The Sun.
London, England, 1866-08-14 00:00:00

ASSIZES INTELLIGENCE.

NORTHERN CIRCUIT.—LivERPooL, Aug. 13.

CROWN SIDE.
(Before Mr. Baron Martin.)
MURDER.

Thomas Grime was placed at the bar, charged
with the wilful murder of James Barton, at Haigh,
on the 2d of January, 1863.
Mr. Aspinall, Q.C., and Mr. Fitz Adam were
counsel for the prosecution; and Mr. Pope defended
the prisoner.

This was the case of the "Wigan murder," which
has created very great interest throughout the dis-
trict, in consequence of the peculiar atrocity of the
crime and the mystery in which it continued to be
so long enveloped. James Barton, with his sons,
was an engine-tenter at the Bawk-house Colliery,
between Wigan and Chorley, and working the night
shift alone on the night of the 2d of January, 1863,
the pumping engine only being at work. He went
to his work at 6 o'clock in the evening, being met on
his way by his son John, who was then leaving
work, and he was never seen alive again. At half-
past 3 in the morning, when James Watman wen t
to relieve the deceased, he was unable to find him
anywhere about. He found the furnaces low, the
cabin adjoining empty and in darkness, and the fire
there nearly out. He was not immediately alarmed,
but on knocking up the fire in the cabin his atten-
tion was attracted by part of a burnt muffler on the
floor, and, on looking further, he found a crowbar
with blood upon it, and splashes and finger-marks
of blood upon the floor and walls. He then went
to seek the assistance of the deceased's son James,
and together they made a further search. In the
first furnace they found the ashes very white, as if
a quantity of wood had been burnt in it, and
among them a thigh bone, arm bone, and part of a
skull, and the ashes themselves were greasy andglued
together by some substance which an analytical che-
mist afterwards pronounced to be blood. There
were also found some burnt buttons, shoe nails, a
waistband-buckle, such as the deceased was in the
habit of wearing, and two brace buckles. There
was also blood upon the dead plate of the furnace.
It was proved that Barton was wearing a watch that
night at his work.

These discoveries being made, it was clear that
Barton had been murdered, but, although a reward
and free pardon to any accomplice (not the actual
murderer) were offered by Government for a very
long time, no clue to the guilty persons was ob-
tained. After the lapse of a year, however, in con-
sequence of a statement made by a person named
Walton (called also " Stepper") that if the canal
were dragged the watch would be found there, fur-
ther notoriety was drawn to the case, and, after that
had been fruitlessly performed, a minute description
of the watch, with the number and name of the
maker, was published in. the newspapers. Upon
reading this a brother of the prisoner, James Grime,
at once recognised it as a watch which had come
into his possession and been- dealt with in the fol-
lowing way, and he at once took steps to recover
possession of it and deliver it to the police. It ap-
peared that Grime, the father, James, and the pri-
soner lived together at Chorley, and worked in a
factory there. A few weeks after the time of the
murder the prisoner produced to his brother James
a watch wrapped in a handkerchief, and, saying it
was one for which he had suffered 12 months at
Liverpool, asked him to pledge it for him. The
maker's name was
" Robert Crosskill, Liverpool,"
and the number " 17844." The watch was pledged
by him in the name of "John Walworth," on the
7th of April, and some time after the prisoner asked
his brother to apply for a " stop ticket," he
having lost the original ticket. This ticket
being also lost by the prisoner he told bis
brother that he might get the watch out if he
could, and keep it, and James Grime got it and sold
it to a man called Akers. Upon reading the pub-
lished description of Barton's watch he at once re-
cognised it as one he had sold, and, getting it back
from Akers, delivered it to the police. It was proved
beyond question to be the deceased's watch by the
watchmaker who had repaired it for him, and who
had the name and number in his book. The father
of the prisoner was also able to say that on the night
of the murder .the prisoner returned home to Chorley
between 5 and 6 in the morning.
Upon obtaining these clues an officer of the Lan-
cashire police named Peters presented himself at the
Dartmoor prison, where the prisoner was then serv-
ing a sentence for another felony, and charged him
with the murder at the pit. The prisoner said
nothing then, but on being brought back in the rail-
way he made the following statement : —" I met
William Thompson about a fortnight before the
murder of Barton near my parent's house at Eaves-
lane, Chorley,7l
lie sail," Wilt thou come With me

to murder Barton ?" We had some ale together in
the day, and during the day he asked me if I would
go out a-poaching with him. We met Joseph Sed-
don the same night near the Castle Inn, Chorley.
Seddon and me refused to go with Thompson that
night to Bawkhouse-pit in Haig. Seddon, Thomp-
son, and me met together again about half-past 9
at night near Richard Hammill's factory, Chorley.
We then came forward to Cowley-lane and then up
up the canal bank to Red Rock-bridge. We then
went over Red Rock-bridge through one of the
Lord's farmyards, and came up to the tram-road
which goes to the Bawkhouse, pit. On getting to
the pit Thompson said he would do the old -.
Barton had denied him of taking game and
ordered him off the premises, and told him if
ever he came again he would do him. Thomp-
son went in the cabin, and at this time the engine
was running, pumping water. I was on the pit
brow, close to the cabin, and Seddon a few yards
further off. Barton was laid down on the form
in the cabin. Thompson took a crowbar, hold of it
with both hands, and raised it to his shoulders,
and said, Now, you old -. I'll do you.' At
the same time he struck him on the forehead with
the crowbar and I heard Barton groan. Thompson
said, 'He is not dead.' He then gave him another
blow with the bar. After he struck the second blow
he never moved. Thompson then got hold of him
by the legs and dragged him out of the cabin and
chucked him down the slackhole. I moved about
six yards further back. Thompson shouted, Is there
anybody coming ?' Thompson said to Seddon,
' What should we do with him ?' Seddon never
spoke. Thompson then said, 'We will put him in
the firehole.' Thompson then said to me, He will
never be seen no more.' Thompson said, I'll chuck
about ten shovels of slack on him.' Ile threw the
slack in and closed the doors. I was all of a tremble.
We all three, Thompson, Seddon, and me, crossed
the field and went on the high road that goes up to
Tupper's-hill, and goes on Blackrod-road. Then we
came up an old lane. Then we came into the turn-
pike road and through Adlington to Chorley, and
got there about 5 o'clock in the morning. My father
asked me where I had been. I did not tell him. My
father said to me at night when he came home
(Saturday), Keep out of that Thompson's com-
pany.' He said Thompson was a blackguard. Thomp-
son had several times been in our house, and my father
ordered him out. After Thompson had killed Bar-
ton he took Barton's watch and chain and put it in
his pocket. I had a verge watch of my own. Thomp-
son said if I would give him my watch and 10s. we
could divide Barton's watch between Seddon and
me. I refused to do so then. Thompson kept Bar-
ton's watch a week. He then gave it to Joseph
Seddon to pawn. Seddon pawned Barton's watch
in the name of John Walworth,' and got a sove-
reign on it. Thompson got 10s. of the money, and
myself and Seddon got ss. each. We then all three
went and had a quart or two of ale apiece. Seddon
said to me, " The murder will be found out before
long." Thompson then said, It will never be found
out except some of us splits.' "
Two days later the prisoner again applied to
Peters, and said, " I want to speak to you Mr.
Peters. IVhere is Stepper, because he was with us
when the murder was committed ? Thompson and
me about three or four days before the murder was
committed was poaching beside the paper-mill.
Stepper, sometimes called Hopper, was with us.
Some calls him Patten. He. has an iron patten
under his foot. Stepper was in the cabin when
Thompson knocked him down. Stepper helped to
drag him across the pit brow to the fire-hole.
Seddon said, What must we do with him ?' and
Stepper and Thompson sho'ved him in the fire-hole."
When before the magistrate the prisoner made a
statement for the most part repeating the above, and
saying, " Thompson was the very first man that
ever mentioned murdering anybody. Well, I was
present when he murdered Mr. Barton, and no
other person murdered him but him."
Walton, or " Stepper," implicated in this state-
ment, was charged with this murder jointly with the
prisoner, but in accordance with a suggestion made
by his Lordship, it was determined that he should
take his trial separately to-morrow, in order that he
should not be prejudiced by the reading of these
statements, which are not, of course, legal evidence
against him. Seddon was in custody, but died in
gaol, and Thompson, against whom no corrobora-
tion of these charges could be found, is at large.
For the defence, Mr. Pope said it was impossible
to fathom the motives of the human mind leading
to the confession of crimes which, in some instances,
had never even been committed. Possibly there
might have been some motive of this description
(such as a desire to be a criminal of a very noto-
rious kind) working upon the mind of the prisoner,
and that his statement in this case was altogether
false. It was a curious fact that three men had
made confessions, and the prisoner's.was the only
one which had been acted upon, the others being
obviously false. It might be, therefore, that the
prisoner's story was also false, especially remember-
ing the offer of the reward and pardon. But even
if taken to be true, it 3id not implicate him to the
extent of making him an accomplice; and if he took
uo part in the deed, but merely stood by, dastard
though they might think him not to have interfered
to protect the deceased, and criminal not to give in-
formation, it did not amount to making him an ac-
complice. If the jury were not satisfied by the con-
fession that the prisoner was actually a partaker in
the murder, they would not, in acquitting, be
delivering a weak verdict for the purpose of saving
him, but they would be maintaining those principles
of law which are so valuable to the Constitution.
His Lordship, in summing up, said that he had
heard, in the last day of the assizes, some very start-
ling statements with respect to the regard to be paid
to confessions. There might have been one or two
extraordinary cases, but they were exceptional.
Supposing the jury believed the prisoner's state-
ment, although it was true that a person merely
standing by and taking no part was not an accom-
plice, if the statement led them to believe that he
went out with the actual perpetrators with a com-
mon design, and afterwards shared the spoil, he was
just as guilty as the others.
The jury almost immediately turned round with
a verdict of guilty, and his lordship pronounced
sentence of death, with but little preface, saying
that he had no desire to inflict unnecessary pain on
the prisoner or on himself by dwelling on the details
of the crime. It was as satisfactorily proved to his
mind as if he had seen it committed by the prisoner
with his own eyes, and if punishment of death was
ever to be inflicted never had there occurred a case
more worthy of it than the present. He, therefore,
held out no hope of a respite, and warned the pri-
soner to do his best to make his peace speedily with
God.

Later in the afternoon the counsel for the Crown
stated that they had determined to abandon the
prosecution against Walton, on the ground of an
insufficiency of evidence to implicate him in the
murder, his own confession being one of a very
dubious kind, made when he was drunk, and con-
tradicted by himself as soon as he became sober.
A verdict of Acquittal was, therefore, taken.

" TEN PER CENT.," which a few weeks ago was
only a nuisance, is becoming a calamity, checking not only
speculation, but ordinary trade. No one will do anything
he can help while ho has 10 por cent. to deduct from his
receipts and to pay for his loans, the country bankers
think it necessary to hoard, and the Continent refuses to
believe that England has not suspended cash payments.
Exchange was on Friday a little less unfavourable to Great
Britain, but the Bank still considers it unsafe to reduce its
rate, and the Government is still unwilling to sanction a
suspension of the act without the restriction fixed by Mr.
Gladstone. It is probable, therefore, that until confidence
has been somewhat restored on the Continent, that is pos-
sibly for some weeks, the exceptional rate. will still be re-
tained.—Spectator.

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