The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-02-15 00:00:00

MURDER IN WILTSHIRE

An inquest was held last Wednesday, before Mr. W. B.
Whitmarsh, at Coate, in the parish of Chiseldon, on' the
body of Sarah Crook, 42 years of age, who died from the
blows she received from her husband (who is a shoemaker at
Liddington). The following evidence was adduced at the

inquest :
William Bramble, landlord of the bun Inn, at Coate, de-
posed that the deceased and her husband (Robert Crook)
came to his house at about 2 o'clock on Monday evening,
and remained until 11 o'clock, when they left to go home ;
that no quarrelling took place whilst in his house, nor did
they appear in liquor.
Mary Ann Horton (daughter of the deceased by a former
husband, and wife of William Horton, of the Spotted Cow,
situate about a quarter of a mile from Coate, on the road to-
wards Liddington,) deposed, that about 1 o'clock in the
morning she heard, whilst in bed, the deceased scream out
" Mary Ann !" and whilst getting out of bed, Robert Crook
said, " Get up, for I have got a drunken woman." Witness
went down and opened the door, when Crook carried the de-
ceased in his arms, and placed her in the tap-room. She
groaned very much, and complained of cold. Her face was
much cut and bleeding. She had neither bonnet nor cap on,
and her hair was hanging loose about her head and neck.
Her clothes were nearly torn from her back, and her bosom
was exposed. She was totally unable to stand upon her legs.
Witness lighted a fire, and soon after Robert Crook carried
the deceased to bed, where she died about eight o'clock on
the same morning. Witness asked her mother how she be-
came bruised, but she was incapable of speaking. An hour
previous to her death, her husband sent for a surgeon, but
she died previous to his arrival. Witness added, that her
mother was always a sober, temperate woman. .

William Warman, No. 126 of the Wiltshire constabulary,
deposed that he took Robert Crook into custody about nine
o'clock on the same morning, at the Spotted Cow, at Coate.
On saying that he had him in charge for beating his wife, he
replied—" It is a very hard job indeed ;" and seemed in-
clined to say something more, but witness told him that if he
had anything to say on the subject he would take it down in
writing and hand it in. Crook then said, "My wife and I
went to Swindon yesterday to pay a bill, and the hill was £2
more than I thought it was, which made me angry, and we
quarrelled on that account. I struck her and knocked her
down, hut I helped her up again. I had more beer than I
ought to have had, which made me do it." Witness said he
then took him to the station-house at Swindon, and at about
three o'clock in the afternoon Crook further stated, " that
he struck his wife on the face, which made her fall back, and
he thought it was that which did it." Witness asked if he
took her up? and be replied, "Yes, but she fell down again."
He was much agitated, and said, " What a pity it is that a
poor soul should be hurried out of the world so soon! I did not
think she would have died, or I would have sent for the doc-
tor sooner !" He then paused and said, " what shall I have
to answer for this ?" _ _

Mr. Davies, surgeon, deposed that having been sent for, he
saw the body of the deceased o❑ Tuesday. Ou an external
examination there were lacerations and contusions on various
parts of the body. There was a contused wound on the scalp
at the back of the head, and upon making a post mortem ex-
amination on that day (Wednesday), he found a considerable
quantity of effused blood on the brain, occasioned by the
corresponding external injury, which caused her death.
A very respectable jury attended the inquest, who returned
a verdict of " wilful murder" against Robert Crook, and the
coroner issued his warrant for his committal to the Devizes
prison, to take his trial at the next assizes to be holden at
Salisbury.—Devizes Gazette.

CLERICAL INTELLIGENCE

(From the Oxford Herald.)

The Right Hon. Lord Wharncliffe was on Saturday last
elected a Governor of the Charter-house, in the room of the
late Earl of Westmoreland. At the same court the venerable
Archdeacon Hale was elected to the Mastership, in the room
of the late Dr. Fisher. A paragraph has gone the round of
the papers confounding this office with the Head Master-
ship of the School, with which it has no other connection than
that the latter is one branch of the noble foundation, the
whole of which is under the superintendence of the former.
The same accurate account states that the Archdeacon has
for some time been engaged in assisting Dr. Goodenough (a
Westminster man, who never was connected withthe Charter-
house at all) in the tuition of the upper classes. We need
scarcely add that that there is no truth in this statement. By
this election the Preachership of the foundation becomes
vacant, for which the Rev. Mr. Dicken is a candidate. The
election is fixed for the 10th of March.
THE PROFESSORSHIP OF POLITICAL ECONOMY.—We are
requested to state that Mr. Roundell Palmer, of Magdalene
College, has no intention of becoming a candidate for the
Professorship of Political Economy.
A Convocation will be holden on Thursday next, at twelve
o'clock, for the purpose of electing a Fellow on Mr. Viner's
Foundation, in the room of Henry Denison, 8.C.L., late of
All Souls' College, resigned.
The Professor-of Political Economy will deliver four lec-
tures on the causes which determine the rate of wages, on
Tuesday next, and the following days, at two o'clock at the
Clarendon.

The Margaret Professor of Divinity will begin a Course of
Lectures on Tuesday, the Ist of March, at one o'clock.
The Professor of Moral Philosophy intends to resume his
Lectures on the Nicomachean Ethics of Aristotle on Tuesday
next, at two o'clock.

On Saturday last, Mr. William Edward Cranford Austin,
Scholar of New College, was admitted Actual Fellow of that
Society.

Yesterday, Mr. George Wingate Pearse, Commoner of
Trinity College, was elected to a Scholarship of Corpus.
The Rev. J. H. Stuart, M.A., late of Trinity College, to
the Rectory of Ampton, Suffolk ; patron, Lord Calthorpe.
The Rev. J. H. S. Burr, M.A., of Christ Church, to the
Vicarage of Tidenham, Gloucestershire, vacant by the resig-
nation of the Rev. W. Pulling, of Sidney Sussex College,
Cambridge; patron, D. H. D. Burr, Esq.
The Rev. P. H. Morgan, M.A., Scholar of Jesus College,
to the Perpetual Curacy of Bettws, Breconshire, vacant by
the death of the Rev. Canon Williams.
The Rev. David Davies, M.A., of Worcester College, to
the Rectory of Kevenllys. Radnorshire, vacant by the death
of the Rev. G. A. Barker ; patron, the Bishop of St. David's.
The Rev. G. E. Maunsell, 8.A., of Christ Church, and
Rector of Thorpe Malsor, Northamptonshire, has been ap-
pointed by the Earl of Westmoreland one of his Chaplains.