The Sun.
London, England, 1859-08-04 00:00:00

VilE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY EVENISti, AUGUST 4, 1859.

said if the jury were of opinion that the verdict
ought to be for the defendants they could state so
without specifying that there had been forgery or
a conspiracy; but if, on the other hand, tht y con-
sidered that the plaintiffs had made out their case,
a verdict for them must be given.
_ _ _

At half-past six o'clock the jury retired, taking
with them photographs of the codicils and the du-
plicate copies of the will. They returned into court
nearly an hour afterwards and gave a verdict for
the plaintiffs.

OXFORD CIRCUIT.—HEREFORD, Aug. 3.
CRIMINAL COURT.
(Before Mr. Justice Byles.)
THE LEDBURY MURDER.

John Isaac Jones, 26, attorney's clerk, was
charged with the wilful murder of Harriet Baker,
at Ledbury, on the 17th of May, 1859.
Mr. Skinner, Q.C., Mr. W. H. Cooke, Mr. J. J.
Powell, and Mr. Cleave appeared for the prosecu-
tion; Mr. Huddleston, Q.C., and Mr. Henry Jams
defended the prisoner.
After the despatch of our report yesterday and
the trial of all the other prisoners this case was
called on.
It appeared from Mr. Skinner's statement that
the prisoner was a clerk in the office of Mr. Mase-
field, a solicitor of Ledbury, and the deceased, Mrs.
Baker, had charge of that gentleman's offices. On
the night in question, the 17th May, Mr. Masefield
had gone to London ; Mr. Woodward, one of the
clerks, remained at Mr. Masefield's house till a late
hour at night, and when he left, about 10 o'clock,
he met the prisoner going towards Mr. Masefield's
office, or, it might be, towards the prisoner's house,
which adjoined thereto. There was a back door to Mr.
Masefield's office, and by the passage which led to it
the prisoner could also reach the back door of the
house next door, which was Mr. Bowcott's house,
where the prisoner resided. At about 10 o'clock on
the Tuesday night a Mrs. Jackson left the deceased,
apparently preparing to go to bed. The back door
had been fastened, and the bell put upon it. When
Mrs. Jackson left there was nothingon Mrs. Baker's
table, but the next morning, when the house was
entered, there was a tablecloth and two glasses and
a jug on the table. The house had not been forced in
any way, and therefore, when it was discovered in
the morning that Mrs. Baker was murdered, the
inference was that she had been murdered by some
one who had obtained access to the house in a
friendly manner. It appeared that Mrs. Baker had
been engaged in mending a pair of trousers for the
prisoner, and the learned counsel suggested that
those trousers might have afforded an occasion fur
bis calling on her that night. There were two glasses
on the table, sugar, a jug of water, and in one of the
glasses there was gin and water. That seemed to
show that after Mrs. Jackson had left the deceased
some one had been there with whom she was inti-
mate and had taken some gin and water. Prisoner
had recently bought some gin. The prisoner, at the
time in question, lived in a chamber in Bowcott's
house, which did not put him in communication with
the other people in the house, and he used a latch
key, which opened the back door of his house.
Bowcott put out his own ligt.t at 20 minutes past
10, and at that time he had not heard the prisoner
come in. The next morning prisoner got up early,
and went out to clean his shoes. Among the things
missed from Mr. Masefield's premises were some
small silver coins, one of which was a particular six-
pence, and in a lane much frequented by labouring
men at an early hour in the morning a packet of coins
was found, which could not have been there at an
early hour; but about 8 o'clock, and near the time
when the prisoner was out, a man named Burden
found the packet of coins near the spot where the
prisoner was seen, and the suggestion was that the
prisoner had thrown them there. The prisoner had
his breakfast on that morning (the 18th) some-
what earlier than usual. After breakfast Bowcott,
who supplied milk to Mrs. Baker, knocked at the
house, and could not obtain access. Pebbles were
thrown at the windows, and the prisoner procured
some peas for the same purpose. In the meantime
prisoner went to a publichouse and had some brandy,
and on his return he looked through the keyhole of
Mr. Masefield's back door, and presently said,
"Oh, I have found the key." Of the finding of that
key it would appear he had given two accounts.
He unlocked the door and entered the house, and,
on entering, a little girl who lived in the house
was seen dressing herself,andon being asked where
Mrs. Baker was the child said she had gone out.
Near the foot of the stairs there was a bar. The
stairs led to Mr. Masefield's office and another room
called Owen's room. The prisoner said he tripped
against the bar, which had the effect of throwing
him forward on the stairs, so as to enable him to
see that Owen's door was open. Another accouht
given by the prisoner was, that he had gone to the
stairs to pick up a piece of a newspaper. On going
up stairs into Mr. Masefield's office it was found
that Mrs. Baker was lying dead upon the floor, and
her clothes were on fire. The learned counsel then
detailed the temptation that might have led pri-
soner to commit the crime. There was a book in the
office, accessible to the prisoner, which would show
t,:at at the time there were large sums of money in
the office, and the book would appear to contain an
entry made by the prisoner himself, after the entry
as to the money, which would show that he had the
book, and might have seen the previous entries. In
the prisoner's box there was found a bludgeon, such
as might have caused the blow which was on the
forehead of deceased. This blow might have caused
insensibility, but it was evident that death itself
was caused by strangnlation, effected by a cord
found on the spot. Whoever intended to rob Mr.
Masefield knew where to look for the plunder, for
he went direct to the drawer where alone money
was kept. Prisoner had the opportunity of know-
ing that a large amount of money had been in
the house, and from the circumstances which the
learned counsel detailed it would appear that the
prisoner was not aware that a large portion of it
had been removed and deposited in the bank. A
light in Mr. Masefield's office would be seen in Mr.
Masefield's house, and therefore probably if the mur-
der was committed by any one who was acquainted
with that circumstance he would go upstairs in the
dark. It would appear that the door of the office
was forced open, and the lock• of the drawer was
forced open by instruments which were not brought
to the premises for the purpose, but which were on
the premises at the time. The lock of the drawer
appeared as if it had been forced open in the dark,
and another circumstance which led to the same
inference was that two lucifer matches, which had
been fired, were founed upon the ground. Only
one drawer in the desk was forced open, and that
was the drawer which contained the money. The
drawer in one compartment contained about £7,
which was taken. Another compartment contained I
some money which was not touched, and No. 3 con-
tained some postage stamps, some of which were
taken and some left. The learned counsel here re-
ferred to several circumstances, which led to the
conclusion that the robbery was committed by
some person who was well acquainted with the
premises, and with the ways of the house, and as
to the deposit of money in the drawers, money hav-
ing been left untouched which bad been deposited
in unusual places. The little girl had been re-
moved to Bowcott's house, and when the girl's
father came to fetch her heaskcd theprisoner where
the murder was committed, and he said. ".In the
room below." The learned counsel said that it ap-
peared that gin-and-water had been taken by some
one, and a bottle containg gin was found on a shelf
over the sink. The prisoner had bought gin at
Greenway's in a green bottle, and had promised to
return the bottle, and he did return a bottle, but he
did it in this way,—he exchanged a white bottle
for a green one, and, having had the green bottle
washed with gin, he returned that bottle to Green-
way. The learned counsel stated that checks on
the National Provincial Bank and money and post-
office stamps were stolen, some of these latter hav-
ing been found on the floor of the office. It would
be proved that the prisoner was poor and in want
of money. He had been in the workhouse at Led-
bury and eventually became a schoolmaster, but his
salary never exceeded 18s. a week. The prisoner
had kept two diaries, which would show that he
was altogether without friends, and not likely to be
in receipt of money. The name of Jones was not
the prisoner's real name, but one which he had as-
sumed. On the 23d of March the prisoner had re-
ceived a check for his quarter's salary, which was
paid immediately, and evidence would be given to
show that all that money must have been expended ;
but it would be shown that after tte murder he
had £ll or £l2 in his possession. Postage
stamps were stolen, and 54 were found in the
prisoner's possession. In an envelope in his pos-
session, there was found some blue stamps which
cost 2d. It appeared that every stamp was
marked with letters, and those found on the pri-
soner would be shown by the letters not to be
duplicates with those which remained, and there-
fore they might have formed part of the same sheet
of stamps. There was another peculiarity, which
seemed to show that they belonged to the same
parcel. It would also appear that, on the 28th of
June some ashes were found in the prisoner's fire-
place which would be proved to be the ashes of
Bank of England notes; and, as two bank-notes
were missed from Mr. Masefield's office, it was sug-
gested that these were the two stolen notes which
the prisoner had destroyed. Part of the word
" bearer" was still visible on the ash. On the 30th
of June some more ashes were found, which would
be proved to be the remains of a check of the
National Provincial Bank, two of which were
stolen. The officer of the bank would state that
when the notes were spoiled he was in the habit of
burning them, and he could speak not only to the
gereval appearance of the ash, but the letters