The Sun.
London, England, 1844-05-28 00:00:00

SINGULAR CASE OF ABDUCTION.

On Friday a young man, named Thomas Robins, dressed
as a farmer's labourer, was brought before Mr. Baillie, the
sitting magistrate, at New Brentford, in the custody of the
police, on a charge of having stolen a quantity of wearing
apparel, consisting of various silk dresses, shawls, body
•Imen, &c., with a number of books, the property of Mr. G. i
-Willavyse, an extensive farmer near Newbury, Berko, from
whose employ he had absconded on the 7th inst.
Mr. Willavyse stated that he had known the prisoner from
his childhood, his father and mother, and other members of
his family, having been for years in his employ. During the
last five or six years the prisoner had also worked for him
•cecasionally, and at Michaelmas last he hired him as a yearly
.farm servant, at nine shillings a week, and lodging, &c. The
prisoner gave every satisfaction until the night of the 7th
inst., when he absconded with his (witness's) daughter, who
was only fifteen years old, taking with them the articles in
question. He did not discover the abduction until the next
morning, when he galloped to Reading in pursuit, thinking
they would probably have gone by the Great Western Rail-
way to the metropolis. At Reading he could learn no trace
of them, and he consequently returned home. The next
day, believing them to be in London, he went to town, and
applied to the Commissioners of Police on the subject, but,
after the lapse of a week, he again returned home. On the
previous day, however, he received a letter from Mr. Green-
way, the landlord of the Drum public-house, Old Brentford,
*inquiring if any member of his family had improperly left
*home, as a young man and a young woman, who had every
appearance of being respectably connected, had been lodging
-for a week at his house. Witness instantly started for
,Brentford, having first obtained a warrant for the prisoner's
apprehension. On arriving at Brentford, he ascertained that
they had taken lodging at the house of a shoemaker in the
town. having procured the assistance of police-constable
Smith, T 92, he went to the house, where he found both his
(laughter and the prisoner, the latter of whom he imme-
diately gave into custody on a charge of felony.
By Mr. BAILLIE —The value of the articles was consi-
derable, as his daughter had removed the whole of her ward-
robe, with all her books, including her Bible and Prayer-
book. Until he discovered their absence, he was not aware
of there being the slightest intimacy between his daughter
.and the prisoner.
The prisoner, in answer to the charge, declared all that
had taken place between him and Miss Willavyse had been
with her own free consent.
• Miss Jane Willavyse was then called in. She was a fine-
looking girl, about five feet four inches high, of considerable
-embonpoint, and about fifteen years of age. She gave her evi-
dence with reluctance. It was elicited from her that, having
consented to elope with the prisoner, she had at midnight, on
-the night of Tuesday, quitted her father's house by means of
.her bedchamber window, and descended by a ladder, which
had been placed for her by the prisoner, •taking with her, of
her own accord, the property the prisoner was accused, of
stealing. They started on foot to Maidenhead, where they
arrived in the early part of the morning, and rested them-
selves. They then found that neither of them was in pos-
session of a farthing of money, and they were compelled to
pledge some of her clothes to procure refreshment. Being
fearful of discovery at Maidenhead, they returned to Brent-
ford, walking all the way, upwards of twenty miles, and took
a lodging at the Drum, as has been stated. While at Brent-
ford, they supported themselves by pledging various articles,
but the prisoner had got a situation to go to on Monday, as
a farm servant, at nine shillings a week, at a farmer's in the
neighbourhood of Brentford.
Mr. BAILLIE said, after the evidence of Miss Willavyse,
the charge of -felony could not be sustained ; and he sug-
gested to Mr. Willavyse the propriety, as his daughter was
so young, and matters had gone so far, of arranging the
affair.

Mr. Willavyse refused to adopt the suggession, and de-
clared his determination to prosecute the prisoner for the ab-
duction, his daughter being under sixteen years of age, which
made his carrying her off a felony.
Mr. BAILLIE said, under those circumstances, he had no
alternative but to send the prisoner before a Berkshire ma-
gistrate to deal with the case.
The prisoner was accordingly conveyed, on 'Friday night,
by police-constable Smith, to Newbury, and on Saturday
morning he was taken before a magistrate of Berks, where
the charge of abduction was preferred against hint After
the examination of §everal witnesses, he was remanded for
the production of other evidence on Friday next, and was
afterwards conveyed to Reading gaol.

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.
(YESTERDAY.)
CLERKEIV WELL. _ .

- Yesterday Margaret Kelly, a ferocious-looking woman,
was brought up for final examination, charged with
stabbing John Dymmock, a carter, residing at No. 13,
White Horse-court, Turnmill-street, Clerkenwell, with a
knife, whereby his life was seriously endangered.
The occurrence took place on the 6th of May, since
which the prosecutor has been in St. Bartholomew's Hos-
pital. From the position of the wound it was feared
lock jaw would ensue. Yesterday, however, the prose-
cutor, although not yet quite recovered, and having his
head bound up, attended in Court and gave his evidence.

All the circumstances of the case were mentioned in
our paper of the Bth inst. Mr. Cooper, the house-sur-
geon of the hospital, deposed to the nature of the wound.
The prisoner, who has throughout exhibited the most
callous indifference, was fully committed for trial,
William Barlow, an engineer, residing in Church-
street, Limehouse, William Brady, and William Wilson,
genteelly attired persons, were charged with creating a
disturbance in St. Johri=s-square, at two o'clock on that
morning.
Constable 66 G deposed that he sawßarlow and Ridley
pushing one another against the doors in St. John-
square, and making a noise calculated to disturb the
inhabitants. When he took them into custody, Barlow
offered him a bribe of ss. if he would set him at liberty.
The prisoners were in liquor.
P. C. Marryatt, 31 G, corroborateA this statement.
When Barlow was arrested, he became abusive, and
said he paid 151. a-year taxes to support the police.
Mr. Gur.ExwooD ordered Barlow to find bail ; fined
Ridley 10s. ; and ordered Wilson to put a sum in the
poor-box, which he did, and expressed his regret for the
misconduct.

James Connor was charged with assaulting police.
constable 35 G.

The prisoner quarrelled with his sister, in Bleeding-
hart-yarJ, Holborn, on the previous evening, and gave
her a blow, which rendered her insensible, and caused
her to bleed profusely from the nose aud mouth. The
constable took him into custody, whereupon the prisoner
knocked him down, and tore his uhiform coat and
trowsers so as to render them useless.

Committed for twenty-one days.
WORSHIP-STREET.

Yesterday a min named Thomas Patterson, and Eliza-
beth Patterson, his wife, were placed at the bar before
Mr. Bingham, on the following charge of robbery and
attempted murder, upon a young man named George
Allen, a linen-glazer, residing in Monkwell-street, Fore-
street, Cripplegate.
The prosecutor, whose face was a mass of cuts and
contusions, and in other parts of his person bore mani-
fest evidences of severe ill-treatment, stated that as ho
was passing through Allersgate street, at eleven o'clock
on the night of Sunday, the 19th inst., he was accosted
by a young woman, with whom he ultimately went to
numerous houses, and lastly to a very wretched one,
where he was attacked, robbed, and then wounded. The
whole proceedings were of the lowest and fiercest cha-
racter. At last the prosecutor made a violent struggle,
and succeeded in breaking away and running into Ar-
thur-street, where he met a policeman, and while telling
him of the ferocious attack that had been made upon
him, the two prisoners passed the end of the street, and
were immediately pointed out by the prosecutor as two
of the persons implicated.
Henry Turpin, an officer, who searched the prisoners'
house, deposed to finding the outer case of the watch
and the prosecutor's money-bag there, and to the floor
of the room being in several places dyed with coagulated
blood.-13oth prisoners were fully committed to New-
gate for trial.
Brown and Smith (officers) stated in the course of the
examination that the female prisoner had belonged to a
desperate gang, which had been routed out by the parish
authorities from Granby-street, Waterloo-road, where
they had located themselves, and afterwards distributed
themselves in other parts of the metropolis. The male
prisoner was stated to be very respectably connected,
but had been discarded by his relatives in consequence
of his marriage with the other prisoner.

SUICIDE.—John Leaman, aged 60 years, an inmate
of the workhouse in this borough, whose habits and
conduct had obtained for him the bestowal of privileges
not usually granted to the paupers, was detected on Sa-
turday last, tinder circumstances which gave assurance
that he had been guilty of a most atrocious violation
on the person of a child only nine years of age. This
girl it appeared had been allowed after school hours on
Saturday, to remain with her father in the man's yard
as an indulgeuco to her parent. Having missed her, the
father in the pursuit of an inquiry, went to a room in
that part of the yard in which Leaman worked, but was
unable to enter it, as the door •f the room was
fastened on the inside. He asked Leaman if his
child was• there, when the girl cried out " I am
here, father." The father then went away, and
presently the girl came after him, and in answer to
Close interrogatories he elicited confirmation of his
most
painful- surmises. Subsequently he encoun-
tered the wicked object of the child's pollution, and
visited upon him the indignant scorn of a man dis-
honoured and wretched, and informed him that he would
cause his imprisonment. The charge was not given to
the authorities of the establishment until the next day,
when, preparatory to other proceedings, the master
stopped Leaman's leave at the gate. On his presenting
himself, as usual, on goingi to church, Leaman was in-
formed that his leave had checked. He turned
away, and was not heard beers checked.
an hour-and-a-half
afterwards, when it was discovered he had secured
the door of the room as before, finishedb his career
by self-destruction. He was suspendedbeen dead ysomthee
tlnecek
by a rope, and apparently had
An inquest was held on the body on Monday, when a'
verdict of "Flo de se" was returned. HlSnriegmhta,inas,
according to law, were interred on Monday
Stoke Church, between nine and twelve o'clock, withoutt
the rites of Christian burial.—Devonport Independent.
CHURCH-RATES.—Lord Denman 's decision and
sound reasoning upon it, in the church-rates cases, set
the points at rest. That Dr. Jenner Fust should have
given the decisions he did, astonished every reasonable
person ; and that his decisions were completely opposed
both to the spirit of the law and former decisions, was
As clear as that one and one make two. Church bigots
will be quiet now it is to be hoped.—From a
Correspondent.
It has been ascertained that the pressure of the at •
mosphere is, on an average, 15 pounds on ever square inch of
surface. The extent of surface on the body of a man of mean
stature, is computed at 2,160 square inches, which sum, mul-
tiplied by 15, gives 32,400 pounds as the total amount of
weight or pressure he ordinarily sustains—a weight so pro-
digious that, did it not admit of the most indubitable de-
monstration, we could not well credit. it. Now, suppose the
mercury in a barometer to rise or fall an inch, this will make
a difference of exactly a quarter of a pound ressure on
everysquare inch of surface, and hence will either add to or
remove 180i0adswfrom the average weight pressing on
the body.—Dr,
Doeatl,l;erhead on Headaches..
" DOG EAT G. —Nearly all the Nisi Prius
cases this term wer cases in which attorneys were
either plaintiffs or defendants,— Dubin Paper.