The Sun.
London, England, 1818-09-15 00:00:00

ATTEMPTED MURDER AND ROBBERY.

A most atrocious attempt was made upon the
life and property of Mr. JAMES BAKER, a small
farmer residing near Brentford, in the night be-
tween Friday and Saturday. Mr. Baker had*re-
tired to rest with his wife about 10 o'clock, and
was awoke between twelve and one by the noise
of several persons on the stairs leading to his
chamber. At the same moment, he heard the
-door of his room tried. It Was fastened with a
spring-latch ; but, before he had time to get out
of bed and arm himself, it was. violently burst
open, and a man entered the room armed with a
pitchfork, and calling to his companions to come
on. Mr. Baker instantly sprung upon the villain,
driving him backward with all his force against
the door, with a view to prevent those it, the
-passage from entering. In this object he suc-
ceeded, notwithstanding he received in the first
onset the prong of the pitchfork between 'the
thumb and fingers of his right band, to the depth
of nearly two incites. The handle of the weapon
was cut short, so as to render it more manage-
able; and immediately after they had closed, Mr.
Baker received another thrust in the lower part of
the groin, but he still contrived to keep his hold
of the villain, and after a deadly struggle, they fell
together against the door, the latter continually
calling upon his accomplices, with horrible impre-
cations, to force themselves in. Mr. Baker, how-
ever, being a powerful man, prevented this, by
keeping himself and the assr_ssin close against the
door, and his ors❑ foot against the bedstead,
which stood near it. During the first moments
of this dreadful contest, Mrs. Baker was too much
terrified to render any assistance to her husbtind;
but when he tell to the ground, in the grasp of
the murderer, she sprung from the bed, and
reached down an old spring-bayonet blunderbuss,
which hung over the fire-place. Mr. Baker held
out his hand for the weapon, and during the tem-
porary relasation of his bold in so. doing, the vil-
lain gave him two other stabs in the abdomen,
and with a desperate effort sprung upon his feet,
and forced himself through the now partly-open
door, and followed his companions, who had fled
on hearing the blunderbuss mentioned. Mr.
Baker was too much wounded to attempt a pur-
suit, and the villains escaped. The only other
person in the house, besides Mr. Baker and his
wife,
,was a Mr. Kell, landlord of the Waggon
and Horses public-house near Kew-bridge, who
being in a very infiian state of health, had retired
some weeks before from the bustle of his own
house to occupy apartments in that of Mr. Baker's;
It is supposed that it was the knowledge of this
circumstance which instigated the robbers to this
attack, it being generally understood that Mr.
Kell had a considerable sum of money by him,
and the cash taken F.t his house in the course of
each day being taken to him every night at Mr.
Baker's, with too little caution and secrecy. It
is remarkable that Mr. Kell, though usually very
restless in the night, was on this occasion in so
deep a sleep, that he heard nothing at all of the
matter till Mr. Baker repaired to his chamber,
after the robbers departed, under the horrible
impression that he should find him murdered; and
this doubtless would have been the case, bad the
villains known the room in which he slept ; but
being ignorant of this, they fortunately first at-
tempted that of Mr. Baker.;

HORRIBLE MURDER. "4kl Sunday evening last,
Mr. GEORGE HARRISON, of Holt, in the county of
Denby, timber-valuer and surveyor, accompanied
three friends front Wrexham to the Red Lion, to
arrange with them respecting some projected
buildings. He remained.with them till near nine
o'clock, and as the night was very dark, his wife,
who was at the house of a neighbour, went out
to fetch him home. When they arrived near the
croft adjoining the Rev. Mr. Weighton's house,
Mrs. Harrison (being a yard or two in advance)
heard a rustling among the leaves, and turning
her head towards the spot, a gun was instantly
discharged about six yards front them, and Mr.
Harrison tell. Mrs. Harrison distinctly saw the
face of .a man, who appeared anxious to ascer-
tain whether he had fully finished his bloody pur-
pose—he then fled across the field. Her screams
soon brought some neighbours to her relief, when
it was ascertained that nearly the whole discharge
from the gun had penetrated Mr. Harrison's head
on the left side. He was carried into the house,
and Mr. Jones, surgeon, of Farndon, was sent
for ; but before he could arrive the unfortunate
man breathed his last ! On the following day, se-
veral of the gentlemen of the neighbourhood as-
sembled, for the purpose of adopting measures
for .apprehending the assassin ; and, in conse-
qnence of some information then obtained, a man
named George Thomas, jun. was apprehended
on suspicion. A gun in his possession was•exa-
mined by Col, Dod, which had recently been
used. Thomas said it had not been fired since
Saturday morning at a partridge;_ hut it was the
opinion of several persons present that it had been
discharged since that time. A shot bag, also his
property, was examined, and was found to con-
tain shots similar to those extracted from the
head of the deceased : he was very violent on be-
ing taken into custody. On Monday a Coroner's
Inquest sat on view of the body, and several .wit-
nesses were examined, but what took place we
shall at present withhold. It adjourned at a late
hour till Tuesday, next, at 10 o'clock in the morn-
ing. Thomas has been discharged. Thus rests
this mysterious case at present. The murder has
excited great alarm in Holt and Farndon. The
deceased was a very honest man ; and on Wed-
nesday, at noon, his remains were interred in Farn-
don church-yard, followed to the grave by a great
number of people.—(Chester Chronicle, Sept. 11.)

About three weeks ago we gave an' account of
a Mr. Wyatt, a butcher, who resided at Putney,
being attacked on the Wandsworth road by two
men, as he was going to Newgate-market ; and
after being beat and kicked until he was quite
insensible., they robbed him of 17 one-pound Bank
notes. Yesterday morning, as Mr. Wyatt was
walking along Long-acre, he saw a black looking
fellow drawing a grinding lathe, calling " Knives
and scissars. to grind ;" ha immediately recog-
nized him to be the man who jumped upon his
body and assisted in robbing him ; be procured
a cunstable, agid bad bim secured,