The Sun.
London, England, 1823-01-07 00:00:00

1,2 14
1-2

r+ tv
4 „-
(2..,
*co

!
tr,

THE LEWISHAM MURDER.

y..

g

~.

Yesterday a meeting of the Magistrates took
place at Greenwich, to resume the examination of John Cole-
man who is in custody upon strong suspicion of murdering
Mr. James Smith, in the night of Satnrday the 21st of Dec.
Some of the evidence was the same as that taken before tha,,
Coroner, as to the fact of Mr. Smith having been murdered. by
Persona who were diaturbod in their attempt to braokinto Mr. ,
Smith's house: and that one of the window-shutters of the par-
lour had been bored in , four places avith .0, centre-bit, which
centre-bit, in the hurry of quitting the prenusah the assassins
had left behind them.'
Coleman had deliberatnly given an account Of himself on the
Saturday and Sunday when diem urder was committed, and his
account was that he went to the Black Horse, Rushy-green, at
half-past nine o'clock oh Saturday night, and retrained there
till after 12; that he then went to the Bull and Butcher at
Deptford, and arrived, there about one o'clock, and went to bed
and slept there. •He oilt* that when, in the efteinoon of, Sa-
turday, he went from Ittishy4reett to Deptford, he had under
his arm a centre-bit, and one WAS produced which Coleman
stated was the one he was so carrying.
This account was this day contradicted in several points by ,
witnesses. One witness swore positively that the centre-bit
now produced by Coleman was not the one he was carrying
on Saturday afternoon, but that the one found at the late
Mr. Smith's resembled that which he was carrying. (The one
found at Mr. Smith's is nearly a new instrument—the one pro-
duced by Coleman very black, old, and dirty.)
Another witness states, that she sleeps at the Bull and But-
cher, in a room through which Coleman must go in order to
get to his room, as his is, an inner room through hers, and
there is only one of communication with the stairs from
the two rooms. This witness swears that she went to bed be-
tween twelve and one o'clock on Saturday, the 2lat of Decent-,
her, and locked and bolted her door ; that she did not get up
till one o'clock on Sunday afternoon, and then she found the
door still locked and bolted ; so that Coleman could not, as he
had silirmed, sleep in the inner room and leave it on the Sun-
day morning.
The lock she admits is a very bad one, and though she has
every reason to believe it did lock when she turned the key
upon going to bed ; yet she would not undertake to say, that
when she turned the key it might not miss catching the lock,
as she did not try if it was locked ; but after turning the key to
unlock the door in the morning, she pulled the door for the
purpose of opening it, when she found that the bolt was still
undrawn, and she was obliged to draw it before she could get
the door open.
The above are the material contradictions to the account
11 given by Coleman of himself, and were the two principal points
upon which it was material his account shotild have been con
tinned and corroborated beyond all suspicion.
The centre-bit found upon Mr. Smith's premises on the
night of the murder, at which the holes in the shutter had
been bored, was also proetl, which was clean, and had the
appearance of being almost new. .Upon its being eXaminetl by
the Magistrates, it had the appearance of the Int- being filed,
in order to make it fit the stock ; and this appearance was so
accounted for by one of' the witnesses.
A man residing at Bushy-green deposed, that the said stock
land bit (which together formed the carpenter's tool called a
centre-bit)Aaesembled very much a stock and bit ofilred to him
for sale by John Coleman, on Saturday the 21st of December ;
and the witness at the time particularly remarked that the bit
did not fit the stock.
A quantity of files anti plough tools were produced by the
constable, Larkins, which ha a been detained by ()union, the
landlord of the house occupied by Coleman at Rushy-green,
for rent due from Coleman to him ; and those tools he (the
landlord) had detained on the 21st, when Coleman left his
house there.
A part of there tools had been offered by Coleman to one of
the witnesses (Rowlett) for aide., a very short time before the
murder of Mr. Smith.
Another witness swore, that about five or six weeks ago his
shop at Deptford was broken open, and a great quantity of
files, centre bits, and ploughs, were stolen therefrom, and
amongst the rest was the stock of a centre-bit without any bit
to it ; and this witness now identified the stock of the centre-
bit left by the assassins upon Mr. Smith's premises and the
file* offered for sale by. Coleman, and the ploughs Jistrained
upon Coleman's premises by Ouzman as a part of the instru-
ments stolen from his shop when die same was broken into
about five.or six weeks ago.
Such was the principal, but pot all, the evidence given.
Upon this evidence, which forms a strong ground of suspicion
againt Coleman, the Magistrates havti committed him to Maid-
stone gaol to take his trial ; and it isbnly astonialiing that, in a
case of murder, where no property was taken away to assist
the discovery, and no living witness has been found who saw
the assassins at the time, or after the murder was perpetrated,
so much circumstantial evidence has in so short a time been got
together.
Another person, a relative of the deceased, and a notoriously
bad character, is still in custody ; but as the Magistrates only
went upon, the examination of Coleman, we are not informed
what evidence there may be to criminate him.
We may, however, express our conviction, from the vigi-
lance which is used in analyzing and following up every grain
of evidence which is capable of furnishing a clue to the diaeo-
very of Mr. Smith's murderers, that any accomplice concerned
will, nay must be eventually brought to justice.'

On Tuesday morning, Thirlestane Castle, on the estate of
the 'Earl of Lauderdale, was discovered to be• in flames, upon
the south side ; when, the inhabitants of the burgh of Lauder,
immediately upon their discovering it, went to extinguish the
burning element, Which happily they accomplished, and saved
the greater part of the•anciont building.--(Edinburgh Courant,
;tan. 2.) °