The Sun.
London, England, 1829-11-02 00:00:00

CORONER'S INQUEST.

On Saturday the circumstances which occasioned
the melancholy death of Henry William Willis,
Esq., were inquired into by Mr. STIRLING, coroner,
and an inquest jury, at No. 45, Montague-square,
the house of his father, the banker.
The first person examined was Robert Bassett, a
footman in the service of Mr. Willis, seri., and he
stated that the deceased was a single man, 38 years
of age, and that he was in the habit of v►sit►ng his
father at that house. He came there on Wednesday
He played at backgammon with his father in the
evening, and retired to his chamber, which is upon
the drawing-room floor, in good health and spirits,
at 20 minutes before 12. The witness slept in the
butler's pantry, and shortly after midnight, he was
aroused by cries of " fire" from the servants, in
the upper part of the house. He ran up stairs to
ascertain the cause, and he met the deceased in the
hall, with only his shirt upon him, and his hands and
face were all over blood. The deceased went out
at the front door, and was received into the next
house by Mr. Reeves. The witness afterwards saw
the bedding, bed furniture, a large bedside chair, and
the window•blinds on fire, in the chamber of the
deceased, and ascertained that the deceased was se-
verely burnt. He returned to his father's house after
the confusion was over, and died there the same
afternoon. The deceased took a candle with hina
into his room, and when the firemen came with the
engines the candlestick was found behind his pillow,
and a book was found upon the bed very much
burned.

The CORONER asked how he accounted for the
blood upon the hands and face of the deceased ;
whether he met with any injury, independent of the
fire, to produce it.
The footman saw him fall upon the stairs : he
seemed exhausted, and hardly able to stand.
CORONER—Was he quite sober when he retired
to rest ? Footman—Quite so, Sir, I believe; I did
not see that he was otherwise.
CORONER—Can you account for the fire ? Wit-
ness—l believe he was reading in bed, and the fur-
niture caught fire.
Mr. J. C. Cox, of Montague-place, surgeon—Was
called in after the accident to assist the deceased.
He found him severely burnt in his face, and upon
his arms; the other parts of his body were burned
very superficially. He never recovered from the
effects of it, and between one and two o'clock on
the same day he was seized with a spasm, and died
instantly.
CORONER—Did he give any account of the acci-
dent ? Mr. Cox—He said he was reading, and the
bed caught fire.
One of the Jurors asked if he wa sasleep ? Mr.
Cox—Thought it probable ; but the deceased had
not said so.

The Jury viewed the body and the chamber
where the accident took place, and it appeared that
the deceased had used great exertion to extinguish
the fire before he gave an alarm; and in doing so,
his hands were torn by nails in the furniture, and
tha. produced the blood seen by the servants, and
which was washed away before the surgeon came.
The Jury returned a verdict-,—" Accidental death."

NEWS FOR THE NEEDLE. MA KERS:AII
Englishman, writing from France, says, " The needle and
pin msnufartories around Aix-la-Chapelle are half a cen-
tury behind England in the quality of these articles ; and a
ease of real English needles is a most acceptable present to
a Belgian lady."

The complainant was brought up from the West.
minster Hospital, and supported into the office. She
appeared in a.very weak, state from the ill-usage she
received, and was accommodated with a chair.
-_Handley, the officer, said that when he searched
the room the floor was covered with blood, and
added, that the prisoner at the watch-house said ha
wished that the complainant was as dead as a rat.
Mr. GREGORIE said it nits ,a most disgraceful, un-
manly, and brutal assault. The prisoner had greatly
aggravated the case bylthe defence. Instead of ex-
pressing contrition, he charged all the witnesses with
perjury, at the same time there never was a clearer
case in the world, or better supported.
Mr. GREGORIE inquired of the serjeant of the re-
giment what kind of character the prisoner had?
The serjeant replied he bore a very bad character.
Mr. WHITE inquired whether "any way could be
adopted to make the prisoner compensate the wo-
man ? The serjeant replied he was afraid not.
The Magistrates consulted for some time, when
Mr. GREGORIE said, that the judgment of the
Bench was, that the prisoner pay a fine to the King
of .51., or be imprisoned in the House of Correction
for two months.

The serjeant said that his pay would be stopped
during his imprisonment.

Mr. GREGORIE said he was glad to hear it ; and
was only sorry he had not the power to punish the
prisoner more severely.
The prisoner was then conveyed to the House of
Correction.

John Wilkins, a private in the 3(1 Regiment of
Foot Guards, was placed at the bar charged with
the following daring highway robbery, which was-
detected through the vigilance of Frederic Johns,
police constable letter B, No. 68.
Mr. John Ingram, of Pratt-street, Lambeth, stated
that as he was returning home from Charing-cross,
on Wednesday evening, between eight and nine
o'clock, he met two soldiers in Parliament-street.
Having been drinking rather more than he ought,
they offered to assist him, and when he got into
Bridge-street, Westminoer•bridge, he took them
into the Magpie and Horse-shoe and treated them
with some rum for their civility. After stopping a
few minutes he went away, when, just as he got to
the foot of the bridge hg turned his head round,
and saw the soldier* behind him. They instantly
snatched his watch out of his fob, and ran into Pa-
-1 ace-y ar d. He followed them, but fell down, and
they made their escape.
Mr. GREGORIE—Is the prisoner one of the men?
Witness—To the best of lily belief he is; but I
would not swear positively.
Thomas Rogers, a servant at the Magpie and
Horse-shoe, recollected the prosecutor coming into his
master's house with two soldiers about half-past eight
o'clock on Wednesday evening. They had some
rum. The gentleman went out first, and the soldiers
followed hire.. Is positive that the prisoner was one
of the men.

John Walton, shopman to Mr. Page, a pawn-
broker, produced a watch, which he said was pledged
by the prisoner on Friday afternoon ; there was an-
other soldier with him at the time, and he said he
wanted as much money as lie could lend on it, as he
was going on furlough.
Mr. Ingram identified the watch produced as the
one he had been robbed of : it cost him eleven gui-
neas without the seals.

The prisoner, in his defence, denied the charge,
and said he could prove that he was at the Brown-
low Arms, in Brownlow-street, Drury-lane, until a
quarter before nine o'clock on Wednesday evening.
He was fully committed for trial.

ESCAPE OF WOOD, ONE OF THE EN-

FIELD BURGLARS.

On Friday night Henry D. Wood, whose exa-
mination before the Rev. Dr. CRESWELL, on several
charges of burglary, appeared in The Sun on Sa-
turday, while it was supposed that he was placed in
perfect security, most dexterously effected his escape
from the cage of Enfield, in which h was confined,
to await his being again brought before the bench
on the following day, in order to the evidence of
Mr. Rougemont's cook being taken, preparatory to
his final commitment. At eight o'clock, the officer
to whose safe keeping the' prisoner was intrusted,
visited him in his place of confinement, (an old de.
tached building at the rear of the George Inn) and
then found him safe, and every thing apparently in
such a state of security, as to lull all suspicion. He
returned after the lapse of two hours, to supply him
with some refreshments, when, much to his surprise
and consternation, he discovered the place empty,
and his captive flown. On examining the cage, he
found a pitchfork, which had been conveyed to the
prisoner by some sympathizing confederate or friend,
and with this, though it could not have been more
than an hour and a half in his possession, he worked
so efficiently, as within that time to have broken an
aperture through one of the walls large enough to
give a free passage for his body. This was the first
difficulty he had to surmount before he could consider
himself at liberty, and having got over it, the next
that presented itself was the wall with which the
yard was enclosed, the top of which, for its greater
protection, and the prevention of depredations, was
guarded with broken glass. This, it would appear,
must have been an insuperable impediment, from the
danger he must run of being severely wounded or
cut, to his further progress; but this also he ma-
naged to overcome, by placing on the summit, and
thus rendering the glass-work harmless, two rugs,
with which he had been supplied to rest on for the
night.edto h i
Tmhtehpitchfork, it appears,
ironap gperaartsin
g,h a. d beenoni
tcso
beingnvey-
rumoured in the village that Wood had effected his
escape from custody, the greatest anxiety was mani-
fested to ascertain the truth of the report; and whets
it was established beyond a doubt, not a few per-
sons expressed their gratification at the prisoner's
good fortune. This may be accounted for by his
being known to several of the townspeop'e, and his
being a person of rather popular manner and insinu-
ating address. . _

Constables were despatched in pursuit of thefu-
gitive in all directions; but up to a late hour yester-
day no trace of him had been discovered. Informa-
tion of the circumstance has also been ecr: munieated
to the officers of the metropolis, in which it is pro-
bable, rather than- in the country, lie has might for
an asylum.