The Sun.
London, England, 1834-04-05 00:00:00

ASSIZE INTELLIGENCE.

MIDLAND CIRCUIT.—WARIvrex, APRIL 3.
(Before Chief Justice TINDAL.)
WARDE V. LLOYD.
This was an action brought on a feigned issue to
ry the validity of a will.
The parties in this case stood in the relation of
nephew and uncle, and the object of the present
proceedings was to establish the will of Mr. George
Lloyd, a brother of the defendant, who had be-
queathed to him an estate for life, but which the
present defendant claimed to take as heir at law.
The circumstances were shortly these :—ln 1831
the testator died at the house of the mother of the
plaintiff, to which he had been removed from his
own for his greater comfort, he being a single man
and in years, and it being thought he could have
more attention from his sister in her own dwelling
than elsewhere. At the time he was first attacked
with illness he was not considered in any danger,
but being advised to settle his worldly affairs he made
his will, wherein he gave to his brother, a man of
great wealth, and who had lately been High Sheriff
of the county, his real estates for life, with
the reversion to his nephew, the present plaintiff.
There was also a codicil attached to the will for the
granting a legacy, and the receiving of certain
moneys to be paid for a certain estate. At the time
of the testator's illness, an express was sent off to
the defendant, desiring his presence, but he did not
arrive time enough to see him alive. He, however,
acquiesced in the will, and for some time acted up
to it, and even suggested the filing of an amicable
bill in Chancery for the purpose of carrying its pro-
visions more fully into effect ; but lately it would
seem that the defendant had different views with re-
spect to it, and he now disputed its validity, con-
tending that the testator had made no will at all, or,
if he had, that the one produced in court was not
the actual document.
The defendant did not produce any evidence that
could properly call in question the will of his bro-
ther, which had been drawn up and signed with
every formality that the law required; and the jury
returned a verdict for the plaintiff, establishing both
codicil and will.

NORTHERN CIRCUIT.—Yoax, APRIL
(Before Mr. Justice ALDERSON.)
This morning before taking any other business
his Lordship passed the awful sentence of death
upon three prisoners who had been previously con-
victed—namely, upon Thomas• Morrows, for a
rape ; Charles Cock, for highway robbery, con-
nected with brutal violence to a poor fishman named
James Richardson ; and William Hall, for stack-
burning. No hope of mercy was held out to them,
and they were solemnly implored by his Lordship,
to use well the time allotted to them in this world
and prepare for the worst.
John Parker was next put to the bar, charged
with the wilful murder of Jane Ayrton, of Wigles-
worth, in the West Riding. It appeared that the
prisoner and the deceased were seen together on the
21st of December last, after which day she was mis-
sing, and shortly after she was found in a shallow
stream of water, with a handkerchief tied tight
round her neck, and with marks of violence about
her person. The prisoner was suspected, taken up,
and committed for trial, but there was not sufficient
evidence to bring the charge home to bins, and an
acquittal was directed.
Joseph Ratcliffe was put to the bar, charged with
the manslaughter of a boy named Samuel Tomlin-
son, at Leeds, in the West Riding.
" Some of the boys employed in the factory de-
posed that on one occasion the deceased was sent up
a ladder to a loft to get some heckles down, and that
in descending his smock caught some other heckles
and drew them from the loft, by falling from which
the points were broken against the floor. The pri-
soner took the ladder and struck the deceased over
the back of the neck ;he fell to the ground. One
witness said he staggered but did not fall. On ano-
ther occasion, some short time after the former, it
was the duty of the deceased to screw a press toge-
ther, which he performed as well as his strength
would admit, but the boards being loose the% pri-
soner took an instrument called the lay-brush and
beat him violently over the back of the neck. On
the last occasion a number of the boys were playing
with some mats, before six o'clock in the morning,
when the prisoner caught them. He took hold of
the deceased, whispered something to him, and let
him go. He then beat all the rest with a rope, and
having finished with them, called the deceased back,
put the rope round his neck, and, lifting him with
one arm from the ground, threw the other end
of the rope over the steam-pipe which went along
the factory, about eight feet from the floor, and drew
the boy up so that his feet were completely off the
ground, and he was suspended by the neck, in which
position the prisoner kept him, he kicking and strug-
gling all the while, for two or three minutes, till he
was black in the face. He was then let down on the
ground and beaten as he lay with the rope. After
some time he went to his work, but the next day
complained that his neck was stiff. He was not
able to work after that, and, growing worse, was
taken to the Leeds Infirmary in March 1833, where
he grew worse. After remaining about eight weeks
he was removed to another building attached to
the infirmary, where he still continued to get worse,
and was reported as incurable. He lingered for
between eight and nine months from the time when
the injury .was received, and then died.
The prisoner put in a written defence, denying
the charge, and stating that he was obnoxious to
the Trades' Union, who were determined to be his
ruin, because he refused to join them, and com-
mented at considerable length upon the variances
in the evidence, and the improbability that the de-
ceased would not have complained to his mother,
which he did not.
After hearing the evidence recapitulated, the
jury, after retiring for a considerable time,"returned
with a verdict of Guilty.
He was sentenced to be imprisoned for twelve
calendar months.

' river, and it was quite impossible to see or to sus-
pect that it lay out at such a distance.
The LORD MAYOR—I have every reason to bx-
lieve that the water-bailiff is now employed, together
with the harbour-masters, to whom I issued orders
to render every assistance in marking out the ob-
structions in the river, in order that immediate mea-
sures may be resorted to for inflicting penalties upon
offenders.
Mr. Cutler said that accidents very frequently
occurred arising from precisely similar practices, but
as they were seldom attended with loss of life no
noise was made about them, and the nuisances con-
tinued unabated. The measures which his Lord-
ship had ordered to be adopted had had the effect
of making the mastmakers, &c., alter the position of
their spars, and place them sideways along the shore,
which, if it had been done in the instance of the
timber on which the boat swamped, would have pre-
vented the catastrophe.
The LORD MAYOR was aware that some persons
would not attempt to remove an obstruction until
recommended by some awful visitatioss, and it was
quite the custom to ascribe what resulted from their
own neglect and carelessness to the conduct of the
watermen. In this case it was palpable that the
waterman is wholly free from blame.
Mr. Pope—lt was stated at the inquest that the
corporation of London received fees from the
owners of wharfs for permission to lay spars in the

river.

The LORD MAYOR—I am convinced that such
s not the case. I, as conservator of the Thames,
have never consented or been applied to upon an
occasion of the kind. The thing is illegal. The
assertion is filse.
Mr. Pope—lt was from .one of the jury. He
said the city had a fee of two guineas from each
wharf which wished to have the privilege, and it
was not denied by any one present.
The chairman of the Navigation Committee said
there was not the slightest shadow of a foundation
for such a report.
The ruler of the Watermen's Company had
thought it to be his duty to attend at the Mansion
House in order to state that he had been upon the
Thames forty years, and in the habit of inspecting
the situation of the timber laid in the river, and he
could not help declaring that the spar in conse-
quence of which the accident occurred had been
most dangerously placed with respect to the small
craft in the river. He hoped that the declaration
of the juryman as to the fees alluded to was without
foundation.
The LORD MAYOR—If it should be thought
necessary to hold a Court of Conservancy on ac-
count of the state of the river I shall call one at a
day's notice. I have directed the water-bailiff and
the harbour-masters to go down the river, and re-
present to me the nature and extent of the ob-
structions ; and I shall take care to remove every
thing the existence of which may expose human
life to danger, or obstruct the navigation of the
river. The harbour-masters are bound to render
every assistance in their power ; and if I find they
are net disposed to act, why it is possible to appoint
others who will act with alacrity.
The ruler of the Watermen's Company was sure
that, with the assistance of the Navigation Com-
mittee, who were disposed and able to aid his lord-
ship, there would henceforward be greater security
for human life than the public were in the habit of
enjoying. He considered it of considerable im-
portance that a gentleman of the experience and
activity of Mr. Drinkald was now a member of
that committee.
Soon after the above conversation took place the
water-bailiff entered the Justice-room. He stated
to the Lord Mayor that even on that morning the
spars opposite to Mr. West's wharf, where the fatal
accident happened, had extended too far into the
river for the public safety. They had been on the
day the inquest was held turned round and laid
alongside the wharf, but afterwards they were moved
into the same position in which they were on the
day the accident occurred ; not so far distant from
the wharf, but still too far. Mr. West, jun., upon
being spoken to on the subject, immediately altered
their position, after expressing his sorrow at what
had taken place, and promised that they should be
always kept close to the wharf.
The LORD MAYOR then asked the water-bailiff
whether he knew anything about fees demanded
for obstructing the navigation, to which that officer
replied that no such thing had been demanded or
received. He thought it necessary to state that
Mr. West, jun., assured him that the long spars
had been in the river no more than two or three
days. Mr. West had also stated a remarkable cir-
cumstance. The boat, it would be recollected,
overturned upon one spar, which extended much
farther into the Thames than the numerous others
near it. A rule had been dropped in the morning of
the night of the accident into the water, and the
fatal spar had been pushed out of its place, for the
purpose of enabling one of the men to reach at it.
The spar had not been replaced.
The LORD MAYOR then gave the water-bailiff
further instructions.

GUILDHALL.
A young man named William Stephens, was
brought before Sir C. MARSHALL yesterday, in con-
sequence of having been found in possession of a
horse and gig, under suspicious circumstances.
Sir C. MARSHALL' remanded him, in order to
give the officer an opportunity to trace the owner.
BOW-STREET.
Yesterday Joseph Thomas Morrison was charged
with plundering Mr. Walden, a printer, in Drury-
lane, of household furniture and other articles, to
the amount of 261.
He had nothing to say, and was fully committed
for trial.