The Sun.
London, England, 1868-07-24 00:00:00

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MURDER AND SUI

CIDE.

About seven o'clock on Wednesday evening a
murder was committed in a field near Shuttling-
fields Farm, Walton-le-Dale, about four miles from
Preston, and the murderer subsequently succeeded
in destroying his own life by hanging. The mur-
derer and his victim were sweethearts, and a refusal
on the part of the girl to longer keep company with
her suitor prompted the latter to take her life by
cutting her throat with a pocket-knife. The victim
of the outrage, Elizabeth Brindle, aged 18, was the
daughter of Mr. Brindle, of the Higher Shuttling-
fields Farm. The murderer, Charles Hamer, was
about 20 years old. Both were employed at the
will of Mr. Bowne, Brindle. The girl was a
weaver, and Hamer was a cloth looker, the father
of the latter being manager over the weaving de-
partment. For about three years flamer and the
girl hal been •on intimate terms. Although she
does not seem to have had very much regard fur her
admirer, yet she permitted him to pay his addresses
to her, and all appears to have gone on smoothly
until a week ago, when she scolded !Ain for smok-
ing and chewing tobacco to excess, by which she
alleged he was impairing his health. She al.c•
told him that if he continued the practice she
would cease to receive his attentions altogether.
From that time up to Wednesday the two ap-
pear not to have been on speaking terms.
On Wednesday, when at the mill, she received
a letter from Hamer, asking her to meet him,
after leaving work, in Martin's-field, through
which she would have to pass on her way home.
On leaving the mill she was accompanied by her
sister, to whom she mentioned the letter, and
stated that if Hamer met her she would tell him she
would have nothing more to do with him. When
the sisters reached Martin's-field, about 200 or 300
yards from the shutling-tields, they found Hamer
waiting. They parted, Elizabeth remaining with
Hamer, and the other continuing her homeward
journey. A few minutes afterwards a man named
James Yates was passing through the field leading
to the shuffling-fields, when' he met Hamer, who
was running and had his hands cavered with blood,
and carrying a piece of rope, which he had ob-
tained by cutting a clothes' line belonging to a neigh-
bouring farmer. Subsequently he found on enter-
ing Martin's field the deceased on the ground
fearfully wounded. In answer to his inquiries she
said, " Oh, Jim, Charles Hamer has done this, be-
cause I told him I would not go with him. He said
he would go and kill himself. Ido wish I was out
of my punishment." Yates at once tried to stop
the flow of blood, and then raised an alarm and
sent to Preston a messenger for Dr. Spencer. The
girl was conveyed to her home, and everything was
done to preserve her life, but fruitless, as she ex-
pired in about three-quarters of an hour after she
was discovered. She never spoke subsequent to mak"

ng the statement given above to Yates. After pass'

ing Yates Hamer ran into Gregson-lane, where he
met his brother, who, perceiving that he was be-
smeared with blood, asked him the cause, to which
he replied that a man at " Moon's Mill had pinched
him." He handed a letter to his brother and ran
off in the direction of Brindle, where he resided•
The letter intimated Hamer's intention of taking
some person's life and destroy his own, and ordered
that his watch, books, and other articles belonging
to him should be given to the different members of
his family. The report of the murder spread with
great rapidity, and soon crowds of people fl )eked
to the scene of the tragedy, and the utmost eon'
sternation prevailed. The policeman went in
search of the wretched fugitive. Their efforts were
seconded by a number of the villagers. A n 253
named James Ashton, in searching the wood at-
tached to Milntholme College, about two miles from
the place of the murder, found the body of Hamer
suspended from a tree by the rope previously spoken
of. He was immediately cut down, but life Was
extinct.