The Sun.
London, England, 1847-07-17 00:00:00

ASSIZE INTELLIGENCE.
WES I'ERN GI RC 'IT.-11 irchester, July 14.
CRIMINAL COUti,T.—(Before Mr. Jostle(' Wit,

LIAM.)
Francis Andrews, aged 67, was indicted for having
cut and wounded Jane Caplin, with intent to kill and

murder her.
Mr. Sewell appeared for the prosecution, Mr. C.
Saunders conducted the defence.
It appeared that the prisoner, who was deaf and par-
tially dumb, had lodged in the house of the prosecutrix
at Southampton; he was a man of weak intellect, but
was generally harmless unless excited. On the 26th of
Feb. he came into the house and complained that some one
had taken a piece of canvass from his room; he charged
the prosecutrix with having taken it; she denied it, Itnd
the prisoner then became much excited, and mad,
towards the prosecutrix with his knife; she raised her
arms to keep him off, upon which he cut her finger,
and arms with his knife; she became faint and was
falling io the ground, when the prisoner stabbed her in

the side.
It appeared, however, from the evidence of the sur
geon, that the prisoner had been of unsound mind fur
some years, and the jury therefore Acquitted the prisoner
on the ground of insanity.
Hillier Fryer, an old man of 76 years, was indicted for
having discharged a loaded gun at Sarah Wolf with in-
tent to kill and murder her.
Mr. Beetham coniucted the prosecution; Mr. Missing
defended the prisoner.
It appeared that the prosecutrix and her husband kept
house for the prisoner, who lived in a cottage in the
New Forest. On the morning of the 14th of May Mrs.
Wolf's son lent two iron wedges, belonging to the pri-
soner, to a neighbour. In the evening of the day the
prisoner came home, and on hearing that the wedges
nad been lent in his absence he became much excited,
and swore that Wolf and his wife should not live with
him any longer. At this time Wolf came home, and
hearing the old man making a noise, said, " Mr. Fryer,
don't keep noising, but sit down like a good man." The
prisoner then turned round
and seizing a gun, which
was lying on the table, pointed it at Mrs. Wolf, and said
to her, "D— your eyes, I'll blow your brains out." He
then pulled the trigger, and the gun exploded. The
shot struck her in the face, and also blew off her thumb.
He then struck at her wtth the butt-end of the gun, but
missed her, and the gun was broken in two pieces.
A surgeon was called, who stated that her life was in
danger for some weeks, owing to the injuries she had
sustained.
Mr. MISSING having addressed the jury for the pri-
soner, they found him guilty of shooting with intent to
do grievous bodily harm.—Sentence deferred.
Charles Wolfe, a young man, aged 17, was charged
with having feloniously cut and wounded Eliz ibeth Ay
ling, with intent to kill and murder her. There were
other counts in the indictment varying the charge.
Mr. Stock eonilucted the prosecution ; Mr. Saunders
de•ended the prisoner.
It appeared from the evidence of the prosecutrix, who
was an interesting girl of about eighteen years of age,
that she was nursemaid to Mr. Philip Thresher, who
lived with his father at Farebam, who was a magistrate
of the county. The prisoner was a footman, also living
there; and on the 22d of March last the prosecutrix,
being in the nursery, observed the prisoner come to the
door. She asked him what business he had there? He
said, " What?" and went away. Shortly after he came
back again, and she heard him say, " I'll do for you."
The prosecutrix being alarmed at this, went to the door
to try to get out of the room, when the prisoner struck
her on the head with a mallet he held in his hand. This
knocked her down, and he then dragged her back into
the room. She got up and tried to get away, when he
knocked her down again. He then knelt down, and cut
her in the throat with a razor he had in his hand, saying
at the same time, " Brown—l'll Brown you." The pro-
secutrix tried to catch hold of the prisoner's hands, but
he cut her fingers with the razor. Atter asevere struggle
the prosecutrix succeeded in getting away from the pri
soner, and came down stairs, bleeding very much from
her throat and hands. The prisoner followed her, but
was taken into custody by some persons who were at-
tracted by the screams of the young woman, who was
afterwards confined to her bed for a considerable time
from the injuries she had sustained. On the prisoner
being apprehended. he attempted to cut his own throat
with his rimer, and did succeed in inflicting a super-
ficial wound. It was elicited, in cross examination of the
prosecutrix, that the prisoner had been much attached to
her, and had been made very. jealous of her with regard
to a young man named Brown, a footman to a gentle-
man in the neighbourhood. It, however, did not appear
that the young woman had in any way encouraged the
addresses of either of these young men. The case for
the prosecution having been closed,
Mr. SAUNDERS addressed the jury for the prisoner,
contending that the whole affair had arisen out of a
jealous feeling engendered in the mind of the prisoner,
and which had provoked it to such an extent as to render
him not master of his own actions, but quite insane;
and that being so, he was not responsible for them, but
was entitled to an acquittal on the ground of insanity.
Mr. Justice WILLIAMS having susimed up, the jury
found the prisoner euilty of the attempt at murder.
The Learned JUDGE having commented on the enor-
mity of the crime with which the prisoner had been found
guilty, directed death to be recorded against him.

HOME ClRCUlT.—Clzelard, July 14.
(Before air. Baron PARKE.)
James Willesmere,l7, a remarkably innocent-looking
country lad, was indicted for the wilful murder of John
Terry, by fracturing his skull with a hoe.
There was also an indictment against the prisoner for
robbing the deceased.
Mr. Ryland and Mr. Rodwell conducted the prose-
cution.
This case was of a very melancholy character. The
evidence against the prisoner was chiefly circumstantial,
but the effect of it was to leave no doubt that the pri-
soner was guilty of the crime alleged against him. It
appeared that the deceased was an old labouring man,
living near the town of Rochtort, and on the 31st of
March, which was the day he received the injury that
terminated in his death, he was on his way to that
town about ten o'clock in the morning. The prisoner,
it seemed,
t. n
lodging,at a public-house in the
morning
about four miles from Roch-
he owed the landlord
Is.
could dot
for board and he told him that he
s
lodging,
but promised to give him
tvl
lagaeedio n South hadth i beenFsaar hemn ridg
ethe money on the following Saturday. He then called
p ay bim andat that led
for a Ripe of tobacco which he paid fur with a halfpenny,
saying that was all the money he had got, and shortly
afterwards left the public. house and proceeded in a di-
rection for the town of Rochfort. It seemed that soon
after this the prisoner and the old man joined company,
and they were seen by several of the witnesses walking
together towards a place called the Mead, near Dag-
gett's farm, on the road to the town above-mentioned;
the prisoner at this time having a hoe iu his hand, and
the deceased a hoe stick without the iron end. About
11 o'clock the same evening the poor old man was
found lying in the Mead, in a dreadful state. He
was literally covered with blood, and the top
of his right ear was completely severed from the
head, and was found in a mass of clotted blood among
his hair. His pockets appeared to have been rifled, and
his watch, a canvass purse, a key, and a small sum of
money were missing. He had sufficient consciitu,ne,s to
state that he had been robbed and ill-used, and he was
then taken to the union workhouse at Rochfort, where
he remained until the 22d April, when he died. It
appeared that almost immediately after the time when
the robbery and assault must have been committed, the
prisoner went into a public-house at Rochfort, where he
produced a watch which turned out to be that 01 the
deceased, and offered to sell it to any one in the room
for ten shillings, but no one would buy it, and he then
called for some beer, which he paid for with a half-crown.
It also! appeared that on his way to Rochfort the pri-
soner had sold his hoe for sixpence, and he shortly
afterwards sold the watch to a man named Brig for five
shillings ; and, upon his being taken into custody, the
canvass purse which contained the key of the poor old
man's box was found in his pocket. The prisoner
was afterwards taken into the room where the deceased
was lying la
' bed ; and on his being raised up and
shown the prisoner, he immediately said that he was the
man who had robbed and beat him ; and he at the same
time said to the prisoner, " You know that you are the
man ;" to which the prisoner merely muttered in reply,
"You are mistaken, old man," and made no further de-
nial. The deceased also, at the same time, identified the
watch, and the other articles that were produced as his
property.
Mr. Hodges, the Surgeon of the union, proved that the
deceased died of a fracture of the skull, and he pro-
duced that portion of it which had received the fatal in-
jury; and upon the hoe belonging to theb prisoner being
produced, it was found that te iron ac of it fitted
exactly the wound on the skullh, and the surgeon said he
had no doubt it was inflicted by it, and thatiif
nall pro-
bability one severe blow had caused the mische .
Mr. Baron l'aeKV, at the close of the evidence for the
prosecution, asked the prisoner to state what he had to
say in his defence.
He replied, " My Lord, I
have nothing to say."
summing up, told the jury
• The Learned JUDGE, in .
on the fatal in
that whether they should be of o
plui dis able and maim
had been inflicted with an intention to
the deceased, or whether it was merely to further the
12
' either case in the eye of the
object of robbing him, 1 • WI u mur er, -
eof •lf d be
law it would amount to the crime n
in furtherance of a
cause the injury was inflict Jud
,
Learned ge then
felonious and uulavrful act. I e
of the evidence, and said
detailed the material particulars
t ainful duty for
that although no doubt it was
tahul.'n'svollived thii life of a
them to decide a question which involved
hardly verging upon
person like the prisoner, who. was
.a yb
d himself were ound to bit
form yet both they and
der the solemn obli-
form their duty to their country un
b without an regard to
gation of the oath they had taken,
the consequences that might result from it minutes,
The jury then deliberated for a few nutes, when
they returned a verdict finding the prisoner guilty of
murder. They at the same tune recommended him to

mercy.
Mr. Baron PARIE said he supposed the recommends
tion was on account of his youth.

The jury said
The Learned JUDGE then put on the black cap, and
upon the public ..scaffold. Ile believed
silence having been proclaimed, he addressed the pri-
soner, and saki that the jury had come to the only con-
clusion which their duty to society had enabled them to
come to upon the evidence, and it was now his mist
painful duty to pass upon a mere stripling—a boy just
entering upon lite—the sentence of undergoing an igno-
minious death
that it was nut his intention to have taken the life of the
deceased, but it was quite clear that the fatal blow was
struck with the intention to render the deceased power-
less, in order that he might rob him with greater faci-
lity, and, as death ensued, his offence clearly amounted
to the crime of wilful murder. The jury had recom-
mended him to mercy on account of his youth, but he
felt that it would be inconsistent with his duty in such a
case to do more than to transmit the recommendation to