The Sun.
London, England, 1846-05-21 00:00:00

ROBBING THE DEAD.

TUNBRIDGE-WELLS.—George Vousden, Robert Vous-
den, William Ellis, Mary Waters, Ann Underdown, and
Harriet Collins, were charged with robbing the dead
body of William Sanders. Thomas Wells, constable of
Brenchley. deposed that he savv the body of the late
William Sanders on Sunday last. Bi.tween ten and
eleven o'clock that morning George Vousden came to
him and t,ild him that a man had been found in the
Clay's Wood pond. On his arrival at the spot he ob-
tained assistance, got the body out of the water, and
conveyed it to a barn. He saw the prisoners
George Vousden and Thomas Vousden at the pond,
and they told him that 3s. lid. had been taken from
the left-hand trousers pocket of deceased, and that
Mrs. Waters had got the money. He saw the whole
of the prisoners, as they had all been to the pond,
and they all told the same tale—that 3s. lid. had
been taken out of the left-hand trousers pocket. He
went to Mrs. Waters's, and she gave him the moneys
said to have been found in the pocket. On bearing that
the decease, the night before he was missed, had several
pounds in his pocket, he went to Mrs. Waters's on Tues-
day morning. Robert Vousden and Thomas Vousden
lodge in the same house. He saw Thomas Vousden and
Mrs. Waters, and he asked them, "How about the money
that was in the pockets of the deceased ?" and they then
confessed that 6L 103., nine half-sovereigns and two sove-
retns had been taken from the left-hand pocket in the
trousers. Thomas Vousden said that his brother George
took the money out of the pocket, that five of them had a
pound each, and as his brother George, they considered,
had had most trouble, be had 30s. Thomas Vousden then
gave him a sovereign and a half, and Mrs. Waters gave him
two half-sovereigns. He next went to Mrs. Collins's. He
did not see Mrs. Collins, but he saw her husband at work
in the garden; and he went in-doors and brought out two
half-sovereigns and gave him. He then went to Mrs.
Underdown, and she gave him two half-sovereigns, and
said she was very sorry at what had occurred, and also
that she wished she had not gone to the pond. As he
was going home he met George Vousden, and took him
into custody. He said he had not got any of the
money. William Ellis also denied ever having any of
the money. He took the whole of the men into custody
in the morning when he saw them. He did not take the
women into custody, as he was satisfied they would not
run away. The whole of the prisoners had been the day
before summoned to attend the Coroner's inquest.
The Bench wished to know if the person who knew
the deceased had money in his possession the evening be-
fore he was missing was present. Witness said no other
witness was present but himself. The inquiry was then
adjourned till the other witnesses could be brought from
Brenchley. The following evidence was subsequently
advanced:—Mary Collins, of Brenchley, deposed that
she was a widow, and the deceased lodged at her house.
She saw him last on Friday in Easter week. He then,
after dinner, showed her nine half-sovereigns and two
whole ones, 3s. 6d. in silver, and 2id. in coppers. He
left her house about four o'clock. He had been drink-
ing all the week. She had not seen him since. Thomas
Diamond, of Brenchley, deposed that he knew the de-
ceased, William Sanders, and he saw the body of
deceased in a barn at Brenchley on Sunday morning.—
The prisoners were then committed for trial at the next
quarter sessions.

WHOLESALE POISONING IN
NORFOLK.
During the last week the inhabitants of Happisburgh, a
village on the Norfolk coast, have been in a state of great
excitement in consequence of the exhumation of a number
of bodies believed to be poisoned, including those of a man
named Jonathan Balls, his wife, and four grandchildren, all
of whom recently died under very suspicious circumstances.
Information was not given to either of the county coroners
after the first death, as the parish officers throughout the
county had received a circular from the :magistrates request-
ing them to make strict inquiries before the expense of an
inquest was incurred, there having been a deal of complaint
at the magistrates' meetings as to the heavy expense of
coroners' inquests. Mr. Pilgrim, the county coroner for the
district, received information of the deaths, but was, at first,
unwilling to institute an inquiry until a:second and third ap-
plication had been made to him; and rumours increasing of
many persons having been poisoned, he found it necessary
for him to issue his warrant for the exhumation of the bodies.
They were placed in a tent at the back of the parish church,
round which hundreds of people collected. Special con-
stables had to be sworn in to prevent improper interference
and to_ preserve order.

On Monday last an inquest was held before Mr. Pilgrim
and a very respectable jury, at the Hill-house, Happisburgh.
The betties were identified by the relatives, and the surgeons
who attended, after making a post morteni examination, re-
moved the stomachs from the bodies, and stated that the ap-
pearances created great suspicion in thi;ir minds that the
parties had been poisone.l.

The Rev. Mr. Birch, Vicar of Happisburgh, and the parish
officers, expressed the most anxious desire to have the matter
thoroughly investigated, and offered to render any assist-
ance in their power.
The jury having been sworn,
The CORONER explained the nature' of the inquiry to
them. lie begged they would dismiss foam their minds any
rumours they might have heard, and attend only to the
evidence.

The jury having returned from viewing' the bodies, several
witnesses were examined.
Ann Pestle, a married woman, living at: Happisburgh, de-
posed that she had identified the bodies of Jonathan Balls,
her father, and of Elizabeth Pestle, her child. Her father
had died on the 20th, and her child on the. 15th of April last,
after violent vomiting and purging, but -she did not think.
they had taken poison. On her return home from washing
she found the child very sick, but unabld to get anything
up. The child died in a few hours after.. Her father also
was taken very ill after returning from asi and partak
ing of a slight dinner. He also died in a few hours after.
Still she did not suspect that either of them Itad been poisoned.
She thought her father died from old age, and the child from
a sore throat. ,
The inquest was adjourned in order to .allow time for the
surgeons to analyze the stomachs.
Thursdayand ltahset,santrg9e,ntlisst.w, assembledetrheeejxuraymrintrfed.
Mr. Clowes, a surgeon of Statham,
Hiollnlious, at the
dDce
20th of April last ho was called in to
is 7
him vomiting and retching violently. st! TcE.ased complained ed
Balls, that
and o foundn t he
t suspect Hutt he had taken
soon after. Witness did
food.ne
Witness ht id examined the
of great pain in his bowels and about the sitc,mach. He died
poison, but some improper h
in that orp,7ari were quite suf-
ficient stomach. The appearancesl
body and found it perfectlyealith with the exception of
was undoubtedly
tietdcloyntthaienceadusae
oflia drgeeatiranHtietvalsonf
ticient to account for death. He analyzed a portion o,fatande
wthahincehdatomach of the child, Eliz at )etli Pestle
removed
stomach,arsenic,
e sunined it chemically, and found a quan-,,k cy of arsenic in
1 't,x quite sufficient to cause death.
blur. Hewitt, another surgeon, who assisted the last witness
the con-
tents n
Aexamining..tr. F
iail
,at hNe asr t%%einci
ha c
sl ins
r,
gconfirmed
alsoh i s earin . i:
Is;
zs
es
d.
of the stomachs, and said they container.( arsenic enough
a single WOMITI, living in the ,
to poison tAhnenwEhoulzeapNareiasll%.,
parish, deposed that she had known the d encased Jonathan
Balls, and that some years since she refused, at his request,
to write a note to Mr. Saddler, chemist, ot'N orth Waltham,
for some arsenic, which he said he wanted for the purpose of
destroying rats. She had previously writt;en a note to that
effect for his daughter, Mr-s. Pestle, for that: purpose.
Mr. Hewitt, the surgeon, hre observed, .1.. e had reason to
believe that all the parties who had recentl y died there came
by their deaths in a similar way to those .w
-hose bodies had
been raised and examined.
The Rev. Mr. Birch exceedingly regretted such an occur-
rence in his parish, and again hoped that tb e matter would
be thoroughly investigated, and that r. o p.ains would be
spared to find out the guilty parties. S;ev eral gentlemen
present at the inquiry .regretted that an inqnest was not held
immediately after the first death, as it nii(Ois have_operated
as a check, and been the means of sa• sus g several lives.
They believed that an inquest bad not belts held in the first

instance in consequence of the circular issued by the magis-
trates to the parish officers.
It was considered necessary that the bodies of three other
persons should be taken up and examined, and in order to
allow time for this to be done the inquest was further ad-
journed.
Summonses were issued for the attendance of
witnesses from Yarmouth and other places.
HAPPISBURG (NEAR NORTH WALSHAM), TUESDAY MORN-
ING.—The investigation concerning the recent murders by
poisoning in this village was brought to a close last evening
by Mr. Pilgrim, one of the Norfolk county coroners, at the
Hasborough-hill House, and the disclosures which were made
during the inquiry leave very little doubt that the acts of
poisoning must have been going on for years, and it is iin-
p3ssible to conjecture how many unfortunate persons have
fallen a sacrifice.

In accordance with the adjournment, Mr. Pilgrim, the
Coroner, arrived from Norwich at nine o'clock, at the Has
borough-hill House, to prosecute the inquiry. On the jury
being called over they proceeded to view the bodies, which
had been ordered to be exhumed at the previous inquiry.
On reaching the churchyard a novel sight presented itself.
The police were stationed at the gates to prevent the crowd
pressing their way in. In the churchyard, by the side of the
tower, was a temporary tent erected, under which the coffins,
that had only that morning been exhumed, were deposited.
The lids had not been opened until the jury's arrival, thereby
rendering their duty of a most unpleasant character. With
the exception of the infant, the bodies were not so &corn-
posed as to prevent identity. At the conclusion of the pain-
ful ceremony they retired to the inquest-room, the Coroner
directing the surgeon to make an immediate post mortem
examination of the bodies.

Evidence was then adduced at great length. It was shown
that all the deceased had died of poison by arsenic; and
one witness swore that she saw old Balls put into his wife's
teapot pinches of a white powder resembling flour. All the
deceased had died in a short time, and had shown symptoms
attendant upon metallic poison. Judging by the evidence,
Balls must have wound up the tragedy by administering to
himself a portion of the arsenic with which ho destroyed the
others.
•
The three married daughters of the deceased were present
at the deaths of their mother and father, but there did not
appear to be any ground for suspicion that they partook of
the terrible crime.

The Coroner proceeded to sum up the evidence. He
thought the facts did not fix upon any party so as to warrant
them in sending the case to another tribunal. If anyone was
inculpated the finger of suspicion most certainly pointed to
the deceased Jonathan Balls, and he was beyond the reach
of the law. He recommended them to return such a verdict
as would enable the officers to have the matter further in-
quired into should such circumstances arise as required it.
It was a case of great suspicion.
The jury then found, after half an hour's consultation,
" that the deceased Jonathan Balls, Elizabeth Balls, Samuel
Pestle, and Ann Elizabeth Pestle, died from the effects of
poison, but bow administered there was no evidence to show."

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