The Sun.
London, England, 1845-09-13 00:00:00

CORONER'S INQUEST.

An inquest was held on Thursday afternoon at the Adam and Eve
public-house, Eton, Bucks, before Mr. John Pacton, one of the de-
puty coroners for the county, on the body of a man named William
Archer, twenty-nine years of age, who had held the situation of
under-gardener for the last four years in the service of Mr. Gran •
silk Penn, of Stoke.park, near Slough, and who met his death by
drowning under the singular circumstances detailed in the following
evidence. Mr. Penn and several of the most respectable inhabitants
of the neighbourhood were present during the inquiry.
The first witness examined was Mr. Charles Stewart Voules,
solicitor, of Windsor, who deposed as follows :—I was returning
to Windsor from a party at Slough, accompanied by Mr. Legh,
between 1 and 2 o'clock on Tuesday morning, and on arriving at
the turnpike-gate in the Slough road, I distinctly heard the screams
of a female. On proceeding furthar I heard called out, in a
woman's voice, " For God's sake, leave me alone, don't treat me
so; let me get up : don't drag me:" On reaching Willowbrook,
near Eton College, I saw a man (deceased) and woman
standing together quietly in the shade. I asked the man
what the disturbance had been about, when he replied,
" Oh, nothing ; the woman who cried nut has just gone on
before, so you are mistaken." I said, " That can't be, for
I can see up to Fifteen Arch•bridge, and no one is there." I
went up to the woman, and asked her what the man had been
doing to her. She was then sobbing, and made no answer. I
again put the same question to her, and she replied, " Nothing."
I then said, " Well, if you are satisfied, we cannot be otherwise."
I told the man he must be a great brute to ill-treat a woman at
such an hour and in such a place, when he replied, " I have not
ill-treated her, and I'll make you prove your words." We then left,
but had not gone more than a few yards when the man came after
vs, and after taking hold of Mr. Legh by the collar, and striking
him a severe blow on the head, breaking his hat, he made several
blows at me, and at last we closed. In the struggle which ensued
lie got me on to the bridge, and when close to the low parapet he
exclaimed, "D— you, I'll throw you over." I tripped him up
and threw him upon his back, having previously sent Mr. Legh for
a constable. I let him get up on his promising to go quietly, and
on his telling me his name and who he worked for. He was no
sooner on his legs than he again attacked me, and I a second time
got him down, and so kept him until Mr. Legh returned with one
of the Eton police, to whom I gave him in charge. When we
reached the Chrlstophor Inn, at Eton, on our road to the station.
house, I saw the man put his hand into his pocket and take out
something, I told the policeman to open his hand, when he found
in it a gardener's knife. I said, " What do you mean by that, you
rascal I" The man turned to the policeman and said, " This per.
son knocked me down in the road, cut me with this knife, and
robbed me of my watch, and he has got it." When we reached
Perkins's house, the inspector of the Eton police, I said to him,
" Now, if the inspector knows you, you may go." He then ran
off down the road, the constable after him, and just as they got out
of my sight I heard a splash in the water. (The water referred to
is a mill-stream, running nearly parallel with the Thames,
very deep in the centre, and about 25 feet in width.) The
constable came back, and said," lie is gone through the water."
I then ran down to the stream, but as I could neither hear nor see
anything of him, I thought he had escaped across to the osier bed.
We then got a candle and lantern, and searched about for upwards
of an hour without discovering any traces of him, and it was our
opinion, from seeing some fresh wet weeds on the banks of the
stream, that he had got out at that spot and escaped. I think the
man was sober.

Henry Carter, the constable who took the deceased into custody,
stated that when the man started oi'towards the water he followed
him and saw him go in, over a camp-shedding (or wharf). Wit-
ness afterwards saw him walking in the shallow water, close by the
camp-shedding, a distance of 15 feet, and he then returned and
gave the alarm that the man had got away. Witness was present
during the search.
•

Mr. Granville Penn rose, and stated to the deputy.coroner that
he had attended the inquest, not only as being the master of the
unfortunate deceased, but as one of the magistrates of the county ;
and as the man had met with his death while in the custody of
the police he begged to suggest, in order that a correct conclusion
might be arrived at, that the jury should view the place at which
he had fallen into the water.

This was assented to, and on the return of the coroner and jury,
Samuel Perkins, inspector of the Eton police, was examined,
and corroborated the evidence of Mr. Voules and Carter as to the
search which was made to discover the man. This witness also
deposed to the finding of the body at seven o'clock the same
evening by means of drags, nearly in the centre of the stream,
where the water was about 8 feet deep.

Mr. William Lc gh, one of the magistrates of Windsor, who was
with Mr. Voules at the time he was attacked by the deceased,
was then examined. Tie stated that it was his impression, from
what the policeman said, who bad seen the man go into the water,
that he had got out again and escaped across the gardens of the
neighbouring houses.

This being the whole of the evidence, and the deputy coroner
having summed up, the room was cleared for the jury to consider
their verdict.

The jury, after having been in consultation for half an hour,
returned a verdict of " Accidentially drowned while escaping from
the custody of a police.constahle."

_ .
The deceased received an excellent character from Mr. Penn,
who stated that he had lived in his service for upwards of four
years, and that during that time he had been a most quiet, peace-
able, and industrious man, supporting his widowed mother en-
tirely out of his earnings, and was much respected by his neigh.
bours and friends.

A subscription was made in the room for the mother of the de.
ceased, the jury and witnesses handing over the fees they were en-
titled to to a relative of the poor woman for presentation. The
man's watch, money, and other property found upon him, were
given to the same party for the mother by the deputy coroner. -