The Sun.
London, England, 1803-08-19 00:00:00

EXETER ASSIZES.

PERJURY.
FACEY AND OTIIEIks against WILLMENr.

Tits Was a Cause tried at the lait Assizea for
the County of Devon, attended by many circum.
stances of the most complicated perjury. It was
Instituted by three. persons of Combinartin, in De.
yonshire, to recover a suns of a Mr. Willment, of
Taunton, the possession of the property of the late'
Quatro. Adams, so well 'ktiown a few years back in
the North of Devon. The, Plaintiffs.who are men
of inferior rank in life, but related by blood to Mr:
'Adams, and whose cause was supported by many
.Genflemen in 'their neighbOnibood, claimed under a
certain deed, said to have been executed by- Mr.
Adams on August 9th; 1797, whereby he had given
all his real and personal property, to be possessed
'after hii decease, to is sister who lived' at Comb-
martin, and after her to be divided between the said
three Plaintiffs, and their heirs, executors, Sic.—
This deed was also said tohave been executed with
the most formal ceremonies, 'in the preaencc of a
number of witnesses, three of whom attestod the
execution. Two spoons delivered as possession of
the personal, and a turfeut as livery of seisin of the
real property. The deed was said to have been
delivered by Mr. Adams tOjiis sister, and by her
sacredly preiefved till after the decease of Mr.
Adams in Odober 1799. It then came forward to
the world. The sister,• Mts. Staddon, and the
Plaintiffs set up their claim. elle latier called on
Mr. Leigh„of Craddock, to procure no investiga-
tion into the affairs of Mr. Adams, who discovered
that he had made:a Will at Taunton' a few days be.
rote his .decease, the Executor in which who was
also devisee, in trust, had proved" the Will, and
entered into possession of the Estates. Some months
after .this, the Plaintiffs called on Mr. Leigh with
a paper purporting to be a copy of the said deed,
for his opinion : soon after the orginal was pro.
duced to, and left with him. Mr. Leigli,'susped.
iog from the difference in the several representa.
tiuns of
,their case, that the deed was a forgery,
held the original on that ground..;l An Attorney of
Barnstaple was shortly after called on to prepare a
Power of Attorney from the Claimants to a Gentle.
man of the neighbourhood, enabling him' to prose„
cute their claim against, 'and settle the disputes with
Mr. Willment, who had so possessed, himself oldie
oroperty Under Mr. Adams's last Wilt. The ex-
treme age of Mrs. Staddon, the sister, damped the
proceedings, and the cause lay by till-Mrs. Stad.
don's decease, in March t Sot . The Plaintiffs hay.
ing parted with the deed, which Mr. Leigh so de..
tanned on the • suspicion of its being forged, and
thinking it the best means of getting possession of
the property, entered on some of the estates, cut ,
timber, mowed grass, &c. : for this they wire ap.
prehended'on the prosecution of Mr. Willment, and,
gave security to appear at, the.next Devon Sessions,
where they were indiaed by Mr. Willment for a
.forcible entry and rnisderneanour.• At the Sessions
they called, with some Gentlemen of their neigh-
borhood, on-. Mr. Terrell,
,to.traverscAlie,lndia..
!bent, which was dope. A copy of
.the deed, with
evidence of its execution written and signed, having
been newly modelled by the witnesses, and sent by
post to him. 'Thai it newly modelled appears.
by a former statement of their evidence given to a
Gentleman of Barnstaple, wherein they said the deed
was executed the latter end of August.