The Sun.
London, England, 1844-03-18 00:00:00

THE WILL FORGERIES.

We are informed, upon what we consider good
authority, that William Sanders, of Bristol, fish-
monger, whose name has been so much mentioned
in the will forgeries cases, and whose wife is supposed
to be the notorious Emma Slack, was apprehended
at Edinburgh on Friday last by John Forrester, the
able and zealous police-officer of the Mansion house.
The ingenuity and activity used on behalf of the
prosecution, in tracing and obtaining a clue to the
locus in quo of Sanders, appears, from what we have
heard, to have been most extraordinary. All was
done in the quiet silent way by the wide-awake
officer. The offence of which Sanders is considered
to be guilty consists in his having personated Thomas
Hunt, the assumed grandson of one Mary Hunt, and
obtained a sum of stock and dividends amounting to
about 2,0001. The true Mary Hunt was a widow,
who died at Bath in the year 1806, without
children, leaving a will, which was proved in the
Prerogative Court in 1807, by her executors, whcr,
not being acquainted with the affairs of the deceased,
omitted to claim the stock in question. The stock,
and the interest upon it, were consequently trans-
ferred to the Commissioners for the Reduction of the
National Debt in the year 1842. About that time,
Joshuah Fletcher, who has been charged with partici-
pation in the will forgeries exposed before the Lord
Mayor, heard of the transfer, and the consequence
was, that, in June of that year, a will was produced
at Doctors' Commons, purporting to have been made
by Mrs. thint, in favour of Thomas Hunt, a grand-
son of Marl Hunt. The alleged grandson took
lodgings in Tottenham-court-road, for a few weeks,
pretending to be the mate of a ship, and absconded
immediately after he had succeeded in obtaining the
stock and dividends.

By what clue the circumstances which guided the
prosecutors to Sanders were ascertained is not known
to the public, hit we are informed that it was known
to them within a week after the development of Miss
Slack's case, that the assumed Emma Slack was. Lydia
Sanders, the wife of the man now in custody, ana
Sanders himself was the assumed Thomas . Hunt.
Since that period, the most diligent search has been
made for man and wife ; and we understand that John
Forrester has pursued them throughout the south of
England, to Guernsey. France, and at last to
Scotland, where, after having been absent about three
weeks, he at length effected the apprehension of
Sanders, who was concealed there under a feigned
name. It is said that a principal circumstance leading
to the knowledge of the guilt of Sanders and his wife
was the discovery of a gown in the possession of a
daughter of Sanders, which had been purchased by
Mrs. 'Sanders with part of the money which was
fraudulently obtained by the pretended Emma Slack
in April, 1843. Mrs. Sanders is the sister of Mrs.
Dorey. It will be recollected that Mrs. Dorey took
the lodging for her in the neighbourhood of Totten-
ham-court-road, at the time Barber and Fletcher
were negotiating the " Slack business" at the Bank,
It is believed that Emma Slack, alias Lydia Sanders,
will shortly appear in propria persona before the Lord
Mayor.

Last week, handbills were distributed at all the
police stations, offering a reward of 201. for the detection and
apprehension of the diabolical person or persons, who, on the
7th instant, sent by the ten o'clock train, from the Ruston-
square station of the London and Birmingham Railway, a
basket addressed to a gentleman at Cheltenham, in which was
placed a small black coffin, containing a full-grown dead male
child. The coffin was a small black one, two feet long, made
of half-inch deal, with inch elm ends. The child was dressed
in a new cap, with a lace border, a bed gown, and covered with
a diaper napkin. A further reward of 5/. is offered to the per-
son who sold the coffin, on his giving up the name and ad-
dre# of the person to whom it was sold, and 5/. to any per-
son identifying the clothes and other article§ found around
the child in the coffin.