The Sun.
London, England, 1845-07-05 00:00:00

COMMISSION OF ESCHEAT, July 4.

A Jury was specially empannelled at the office of the
Se;ondaries for London, before Horatio Waddington, Esq.,
and other Commissioners named in the commission and letters
patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, to inquire
whether Thomas Sillito, late of White Hart-street, Kenning-
ton, gentleman, had not died possessed of landed property
within the city of London, which had become escheated to
the Crown by prerogative Royal, in consequence of his having
died without heirs of his body, or right heirs surviving, or
having made a will.

The Hon. Learned COMMISSIONER explained to the jury
the object for which they had been empannelled. The de-
ceased, it would be shown, was illegitimate, and therefore
he could have no relations to whom his property could descend,
unless he married and had children, or unless he made a will.
He had married, but had no children, but died intestate, and
his widow had taken out letters of administration as to his
personal property, and the Crown was entitled to his landed
property. Although the Crown bad this right it was always
liberally exercised.
Evidence was then adduced that the deceased had, in
1843, purchased a freehold house in Lower Thames-street,
which was worth, clear of all iticumbrances, 761. per annum.
' Mrs. Balls, wife of John Balls, Esq., of Kennington, de-
posed that she was the daughter of Samuel Sillito, Esq.,
late of the East India House, who at his decease. in 1841,
bequeathed to her all his personal and funded property. Until
his death she did not know that she was illigetimate. De-
ceased was her brother, and they always lived with their
parents. Her mother was also dead. They went by the rains of
Sillito. D..ceased married, which caused a difference be-
tween him and his father. (The lady's fortune under the
will wa. 50,000/.)
Mrs. M. A. Sillito, widow of the deceased, deposed that he
had said he believed he was illegitimate. She bad adminis-
tered to his personal effects, but the Crown had claimed a
moiety, which she had paid.
The jury said they were satisfied of the intestacy and ille-
gitimacy of deceased, and gave a verdict for the Crown.
Tha Commissioner handed a counterpart of the inquisition
and verdict, signed by themselves, to be title' by the Fore-
man of the Jury, to show that all legal proof had been ten-
dered to their satisfaction.

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.
BOW-STREET.

His Ex,!ellency the Belgian Consul, M. Hermenegild Cas-
tellain, waited upon Mr. Jardine on Thursday afternoon, to con-
sult his worship respecting the conduct of the treasurer of
Covent garden Theatre, Mr. Robertson, who had been to the
house and abruptly locked it up, leaving some members of the
Brussels company, with a great quantity of their music and
other property, inside.
His Excellenly stated that the company had been enraged
to perform Les Huguenots at Drury-lane Theatre, on Friday
evening, by the express cesire of the King of Belgium, and
unless they could have immediate access to their music (to say
nothing of the detention of a portion of their own body ),
the greatest possible inconvenience would be occasinned.
No reason had been assigned by the treasurer for his extra-
ordinary conduct.
The Magistrate expressed his surprise at a proceeding
apparently so unjustifiable, and entered into conversation
with the Consul, who shortly afterwards retired from the Court.
At a later period his Excellency again attended, and informed
his worship that a party had been sent to one of the managing
proprietors of the theatre, who had expressed his astonishment
at such conduct, especially as no money was owing to the pro-
prietors from the company. He had promised to see the trea-
surer upon the subject, and therefore it was expected that the
interference of the magistrate would not be necessary.
Mr. JA RDI E sat on the bench till half-past five, but nothing
more of the matter was broached in Court.
MAR LBO BO UGH- STR E ET.

George Hickmott, butler in the service of Mr. A. W.
Robarts, Hili-street, was brought before Mr. Maltby, for final
examination, charged with embezzlement and forgery.
Charlotte Ann Robarts, the wife of Mr. Abraham Wilday
Robarts, of 26, Hill-street, Berkeley-square, said the prisoner
ha,l been in the service of her husband, as butler, for about a
year. On the 4th of April, witness gave the prisoner a cheque
for 41. 17s. 6d. to pay some tradesmen's accounts, and among
them a bill for 1/. 14s. owing to Mr. Smethurst, lamp-manu-
facturer, New Bond-street. The prisoner brought the bill the
next day, rec"ipted in the name of Thorns► Finn.
Thomas Finn said, he managed the business of Mr.
Smethurst, in Bond-street. The receipt at the bottom of the
bill was not in his handwriting. The money had never been
paid.
Mrs. Robarts next deposed that, on the 26th of June, she
gave the prisoner a second cheque for 71. 15s. to pay other bills
with. The prisoner bmught her two bills. purporting to be
receipted, one from Mr. Thornhill, cutler, of Bond-street, for
3/. 75., the other from Messrs. Rippon and Burton, of Oxford-
street, for 31. 7s.
Mr. Thornhill said the name of " Charles Williamson," at
the foot of his bill was a forgery.
John Summers, assistant to Messrs. Rippon and Burton,
said the name of " John Simmons," at the foot of his bill, was
a forgery.
Police-sergeant Rogers, C 5, said he was called to take
charge of the prisoner. The prisoner begged Mr. Robarts to
forgive him, and declared that only two bills were wrongly re-
tort ed as paid.
The prisoner said the words he used were, that one or two
other bill,, be-ides those known, were all he had omitted to pay.
The prisoner made no defence, and was fully ceminitted.
lISHIP-STR E 1.

Thursday a young man, of very decent appearance, named
William Warren, by trade a shoemaker, was placed at the bar
before Mr. Bingham, charged, upon his own confession, with
having attempted to murder his wife by cutting her throat,
and also with subsequently making a determined attempt at
self• destruct ion.

Policeman King, 83 H, stated that between eleven and
twelve o'clock on the morning of the 18th ult. he observed a
large crowd assembled round the surgery of a Mr. Moore, ;n
the Ilethnal-green-rose, and on entering the house found a
woman seated on a chair, with a frightful wound in her throat,
which the surgeon was in the act of sewing up. the woman
was conveyed as quickly as possible to the London Hospital,
and was in too critical a condition then to be questioned ; but
on inquiring ;S the bystanders he learned that the injury had
been inflicted by her husband (the prisoner), at No. 5, Not-
tingham-street, Waterloo- town. On reaching that house he
found that the prisoner himself had shortly before been discovered
by a man lodging in the house lying on his face in the passage,
with his throat cut in four places. and that he had been removed
to the h..spital. A lodger stated that, while at work in the
next room to the prisoner's, he was alarmed by the sereams of
a woman, and that on hastening out the prisoner's wife rushed
past him into the street, with blood streaming profu-ely from
her throat, and endeavouring to staunch it with her apron. In
the centre of a roam on the ground floor the witness found two
large pools of blood, and close to them a shoemaker's knife,
much stained, and the point broken off, and the side pannel of
the door thiough which the woman had passed was also blood-
stained from the impression of the woman's fingers. The wit-
ness had made inquiry, but could not ascertain that any person
hut the prisoner and his wife were present at the time of the
transaction.

Sarah Warren, the prisoner's wife, a neatly dressed young
woman, and who has since the unfortunate occurrence been an
inmate of the London Hospi.al, now attended with her mother
and sister, but was in such a state of exhaustion and agitation
that she was allowed to be seated duing the examination. She
stated that she had been married five years to the prisoner, by
whom she had two children, and that up to the transaction shich
gave rise to these proceedings they had lived upon the most
ffectionate terms with each other. Between eleven and
twelve o'clock on the morning of Wednesday fortnight they
were sitting at work together in the back parlour of the house,
when some angry words ensued between them respecting a
brass ring she had been wearing, and which she had taken off
her finger, declaring she would wear it no longer. Her hus-
band then asked her what had become of her wedding-ring,
and, in a rei roachful manner, charged her with having then a
gold ring, which he said had been presented to her by another
man, concealed in her bosom. She denied this accusation, and
told him that in consequence of his violent behaviour towards
her, she was determined to leave him altogether. He asked
her what then was to become of their children, and if she in-
tended to take them with her? She replied that she did; but
the instant she had uttered this declaration, the prisoner, who
was in a state of violent agitation, and who had been at work
with a knife in his hand, started up, and exclaiming, " Then
you shall belong to no one else," sprang towards her, and
seizing her by her hair dragged her head back, and drew the
knife across her throat. He then cut his own throat rapidly
in three or four places, and fell to the ground, and she,
making an energetic effort, attempted to rush out of the room,
but from exhaustion and alarm staggered and fell. She almost
instantly, however, recovered her feet, and hastening into the
street, made her way to the nearest surgeon's, by whom her
wound was dressed, and who ordered her instant removal to the
hospital. (At the conclusion of this statement the witness,
she had been gradually sinking while giving her testimony,
suddenly fell back into the arms of one of her friends, and was
carried fainting out of the court. )
Mr. BINGHAM said it would be impossible, in her present
exhausted condition, to take the poor woman's deposition that
day, but he was ready to hear any remarks the prisoner might
wish to offer upon her evidence.
The prisoner, who looked very pale and was much affected,
said, in a faint voice, that his wife's statement was perfectly
correct to a certain extent, but that she had omitted several
material facts in her account of the transaction. When his wife
took the rig off her finger, he asked her if a man, with whom
he believed she had been long acquainted, and about whom
she had been constantly tormenting him almost ever since
their marriage, had not given her a gold ring, and where
she had placed it. She made him no answer, and signifi-
cantly painting her finger towards her bosom, left the
room ; but almost immediately returned, and, telling
him that she had thrown the ring away, said that the man to
whom he alluded had already suffered quite enough for her sake,
and that she should leave him altogether, and take with her the
two children, a girl and a boy, who, she said, would then be
made a lady and gentleman. At this observation he felt so li
dreadfully excited that, losing all control over himself, and
scarcely knowing what he was about at the time, he instantly
rose and cut her throat with the knife he was working with,
his hand being stayed while he was doing so by hearing his
wife entreatingly say to him, " Don't, don't, my dear, I will
not leave you !" but he remembered nothing further.
It being ►n'imated to the Magistrate that the medical and a
number of other witnesses were not then present, Mr. Bing.
ham ordered the prisoner to be brought. up on the ensuing day,
that the remainder of the evidence might be taken and the case
completed against him, and directed the officers to see that the
wiinesses were in attendance.

On :being removed from the bar the prisoner, who was cry-
ing bitterly, ent.eated permission to see his wife, if but for a
moment; this was of course complied with, and the wife was
gently led towards him, when they kissed and embraced each
other with the deepest affection, without either apparently
being capable of uttering a word, and the prisoner was then led
to the cells.

SUDDEN DEATH OF A3DRUNKARD.—Wednesday
Mr. Wakley, M.P., held an inquest at the Northampton Arms,
Lower-road, Islington, on the body of Thomas Newark, aged 46, a
gardener. Decea.ed lived at a large lodging-house, in Church.
road, Islington, and Sunday afternoon last he dropped down lead
whilst drinking some coffee and eating bread and meat, the first he
had eaten for a week, having been drunk during the whole of that
period. He wes a man that would become a teetotaller for three
months together, and then break out most intemperately. His
sister attributed his death to the combined of e. of intoxication
and of a wound in the leg, which he neglected to have dressed when
drunk.. Verdict—" Natural death."