The Sun.
London, England, 1802-08-07 00:00:00

CONVICTS AT WOOLWICH.

THE following is a correct account of the escape
of some of the Convitas from Woolwich on Thursday
last. From the confession of one of the men who
escaped, it appears that the Convitas have some time
had it in contemplation to attempt an escape ; and
on Thurs&iymorning last, between the hours of eight
and nine o'clock; they conceived a favourable oppor-
tunity presented itself for putting their plan in ex--
ecution. They were all on shore, to the number of
about 120, and were confined within a building near
to the waterside, where they are accustomed to'
work, and which is fenced round with a high wall.
The Keepers, who were-attending, observed no_
. thing more than usual in their movements, till
on a sudden they rushed, out and seized some of
theM, and others they knocked Own. The ring..
leader had armed himself with a large knif4,
which he. had by some means procured,- and on
finding that the Convias had secured :the Keepersr,
he proceeded with the knife •to the outer gate.,
where a sentinel was placed, who heard a noise,
but did not know the cause. To hi,n .the armed
Convia, with several others, at his back,. addreSsed
himself, and insisted upon the gate' being opened,
that they might pass, or he would instantly run him
through. The Soldier seeing him determined,
back a few. paces, presented his pietei and shot the
ringleader through the hehd. It appears that at the
instant he saw the sen'tinel about to lire, he turned
away his head, but.the ball entered the li4k,part
and he died immediately. During the coalUsion
'circumstance occasioned, another of the C3oviCis
was attempting to scale the wall, and was shot.it
by another soldier, who with anany.othe,rs 'oyitlps
time had been summoned to the
.place. The, hill
from his piece entered the man's shoulder, but, 'LIL)
,doubt is entertained of -his recovery.
Had they succeeded in passing the soldier, it Isys
their intentidri to have seized
,those boats w:Lich
are generally in waiting to, take the Conviasibn
board the with which they would ha '.e...cross....Td
the liver, and by that means many of themw4(.l
no doubt have got clear off.
The alarm now, became genera)'; notice arras
sent to the Garrison to the com Minding Officer
.of the 'Artiilery, General LLOYD. Providentially
both liorse and foot were out vu ditty that morn.
ing, it being a geld day. lo les than a q,ttarter of
an hour after the express arrived, the,whols .unitary
force, abut 2000 men, was ,pl.lced at eyery-
avenue leading out of the tiwn. Tile horse were 'sta.
tiomvd in Hanging Wood and its environs, iind.the
loot marched instantly to the DOck.Jard. When
the military arrived at the D iek.,yard all was
quiet ; the great beidy of :he Convias were at their
daily labour ; [nit 'the. ring-leaders, it was supposed,
Fund eight or ten otherS, had
.escaped, with the
exception of two, the 'one' that was kiiled and the
,me wounded. After a very said search of
several hours in Hanging Wood, and. the town,
the whole were found concealed in different places
about the TY:ek.Yard. the four supposed , tui,ave
elciped-into the wood were found by the miiitary
concealed under a quantity of timber the front
yard, near- the principal entrance from the high
road, and one,Of them refused to leave the plate of
his concealment until a soldier man hi's bayonet tour
inches into his shoulder. -The offenders werecar-
ried to 'the, dungeon and auiiim i down uiitii they
receive their punishment. •No further d uhiance.
'took place, quiethess has ever' since reigned, and
the Convicts go on with their work as quietly, as ii
I nothing had .happened.

This iv-as an anion of ejeament brought to re-
cover the possession Of a small farm near Horsham.
Mr. Serjeant SHEI'PAiD, who -led the case,
stated, that the presort Henry Cock claimed as heir
at law to his brattier Edward Cock,*_ and he was
eThquestionably entitled to it, unless Jane Cock, the
other party, was the hrgitimate, issue Of- the last
possessor) Edward Cock. Tie whole question,
-thereforeourned upon the lagi timacy of Jane Cock:
The-case , waa rather of.a peculiar nature. In for-
met' times, when a mat) find woman' were married,
all the-children,of the woman were
,snpposed to he
• • legitimate, unless the husband was extra Tuatuor
maria, that is,'was out .of the lane. Modern times,
however, had relaxt.rl this rule ;• and now, if it was
clearly shown that there was no access between
husband and wife, it would. bastardize the issue of
the latter. But he.suhmitted, -.-that the nwr-afteis
Must. laerie.arly'.-proved, and that legitimacy, the
birth-tight of Englishmen, .was not to be taken.
away without such pol:htive proof. it mattered not
IlOwsproatate and abandoned the mother might he,
if the husba,nd was'l.vithin the reach of access, the
issue must be presort-led to -be his.
Hid Client in this case 'was the daughter of Ly-:
the wife •of Etlward Cock, ihorh nadenathe.
following circumstances :—Lydia Cock? the tii()_
titer, previous-toiler marriage .with Edward Cock,
Had 'borfie him, two-illegitimate children. Afre.r
the birth of the-last child, Cheats, the Paiish
fiats interfered, kind' obliged' him to marry her.
Thisolteldid :do ;'-but immediately after the -mar-
tiage -he went away to, London; and site sa-vv. big
no more for some- timeo.and Iris-family, to prevent
the pupuit of,the. Parish Officers, gave,oot that he-
iras gone ..to,London.a •'He • helieved-tliat,thq had,
no intercourse for some time. The marriage was
in July' 1785 - but in 1784 the woman ,heath ahat,
her husband was, in Londom: -she went to town,
Saw him, • and had connexion with him. -• In 1784,
he also' came down in a stage to see'herat-Effing,
lam, where she then lived; and the child' 'whose
legitithacy was disputed was the consequence, of
that visit:: kie.also went to- see .his ow,n• family ;
but as he wished to cainCeal, his heing :there' from
•tlie Parish Officers, he: was concealed,.the whole
Mime of his visit, and did.not publicly 'show bin_
self in the town. PreViOUS to iris Coining down,
ba_Wrotea letter to his wife, saying, -Olathe should
visit his friends,. and- endeavour. to aget,cooney
.to
pay off the parish-of -Effingham. .146 was not suc-
cessful, and again'.retoroed to London. His family
then reported -he was dead ; hut, in fad, he was
toot so : ,for in .the year 1,788
.he, married its Lon-
don a Person. of the name of Hinckman; and his
mite believing the report, had ,also married again
a person of the name of Viddler. When the child
was borp, it was an objea, to conceal Who ,'as
the father; because if the woman
.had said it.Wai
her husband's, the Parish,Officers must have known
he was within reach ; and therefore it was that
the -child was baptitad .by ,another name, and
this would be an answer to what he understood
w0q1.4-:be
,Ptoved by the othor sides namely,. that
the 'Child was known by anodic! name. Bpr he
- insiSted, the wholeoof this ~corace'alment amount-
ed to nothing,• unless the other side clearly prOved
a non-aters.r. It was fortunate also, that the whole
...would net rest on
.the testimony oaf the: er,
lydiaCock, as he would,cai other witnesses. who'
sa,A,Edw.ard_Ccck on the .outside of the . Horsham
Atage,,:going dow9,4t the time lie lead sated, what,
,}tie made, the visit_ to his wife, arid ftom which
' visit, and the,intercourse that, followed, Jane Cock,
the 'present litigant, was born. Be.. conc)utied by
that legitimacy was a legal right which
could nOt he. destroyed . until nott-acces; Was
,posl-
proved,- The marriage of Etiward,Cock and -
Lydia Hopkins was proved ;to have -Peett on the
-sth of July,. 1781. The birth of two spurious
• children, and that. Edward 'Cock ran away the-day
of the marriage, was admitted.
'Lydia Cock, the wife, was then called, she
stated, that she was maraieri to Edward Cock in
-1781 ; he left her the'morning after .theanarriage,
irtd she newer saw Lim again till March, 1784
' she then lived with a Mr. Bansalls, and she had not
• 'known where he was during that .interval. He
then told her that he worked at Whitbread's Brew_
house, and That. he would go home and endeavour
to get some money of his friends to. settle. with the
parish of Effingham.- He staid With. her all night,
and they had a 'sexual intercourse He went away, .
in the morning, and told hrr she :Might writevi
•Ititn, to be left at the Golden Cross, Charing-cross.
In April she went to ttiwn, 'and met hint by chance
in Aldersgate.street ; they went to two public.
houses together, and there they hadalso connexion,
and that Jane Cock was the fruit of that con-
vtexion; she returned home, and was in due course
delivered. This was the material part of her testis
mony, as to the legitimacy ; but after a long and
very severe cross-examination by Mr. GARROW,
her conduct appeared something more than doubt-,
ful. She could 'not deny but that the child had
been usually called Jane Briggs, and that she had
threatened to swear it to a John Briggs ; but she
sjid it was out of spite to his father, who, as
Parish Officer, had threatened' her: that he would
make her swear the .child. She was c:osely
amined as 'to having had intercourses with other
men ; but she denied it in a manner rather cone
tradidory to what site-said. She admitted that she
had a child' subsequent toiane, while she lived with
diMr. Brett, who died acid left her his property ;
She denied that' it was his child at all ; that her bus-
• band had paid her another secret- visits She denied
_ that she had ever told a man of the name of Lucy
that site badger the estate, and. would be d---d if
she did not keep it. The mariner, however, of her
givkag her testimony, threw.coosiderable suspicion
• as to the truth of it. •
A Witness was then called, who said that he had
seen Edward' Cock err the
.outside of a Horsham-

El P E 1 V.S'.

YARMOtiTII, ATIC:IJST j;

Past by—the Elizabeth, BOggic, Nicholas and Jane,
Absalom, —, Spes Fides, Lawson, -Two Brothers,
ands tsrth star, Stubbs, from Norway; Concord, Walsh,
from Africa Three Brothers, Butler,' from Alrneria; Au-
rora; ----, linen New Orleans i Ceres, Warren, and Europe,
Willis, from jarnaioa ; Lady' Agnetta, Balche, from Ham-
bro' ; Ta.neand Sarah, Bishop, frorrt„Smyrna ;• bbetsons,
Teak, from Nevi, Symmetry, Harrison, front Petersbtirth ;
Leith-Packet, —, Hope; and • Hope, Place, from
Rotterdam. • •
`Sailed—the Hope, Barrett, for Oporto; Susan androlly,
Eldred, 'foi Baltimore ; Commerce, " for Peterslttirgh ;
Caroline, Edwards, for Rouen; Maria, for Calais ;
Conmierce, Howe, for Gibraltar; Opten; Rebell, for Lis-
bon ; Nlalyina, Carr, for A frita -and :lunge Sylvrand,
for Ostend. . .

From the very extraordinary • splendour and va=
riety of the Scenery and other preparations for the
new •splendid Speetacle announced for Monday
next, at the Royal Circus, it,is unavoidably post_-
pCined until Wednesday, August the r rth, when it
most assuredly will make its appearance ; those,
therefore; whn have hitherto been disappointed of
seeing the beautiful, Ascension. of the Balloon, the
interesting Scenes of the FatalTrediClion, and the
highly entertaining ones of the Golden Farmer,
with the admired-Harlequin and incomparable Co-
lumbine of Byrne and Wybrow, bye a prolonged
opportunity of beholding, them, they continuing •as
high as ever in the estimation of every circle, as
the very ruimerous assemblage of each evening suffi-
ciently

BIRTII, • •
On Wednesday last, at Creqdy, ncar 1-..xer,:r, the Lady of
Sir john Davie,• Bart. of a D'aughter;

LONDPNI : Printed by Itti CAA NA N 1114.iki I LIAN, (of Bow-Street,,Covent-GarLieni; andl ub1i4!1,;(.1 by t-1/4 ILL! A M Alt Sc R ir rs, (of Horse- krry.road,, Westminster);
At the Suri-Orricit, No. r iat, Strand ; where' Adiserristmenis, Ordert for the—Paper, _Letters for tl.7e Editor, &c. (lost-paid), must be addressed.