The Sun.
London, England, 1827-01-29 00:00:00

SPOLIATION OF THE GRAVE.

It appears that the three wretches, whose names are said to be
Giles, alias Smith, Holland, alias Hollis, and Vernon, have fez
the three last months taken part of the premises of Mr. Bullivant,
the dyer, on the Leen-bridge, where they have carried on a busi•
ness of the most abhorrent kind during that period, in a manner
and to an extent hardly conceivable. It has been remarked that
Giles has been very assiduous in rendering his services at the many
funerals which had taken place in the burial grounds of St. Mary's
parish, and in pretended commiseration with the mourners, has
learnt the nature of the diseases of which their relatives have died,
and it is now discovered that all this was done with the view of as-
certaining such particulars respecting the deceased, as might en-
able him to make a selection of those best suited to his object, of
transmitting them to the schools of anatomy in London. On one
occasion, we are informed, he actually visited a poor woman,
whose son lay dead in the house-place, and, commiserating her
situation, obtained a sight of the corpse in the coffin. Hampers,
containing corpses, had been sent to London by Pickford's van,
until their numbers at length excited suspicion ; and Mr. White,
the book-keeper, refused receiving the next that was brought, on
Thursday morning last, unless the person bringing it would open
and show him its contents ; this was refused, on the ground that it
was necessary to obtain the permission of the owner ; but he who
brought it promised to go and ask his master's consent. Mr.
White, with great propriety, privately ordered a man to follow
him and watch his motions. This nian, whose name is Arnold,
shortly returned, stating, that the supposed master was harnessing
a horde to a cart, and seemed to meditate an escape. Mr. White
instantly, taking Arnold with him, repaired to the spot where
Giles was preparing his horse and cart for flight ; and leaving the
latter to prevent the escape of the party, went himself to Aldo► man
Barber, to acquaint that magistrate with the circumstance, and to
request an officer to assist him. On the arrival of Jefferies (the
constable), and Mr. White, the master and mail were gone, and
wholly lost sight of. The cart .and horse were both seized, and
Jefferies proceeded to Messrs. Pickford's yard, to examine the
hamper. Here the most disgusting sight was witnessed, for upon
opening the package, the bodies of a woman and child were dis-
covered ; and the offenders were at once known as what are called
Resurrection'men. The corpses were now removed tothe guard-
house ; and on Friday they were recognized as those of persona
very recently interred.

At this time the scene of human suffering became intense.—
Mothers were wailing for the suspected loss of their husband's and
children's remains, daughters for those of their parents, and fa-
thers, husbands, and suns, with pick-axes and spades, were seen
running to the different cemeteries to satisfy their minds on a point
of so much interest. It would be impossible to portray many of the
really distressing scenes, as the coffins were explored and found
empty. One elderly female, on being informed that the corpse of
her husband was secure, seemed to doubt the assertion, and ac-
tually got into the grave to satisfy herself. She put her hand
into the coffin, and feeling the body, uttered an exclamation of
joy ; but yet so wild and hysterical, that hard indeed must have
been the heart that did not feel it. Parents were seen carry-
ing away the empty coffins and grave-clothes of their children.
One individual, who, about a month since, buried two chil-
dren, found, on opening the grave, the bodies were both
gone ; and another person, we are told, has actually set out
for London, to try to recover the body of his son. Satur-
day and Monday were occupied in the mournful task of
opening the graves ; and the groups of people that stood round
while the men were occupied in digging, presented a me-
lancholy spectacle. Dr. Wilkins, the vicar, was feelingly en-
gaged throughout the whole time, in associating himself and his
feelings with every party of mourners. Not less a number than
thirty-four bodies were discovered to have been removed ; and,
although reports were in circulation, that some of these had been
interred for several months, nay, years past, in no authenticated
instance have any been missed among those who have been buried
previous to the 3d of last November. The supposition therefore,
that Nottingham has furnished subjects for the dissecting-room
before the last two or etree months, rest upon no shadow of
proof. Dr. Wilkins has not only been constantly engaged in vi-
siting the burial grounds, and endeavouring to mitigate the grief
of all the unhappy and disconsolate groups around him ; but he
has been unceasingly engaged with the local authorities in endea-
vouring to bring the offending parties to justice.
It has also since been discovered, that the bodies, when taken,
were thrown into sacks, and put over various places of the
walls, many of which admit of this being done with facility. These
have afterwards been packed up closely in hampers, bukets, and
boxes, and sent to London : how, and by what means (peid et
quontodo), the arrangements have there been made, those in Lin-
coln's-inn-fields can, perhaps, best tell : but we caution them
against making another attempt of this nature in this town. But
though we have every reason ttrbeliere that this abhorrent prac-
tice of stealing the dead is of recent date here, we are enabled to
judge, that the transaction of such nefarious business, upon a
very large scale, has been contemplated. In the first place, a
ready furnished house of residence for the guilty rnisereants
was hired in Maiden-lane, which adjoins one of the burial-
grounds, and is close to another of easy access on the south
side : besides this, upon the Leen-bridge, close to Messrs.
Pickford's wharf, and opposite a house of call of all the
southern coaches, premises were taken of Mr. Bullivant,
consisting- of a cart lodge and stable, and a very extensive
building, one half of whirls is very dull, and the other,
partitioned off from it, lighted by sky7lights : hither the
bodies were brought and packed in hampers, or in boxes,
which were also here fabricated upon a principle suited to the
purposes of securing their contents, and admitting of their
being returned for future service. These boxes, into which were
compressed bodies of a size larger than could have been supposed,
were very closely joined, with tops fastened down with screws;
besides these, were baskets of thick workmanship, adapted to the
reception of the body of a child. These hampers, boxes, and
baskets, were taken, some to Messrs. Piekford's office, others to
the house of call, some put upon coaches
passing by, and many
others placed in a cart, were driven to various places upon the
public roads, and left to be forwarded to their destination by any
suitable conveyance.

New locks are ordered to be placed upon the doors of all the
burial-grounds, with the exception of the church-yard, from
which, upon investigation, it appears, no one body has been re-
moved. The vicar has also ordered the practice of burying still-
born children at night to be discontinued ; seeing no reason why
that necessary act should not be done by day ; so that in future,
no pretence will exist for any person whatever to be in the burial
grounds after the close of the day.—Nottingham Journal.

So destitute of what poets call rhythm did some
parts of the choruses in Milton's Samson Agonistes appear to the
critical taste of Bentley, that he 'has ventured to impute their
state to Milton's blindness, and suggests that some careless, or
worse than careless, amanuensis, had disfigured the verses; and
that many of them could not have stood as they now stand, if
Milton had seen them.

COURT OF CHANCERY.—Jialcratti t 7.
WILLISLIT V. DUKE OF BIMITORT.
(Continued from our paper of Saturday.)
The ATTORBEY-GENIRAL.—The parties left Albano on de
Bth of October, arrived at Florence on the 18th, and on tile
_

29th of December Mrs. Wellesley withdrew her protection from
Mrs. Bligh. It was at this time that Mr. Wellesley's passion
began to mount, and he became bolder and bolder. Nento fad
repente turpissimus ; the men who-at first went out disguised in
a cloak, would soon throw it aside, and though Mr. Wellesley
did not take liberties with Mrs. Bligh before his wife at first,' he
did not hesitate to do to as the connection proceeded. It was
dearly proved upon the affidavits, that on the 29th of December
the adultery had been committed, and that Mrs. Wellesley had
dismissed Mrs. Bligh.
Mr. Hoare.--No such thing is proVed upon 'affidavit.
The ATTORIMY•GENERAL said, he supposed' that there wis a
connno in the argument, and that Mr. Bohm Meant to ipply the
law of the comma to him. He must of course be liable to' these
objections—pins in weight. He might, perhaps, hate said that
Mrs. Wellesley knew of the adultery; instead.Of that, the etinduct
of Mr. Wellesley was so gross, that abe could no lotiger doubt of
the connexion between him mid Mrs. Bligh, and -that that Piste
she dismissed that lady. The Learned Counsel then adverted is
the departure of Mr. Wellesley and his family from Fforillee,
They arrived at Paris in May, 1824, and on their departilrefriim
Florence there appeared to be no disposition on the part of Mr.
Wellesley to get rid of this woman. Meara swore that
Bligh set out before them, and stopped at Fontainbleati ; that
Mr. Wellesley, making some excuse, set off from Floreece
two or three days before his wife, and joined Mrs. 'Bligh
at the former place. That Mr. Wellesley slept. two-or Clive
, nights with Mrs. Bligh at the hotel de- 4ivoli before the arrival of
his wife- it... Retie, and teat, d wing. * resident:4e Mr. .Welles--
ley's family in that`city, he (Meara.> used frequently to take his
master's clothes to Mrs. Bligh's, where he was sleeping. Unfor-
'tunately for Mr. Wellesley there was a child born to them in 1825.
Now a child was, to use a legal phrase, a thing in rerun:: natura,
and a stubborn fact which a man could net very well get over:
A child might, it was true, be sworn to any body, but it could not
be, sworn out of the way altogether ; and, if 'it had- not been fog
this, he (the Attorney-General)- dared say, that Mr. Wellesley
would have spoken of the child with the same truth ache had of
other matters in his affidavit. His Lordship would recollect the
in June, 1824, Lord and Lady Maryborough arrived in Paris, lit
consequence of a letter from Mrs. Wellesley, in which she, had de-
dared to them that she could bear her husband's profligate ceedurt
and ill treatment no longer. When Mr. Wellesley received infer-
' mation of their arrival, he is stated by Dr. Bulkeley to have roared
and raved so that he might have been heard in the street, in the
Place de Vendome, where the Hotel de Londree, in which Mr. We-
llesley's family were staying, was situated. A great deal of stress
had been laid upon this expression of the defendant's,
which, it had been said, was a wilful exaggeration, if not alto-
gether a fabrication. He (the. Attorney-General) had been at
the Hotel de Londres, and thought it not at all incredible that a
person might be heard from any of the front rooms, in the place
de Vendome. His Lordship and most of the learned friends
around him, would recollect a person whom they all remembered
with respect, and who had a remarkable loud voice, he meant the
late Sir Thomas Plomer. On one occasion, one of the members
of the House of Commons seeing another about .to leave the
House, asked him " Where 'he was going?" To which be re-
plied, "To a neighbouring coffee-house." " Why Sir Thomas
Plomer is going to speak," rejoined the first, " won't you efop
and hear him?" " Hang him," said the gentleman to whom
the question was put, "he speaks so loud that you might hear
him in the other world." It was now time that be (the Attor-
ney-General) should advert to another very material part of the
case; he meant Mr. Wellesley's arrival in London, and-his visit
to Clarges-street. The learned counsel here went over the details
of Mr. Wellesley and Mrs. Bligh's arriving in London, under
assumed names, and living together in adultery in Sey-
mour-place. It was in evidence, that from the time they arrived
in London, 29th June, 1825, up -to Wednesday, 6th July, in
the same year, they slept together, and on the 7th of July, Mr.
Wellesley paid the visit to his wife in Clarges-street. Upon this
occasion a hackney coach served the convenient purpose of con-
veying Mrs. Bligh. and Mr. Wellesley to the top of Oarges-street,
where Mr. W. slighted to pay, what he called in his affidavit, a re-
spectful visit to his wife, and left his paramour to proceed in the
coach to pay a visit to her friend, Madame Vestris, in Curzon-
. street, May-fair,—this a respectful visit ! Now, he (the Attar-
, nays General) would contend that nothing could hare been mars
brutal than the whole of Mr. Wellesley's conduct in this visit.—
The Attorney-General then went en to review the conduct of Mr.
Wellesley during this visit in Clarges-street, and observed that he
returned to Calais on the 10th orsl 1 th July.

The LORD• Our:m.l,oa said, he believed there was no evi-
dence that Mr. Wellesley, when he came to England from Calais,
after this return of the 11th of July, had seen Mrs. Thigh from
February to April, in 1826 ; and this Mr. Wellesley had insisted
was a breaking off of the connection between Mrs. Bligh and him.
It the connection was subsequently resumed, or, as it had been
urged on the other side, if a new connection had been commenced,
it would be a question how far that recommencement was forced
upon Mr. Wellesley.
The ATTORNEY..GENER A L was prepared to contend, that
though there might have been intervals in, yet there was no aban-
donment of, the consortium; there might have been a parenthesis
in the connexion, but the continuity was never actually broken.--
In alluding to Mrs. Bligh's practice of disguising herself in- Mrs.
Scott's clothes,

The Loan CJ ANCFLLOR interrupted the Learned Counsel,
and observed, that Mr. Scott had deposed to a curious• fact in
his affidavit. He had stated, that Mrs. Bligh resembled his wife
as much as possible in size, and that he one night mistook Mrs.
Bligh for his wife, when she was walking in the latter's clothes.
The ATTORNEY-GENERAL recollected the fact, and would ob-
serve, if he might be allowed the expression, that Mrs. Bligh was
the pseudo Mrs. Scott. The Learned Counsel here • adverted to
a fact sworn to, as evidence to Mr. Wellesley's general moral
habits, that he had a tenancy in common in the favours of alady,
the condition being, that one of the gentlemen should be received
ita the absence of the other. This was important, as it served to
show the habitual abandonment of Mr. Wellesley, and his conse-
quent inability to exercise with due efficiency the parental rights
with which he sought to be intrusted. As further evidence of the
general demoralization of his mind, it was important to remark,
that he boasted, in one of his letters, of his indiscriminate inter-
course with women. After commenting on the means by which
Mr. Wellesley endeavoured to deprive his wife of her pin-money,
of 11,000/. a-year, after spending the remainder of her fortune,
and after she had generously thrown her pin-money into a com-
mon stock for their support, and which attempt was only pre-
vented by the influence of Lord Maryborough, the learned counsel
said he would next make a few observations on Mr.' Wellesley's
conduct in relation to his children.
The Loan CHANCELLOX.—The Court will commence on
Monday by hearing what you may have to ssy•on that subject. •
His Lordship then rose.
Mr. Wellesley was not in Court during the Attorney-General's
speech.

BODY SNATCHERS.—In landing the cargo of the
Manchester steam-packet at Liverpool from Dublin, oil Monday
bodySmopeernd-0h
morning,
na tt
elderly
3e
Jan. Brunswick
in 1827 man, apparently
whßaicsihn:
upwards
onw box
beraidng
wsoa
fe
opened,
found addressed to
" Mr. Thompson, 27, Percy-street, Bedford-elqouerere,old, London,
disclosed the
the officer of the customs caused to be conveyed to the dead-house,
in Chapel-street. There were no marks of violenceit about it, and
Saturday
pttb to sea at Mr. Davies, the surgeon, was of opinion that had been interred.
The mate of the Manchester was examined before Mr. Alderman
t
he received
tohneebooxf stated,ftrhoemCtohievneoersmpfoarnyth.sesbtoorreouinghLuabnidin,aa
s p part
theatf
evening.
ten
o'clock on the same night, and arrived here on Sunday. Upon
this evidence, the Coroner issued directions for the interment of
the body.— Commercial Chronicle.
didt e generalnot
kn o
w cargo,
ho w about t
came seven
to o'clock
store.k on
EXTRAORDINARY ACCIDENT.--011 Thursday,
the 11th instant, the thunder produced, in three mills, in the en-
virons of Abbeville, distant about two leagues from each ether,
very extraordinary effects. Between one and two o'clock in the
afternoon, a great explosion was heard. The miller of Longue-
villers, who was then in his mill, was found outside, prostrate, in
a meadow, and deprived of his senses. The upper part of the
thigh and the leg appeared to have been burnt, and the foot
seemed dead. 'lhe fall must have been the more severe, as the
mill is built on a peak, and some anxiety is felt for the conse-
quences of this accident. At Plouy Les Dungueur, the miller's
son left the mill, to which he had come to bring his father's din-
ner. He was much astonished, when, returning, he saw his
father stretched on the ground, and senseless, not having felt the
shock himself. The skin on one side of the body exhibited marks
of burning, front the head to the feet. The hair on the same aide
was burned to the body. At Gorenflos, the miller, having expe-
rienced a kind of vibration, was thrown out of the mill. In the
same village, a woman, frightened by the shock of the explosion,
and having advanced to a window to see if a thunderbolt had not
fallen in the neighbourhood, was instantly deprived of the use of
both hands.— Gazette de France.