The Sun.
London, England, 1850-04-29 00:00:00

MYSTERIOUS ROBBERY.

Yesterday, between one and two o'clock, a rumour
rapidly spread throughout that part of the parish of
Clapham lying near to the Wandeworth-road, that a
murder and robbery had taken place that morning during
the hours of Divine service at the house of Mr. John
Meddle, Clarem o at-place, Wandsworth-road, and that
the person murdered was that gentleman's housekeeper.
At a ter( minutes to eleven o'clock, Mr. Meddle left
his house to attend Divine service at Clapham church.
Mr. Meddle returned shortly after one o'clock, and ring-
ing the bell at the gate several times, and finding he
could make no one hear, he went round to the garden
gate, which, to his surprise, was unfastened. He went
in. The washbouse door was open, as also the back
kitchen, and he was almost paralysed at beholding his
housekeeper lying on her back in the frost kitchen, her
legs extending over the threshhold of the door, and her
head lying towards the French windows that open into
the area in front of the house. Mr. Maddle felt the
body, and believing, as was the fact, that life was ex-
tinct; rushed out and alarmed the neighbourhood. For
some short time so horrified were the neighbours that
none of them, though earnestly appealed to by Mr.
Maddle, would go into the house. At last Mrs. Travash
and Mrs. Staples went in, and found the deceased
lying as stated, but under most extraordinary circum-
stances. Her right leg was partly drawn up under the
body, and entangling the foot, which was without a shoe
(which is missing), was a coil of rope used in banging
out clothes; her head rested on six or seven folds of,
carpeting, and within six inches of the head was a basin
containing about a pint of clean water. The face,
hands, and other parts of the body were cold. There
was not the smallest contortion of features nor, so far as
was observed, any marks of personal violence. The eyes
were closed as if in sleep, and but for the ghastly ex-
presion of the face it could have hardly been imagined
but she slept.
The police were very promptly on the spot, as also
Mr. Parrott, jun., the surgeon to the police force, who
examined the body. and pronounced life to have been ex-
tinct some time, • He could detect no outward marks of
violence, nor was there any mucus flowing from the
mouth or nostrils. On,entering the house Mr. Maddle
had found it in a state of great disorder, and very soon
discovered that a gold watch, some jeweller;', consisting
ef rings, &e., and some plate had been carried off. Mr.
Coleman, the inspector of police, having communicated
with Mr. Bicknell, the superintendent of the V division,
made an examination of the premises, and found that
every drawer, box,' and even the iron chest, had been
opened and ransacked, and a small box, in which the
housekeeper kept her money, was emptied of its contents.
A very great deal more labour appeared-to have been ex-
pended in opening the various drawers, cupboards, &c.,
than would have been used by an expert thief. What
the amount of property stolen actually is cannot at pre-
sent be stated. From subsequent information obtained
by Inspector Coleman and his men, it would appear that
two men were seen in a byt-road near the rear of the
house at about twenty
.minutes past twelve o'clock at
noon, and one of them is elescribed as follows :—Short
stature, with a blotched face ; dressed in a dark coat
with pockets at the side, a black neckerchief and a red
Maid handkerchief containing a bundle. The other was
tall and thin, with curly hair, he WAS dressed in dark
clothes, and carried a blue bag; they went in the direc-
tion ofßalham. Between eleven and twelve o'clock a
man was lurking about the bye-lane, and lay down in
the grass in the rear of the house. He was attired in
shabby black clothes and black neckerchief with spots.
Another man, about the same time, was seen near the
spot.
At a later part of the evening Dr. Parrott, the father
of the previously, mentioned surgeon, attended by his
son, examined the body. Dr. Parrott remarked that
there was no suffusion in the eyes, nor any congestion;
there was no protrusion of the tongue, and not the
slightest scratch; and it was further remarked that the
deceased appeared to be in good health.