The Sun.
London, England, 1847-09-16 00:00:00

WORSHIP-STREET.

Yesterday a respectably dressed elderly man,
named Samuel Bevans, was placed at the bar before
Mr. Hammill, charged upon suspicion of having
bein concerned in the commission of an extensive
series of depredations at the warehouse of his em-
ployer, Mr. Henry Wainewright, a wholesale brush
manufacturer, in the Whitechapel-road.
It appeared that the prisoner, who was a small
manufacturer in the same business himself, had
been employed by the prosecutor to make up
goods at his own house for the last three years,
the materials for which he was in the habit of
calling for at Mr. Wainewright's warehouse, and
that, although during nearly the whole of that
period large quantities of goods had been unac-
countably missed, no suspicion was entertained of
the prisoner, on account of his apparent respectability
until the preceding afternoon, when, having called
for more materials during the prosecutor's absence, he
was observed by one of the workmen, named Key,
to secrete a large bundle of the most expensive bristles
in one of his pockets. Key apprised the prosecutor's
son of what he had witnessed, and while deliberating
how to act, the prisoner left the house, hut was pur-
sued and brought back, and on the stolen property
being taken from him, he begged hard to be forgiven
in consideration of his family, whose distresses, he
said, had driven him to the commission of the offence,
and acknowledged that just before he was stopped he
had thrown two more bundles of the same
kind of hair into the lobby of the Pavilion
Theatre. These, upon being looked for, were found
as he had described, and upon his house being
searched by a constable who was sent for, a whole
bagful! of other goods of a similar description, in
various stages of completion, was discovered, and the
greater portion of which the prosecutor was satisfied
also belonged to him. The accused was thereupon
given into custody.
When called upon for 'his defence, the prisoner,
who was in a very bad state of health and excessively
depressed, merely claimed a part of the goods pro-
duced by the police as his own property, which he
said he had purchased by degrees at different times,
and the prosecutor requested the magistrate to dis-
pose of the case summarily, on account of the pri-
soner's family, and his own conviction that other
persons, more guilty than the accused, had been con-
cerned in the system of plunder to which he had been
subjected ; but

Mr.
HAMMILL, who said it was out of his power to
listen to such a recommendation, ordered the commit-
ment to be made out, and the prisoner brought up
again for the completion of the depositions.
THAMES.

Yesterday Daniel Sinclair, a tall gentlemanly
looking man, the chief mate of the ship Maid of Auck-
land, now lying in the London Dock, was brought
before Mr. Yardley on a charge of bigamy.
Mr. Fearnley, solicitor, defended the prisoner.
Mr. Pelham said he appeared in this case for the
prosecution. The prisoner was charged with inter-
marrying with Jane Wells, his first wife, Ann, being
now alive. The first marriage took place on the 28th
of October, 1830, at St. Nicholas church, Newcastle-
upon-Tyne, when the prisoner was united to Ann
Warwick. In May, 1834, the prisoner contracted a
second marriage with i\iary Ann Abrahams, at Wal-
ton, Lancashire; and the third marriage was solem-
nized by license in Christ Church, Rotherhithe, on
October the 26th, 1845, when the prisoner was mar-
ried to Mrs. Jane Wells, widow of the late Mr.
Wells, dock-master of the Regent's Canal Dock.
The prisoner was convicted of bigamy for inter-
marrying with Mary Ann Abrahams while his first
wife was alive, at the Lancashire assizes, held at Liver-
pool on the 10th of August, 1837, and sentenced to
one year's imprisonment and hard labour. The
second wife, he was sorry to say, died of a broken
heart. On the prisoner's liberation from gaol he
became mate, and subsequently master of a ship.
The prisoner afterwards committed a fresh act of
felony by marrying Mrs. 'Wells, the widow of a re-
spectable man, and daughter of Mr. Hughes, an
optician and nautical instrument maker in Broad-
street, Ratcliff, who has since died. The prisoner
became acquainted with Mrs. Wells in the early part
of 1845, and finding that she was possessed of a little
income, and that there was property in reversion
coming to her, he had recourse to the most deceptive
arts to engage her affections. He found out that she
was a very pious lady, and he made strong professions
of religion, attended the Dissenting chapel which
Mrs. Wells frequented, often prayed with her, and by
his letters breathing the most fervent love and piety
at length succeeded in engaging her affections. She
became much attached to him, and ultimately pro-
mised to become his wife. Her choice was sanctioned
by her friends, and a day was ultimately fixed for the
wedding. Before that event took place, Mrs. Wells,
who had made particular inquiries about her in-
tended husband, ascertained something to his dis-
advantage, and that he had another wife. The pri-
soner, by the moit specious representations, put the
widow off her gnard. He assumed-a tone in accord-
ance with the religious views of Mrs. Wells, said he
was a repentant sinner, and that, although he had a
wife living, he had suffered imprisonment and dis-
grace which had rendered the marriage invalid, and
that he had taken the opinion of a proctor, and of
Judge Cresswell, who had tried him, and that he was
assured by them there was no legal objection to his
contracting another marriage. Ultimately, the pri-
soner got such a hold on the affections of the widow,
that she placed every confidence in him. He declared
that he could not exist without her, that her refusal
to
in
become
is wife would be the cause of his death,
and that r
ypure was his heart, and so inestimable was
she
and goodness, that if they had been
Adam and Eve in Paradise there would have been no
sin in the world. The day for the marriage was again
fixed, when t aro of the prisoner's sisters who were
then in England made a communication to her, which
induced Mrs. Wells again to hesitate To remove
her doubts the prisoner had recourse to the mcst
specious representations, and said that his sisters had
slandered him, and were not brought up in holiness.
At last he succeeded in consummating his wicked-
ness, and removed all doubts from the mind of the
widow, who became his wife. Too late she found
herselideceived, and that the prisoner was a villain.
Mr. Pelham was then proceeding to enter into a detail
of the means used by the prisoner to deceive the
widow, when
Mr. YARDLEY said there was no occasion to do so,
and he thought Mr. Pelham ought to confine himself
to the legal proofs.
friend, Mr. Pelham, which was only
intended Mr. Fearnley objected altogether to the opening
address
prejudice his client. He should now be
compelleds of his
ask questions of the lady which he would
s tot
o
not have done if the solicitor on the other side had
confined himself to what was strictly legal.
Mr. Pelham said, his object in naming the first
conviction, and the arts by which the prisoner had
succeeded in his base purposes, was that he knew
bail would be tendered, and that an attempt would
be made to show that the prisoner was the injured
artyp.
William Davison Day, police-constable 72 K, pro-
duced certificated copies of the registers of the three
marriages, which were extracted from the hooks of
the respective perishes. He stated that after leaving
Neweastle-upon-Tyne he proceeded to Barnard Cas-
tle, where he had an interview with the first wife of
the prisoner, who called herself Ann Warwick, and
upon exhibiting to her a Daguerrotype portrait of the
prisoner she exclaimed, " that is my husband's like-
ness, the villain." Day was proceeding to relate
more of the conversation, when

Mr. Fearnley objected.
Mr. YARDLEY decided that the conversation was
not evidence.
Day stated that he saw the father of the second
wife, and that Mr. Elliott, the clerk of St. Nicholas,
Newcastle-upon-Tyne, would prove that the first
wife was alive when the third marriage took place,
and that she was still living.
Mr. YARDLEY said, all the witnesses necessary to
prove the identity of the parties must be sum-
moned.
Mr. Pelham—All I want is a remand, and I will
then bring the legal proof of the first marriage, and
that the prisoner's lawful wife-is now alive.
Day then stated that he apprehended the prisoner
that morning in the London Dock, and having re-
ceived information that he was a most powerful man,
and likely to make a desperate resistance, he procured
assistance and took a pair of handcuffs with him. He
succeeded by a ruse in getting the prisoner out of
the ship Maid of Auckland, and upon reaching the
gate at the Shadwell entrance of the London Dock,
where the prisoner expected to meet Mr. Hughes, the
brother of Mrs. Wells, he told him he was his pri-
soner,
and explained the nature of the charge against
him. The prisoner requested him to accompany him
back to the ship for the purpose of locking up his
cabin. He told him that could not be allowed; on
which the prisoner swore in a most dreadful manner,
and said he would not go. A desperate struggle
ensued on the quay, during which the prisoner forced
him and a brother officer to the edge of the
jetty, and knocked them both down, and, but for the
fortunate intervention of a cask, they must have rolled
into the dock basin, and perhaps have been drowned.
The prisoner made his escape, and a hue and cry was
immediately raised. The prisoner made for the
tunnel which connects the eastern dock withlthe tobacco
dock, when he was intercepted by a constable, who
drove him back. The prisoner next made for the gate
where the labourers wait for employment. It was
immediately closed against him, and the prisoner,
finding he was hemmed in on all sides, fought most
desperately for upwards of three quarters of an hour,
and it required the united exertions of six officers and
two captains of ships to subdue the prisoner, and place