The Sun.
London, England, 1841-01-28 00:00:00

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J

EVENING EDITION'.

DREADFUL MURDER NEA R

BRISTOL.

On Monday the wife of Mr. A. Shedden, a retired apothc,itry!
was barbarously murdered at Horficld, a suburban district
Bristol. On the morning of the day in which the murder -wa.-
perpetrated Mr. Shedden went to Bristol to collect the rent.se
some of his housep, called in the city on his son, who, with his ,
father, walked back in the evening to Horfield. On entering
the cottage the first thing the son saw was the mangled remains t
of his mother, covered with blood. Surgical assistance was
procured, but upon examination it was found that the unfortu-
nate lady had been dead for some hours, her skull having been.
completely beaten in in three places by some blunt weapon. Th
right temple and the upper part of the forehead were care
pletely beaten in. The left temple was cut open, and thee.:
were four other wounds upon the lace. On an examination cf.
the wounds, Mr. Bell, surgeon, pronounced them to bay.
been inflicted by some blunt instrument, probably a hammer,
such as plasterers we when lathing. There was a large
quan-
tity of blood about the room, the walls, and several articles
of furniture, which made it evident that the old lady mos' ;
have been sitting in her arm-chair by the flre,itte when sh p
received the first blow, as the front which she wore lay r 0.
the foot of it saturated an ith blood. There was also a pool of
blood near the chair, arid the wall bv hs side is FL-tinkled wi
blood to a considerable height. Upon receiving ;his blo r,
which must hate so far stunned her as to prevent her scream: 4e:
(or she would have been heard bv the next-doer neighbour),
apparent shestruggled with t 110111'er:14er, and fell against an eaor
chair, at the other side of the fire-place, which is also sittosc;'T
with blood. It is supposed that while there another drieafifizi
blow was given to her, the iron coal-ritkite and grate ',heir::
sprinkled with blood ; the un`ortunate woman must have salad-
still further struggles for her life, as her body was fumed a.
some distance from both these chairs, with her shoes
her, which she bad lost during the murderous attack. Tire
objects of the murderer, whoever be may be, are at present
completely unknown, as no robbery has taken place, nor is it
ascertained, with any certainty, that a single article is missine
from the house. The fact of the cupboard containing the
plate being open without an article being stolen therefrom,
and a silver spoon being upon the dresser within the reach of tit,
murderer, shows that plunder could not have been the 'object.
From inquiries which were made immediately on the disck
very of the muider, it was found that a youth, Charles Rudg-c.
who occasionally worked for and had been met by Mr. Sheddei
in the morning, had been at the house that day, as he was seer,
by some of the neighbours, at about twelve o clock, with Mrs.
Shedden, in the garden, shaking a carpet; he was also seen
strewing ashes on the garden path : and at a little before three
o'clock in the afternoon he was met returning to Bristol by Ce-n
lads, one earned Edward Shakspeare. These eireuiestance:
induced the police to apprehend him, which they did in
at-his father's house on Kingsdown, at about twelve at nigh;
It is said that, when apprehended, he said he knew what
was about; it was about a woman who was killed at Ilor-
field. It is said also that there are one or two stains of
blood upon his trousers and boots, but as I have not exa-
mined them, lam uncertain as to this fact also. Iminteli
ate!). upon his apprehension the prisoner was•conveyed to the
house and shown the dead body ; lie hurst into tears, and
protesting his innocence, exclaimed, " Oh, Mr. Sht,!(len,
do
you think I would go to kill Mrs. Shedden ?" The prisons-:
was again this morning conveyed to the house, but nothing n,
importance was elicited. The circumstances under which
prisoner Budge was apprehended were this afternoon deposed
to, before Mr. 11. W. Newman, one of the Magistrates for ti:
county of Gloucester, who ordered the prisoner to he detaine.
in the Lawford's-gate prison until the Coroner's inquest.
It is evident that the murder must have been comeeitted
before three o'clock:in the afternoon, as the milkman called
the house at about that time, but could not get admlitio,
eNo weapon with which the offence could have been peepe-
treed has yet beets found, although the garden has been
searched, and the neighbouring ponds, &c., dragged. An
active search is, however, being made by the police. in the
neighbourhood with a view to the discovery of the weapon. It
was at first supposed that the murder might have been com-
mitted with the iron coal-riddle, but there is no b!e..d whatever
upon the inside corners or edges of it, which renders it impos-
sible that that could have been the instruthent.
Two suspicious characters, ballad vendors, were soon lurieheee-
about the neighbourhood yesterday ; and it is a rather singu'ese
circumstance that on Saturday evening a man (not the pr
soner) was seen grinding a lathing-hammer, the very descris
tion of weapon with which the surgeon thinks the murder we..
committed, at a grindstone on the roadside, by a blacksmith'.
shop, within a few hundred yards of Mr. ghedden's residence.
This circumstance would not have been at all remarkable ha
not the man been turning the grindstone himself, and evidently
using it by stealth.