The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-08-04 00:00:00

THE LATE MR. JOHN BIBBY

We copy the following from the Albion of yesterday :
The relatives of this lamented gentleman hare, in common
with many other persons, imbibed a strong opinion that he
was murdered • and they have, in consequence, offered a
reward of .1:500 to any individual, not the actual murderer,
who will give such information as will lead to the conviction
of any party or parties who may have been active participators
in the dreadful deed. The family of the deceased have, also,
obtained authority from the Secretary of State to announce,
that her Majesty's free pardon will be given to any person,
not the actual perpetrator of the crime, who will give such
information as above mentioned. It has been broadly stated
that little or no investigation has been instituted for the pur-
pose of throwing light on this mysterious event. The fact
is directly otherwise. John Formby, Esq., Charles Birch,
Esq., and the Rev. Miles Formby, all magistrates of the
district, have never, for an instant, relaxed in their exertions
to discover the true circumstances connected with Mr.
Bibby's death. They have been most anxious on the sub-
ject ; and the police, both of the county and the borough,
have been actively and unremittingly employed in seconding
their wishes and those of the family of the deceased. The
Liverpool Mail, of Tuesday last, with an uncalled-for sneer,
tells his readers, that we had expressed an opinion that
Mr. Bibby had committed suicide. This is a rnistate-
meat. 'We never either surmised or hinted such a
thing. We find no fault with those who entertain different
' opinions from ourselves as to the cause of this melancholy
event; and, if our contemporary sincerely believes, that Mr.
Bibby was murdered, as he says be does, we trust we have
too much delicacy and good taste to enter into a controversy
with him on such a subject. Meanwhile, the affair is in-
volved in as much mystery as ever. The few available ma-
terials that offered themselves for the investigation of the
police have been sifted to the uttermost. The watch which
the deceased is supposed to have worn when he was last seen
alive has not yet been found. The pond in which Mr. Bibby's
body was discovered has been emptied, and the mud closely
examined, whereby it has been ascertained, that the watch is
not there. The statements of the coachman, respecting the
time when he set Mr. Bibby down and his own return to
Liverpool, have'been fully corroborated : so that the princi-
pal circumstance which gives a colouring of suspicion to the
case is the continued absence of the watch. The Journal,
of Saturday last, gives the following additional evidence,
some portions of which we do not clearly understand :—" A
policeman, residing at Litherland, had left his coat at Aintree,
returned for it at night, and swears positively that he passed
through the gates in the lane between the pond where the
body of the deceased was found and his residence, and closed
them all himself. This confirms the evidence of the lad re-
lative to his closing them the evening before, on which some
doubt has been thrown. It therefore follows clearly that,
either dead or alive, the deceased must have passed through
the gates between the hours of four o'clock, when, evidence
has since been adduced to show, they were open, and five,
when the policeman closed them ; and the presumption is
very strong that he could not have been at that time in the
lane, otherwise he would have been seen by the policeman.
One of the gates, as was stated, was found propped open by
a slate ; and this gate, it appears, was one which would
not stand open itself, and would require to be propped
for any thing bulky to be dragged through it." The
same paper also says :—" It is not correct, we under-
stand, as inserted.in a contemporary, (the Mail,) that the
boots of the deceased had an appearance as if the body had
been dragged with the toes depending. The only mark of
dirt or clay was on the hands of the deceased, and a little on
his boots, but not what might have been expected in the case
of a person who had waded through such deep miry lanes.
The only marks on his person, of apparent importance, were
marks on each arm, as if he had been seized violently, and
which, in the view of some parties who have looked carefully
into the case, it is difficult to attribute to anything else."