The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-12-28 00:00:00

ATROCIOUS MURDER NEAR WEM, SHROP-
SHIRE.

(From the Shrewsbury News.)
' Another murder has been perpetrated in this country du-
' ring the present week under circumstances of greater atro-
city even than the one at Bronygarth, near Oswestry. A
wife, with the assistance of her husband, has administered
poison to both her parents, and the mother has fallen a vie-
- tim to the dfabolical deed, the father escaping by a miracle ;
and an innocent person (according to the last report) has
since died in extreme agony from the effect of the deadly
food of which he had been a partaker.
The name of the old man is Arthur Williams, who resides
at Whixall, within three miles of Wern, in this county, and
the perpetrators of the horrid crime, Thomas Harries and his
wife Mary, lived in the same cottage with the father and his
deceased wife Eliza Williams. The prisoner, Thomas har-
ries, had been previously married, his former wife having
died four years ago, leaving two children, who resided in the
same cottage with the prisoners. It appeared that the de-
ceased victim had been in the habit of correcting these chil-
dren, and Hairies had said that he would remember her for
it ; and this is the only motive that can at present be as-
signed for the deed, which has caused such general horror in
the neighbourhood.
On Monday last the deceased partook of an apple-dump-
ling at dinner, and was instantly taken ill, the symptoms in-
creasing in virulence so rapidly, that by nine o'clock the
same evening she was a corpse. Her husband did not eat
any of the dumpling, being too ill, from having taken a small
portion of the poisonous mineral on the previous night ; and
the third party was the son of a neighbour, to whom the fe-
male prisoner had given the remainder of the poisoned food.
An inquest was held on the body of the deceased Eliza
Williams on Friday last, before Mr. Joseph Dickens, coro-
ner, when the following evidence was adduced :--
Arthur Williams, husband of the dcceased.—Lives in a
cottage at Whixall, and the prisoners Thomas and Mary
Harries, with two children of the former, resided with him.
On Saturday last, witness had a pig's fry for his supper,
which was cooked by the accused, who took some flour from
a bag hanging in the kitchen, to thicken the gravy. Witness
ate heartily, and felt very sick afterwards, going to bed ill,
and remaining so all night. He got up the next morning very
unwell, and sat in the house till 11 o'clock, when he went
out, leaving the deceased, the prisoners, the children, and a
neighbour named John Edwards there. Witness returned to
dinner, but was too unwell to eat. The first dish was an ap-
ple dumpling, of which the deceased ate heartily, but witness
was too poorly to taste it. Within five minutes after eating
the dumpling the deceased ran towards the door, and throw-
ing it open, said, " Oh, dear, how ill I am !" and retched
violently. The deceased then went into the garden, sup-
portedby the female prisoner, and, being a long time away,
witness went out, and finding her too ill to walk, carried her
into the house, and placed her in a chair. She continued
getting worse, till 5 o'clock, when witness carried her up to
bed, and went to bed himself, feeling very unwell. He got up
about 9 o'clock. as his wife became much worse, and she died
shortly after. Witness had occasion to go into the garden
afterwards, leaving the prisoners in the kitchen, and on return-
ing, heard Harries say to his wife, "There's something in that
flour." The two prisioners lived in the same house with the wit-
ness, but eat at a saparate table, and found their own victuals.
They had their dinner at the same time as the deceased, but
not at the same table. The female prisoner assisted deceased
to bed, but neither of the prisoners made any remark upon
her sudden death ko witness. Mary Jones, a neighbour, was
in the room at the time deceased expired. The female
prisoner made a dumpling at the same time as the deceased,
but did not take the flour from the same bag. The deceased
did not eat all the dumpling, and on the following morning
witness said to the female prisoner, " There's some dumpling ;
give it to the children;" and she answered " No, I may not
do that." He again requested her to give it them, and she
replied, " No, no, I munna give it them." A neighbour
named Betty Minshall, had been washing at the house on
Monday morning, and went on an errand the same day. On
Wednesday, witness asked the female prisoner where the re-
mainder of the dumpling was, and she replied, " I have given
it the children, and they have eaten it." The male prisoner
had frequently words about the children with the deceased,
but nothing of any consequence. When the female prisoner
was taken into custody she said, " I am innocent, and I be-
lieve I can swear for him." Witness knew there was poison
kept in the house, having some sugar of lead in a paper, which
he used for dressing cows, but it was not kept near the bag
which contained the flour. The male prisoner had some
powdered arsenic in a bottle, which he used for poisoning
rats, and kept it in the pantry. The flour was bought from
Mr. Povey, of Whixall, is a large bag, and a small quantity
was put in another bag, and hung up in the kitchen ready to
use for trifling purposes; but the bread was always made
from the large bag. After deceased was dead, witness saw
the male prisoner go into the pantry, and while be was there
his wife said, " What are you plundering there at : is there
anything I can reach you?" to which he answered, " No ;
you know nothing about it."

Two surgeons -deposed that arsenic was the poison whic
caused the deceased's death.

The male prisoner asked the coroner if the examination
would conclude that evening, and being answered in the
affirmative, said he might as well tell all. He then made a

statement to the effect that he had told his wife on Saturday
night that something wis the matter with the meat to make
the old man so ill. He said he had purchased the poison
some months ago from Mr. Gough, chemist, of Wem, for
the purpose of destroying rats, and hinted that his wife must
have administered the arsenic if the deceased really was
poisoned. The female prisoner said, if any one knew about
it it was her husband.

The jury returned a verdict, "That the deceased's death
was occasioned by pison administered by Thomas Harries
and that he was assisted by his wife ;" and they were both
fully committed for the next assizes.

The male prisoner is a brick maker by trade, and has
borne but an indifferent character. The female is very far
advanced in pregnancy, and on Thursday feigned that she
was in labour; but upon examination by a surgeon, the
attempt to postpone the investigation failed. John Haycock
was taken into Cheshire by the boat, and a report has
reached town that he has expired—making the second victim
of this unparalleled atrocity.

STATISTICS OF THE
GREAT

POPISH CHURCH IN
BRITAIN.

(From the Catholic
ENGLAND
Churches anC

Directory for 1842.)
AND WALES.
d Chapels,—in
' Northumberland
Oxfordshire
Shropshire
Somersetshire
Staffordshire ....,
Suffolk
Surrey
Sussex
Warwickshire
Westmoreland
Wiltshire . •
Worcestershire
Yorkshire
Isle of Man
Guernsey
Jersey

Bedfordshire

Berkshire 5
Buckinghamshire
Cambridgeshire
Cheshire
Cornwall
Cumberland 8
Derbyshire
Devonshire
Dorsetshire
Durham
Essex
Gloucestershire
Hampshire

Heretordshire

Hertfordshire

Lancashire

Leicestershire
Lincolnshire..

SOUTH WALES.
Brecknockshire
Glamorganshire

Middlesex.
Monmouthshire

Norfolk
Northamptonshire 5
Nottinghamshire. , 3
Total of Chapels in En
SCOTI
Churches and
_ _

NORTH WALES.
Caernarvonshire 1
Denbighshire
Flintshire
'gland and Wales, 487.
AND.
Chapels,—in

Aberdeenshire
Argyleshire
Ayrshire ....
Banffshire....
Caithness-shire
Dumbartonshire
Dumfriesshire 2
Edinburghshire
Forfarshire
Inverness-shire
Kincardineshire
Total of Chapels in Scotland, G 9; besides 24 stations where
Divine service is performed.
Grand Total of Catholic Churches and Chapels in Great
Britain, 556.

Kirkcudbright.. i 3
Lanarkshire. . 4
Linlithgowshire ....... 1
Morayshire
Peebleshire
Perthshire
Renfrewshire
Ross-shire
Stirlingshire 1
Wigtonshire 1

In
St. Edmund Eand there are ei Catholic Ciz.,
ngl's, Hertfordshireght Stonyhurst,olleges—v Lancashire
St. Peter's St. Mary's, Staffordshire
St. Paul's Soroersetsb. Ushaw College, Durham
St. Gregory's J St. Lawrence's, Yorkshire
In Scotland one—viz.,
St. Mary's, Blairs, Kincardineshire.
Monasteries.
1 Yorkshire District
6 Northern
5 Scotland
1 Central District

London District
Central
Western
Lancashire

AIISSIONAUY PRIESTS IN GREAT BRITAIN.
ENGLAND.
London District ll7 Lancashire District .... 155
Central ll7 Yorkshire 6l
Eastern 31 Northern 57
Western
Total in England, 624, including priests without any fixed

mission

SCOTLAND.
Eastern District
Western District 3G
Northern District
Total in Scotland, BG.—Grand total, as per alphabetical
hit, 711.