The Sun.
London, England, 1844-04-29 00:00:00

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Barber's diary was, doubtless, of_ very oust
service to the prosecutors in the extraordin ,94„,;;)_.
Trinations which took place before the Lor , , ya viiiithl
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opon Barber's apprehension, on which occ i : ' •-s-....,,ry :_1)1. '2'.;
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her called Fletcher as his witness. After 'B, b:--N- ---4,q1
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.ross-examination of whom by Mr.Vlarkso , itkts
Government, both witness and accused were re an
for further investigation, and ordered to be kepliusigivagMag
from each other. Neither one nor the other iftilif
or could tell who the Emma Slack was who had ad-.
ministered to the will, further than that she was a
lady of the most unexceptionable respectability.
The next step to be taken by the investigators,
therefore, was to find out who Emma Slack was,
and that great point was a long time involved in
a mystery apparently impenetrable. All that could
be ascertained for a considerable period was, that
she had resided in a house for a few weeks, hut from
what place she had come, or to what place sh- had
gone, no one could surmise. In the meantime, Bar-
ber and Fletcher were, on various occasions, brought
before the Lord Mayor, and their counsel and attor-
neys exercised all their skill to excite the public sym-
pathy in favour of the prisoners, and to obtain as quick
a trial as possible for them, no doubt in apprehension
of the sequel.
The Bank, judging wisely that the Slack case was
not the only one in which Mr. Barber had been en-
gaged of a similar description, caused a rigid search
to be made relative to other transactions with which
the name of Barber was mixed up as the attorney.
This active spirit of inquiry brought to light first
the case of Hunt, then the case of Burehard, and,
ultimately, the case of Stewart. All of these were
subjected to a course of examination, and, if we re •
member rightly, on each of the four first occasions
on which Barber and Fletcher were brought up for
examination a new and additional charge was alleged
against them. In the meantime, it was not at all
known who were the other parties who had been
confederated with Barber and Fletcher to carry into
effect these daring frauds.
With the view, as we imagine, of searching into the
cases, a reward of 1001. was offered to any party who
should discover who Emma Slack was, but the offer
tempted no candidate for the prize. Ultimately,
however, the attention of the prosecutors was directed
to a Miss Richards, who, it was stated, came from
Bath, and was intimately acquainted with Fletcher
and his first wife, and whose description exactly cor-
responded with that of a person who had visited
Emma Slack during her stay at her lodgings near
Tottenham Court-road. --
_ _

Miss Richards was accordingly traced from place to
place, until it was ascertained that she had married
a shopkeeper named Dorey, and that she resided in
Oxford-street. Here she was identified as a visitor
of Emma Slack, and apprehended ; and some of her
writing was obtained; and in her trunk the seal was
found which bore the same device as that attached to
the will of Eliza Burchard. This was a very im-
portant step for the prosecutors, for the seal showed
that she was cognisant of the will of Eliza Burchard,
and her handwriting resembled that in which the
will of Mary Hunt was written. Still the precise
part taken by her remained to be proved, and the
presence of Emma Slack appeared to be indispensable
to a clear development of the plot.
As the discovery of so important a character in the
drama as Mrs. Dorey had taken place, those by whom
the investigations were conducted would naturally
be induced to trace out, and sharply look after her
immediate connections. The description of the per-
son, manners, and habits of Emma Slack was closely
inquired into, and upon comparison with the account
given of the persons, manners, and habits of Mrs.
Dorey's relations, was found precisely to correspond
with what was said of Lydia Saunders, her sister, the
wife of William Saunders, fishmonger, of Bristol.
Visits were from time to time, as it now appears, paid
to Bristol by John and Daniel Forrester, but neither
she nor her husband could be found, and their ab-
sence naturally tended to strengthen the suspicion
which existed against them. As the investigations
were carried on it was found that not only did the
description of Airs. Saunders agree with that given
of Emma Slack, but that the description of William
Saunders also corresponded with that of Thomas
Hunt, the alleged executor of Mary Hunt. We do
not collect that the prosecutors obtained information
from any one that these were actually the parties en-
gaged in the transactions ; but so accurate were the
descriptions obtained, and so confirmed were they by.
dates and other circumstances, that the prosecutors,
as will be remembered, offered a reward of 1001. for
the • discovery of Lydia Saunders, and a further sum
of 1001. for the discovery of her husband.
The offer of these rewards was for some time of no
avail, but ultimately, through some channel which
has not been made known, Saunders and his wife
were found living in an obscure part of Edinburgh,
under an assumed name, and were there apprehended.
The determination of the prosecutors to apprehend
Mr. and Mrs. Saunders was fully justified by the
result, for these participators in the delinquencies of
Barber and Fletcher were, it will be remembered,
immediately identified as the individuals who had
personated the two fictitious parties alluded to. Mrs.
Dorey was also identified as Eliza Burchard, the
fictitious niece and executrix of the testatrix, Eliza
Burchard.
It still, however, remained to be discovered who
Elizabeth Stewart, the assumed sister and adminis-
tratrix of John Stewart, was. This question was
involved in more than ordinary obscurity and con-
fusion, as no person living could be found who
answered the description of the performer of that
part. The servant who attended on the aged female,
Elizabeth Stewart, was, however, as it appears,
traced out ; and the most accurate information was
obtained respecting the infirm mistress ; and, after a
lengthened investigation, Elizabeth Stewart was sa-
tisfactorily proved to be no other than Mrs. Dorey's
and Mrs. Saunders's mother, who shortly afterwards
died, and whom Mrs. Dorey visited in the pretended
relationship of niece. This servant, who is very ob-
serving and intelligent, gave such an account of the
fictitious Elizabeth Stewart that the portrait was consi-
dered perfect, and those who knew the mother of
Mrs. Dorey declared it to be quite impossible that
the lady who played the character could have been
any other. Indeed, with such truth was the descrip-
tion given that Mrs. Dorey upon hearing it burst
into tears, and became an object of much commisera-
tion. The gown, or rather the remnant of the gown,
of Mrs. Richards was, notwithstanding the lapse of
three yearse since her death , searched for and found
in the hands of a charwoman, to whom it had
been given by Mrs. Dorey upon the decease of her
mother, and that gown was immediately identified
by the attendant upon the old woman.
The whole of the circumstances of the conspiracy
have been thus most satisfactorily developed ; and
those who have been prosecuted have met with con-
dign punishment with the complete approbation of
the public, who are not to be convinced, in the teeth
of such evidences of guilt, that any one of the ac-
cused is innocent.
The mother of Mrs. Dorey and Mrs. Saunders was
the daughter of an aged soldier, of the name of Crene,
a pensioner of the Government at Falmouth, and their
father, William Richards, was the steward of a Lis-
bon Government packet. On the proclamation of
peace Mr. Richards went to Lisbon to establish him-
self there, but he soon afterwards died in embarrassed
circumstances in that city. The daughters had been
brought up as milliners, but on their father's
death the mother and daughters opened a
china shop at Falmouth, where they beevremained
li
believe,
to few years, when they removed,
weas
last to
bN esw:
B o n Bid-
(slterseheatm,
B,
ai nt hSt owinheerrsee ttshheiyr e ,
carriedand
Inu
I-
ness of straw bonnet-makers. In this street Saunders
kept a fish shop, and thus, from the circumstance of
neighbourhood,
acquainted Lydia, who
played and it is believed
led
with the aid of her sister,
a ytehde thep
unfortunatea
into all the mischief and misery to the details of which
the public have been so long accustomed. Here, also,
part
became
d
Mrs. Dorey, then Georgiana Richards, became ac-
quainted with that miserable ruffian Carlisle, on one
of his visits to that city, and to this source and the
blasphemous doctrines of Carlisle the whole of the
family ascribe their total ruin.—Sunday Times.
the