The Sun.
London, England, 1826-12-11 00:00:00

M URDER NEAR. LEATHERHEAD.

Since the apprehension of William! Page, (dim ..V Cobbler.
Will,' and Mary Ayres, on suspicion of having, perpetrated the late
murders at Fetcham, several private examinations , have taker
place at,UnionThall, in the course of which a great, number of wit-:
nesses have been bought forward, and indeed no palms have been:
spared by the Magistrate (R. J. Chambers, Esq.), who has been
indefatigable in his exertions to bring ,to light the_, mysterious
circumstances attending the mindere. On Saturday the, almme
magiatrate, on, hie arrival at the offiee,,announeed it mild* inten-:
tioli to have i public examination of the prisoners that'dey.
- At eleyeu o'clock, the prisoners, Page and iii.ary Ayres were
brought np to the office in a coach from Horaemonger-litne.geol;
their appeamney ia evidently much altered since their confinement,
particularly the female, who had got exceedingly thin and len-
t:Md. Page haii also suffered in his appearance. . • '
The OePositions, which tvere to thelollowing 4,et, were read
over 4,111 r. Staples?, OS ehief clerk ;....... . : , ,
Richard Mitchell—J . • tun a (ireenwieb pensioner, at 2e. 4d.
per clay, and served 17 yeare and, upwards as carpenter's iota m
the navy.
.1, know the prisoner Page by the name ,of " Will the
Cobbler.'", •; I, also.loiew the prisoner. , Mary Ayres. They travel
to the different cotintry faits. ifiot got acquainted with them
in July 14t#. ! A tvecklafterwards I ***rived my peneion, and, iii
going to Farnham to look after hop:picking, ;we tented ,ttlether
until the time ,tve went into Ke4t ,49p49 tblllo 11;4itti4s111144r...4ist•
We ,eroseed„frOln yarn_haut to, Kent, ;and -.got , work ii,t,l4x. 1110.4
tornienteo.fLt,=*dlckty, '. bow Tunbridge.. , ThviPliiirlvirfAtoPPO
them eight,ormine day!, end then went awnywarnd„llliave never
seen them' aince until now.. There were words between prisoner
1...,,vti•.,0411,A,.D.te? and hstweeo the measuriogrwan and, hitn,.. li. l.
-impute between Mut and me wee hecatrino J., wred4,,pot
.soie.,..
root. with hint to steal Potaton. We had astpai*,,e'tert . fi*
wife and I ocolpietkow, and site prisoners tha,,olw. Tb. pri-:
*were' donkey carried the two tents. Two days after Bartholomew
Fair ,T. yes . with, . the prisoners 'and frty,wifil'grf-Ksherscommtni..
The
.prisoners had a quarrel . about „tope ,wistrthey anti, clothes,
which Were to he carried to prisoner ..Ayrees mother. Page
struck. . Ayres, and she said, 4( Af .t. bpd any rpopmcy9u woulti
not use, me, so ill 104 you di! ;''' they had more worse,. pful Page
struck bar" again keying, "l will do for him this time, if 1 take
the things over.", lie hegatt;pe4ing up ,they Om, when pri.;
cozier Ayres said, " Ontet do it by daylight,,,if you
.dp it t ?twit
in the dark." Some of the things were packed up, and the
prisoner Ayres went awry, saying she was going to take them to
her mother., ~ . When Ayres returnedfroto.her musket:'", she said
'she had seen the old num, by whom .1.„ nfulertiOd she meant ber
grandfather, of whom she anal Page :114,0,f0n, talked before.—i
She said she had been iti hi, lannte, and thet.he was very had ;
and I' recollect afterwarik ai they v.,pr,, sitting 40'W 11, Ayres saii4
what acolpfortuble place it tyttui4,toit),o them, if the old man \Vag
'pot out of the world. Prisoner Page said in auswer, putting, up
a large stick with a nob et Vie: end of it, " Ay, and this
shall IN it t what do you thinkt.ufliv,Diek r I said. I, should
not like more thtui one blow from .it. ...,/le said, " One blow on

each aide would stop clacitiog," On another: occasion ,before' this
I also 'remember we. were together on Epsom Common, . about a
week before. we, were„ at :Esher., ,Page,.. whilst Ayres. was gone, to
Leatherhead, said, what a comfortable place it would.beif so b
it was his and he would be d-d if he would nut have
We were talking togetherlabout-ther old man, and Page said;
" !kiks in'his bed, and' it 'wouht be a very easy matter to put
yoUr knee :upon him, attfll Stuff the breath out of him."' It
was about 10 o'clock 'at nightomd Page and I went 'across the
common, and he showed me the house of the old man whti halo
been murdered. He said:the old 'man.lies 'in his bed, and if lut
does not soon kick the; juicketi I kirk. iti4or him; he also
said, " Don't you think; Dick, .this would be a good place tO
take two horses down late the Shires, and bring two up, there

is plenty of common-for them." We.aat down, and I lighted my
, We. were . within sight of The !Muse; ,and talked •about the
house- and orchard. I- told .hint. it• . was • useless to • think Aout
murder, Wile was aa siek as he wet; represented, for that he would
soon die. Page. then laid, „Dick, then you 'don't meanitn' join
mc." 1 replied, " Any thing, but that; hut 'in that I wiltnot
join you." Ilium- did steal any thing with him, .exelpt .ft few
initatoes. Wben:l refused; joining hint in murdering the old ,man,
and:stealing horses afterwards, :awl have before 'stated, we'quar-
relied, and went back, to our tents i,oind the next , day. we struck
our tents, and as we were going along the:road to.,srune We, Page
cut ,a large holly,,stielt, and showedit,to me, and said,• 0. What do
you think of this, Dick?" Ayres and my wife were going shop,
pings. and land. the prisoner. Page vat Amen by the title of a wood;
and,. upon Ayres comiug :up, she said,- " Tlatiow Atilt ateay,
it is had hick to carry a. holly stick." . My wife and Ayres .were
talking together ovlteit ;Page, aaid, " that don't you mean
to stand true to me?" I said no, I would not, I would have
nothing to do with no -such work. We then went on into
Kent hop picking. One •night in August, after Kinston fair,
we pitched our tents in the green lane near Feteham, within 30 or
40 yards of ths,old man's house, about ten &clock at night, anti
were off by three o'clock the next morning. - Page, before starting,
said, " Caudidlk, I came here to kill the old man au,l woman,
because 'the old man hat made, a will:lesving all to Haynes, anti
none to my Mary," ',II:told: him that Ayres was not married to
him; anti caked hint ltow.he could gain any thing by , He be-
gan thou swearing my, Litter oaths, and said, " Dick, do you
mean to go with toe.'. ..,I said I. would have nothing to do with
it. My wife began banging round me, and said I should not have
any thing to do with it. Prisoner Mary Ayres was also present.,
Page has frequently talked of-murdering Mary's grandfather in
my heaving' more than twenty. or thirty times.: 1 first heard of
the 11111rdetil On 'Monday, the 23d of Octoberlast,at 'Tunbridge,
when taken before. the mig,--,strate there. I was met ha whine on
:f.,iuritlay by a person tointeelylettersoot who asked ute if I knew a
.person Called Cobbler Will ? T told; him' I liell,;ved I' did. He
then asked miff I knee,' Mary :Ayres. • I told him I !lateen her,
I ,
,
time or ten. le anti the next morning came to me
again, and I toll' hint that Will and I n,t I, eu snpping together
at Mr. P*ttendejf,.
The depositions of Mitchell's wife Were then read, but enntalued
nothing material in addition of her husband;
I' age could prove where he was on the night of the murder.
llc herd entered into a long statement to account for his time
fr ,cat the hanre 014! Alichaelmas. 44y last, lip to the period
a his apprilictisiim, by which it appeared, that he, in compOY
will, Maly Ay '4,, it man called by the nick-name of e,Will' itt"
and his wife's brother, called " Dumpling George," and Robert
Ilignell and his wife, iuhl with a young Woman from Cio,labitini;

that they went from Andover toVeyhill together on the Monday
morning before the fair, where they stayed until Saturday morn-
ing, the 14th of October, when he (Page), Mary Ayres, a man
and a woman named Murphy, and a man called Michael, went
from Weyhill to Marlborough ; that they left that place on the
Sunday morning:. that, he and Murphy fought at Weyhill,
consequence of It few words; that, in the tight his nose bled,
and his jacket was altreist all over blood.
, (This
.was to ac-
count for stains' of blood, upon his flannel,jaeket 'found in his
pack when apprehended by, Grasemith.) He fought in that
jacket, and that " Dumpling 'George" was present all the time.
He then entered into a long detail' of the pines he frivelled
through hi company with 'and his Wife, until he' heard
of the murders, which. vas at Maelow.fair, and that was on •
Sunday night, where Mary. heard ;; that Isar . grandfather..was
killed., Mary told him _that a red-haired.. girl had told her of it.
They then went front Mario*. fair to. Oakinghant fair, Where
they stopped two nights. From thence they proceeded to
.Eghini. This was 'on the 4th 'ef November, where Miry left
him to go to her mother's to handle about her grandfather-.whe.;
ther he was hurt. He said that he bad first; heconie.'aconainted
with Mitchell at Kingston fair, and they continued tenting toge-
ther until they got a job at hopping at Mr. Pattenden's, at Verne*:
etreet, Kent, and that he left there on. Account of the measurer
and him quarrelling. lie said Murphy, tore the cuffs of his fitin.
itil jacket while fighting, and that Mary cut them off. At this
stage of the investigation, a pair of pincers were produced, which
Were supposed to have been: the , instrument that the murders
were perpetrated with. Upon examining the pincersqit was ob-
served that a spot, apparently produced by blood, was open them.
Page, upon looking at them, said, " There was no blood upon
the piscere, if they are mine, unless it was put on by the con-
stable, if be did take them out of my kit." He then proceeded—
Mitchell has several times, when we have been tenting at Leather*
head and Dorking together, said, that he should do something be-
tween that and Michaelmas, as he must have money. He once
said that he knew where there was an old miser, and he must have
sonic money, but lie did not say hoW or which way, or of whoM
he was going to have it. • He•never proposed to go and murder
an.oht miser, Weyhill fair began on Wednesday, the 11th of
Oetplxtr. 'I
was at the fair on, that day, with a little gray horse
for sale. •I
had it there on the Thursday and Friday, ridiag
backwards and forwards till three or' four o'clock In the
afternoon. I went into the fair on Thersday about I I
o'clock in the morning, and' stayed: there, until three. or
four or live o'clock, uatil, it was dusk, as long es there were,
any horses about the fair. Ruhert Digneh and Dumpling Pane
were there 'at the same time.' • 'Mary Ayres and rig'.s, wife went
to the fair together. Pig and Dumpling Geolie'remairiad 'with
nit in the tents. Mary Ayres came hack 'about -10 'o'clock. I
was lying in the tent by myself when she came back. Pies wife
came lick with Mary.. I both maw and heard her. I never rode
my gray posy above five or six miles at a time. lie would he
dens up in ten miles. f would be. upou my oath that.neither I
nor Mary were at Leathei head fair. All the three diyi there
were horses for sale in the fair. lt is not true what Richard
Mitchell has stated. 1 never saw Akehursee cottage in.my
I Piave heard, Mary speak of her grandfather. I have heard her
say he was very ill, and that her wilier told• her, I never spoke
to Mary's father above two or three timeii,' when I have been to'
the house. Mary has • been with site three year.' lest June. 'l,
never tented in the Green-have, as stated by Afitchell, in all my
life. I can't say but what I have beaten Mary at titucs, taut that
was when I was in liquor. Mitchell and I never had any quar-,
rel. It is unknoWn to nie if ever I had. I never heard Sophia
Mitchell and Mary have an angry word.
Ayree hail no 'objection to give an account where they It ad been,
both jirior to and after the morders. Her statement agreed with
Page's, as to the ditl.rent places they bad travelled to, and the
fight that tool. place between Mupby and 'Page at Marlborough ;
that site first beset of the murders from a young woman who
trends the country. She came from Oakinghant to Egham with
1 Came to my mother's, to • see myself righted.; .:Page wished
ice to do so), as the young vomen said I was charged With it; and
on my way through Weyhtridge I was taken by the constable.—
The first time I saw Mitchell' Was a day or two, after Kingston
(akin, August, on Leatherhead-commoti; it Was a.Wet 'night. I
saw them iiptio 'at Ep4oin fair, and we' Icontinneil together until
we went,. into• Kent, hepping. I have heard: Mitchell say several
tittles On Esherreommoneod.Dorkieg, that he koew of en old mister;
and that he bad no &MIA he had some Morley, and if we liked lie
would go with Us and ct ack his ken(rmaning rob the hence.) WU
asked him where ;ewes, and he said near Dorking. I nefer heird
iin talk ofkillingthe old man. • I cut .off ,the cuffs of the flannel
jacket, becitotethey,hong down below his, coat, and jacket.',--.!
Page had the.jaeket out when he fiat& at, Merlhorongh,: and
that was -the way she supposed the
rhlteal time upon, it. I
dOn't behave 'there .Is' blood upon the pair' 'of pineerC;. If' it it
Litese-sbing-", it • a rust. I never , saw my grandfather'e House
store trevAledwith Bihl, but I, know clue hoose, thdughi earmot
say whether it is a tiled or a thetelied house. I never .tented
in
the Green-lane, nor any other place near Fetcham parish. We
rented lay ouraelves twke on ,Bookham-coMMOm Mitehell leni`ed

with us on f.sher4o' mtnon, Faruhant, Dorking, anti' nutty' other
places, whielt cannot recollect. On • the' Thursday night of
Weyhill Fair, vage.4o I were at. the only pliblie,lieuso on the hill.
lie was there,: until between nine and t.l &clock a 4 night. X was
there until between 10 and 11, or It may, be lat. 4-. • The Waiter
gave me some halfpence. to get a glass gin that evening. -I
went .back to my tent with fig's wife. There was no one' in:mar
tents but my Will. When,..at the public:-house there were some
Insn• who mitt* sheep, drinking with Bill and myself.
When Ayres' deposition was 'taken, the 'Magistrate strongly.
abised the prisoners to lose no time in Kviniing for the ptranni
above named, in Whose edropany they asserted they had been
yelling before and after WerYhill-titir, to strengthen their tes-
timony, , • ;.! ,e , • • ; •

. . , .
Page.replted,!' We can't bring forwent these people, &five have;
got no Money'; besides, it is uncertain where they are noW, ast
they are trio-opera like mirselves.". ' - •
Mr. CkitAturit observed; that heiehould take care and have
those Witnesses in theinbehalf of whoniAhey spoke, brought for-
went if they WWI, tO* found in England. The officers, after
trevetling:mani of miles, in thv eourse• of itybielt they
experieneed Many difficulties, at heath sitcektleiV to collecting
throw persotoi whose testimony *us so important to ieve itifthe in-
vestigation of the murders. .

Tiff PIIE,DIWANIENT.—‘",
enny said a country •
. . J
.
"
woman to her Wixom daughter, during one, of the warm mornings.
of last summer, " Jenny, yell awa to the town and bring hams
a bottle o' harm wi' rm." It wii'the preaching days with jenny,
stul having 4‘Arysted to meet her joe," she 'nodded au assent to
•Ittr Mother's yonimandi with 4;beam, in her eye that bespoke as
tpuch of! !love as phediettee. . Haying accordingly lostuo time in
dirplAy her chartne to the'best advantage, she plunged n quart
bottle in a mong the ettutiriee which never failed to ticCupy the Ca-
pacious receptacle denominated, hy country-damsels, a side pocket,
and so smartly tript her midi &town, that she was half way on
her return, before the sun had reached his meridian. Whether it
was that Jenny had been seized with More than ordinary feel-
iege of devotion, or that the wily god, being in a frolicksorne
humour, had . resolved, on playing off out of hbritranks on her
we shall not pretend to say, hut ,rcertain ! it• is, that Jenny, on
bending her way homewards, Was, just passing the kirk as she
got it glinting of her joe stepping into*. • Regardless of the well
corked bottle Of harm, Jenny instinctively pursued the same course,
=end set herself down beside a blowsy wife from Dollar, who had
travelled a dozen miles ithat morning to hear the word in its
purity, if not to retail it still .more •delectably,• on hecreturn, to
the'llrowthy gossips. of her pariah... Jenny had scarcely time to
look about her, till the vacant seat beside her waS noeupled'hy au
equally:ponderous personage, in the shape of a 'terse eouperte wife
front.the west. Had Jenny been thinking More of her mother, and
lestrof her sweetheart, it is likely it would have occurred to her,
that so smart a walk, and so warm a day, were sufficient to have
roused to a state of rebellion inure quiescent matter than that
which dangled by her side, and in this way avoided 'bringing its
beat to the provoking temperature induced by her own person 011
the one side, and the hotse-eouperts wife on the other. Be these
things as they may, the heat which had commenced to sealJenuy's
of the previous evening.
eyes peaceful slumbers, acted so powerfully nu the turbulitut
properties of the harm,: that tm explosion was inevitable. 'Soon
after Jenny had taken her seat, the bottle popt its neck out, as if
resolved on tantalizing a thirsty, cobbler, who sat directly in front,
st,ljeireeiiit'ssi4ii"to'the battle, as if anxious to
followed a fair por-
sTuhefferoin4ll,Qatyee liiitetlehafdrowma
inlet to day light. The
terheiihfieetterrepaocituaoitititet dfletwviththeitsocorkriltentA---when with
hqpitl--both pursuing their course so di-
rectly towards the unsuspecting optic, that they faily ,closed
tits
rk poora son
smartly
and striking the nose of a knight of
the shuttle,'roused him whilst • gazing obliviously at the
The kirk, we,,
all in a blurs--and "every mother's 'son, aye and
daughter too, with out-stretched neck to itsceftain the motif....
buseey," exclaimed the blowsy wife o' poll4t, 4, she's pow-
onto
a' my- ehteo."- f, Preserve os,-if she !mina stitkit the mints-
f:efbatiCrnidsLtilt:'s only
ter," whispered the horse-cooper's wife. Jenny, as soon as she
discovered the cause of all this confusion, made leer thumb take
dace of the cork—but unluckily proving either two large. or two
I •
hat nt oecationallY Made its escape,
epuriodailufcgi::ass(plerieNr? tohelnttrefrthat kept eanteroptuonv time with
the doleful' ditty Of poor Jenny, as she Iturridly.moved off, s'zelsini-
ing, " preeerve me, wee eVtt 4 IVOM4tI ill tic ft prodassatneut".•—•
stirlil4' Jon-mit •