The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-12-17 00:00:00

THE LATE MURDER NEAR WALSALL

THE INQUEST AND COMMITTAL OF THE ACCUSED.
On Monday an inquest was held at the Red Lion Inn,
Wednesbury, before Mr. J. Smith, the coroner for that dis-
trict of the county of Stafford, upon the body of Mr. Mat-
thew Adams, who was murdered at his house at Delves-
green, on the morning of Wednesday, the first of the present
month. The circumstances of the case and the great secrecy
which had been observed by the police and authorities since
the commission of the murder, occasioned in the extreme
part of the southern division of Staffordshire, an extraordi-
nary degree of interest.

Delves-green, the site of this shocking crime, is, consider-
ing the population of the mining districts of Staffordshire, a
retired neighbourhood—almost a forsaken one—about a mile
and a quarter distant from Walsall, on an old and almost
untrodden road between that town and West Bromwich old
church.

Mr. Matthew Adams, the deceased, was a man of advanced
age, and had reared a very respectable family, but was gene-
rally thought to live penuriously, if not miserly. His son,
who, from the subsequent report, gave evidence upon the
coroner's inquiry, is a person residing in the neighbourhood,
of highly respectable character, and is the father of a most
estimable family. It appears to have been generally under-
stood in the vicinity of Delves-green that the late M r. Adams
was always in the possession of ready cash, and there is not
the slightest doubt but that this idea led to the murderous
assault to which he fell a victim.

It would seem from the evidence that, as soon as the day
after the murder was committed, suspicion fell upon one in-
dividual, and he was apprehended by Mr. Raymond, the
superintendent of the Walsall police. Other men were also
taken into custody, but in consequence of it being supposed
that a numerous gang of desperate characters were also im-
plicated in the affair, it was deemed advisable to adjourn the
first inquest, held nine days ago, and to maintain the greatest
secrecy until further evidence was obtained. The evidence
was fully secured by the confession of a man named Thomas
Boswell on Friday night last, and on Monday he and four
other men named Joseph and James Wilkes (brothers,)
George and John Giles (also brothers,) were brought in cus-
tody before the coroner's jury. The prisoners are all resi-
dents of Walsall, but the Wilkeses are of recent importation,
and comparatively strangers. During the investigation all
the prisoners, with the exception of Boswell, exhibited the
utmost indifference, and on more than one occasion were re-
proved for their indecent levity.
The evidence was conciusive, and the jury returned the
following verdict:—" Wilful murder against Joseph Wilkes,
as principal, and wilful murder against James Wilkes, Tho-
mas Boswell, and George Giles, as principals in the second
degree."
The prisoners were committed to take their trials at the
next Stafford Assizes.

ROYAL AUTOGRAPH.—The following is a copy of an
autograph letter, now in our possession, from the King of
Calabar. It is addressed to the captains of some vessels upon
the coast, by whom his black majesty had been taught to
write :—" Captain Brassy and all Gentlemen,—Sir, 1 shall
be very glad to see you Come and Dine with me in one
Clock. lam your Friend, Duke Ephraim King Calabar."
—Brighton Gazette. •

A BULL IN A (FURNITURE) SHOP.—In reply to a sum-
mons at the Mansion House, for damage done by a bullock,
on its way from Smithfield, to the property of a furniture-
broker, whose shop it had entered, its owner stated that he
was nearly 50 years an inhabitant of Whitechapel, and he
had seen bullocks in very extraordinary situations. They
often took it into their heads to walk up narrow flights of
stairs, and when all attempts to get them down failed, they
turned about, unwieldy as they were, and moved down stairs,
doing no harm but just spitting round upon those who felt
alarm. Some years ago one of the bullocks in Newgate-
gate market took a fancy to examine Alderman Crowder's
printing-office, and upstairs he trudged to the top of the
house, to the terror of the poor old compositors ; but when
he saw what a fright he caused, he turned round, and per-
forming a very unceremonious office amongst the type,
bundled down again to their great relief.

CAnNAßvo:st CASTLE.—Vast, irregular, and more shat-
tered than its exterior grandeur would lead us to suppose,
this giant-fortress stretches far along the west of the town,
its broad spreading walls being surmounted, at intervals,
with octagonal towers. The extent of the courts, the gate-
ways, and the towers, bear equal witness to those noble pro-
portions which astonish the modern architect, as from its
Eagle-turrets he commands the whole of its magnificent area,
and the wide sweeping circuit of its walls. Opposite the
massive Eagle Tower, in which the unfortunate Edward 11.
was born, is the Queen's Gate, which had two portcullisses
that communicated with a drawbridge across the moat. Over
the embattled parapet are seen the turrets rising majestically
above the solitary ruins,
. bounded on two sides by the water ;
the third bears traces of. a large ditch ; on the north-east side
is a deep well, nearly filled up, with a round tower contigu-
ous to it, apparently the ancient dungeon. The exterior,
and especially the main entrance, has an air of forlorn gran-
deur, blended with massy
.strength, which must at all times
excite admiration and awe in the
.beholder. The area within
is irregularly oblong, and was divided into an outer and inner
court. The external walls of the castle, enclosing an area of
great extent, are nearly as perfect as when they were built,
and of considerable height and thickness. The state apart-
ments appear to have been spacious, commodious, and hand-
somely ornamented ; the windows, wide and enriched with
elegant tracery. The form is polygonal, though the exterior
of the edifice presents a complete square. The floors and
staircases are considerably injured—in many places wholly
demolished. A gallery extended
round the entire fortress
to serve as a means of communication in times of danger'
and during a siege. It lay close to the outer walls, and was,
provided with narrow slips, adapted for stations, from which
to annoy an enemy with arrows or other missiles as occasion
might require. But its time-worp and ivy-covered bulwarks
are now fast yielding, like the interior, to the assaults of
time: Some years ago the. Eagle Tower, struck by lightning,
was split down several yards fro the summit, giving it still
more the aspect of a splendid ruin.—From Roscoe's NOrth
Wales, new edition.