The Statesman.
London, England, 1822-12-20 00:00:00

TO

KENT WINTER ASSIZES.

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II AIDSTONZ, Dtc. 18.

Before Mr. Justice BATLIIR.
J. Chantler, S. Chantler, K Harris, and W. Spearman, I
were indicted for having, on the 211:11 November, feloni-
ously entered the house of N. Parkhurst, at Staple-
harst;and stolen therefrom 2 101. notes, one M. note.
three 11. notes, old gold coin to the value of 12f. four
silver tea spoons, and three sovereigns, his property.
Mr. Bot.t.s:crs detailed the case to the Jury on the
part of the prosecution.
Nathaniel Parkhurst, an old man, between 70 mill 80
years of age, renting a small farm near Staplehorst,
in this county, stated that on the 20th November, st
about seven o'clock in the 'evening, it being then dark,
he heard a knocking at the door; he asked who was
there, somebody answered, Nobody that will hurt
you ; we want some more of your cider, and have brought
you a little spirits ; witness knowing the voice of J.
Chantler, to whom on the Sunday before he had given
some cider, opened the door, baring previously bad the
precaution to take a loaded pistol ,from off the mantle.
piece ; the moment he opened the door, four men rush-
ed into the house and knocked him down ; the pri-
soner, Jesse Chantler, then tied the prosecutor's wrists,
and sat upon ~is chest, which he continued to do until they
left the house, and one of the other prisoners stood with the
pistol sad threatened tol shoot hi,• if he made the least
noise ; the other two went up stairs, where they broke open
a chest. Hannah Crassingharee who lived in the house.
then ran out at the back door, but was brought back by the
man who was standing over witness; a short time after-
wards one of the men came down stairs, and said he had
found • pocket pistol, and that If the Prosecutor's wife
moved be would blow her brains out ; he then asked her to
give him the keys, bat witness told her not kto do so, and
she did not; the man then opened the dresser drawer, and
took an iron rasp out of it, with which he forced several
locks ; after remaining in the house about half an hour. the
men said they could not find soy thing and should there-
fore go; one of them then untied the witness, and told him
that if he attempted to go out of the house in less than an
hour he would be a dead man, as there would be two men
stationed at the door with pistols. As soon as they were
gone, witness sessehei tt house and found the prisoners
had taken away two ten pound bank notes, one five pound
note, three one pound notes ; old gold coin to the value of
twelve pounds, ooe so-•reign, and four silver tea-spoons;
witness was sure Jesse Chantler was one of the men who
were at his hoose, and to whom he gave some !cider on the
preceding Sunday ; he thinks Spearman was the other, bat
cannot say positively ; Jesse Chantler and Samuel Chantler,
were two of the men that committed the robbery ; thinks
Harris was also with them, but does not recollect Spear-
man, It was Samuel Chantler who stood over witness with
the pistol; and Harris who opened the dresser drawer and
demanded the keys of his wife; but witness afterwards
stated, that he had 'known the Chantlers for some time,
and was therefore enabled to identify them with a greater
degree of certainty titan he could either Harris or Spear-
man, whom he had never seen before the robbery.
Sarah Pankhurst, the wife of the Prosecutor, an Infirm
old women, upwards of eighty years of age, corroborated
the evidence of her husband ; bat on being told to look at
the prim:mere, with a view to their being identified, sbe was
too agitated to do so; and it was stated that she was so
mach frightened at the time of the robbery, that she could
not speak with any degree of confidence to the persons of
the prisoners.
Hannah Crassingbam merely deposed to the entrance of
several men into the Prosecutor's house on the night la

question.
The Learned Judge summed op the evidence, and the
Jury shortly afterwards returned a Verdict against Samuel
sat Jesse ',bander of &silty—Death.
Spoarusin and Harris wet* acquitted, but the letter was
tistaioad apes a charge of higherey reisheero.
Ms Jaw and Akio Hillary were todietted‘ open a
Coroner's inquest, with feloniously killing and slaving
M. H. Higgins, on the 11th of September last, In the pa-
rich of St. Nicholas, Deptford.
The Grand Jury having fossil • tree bill in this ease,
the proceeding was instituted upon a Coroner's warrant,
bat the evidence went to show that Joules and the de-
ceased shook hands immediately before sad after fight-
ing; that Hillary was not in any manger accessary to
'the death ; that there were not any outward bruises on
the body; tit it the deceased fell after he bad left Jones;
and that the effusion of blood upon the brain, which
caused his death, might hare been Produced either by.
the fall or by an excitation of the mind, acted upon by
intemperance (in which state the prisoner was said to
have been at the time the battle took place) the Jury,
therefore, returned a verdict of not guilty.
John Wilson was charged with having, on the 2tl of
November, entered the house of J. Robiuson, in Power-
street, %Yoolwich, and stolen therefrom a silver watch,
his property. Guilty.—Nine months' imprisonment in
the House of Correction.
J. Lowe, was indicted for having, on the 6th of Nev.,
feloniously slaughtered and carried away from a field, in
the parish of Stoke, one sheep, the property of Richard
Everest.
fhe case having been substantiated by evidence, the
Jury returned a verdict of Guilty—Death.
After some other cases of no importance, the prisoners
convicted of capital offences were then placed at the bar,
and the Learned Judge, most feelingly advertiOg to
tbeir varioas crimes and relative cireuenstancees pro-
ceeded, in the discharge of his most painful duty, to
pass upon them the awful sentence of the law
Samuel Chantler and Jesse Chantler, for burglary;
James Laces, for sheep-stealing; John Parr, for horse-
stealing; and John Kinchett, for highway robbery.
His LORDIMIP, however, informed them all of his in-
tention to recommend their cases to the merciful consi-
deration of hie Majesty's Government, with a tiew to
the commutation of their punishments.

POLICE.

r-

Bow-Svawire.—A very decent young woman, 6 .Insuble
life, was fully committed from this °See, yeatemilaga ea Woe
her trial on a charge of Bigamy, under very sligair sad
rather affecting circumstances. ',
In ordinary cases of this kind the second husbander wife
§
is the prosecuting party; but this prosecution has ben set
on foot at the Instigation of the first husband, tboe he
has long ago separated himself from her, and thou he
second Is perfectly content with his uncertain tonere; so
that the first husband, as one of the witnesses dryly ob-
served, is something like the dog in the manger—a very apt
illustration of his case if delicacy would allow the proof.
The maiden name of the young woman was Marlaane
Chariesworth. and during her mainhood she was a most et-
ittinplary domestic servant in a family of high respectability;
from whose service she was married to a tailor named
Wootton—a fellow every way unworthy of a wife. Tney
lived together some few years, however, during which time
he treated her, as she says, with great brutality ; and when
at length he had reduced her to extreme poverty by d.is
slothful and intemperate habits, be urged her to betake her-
self to the streets for their mutual support. She rejected
this base proposal with becoming indignation ; and, natu-
rally enough, conceiving an aversion for the man who could
deliberately make such a proposition, she applied to the
Magistrates at this Oleo for redress, dud upon their Mter-
ference. Wootton agreed to a separation. Tbis'lmppened
shout four yews ago, and, subsequently, she became ac-
quainted with Jobo Brett, one of the dmmounted here pa-
trole, who, compared with her first husband, would be " fly-
perion to • satyr." With him she imprudently bedtime •
mother, and eventually he married her at Bt.Oiles'svfittreh;
but whether with a knowledge of her iormer marriage er
nottlid not appear. They have aince lived together tirpe,
Yet content. it appears; and ndw.---when they lure 'a ft-
wily of three small children, comae Wootton, the lest hoes
band, end slim op this prosecutioo against bee; fir se olkhCis
poem. as he says, but that he had been told by somebody.
thatishe had asked somebody e.se. whether she could OW
, make him support her,sopposing John Brett shouldddie,e—e,
'-.4e,r•ilkiifir story; as the Chief iihigistrate observed, that
such so ides should come into her head for It mordent-ills

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STATESMAN.

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life of a doe healthy fellow like John Brett being worth ten
of such a sickly,squelid,cadaveroes little being as Wootton:
Be this as it may, however, he has been so earnest in the
prosecution, that he produced full and complete evidence of
both marriages, and now waited the Issue In dark and
gloomy exultation..
The Magistrates, In allusion to the circumstances ender
which this fellow had been formerly separated from her (one
of those circumstances was of such a nature that we cannot
allude to it inure particularly than we have done), told him
he had certainly made out such a case as must of course gal
before a Jury ; but he should bear in mind that he would
not go into Court with clean hands; and, undoubtedly he
would cut a very respehtable figure there.
"I am determined to go on—lf you have no objection,"
horeplied; and again sunk into his morose taciturnity, at
the same lime glaring rows upon the bystanders with an
expression 1)f rountenance almost demoniac.
The tackles. Marianne herself. who had wept ineessantly'
and in silence during the examination. sow advanced to the
table, With a fine chubby little John Bret in her arms; sad„,
as well as her teem and convulsive sobbings would let het,
assured their Worships that she should not have mended
again had she not understood that the 'separation which had
been agreed to before their Worships was the ism as •
divorce!
The Magistrates could not forbear smiling at the Misap-
prehension of their powers—and observed that had they the
power to divorce all the unhappy couples who came before
them they should have enough to do. " I am very sorry for
you," added the i blef Magistrate, " and I wish 1-cottid
avert your esiantity; but it is impossible—the affair must
take its regular course, and I wish you safely through. it.
Sbe mast he committed."
The poor women uttered a faint shriek, and fell on her
knees before the Bench with her child in her arms; but the I
could not speak—they raised.her from the floor—her shriek-
ing infant was taken from her by the officers; and she fell '
fainting Into the anus of John Brent, who carried her out of
the office—himself bathed in tears.
We understand that the MaLdstrates afterwarria, at the
earnest solicitation of Brett, admitted the wretched woman
to bail, instead of sending her to await hoe trial wi.ongst
the felons in gaol—and thus " to do a great right, did a
little wrong."
LASIBSTM-STMEET.—Tde fleitemwtms GANG Of Boa-
GL/RS.—ln cousequence of some private information
r..ceiveil at this office of a man being concerned in seve-
ral of the late extensive and daring robberies in the vici-
nity of Deptford and Greenwich, a warrant was granted
and intrusted into the hands of three active officers, Fos.'
tar, Freeman, and Partridge, who accordingly proceed's'
to the house of I. Davies, of N 0.9, John-street, Holvivilia"
mount, at nine o'clock yesterday morning : they found
Davies and his wife in bed,and commenced a strict sesta,'
when they discovered a great number of skeleton keys
and otherhonsebreaking implements, the whole of which
were conveyed to this office, together with Davies and'
his wife.
The housebreaking implements were all spread on
the table before Sir DANIEL WILLIAMS, tlttaitting Ma-
gistrate, who declared that, during the 30 years he had
been a magistrate, be never saw such a large collection
before. There were upwards of 150 skeletons keys, from
the size of a large street door lork to the smallest tea-
caddie lock ;indeed, we should suppose there is scarcely
a door or drawer in the kingdom but may be opened by
at least one of them : there were also several crow-bars
of various sixes, • mask, phosphorus bog dark lantere,
several candles to f t it, a vice, Ice. WWI tkeirdeessite
were placed at the
prisoner as to bi
he was married