The Sun.
London, England, 1859-08-30 00:00:00

THE HIGHWAY ROBBERY NEAR

WAKEFIELD.

On the 18th of March, 1858, Mr. Edward Farrer.
farmer, Lingwell Gate, near Wakefield, was robbed
of £145 by three men, and maltreated in so brutal
a manner that he was confined to his room for six
weeks. The chief constable could obtain no clue
to the parties engaged in the robbery until the 17th,
when John Holdsworth, a prisoner in the Wake-
field House of Correction made a statement impli-
cating himself and three other men, named Stephen
Blllington, William Payne, and Ralph Adams.
Holdsworth had been convicted of breaking into a
butcher's shop, and was sentenced to 12 months'
imprisonment, a sentence which expired on Friday
last. His statement was that between 4 and 5
o'clock on a Wednesday, about a year and a-half
ago, he was at the prisoner Adams' house, in
Kirkgate, Wakefield, where the prisoners Payne
and Billington afterwards came. They all four
agreed agreed to have a walk up the street, and
Payne, seeing the prosecutor's cart standing near
the door of the Boy and Barrel public-house, said
there was a man there who had to go to Lingwell
Nook. It was then agreed that they should rob
him, and they went forward to the railway bridge,
where the robbery took place. After waiting they
thought that he was a long time in coming, and
Holdsworth was directed by his companions to go
and see where he was. He did so, and passed Mr.
Farrer's cart at Mr. Wild's door. He walked for-
ward, hesitating whether to go home or to return ;
but he adopted the latter alternative, and on arriv-
ing at the bridge he discovered Mr. Farrer lying on
the ground bleeding. Another man, named Jackson,
was with him, and Holdsworth assisted him to put
the prosecutor into his cart. Jackson was not able
to corroborate Holdsworth in this respect, owing to
its being so dark that he was unable to identify
him. The same night Holdsworth saw Payne at
Wakefield, and he told him the prosecutor had
said he had lost between £l4O and £l5O, where-
upon Payne replied, " He's a liar ; all we have got
is £4." He subsequently saw Adams, who made a
similar statement, and who gave him a sovereign.
Adams and Payne are at present undergoing
sentences at York Castle. Adams was tried at the
last March assizes, for cutting and wounding one
of the gamekeepers of the high sheriff, and was
sentenced to be imprisoned for 18 months. Payne
was also tried for wounding at the last assizes, and
his sentence was either six or eight months' im-
prisonment. Billingtoit appears to have been
apprehended on the statement of Holdsworth, and
whilst the former was at the West Riding police-
office at Wakefield, charged with participation in
this robbery, and under the care of George Wilkin-
son Griseale, policeman, he said :—" lam taken
again, but I'll not go by myself. I have told of
one robbery, and I'll tell of this." He then stated
that on the night of the robbery lie met Adams,
Payne, and Jack Holly (Holdsworth), in Kirkgate,
Wakefield, when Payne said to him they intended
having somebody that night. His statement was
much the same as that of Holdsworth, with respect
to their proceeding to the railway bridge, and he
concluded as follows : —We stopped there a
short time. We thought Farrer was not coming
that way, so we sent Jack Holly back to see
where he was. Whilst Holly was away Farrer
came up. Adams got hold of the horse's head
and stopped it. Payne went up to the cart and
struck Farrer over the head with a hedgestake, and
then " shot" the cart up, and Farrer fell out on the
road. Payne then opened Farrer's waistcoat, and
took from the inside pocket a purse, and said,
" Here is a good lump." He also rifled his other
pockets, and took therefrom a knife and a comb.
We all had hedgestakes with us. Payne and
Adams beat him very severely, and whet they were
beating him, Payne said—' Let us murder him ;
dead men can tell no tales.' I said—' No, let us
go, we have given him enough. We left him lying
on the road apparently insensible, and ran over the
railway towards Potovens. When we had crossed
the railway, Payne threw the purse, comb, and
knife into the hedge bottom. We went to a shed
at Silcoats Fields, where Payne gave me 30s. and
said he would give Jack Holly a sovereign."
In defence, Billington remarked :—" I 1 ave
nothing to say. I know nothing about it." Payne
said he had been in prison for two months, and he
never heard anything about this case till last Tues-
day. He never was with Moldsworth in his life.
Adams said nothing in defence.
The prisoners were, on Friday, committed to
York for trial on this new charge. —Manchester
Guardian.