The Sun.
London, England, 1845-03-10 00:00:00

THE HAMPSTEAD MURDER.

(From a Sunday Paper )
THE PRISONER'S INTRODUCTION TO MISS

PHILPS.

Notwithstanding all that has been written respecting
this affair, the circumstances connected with it hare ,
only yet been very imperfectly brought before the public.
We have learned the following additional particulars, the
accuracy of which may be relied on :—Mrs. Edwards,
the lady with whom Miss Sarah Philps, the young lady
to whom the prisoner was paying his addresses, is re-
siding, had been in business in the county of Norfolk, as
a dressmaker, but came to reside in London four years
ago. Miss Philps is a native of Cromer, in the same
county, and having become acquainted with Mrs. Ed-
wards when there, the latter having no children of her
own, adopted her as her daughter. Miss Philps has
been under the guardianship of Mrs. Edwards, who is a
most respectable woman, for nearly four years. The
length of the intimacy which has subsisted between Miss
Philps and the prisoner locker has already been stated
to be ten weeks, but the circumstances under which their
acquaintance was formed have not yet transpired. We are
enabled to state that the first occasion on which the prisoner
spoke to the young lady was about twelve weeks ago,
when meeting her one day in St. Martin's-lane, he ac-
costed her with, " I beg your pardon, Miss, but is not
your name —?" She replied it was not, on which
he again begged her pardon. Miss Philps proceeded on
her way as if nothing had happened, taking no notice of
the prisoner, but he followed her, and again coming up
to her, inquired whither she was going. To this she ,
made no reply, but went on her way without taking the
least notice of the prisoner. He again made some ob-
servation, of which she took no notice, on which he with-
drew, and she did not see him again for nearly three
weeks. One day, about that time, he had seen her in
the New-road, and advancing to her, made some com-
mon-place remark expressive of affection, but she know-
ing nothing of him, passed on without taking any notice
of him. He, however, followed her to No. 6, Bath-place,
and as she was opening the gate repeated the expression
of his attachment to her, and begged permission to ac-
company her into the house. She resented the proposal,
when he exclaimed, " By heavens, Miss, I will see you at
home !" She, considerably alarmed, entered the house,
hut said nothing to Mrs. Edwards, her guardian, about
what had passed. In an hour afterwards the prisoner
called at the house, and on the servant-maid opening
the door, she inquired who he wanted. " The young
lady," he replied, " who lives here,"not at the time know-
ing her name. Oh, Miss Philps," yon mean," observed
the maid. " Aye, Miss Philps," he responded, de-
lighted at learning her name. " Will you give her my
card, if you please," he said, banding his card to the
servant-girl, with the name " Mr. Thomas Henry
locker," engraved upon it. Not knowing the name of
the young man who had twice accosted her in the street,
Miss Philps, when the card was handed to her, had no
idea that it was the same person. Not wishing, there-
fore, to go down to see a gentleman whose name she had
never heard before, Mrs. Edwards went in her stead.
That lady went the more readily because the idea
flashed across her mind that the pergola hifsl only entered
for the purpose of stealing some articles from the room,
while the servant-maid was upstairs. On entering the
asurtment where locker was, Mrs. Edwards inquired
what was his pleasure. lie answered that he
had seen Miss Philps on several occasions,
and being quite fascinased with her, had called
for the purpose of asking permission to
pay his addresses to her. Mrs. Edwards, as might be ex •
petted, was quite confounded at this. On recovering her
presence of mind, she said to him, " This, sir, is very
strange conduct on the part of one of whom neither Miss
Philps nor I, who am her guardian, know anything, and
even of whose name we have never heard before." " You
may rely on it, Madam," remark, d locker, " that I am
a person of respectability, and that my intentions are
most honourable. My pares:ts reside at 17, Charles-
street,,,Pertlaad- town." Strange as were the circum
stances under which the prisoner introduced himself,
there was something se manifestly sincere in his manner,
and see much of gentlemanly bearing about him, that
Mrs. Edwards eventually called down Miss Philps. She
at first met his protestations of love with repulses, but
before she had been a quarter of an hour in his com-
pany, she began to feel in some measure influ need by his
exceedingly winning manner. The interview ended in
his obtaining both Mrs. Edwards's and Miss Philps's
consent to his calling again on the following day, Mrs.
Edwards in the interval taking the precaution to ascer-
tain that his parents did reside at the address he had given.
On the following day, at the hour appointed, Ilocker
called at 6, Bath-place. He had not been many minutes
in the young lady's company when he propo eel mar-
riage, adding, that he had repeatedly seen her in the
streets, and always wished to speak to her, though
he hsd never summoned up the requisite courage to do
so, until the afternoon on which h., had met with her in
St. Martin's-lane. He said that, from the first time he
saw her, she made a deep impression on his mind, which.
so far from passing away, had ever since been daily
growing. To the proposal of marriage Miss Philps paid
no attention when made on this occasion, but having
obtained permission to renew his visits, the prisoner
again and again repeated it, until at last he obtained the
promise of the young lady to give him her hand. Matters
went on very smoothly for several weeks, he all the
while representing himself as a clerk in the Stock Ex-
change, at a eatery of lOU a year, and as possessing besides
an annuity of 751. left him by an uncle. For some reason
or other he then appeared as if he wished to draw
back, and for that purpose told the young lady that
his father was opposed to the marriage, and that he being
unfriendly it could not take place for at least 12 months.
This was followed by a letter to Mrs. Edwards, pur-
porting to be written by the prisoner's father, in which
the prisoner is represented as a young man of excep-
tionable character, and of ungovernable temper. This
letter will be found referred to in the letter of Mrs.
Edwards, addressed to the prisoner, and which will be
given below. The letter, it was afterwards discovered,
had been written by the prisoner himself, in a disguised
hand, and with the father's name affixed to it. For two
weeks afterwards, nothing was seen or heard of the pri-
soner by Mrs. Edwards or Miss Philps. At the end of
that time, however, he wrote to Mrs. Edwards, saying
that his father had at last consented to his marrying
Miss Philps. This letter will be found among the sub-
joined letters. He renewed his visits to Bath-place ;
but Mrs. Edwards, who never looked with a very favour-
able eye upon him, again discovered, or fancied she saw,
something in him which she did not at all like. She
therefore embraced the first opportunity of asking him,
withdrawwill
he found
un d altogether.i n one
of
the A
prisoner's refere n ce t
letters
this
in the most explicit terms, what were "his intentions
regarding Sarah ;" adding, that if not honourable, he
h betterconversation
to Mrs. Edwards. Matters were again amicably
arranged, and everything seemed to proceed in the most
auspicious manner. He proposed that the time of his
withthe
entmonth.
mohMiss Philps should be in the course of
We have brought the narrative of the circumstances
eventful history, down to
der at Hampstead. About
this n the young lady (who, it
tiint connectedteh ,r
ewwithsweekswhen
n
fkstethr strange, namngu de
should be here remarked, is a very modest, interesting,
and handsome girl) were together, he mentioned to
her that he had lately been at Sheffield, and that, when
there he had purchased a handsome ring with a bril-
liant
he did not wear it; his
bought this ring he was
y. This, it will be observed,
n answeroty very
rn y i t .fo
was,n dSho
thatef askedjtehwo eul
gl him
ri e why
was about three weeks before the murder was committed.
Consequently, on the assumption that he committed the
dreadful deed, he must have meditated it three weeks
before he carried his purpose into execution.
It ought here to be mentioned that, notwithstanding
the frequency of the interviews which the prisoner and
the young lady had together, she never saw any appear-
ance of his being possessed of money—not even of silver
or copper. It is also a curious fact, that notwithstand-
ing the vehemence of his protestations of love, and his
being for several weeks on terms of marriage with Miss
Philps, he never gave her ts.single present of any kind.
The sister-in-law of Mrs. Edwards,being housekeeper
to Sir Oswald Moseley, who resides in Portland-place,
Miss Philps was in the habit of visiting the relative of
her adopted mother at Sir Oswald's house, and locker
very frequently called upon her there. Miss Philps
called on Sir• Oswald Moseley's housekeeper at Port-
land-place about half-past eight on the night of the
murder, and her first inquiry was whether locker had
been there that evening ? The housekeeper replied
that he had not. " Well," remarked Miss Philps,
" though I had no appointment with him to-night, I
did somehow or other think he would call." " Oh, it's
too late for him, my child," observed the other. "It is
later than his usual time," replied Miss Philps, " but
still I think he will come." About ten minutes past nine
his knock was heard at the door. He entered, and re-
mained for about an hour and a half. " Sarah," said he,
after having shaken hands, and asked her and the house-
keeper how they did, " Sarah, this is the brilliant ring
I told you three weeks ago I had bought at Sheffield."
And as he made the remark he handed her a ring.
" Why don't you put it on and wear it ?" she in-
quired. " Because," said he, " it's too large," and he put
it on his finger to show her that it was so. " I have
also," he observed, " bought this watch," showing her
the watch referred to so often in the examination at the
Coroner's inquest and at the Marylebone Police-office.
After this they entered into general conversation; and
the young lady observing that he had some spots of
blood on the front of his shirt, asked him how it hap-
pened they were there? " Oh," said he, " the governor
and I have been having a
piece of fan together, and he
accidentally made my nose bleed. Struck with the
circumstance of his looking unusually cheerful that
night, she made an observation to that effect. " Yes,"
he replied, "I don't know how it is, but I never felt so
happy in my life before. My mind, thank God, is more
at ease to-night than it has been for a long time past."
This, singular as it may seem, was said with a peculiar
emphasis, and was again repeated in the course of the
evening's interview. -Miss Philps remarked to her friend,
after Rocker had parted with her, that she never before
saw him so full of fun and spirits, and at the same
time expressed her inability to account for the circum-
stance. Her friend had also been struck with his unusual
cheerfulness and hilarity, coupled with the fact of his re-
peating several times, with a marked emphasis, that he
never in all his life felt so happy as he did that evening.
On one occasion, while mentioning how comfortable he
felt, he added, " I thank Heaven, Sarah, that I, have
nothing resting on my mind to make me unhappy. '
The subsequent history of this unfortunate young man
is well known. The circumstance under which suspicion
fell en him and his consequent apprehaesion have al-
ready been detailed in our paper. In the discovery of
she leading facts, which will be brought forward at the
Shackell, the intelligent and enterprising officer of the
trial of the prisoner, the greatest credit is due to Mr.
detective police.
We here subjoin the letters referred to in a previous
part of this article. The first is from the prisoner to
Sirs. Edwards, in answer to a letter of hors addressed to
him :
" it, Victoria-terrace, St. John's Wood.
" My dear Madani,—l hardly know bow to address