The Sun.
London, England, 1847-11-09 00:00:00

POL ICE INTELLIGENCE.
MANSION-HO USE.

Elizabeth Crawley, a smart looking woman, aged
23, was brought before the Lord Mayor, charged by
Mr. William Crawley, an aged pensioner at the East
India House, Under the following remarkable circum-
stances :
The complain ant, who stated his age to be 77 years,
said that at about: two o'clock he went to the East India
House from his 1 odging at Pentonville to receive his
pension. After h e had received the money he put
it in his trousers p ocket for the greater security, for
he saw who was clt )se to him, and the moment he had
buttoned his pocket, the prisoner, who was behind
him, slipped her hared in to get hold of his purse, and
made the most desperate efforts to possess herself of
it, with all its contents.
The LORD MAYOR—I see you are both of the
same name. Is she your daughter? Complainant
(sighing deeply)—No, my Lord, she is professedly
my wife. I married her in St. George's Church,
Bloomsbury, a little more than six years ago, when
she was a nice egg of 17 ; but all she cared about
was my property ; and that was her mother's object,
too, in m,arryin,-- me. Neither of them loved me.
The LOICD MAYOR—What ! do you mean to say
you were married to her mother ? Complainant—
Indeed I do, my Lord ; and more is my sorrow ; the
mother is just as bad as herself.
The LORD AlArou--Then her mother, your first
wife, is still alive? Complainant—Faith, my Lord,
she certainly is ; but she is not my first wife. Ah !
never was there a better woman in the world than
that blessed angel ; but she is gone to happiness. She
died just before I married this one's mother. But I
was in a state of insanity, from grief; and the pair
got hold of me, thinking I had a large property ;
and it pleased God to make them both commit a great
mistake.
The Loup MAYOR—Then you have committed the
offence of bigamy, at any rate, in becoming the hus-
band of the daughter, her mother being alive. Com-
plainant—Oh ! it was their fault. The mother, after
I married her, said she'd make her daughter marry
me if I'd release her, so I consented, for, to tell you
the truth, I liked the daughter better. Besides, the
marriage !between me and the mother was never con-
s ummated.

The LORD MAroß—And how soon after your
marriage with the mother did that with the daughter
take place ? Complainant—They over-persuaded me
to marry the daughter at St. Sepulchre's Church
about a fortnight after, and I have never had a happy
moment since I was in comfortable circumstances
when I met them, but now I have nothing but my
pension, and that she just tried to rob me of. They
are the greatest pair of devils that ever the Lord per-
mitted to come up against us.
The prisoner said she was the victim of the grossest
deception. Her mother, it was true, had married
Mr. Crawley, but she was not a day with hila when
she found out what a bad one he was, and, poor
woman, she was glad to get rid of him upon any
terms.
The LORD MAYOR—So she gave him to you for a
husband? The prisoner—She just did. Well, what
does he do after being married to me so long ? Why,
he not only refuses to give me a farthing, but he denies
half-a-crown a week to our child, a fine little girl
just six years old.
The LORD Maroß—Why, Mr. Crawley, can you
not contrive to support your own child ? Have you
any doubt that it is yours ? Complainant (laughing)
—Doubt! Not a bit of it.—(Loud laughter.) Oh,
no, my Lord; it's my own, and no mistake.
The prisoner—Ah, you old villain, sarve you right
if I had carved you out.
Complainant—My Lord, I had everything com-
fortable about me until she and her mother got hold
of my weakness. I was obliged to swear my life
against her at Worship-street Police-court the other
day.
The prisoner—That's true enough ; and isn't it
enough to make a woman mad to be the mother of
his child and to be refused the least notice from his
pocket?
The LORD MAYOR—There is no law to oblige
him to give you anything. The law will not compel
him.

The prisoner—He knows that well, and those that
made that law are all of them like him, you may de-
pend. They did not make the law without thinking
of themselves.—(Laughter.)
The LORD MAYOR maid the old man certainly ma-
nifested a total disregard for the decencies of life, in
the course he had been pursuing towards the prisoner
and his child, but, as had been before intimated, the
law could not touch him.

Complainant—l am agreeable to anything in
reason, my Lord. If her mother will promise t,)
take care of me, and protect me against her, I have
no objection to try her again.—(Laughter.)

The LORD MATOR.—I am bound, as a magistrate,
to prevent this young woman from annoying you,
and therefore I must bind her over, and compel her to
procure sureties, if she do not promise not to moleA
you. I must, however, impress upon you the neces-
sity and obligation upon you as a parent to provide
for this poor child.
Complainant—l cannot afford it, your Lordship.
She Las had all the good out of me, and she must
take the bad with the good, like the best of us.
The LORD MAroa—Well, I see there is not much
good to be had out of you. You must, however,
recollect that between two wives a man may fall
to the ground, and you have acknowledged your
offence.
The prisoner, having promised to coos the old man
by with silent contempt, was discharged.
MARYLEBONE.

Yesterday,
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form rele-examination, and the Court was much crowded
by persons, many of whom had, as alleged, been
sufferers by the prisoner. The accused seemed very
faint and ill when placed at the bar, and, by direction
of the Magistrate, she was provided with a seat. Mr.
Wolff and Mr. Sidney attended on her behalf.
The evidence given upon two former occasions
went to show that on the 29th of December last the
prisoner succeeded, by representations as to her re-
spectability, in obtaining possession of a ready-fur-
nished house, 55, Welbeck street, Cavendish square,
and that the lady to whom the said dwelling belonged
was Mrs. M‘Clure, 22, Bentinck-street; the rent was
agreed upon at 2001. per year, payable quarterly, and
prior to the expiration of the first quarter the family
decamped. Five blankets, a counterpane, and other
articles were carried off, and information of the rob-
bery was communicated to the police. Every exertion
was made to discover the prisoner, who, on Sunday
week last, was apprehended by an active officer,
Marsh, 121 E, who met her in Margaret-street with
her daughters while on their way to church. None
of the property stated to have been stolen had been
met with. •
Some additional evidence was now given, a great
deal of which had a tendency to show that the pri-
soner had for a considerable period been pursuing a
course of life in which, by her artful and systematic
manner, she had victimized numerous persons. It
was alleged that she had placed two of her daughters
at a boarding-school, Tichfield House, Regent's Park,
having given a feigned name at the time of her so
doing, and that, immediately after they were taken
away, without payment being made for their board
and education, it was ascertained that they had stolen
some towels, &c. In addition to the charges above
referred to, it was stated that the prisoner, with her
family, had occupied a house in Ball's-pond••road,
Islington, and disposed of the furniture which was
there at the time of the letting.
None of the cases alluded to were substituted, the
necessary witnesses not being in attendance.
The constable, Marsh, was of opinion that he should
be able to get up important evidence in a few days.
A " suffererer” by the prisoner said he hoped that
publicity would be given to what had already trans-
pired.
Mr. BROUGHTON said it was advisable that such
should be the case; and remanded the prisoner till
Friday, giving her, however, the opportunity of
putting in bail for her appearance on that day.

WORSHIP-STREET.
A young man of gentlemanly appearance, named
William Sheridan, was charged, upon suspicion, of
having caused the death of his mother, Mrs. Frances
Sheridan, the widow of a captain in the army, resid-
ing in Mare-street, Hackney, by administering to her
some poisonous drug.
Sergeant Hawkes, of the N division, stated, that in
consequence of information reaching the station-house
that the deceased, who had expired after a short ill-
ness on the preceding Friday, had come to her death
by unfair means, he placed himself in communication
with Mr. Drewett, the registrar of deaths for the dis-
trict, who informed him that the circumstances con-
nected with the occurrence were of so suspicious a
character that he felt himself called upon to refuse a
certificate of burial, for which application had been
made, until all the facts attending it had been laid be-
fore the magistrate or coroner. An unfinished inquiry
had since taken place before the last mentioned func-
tionary, who gave orders for the prisoner's apprehen-
sion, and he therefore repaired that afternoon to the
house of the deceased, in which the prisoner also re-
sided, and took him into custody. On apprising him
of the nature of the charge, he made no answer what-
ever, and quietly surrendered himself ; but on the
road to the station stated that it had solely arisen
from a bad feeling one of his sisters entertained to-
wards him ; the latter, however, was the principal
witness in the case, and W 23 unable to attend, from
injuries she had sustained at the hands of the prisoner
who had so illused her that she had been ever since
under the medical treatment of Dr. Garrod.
Mary Armstrong, an elderly widow, residing in
the neighbourhood, who had been employed to assist
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