following confession :
—" I believe myself to have been the murderer of my
wife, this morning, about four o'clock, a,t, Halstead. She
is about 45 years of age. I have six children, the eldest
nineteen, the youngest three. I have often something
the matter with my head." He would not say more or
sign the deposition.
The prisoner had gone from Halstead to Little Cor,
nard, near Sudbury, where he met a person named
Rayner in the high road, and stopping him, asked who
was the constable of the parish, Rayner replying that he
was that person. The prisoner, lifting his hands, said,
" Then I am a murderer, and I wish you to take me in
charge." The constable was alarmed, bat took him to
his house, and placed on the handcuffs ; toek him and
delivered him up to Cross, the gaoler of Sudbury, who
searched him and found nothing upon him but twe old
pipes. He was then conveyed to the Town-hall of Sud-
bury, where he made the above deposition, and was
afterwards lodged in the police-station at Halstead.
The Coroner summed up, and the jury came to the
unanimous verdict of wilful murder against the prisoner.
The following is an exact copy of the murderer's con-
fession before the Mayor of Sudbury :
"I believe myself to be the murderer of my wife this
morning, at four o'clock. I did not go back to see. My
wife was about 45 years of age. My eldest child is 19
years old, and my youngest 3 years. I have frequently
something the matter with my head. I confess to be the
murderer of my wife, but I do not wish to state any fur-
ther particulars for the present:"
Hempstead is about 50 years of age ; his figere is tall
and very attenuated, and with his grey hair and care-
wore countenance he might easily be supposed to have
reached three-score years. He appears to have been
educated rather above the generality of his class, if one
may judge from the few sentences uttered by him during
the trial, and which were strictly grammatical, and
spoken in a well-modulated voice. The only successful
defence that can be pleaded on behalf of the prisoner, of
course, is that of mental derangement, but it does not
appear, until the commission of this crime, that he ever
complained of anything the matter with his bead.
His manner since his apprehension, though sullen,
has been perfectly rational, and affords no evidence of a
deranged mind. When being taken from the police-sta-
tion to the cart which conveyed him to Braintree, one of
the crowd observed that he deserved hanging, and he
then exclaimed, "Oh ! I shall have it. I know that. I
shall have that !"
The bereaved children displayed, throughout the ex•
atnination at the inquest and at the committal, a re.
markable insensibility and want of feeling strangely at
variance with their position as their father's
cause accusers,
and which it is difficult to ascribe to :tiny other
ucatio n
amidhe
st
than extreme ignorance or their faulty
eldest son, in particular, g
chalence as was Latave
his
e alculated to excite emo-
oretvuidneantece with such re-
parente
. T
the frequent broils of their unfortunate
pulsive nenin
tions of pity for his unhappy situation.

PALESTINE.—WURTEMEUE Op Oct. 26.
a-
EMIGRATION
informedr° PALof a contemplated emigration in
the former " Land of Promine." The
been so far matured, that it 3aas been
sae
nt tract
ssocial
e ioafl
relations
nadt
joie,:
" the Germaa Diet for its Intense.
resolved to petition
pm—laaWassebtoaserPeaallreseatdiie,
the above purpose. The
y. origin of this idea of the great
exodus is the peculiar .
lion with the Sublime Pieowrtoefttohe
grantpre
and of religious life especially. Both are
generally,
considered to have fallen into decay to that extenl that
it is the duty and requirement of every one, to v /horn
the will of God and his own true salvation are yet .dear,
to disengage himself betimes from this degenerating
position. As far as we can learn, the petition to be
laid before the Diet has already received the sign stures
of 300 families. This intelli„;ence is the more re mark-
able, since the families thus resolved to leave the fr fa-
therland for Palestine are not of the Jewish bat t d the
Christian faith.—Jewish Chronicle.
LONDON, TILBURY, AND SOUTIIEND EXTENSION ]?SAIL
WAT.—YeAterda.y a special general meeting of tins ..,hare-
holders of this company was held at the London 1 'n'i ern,
for the purpose of antbori.ing the joint committee
' i the t the
i
Eastern Counties, the London and Blackwell, an,
..es
London, Tilbury, and Southend Extension Comp. ti
to borrow money on mortgage, under the powers of theirex
act ; Mr. Daniels in the chair. A report was read
plaining the position of the railway, and thetoofjteb.e
templated by the proposed loan. The amouii
was 75,000/. to be raised by moi tgago, andobject con-
loan
the n t lney
dditi anal
was to be expended in the con truction of a
elle, ,
of
works, stations, and sidings, in cTonbseepl
Chair
0121
the increased traffic on the line.
that
theCh '
stated, in reply to a shareholder,
it into :rest
the let' sees,
of the proposed loan would he pandabyat i
I dis rturb
and that the arrangement would
the shareholdeiv- In
of 6 per cent. to
the guaranteethe worlce N 1
's /ere
fact, their position would be betteremine,
which was expected to cot andd,
thas e further t, tea
to meet the increased t
ne on the line from South% It a.
directors to take the 1 n o-
the
The resolution authorising a
rood to, and the Int. : t'.
ed loan was unanimously g
P°s
• ing separated.