The Sun.
London, England, 1827-12-26 00:00:00

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THE RECENT MURDE ( FRD.
EVENING, HALF-PAST Tso OXFORD, MONDAY .1)..!i.
o'CLocK.—Up to this hour the examination of the
different witnesses in the case 'of John Williams, the
young man charged with the murder of Ann Crotch.
ley, or Priest, has not terminated. The City Ma-
gistrates have been engaged since ten o'clock this
morning in the investigation of the cue. The mat-
ter has excited the most intense interest here, which
is inferred from its, being the sole topic of conversa-
tion in this city, and the numerous groups sur-
rounding the Town Hall, anxious to catch a syllable
of the testimony.
There have been upwards of twenty witnesses ex-,
amined, who deposed to the circumstantial facts on
which it is intended to make the charge against the
prisoner out. None of these in themselves are of a
strong nature; but there is a considerable chain of
minute details, which, at least, throw a good deal
of suspicion upon him. Among them may be no-
ticed the fact of his having been a considerable time
alone with the unfortunate deceased on the night in
question, between the interval of her first discovery,
drunk, in Blue Boar-lane, and the period at which
the blood was first perceived under her person, and
on her clothes—his anxiety to have her removed to
a place of safety—his knowledge of where she
lodged, although she had not been in Oxford more
than four months, and his declaration that he.hardly
knew her. But that which is by far the strongest
feature in the case is the finding, on Tuesday morn-
ing after the murder was perpetrated, one of the pri-
soner's shirts, at his washerwoman's, on the right-
hand sleeve f which were marks as if somethbig
red, supposed to be blood, had been attempted to,be
washed out. The circumstance is explained for the
prisoner, by his washerwoman deposing that his
shirts frequently had such marks, as in working at
his business -(of a picture-frame maker) the colour-
ing matter, or paint, frequently stained his wrist-
bands and other parts of his linen -in the same
manner.

The prisoner, who is a young, genteel-looking
man, about 30, the son of a respectable man in Ox-
ford, where he has since his infancy resided, ap-
peared to feel a full confidence in his innocence ;,'
and the people here all declare he is the last person
in the:world whom they would suspect of committing
so atrocious an outrage as that which Was undoubt-
edly committed on the deceased, the details of which,
excite a shudder of horror in all who hear of them,
It is likely the examination will not terminate t3is
evening, as• the. Magistrates have, as yet, r.o evi-
dence of the cause of the young woman's death ; the
physicians not having been examined before them.—
It is therefore likely that the prisonet will be re-
manded, and the further evidence gone into at the
adjourned examination.

The Magistrates, aided by the Town Clerk, Mr.
Robinson, have been indefatigable in searching the
matter to the bottom; and for that purpose they
have examined all the persons who have even the
most remote knowledgf: of the tranaction, with a
minuteness and patience quite remarkable. The
prisoner has not bnce evinced a desire to say any-
thing ;but he, underwent a private examination since
his apprOiension, at which he made a disclosure of
all thc, circumstances he was aware of with respect
to the transaction with a candour which is said to
have impressed them much in his favour.