The Sun. — 1840-08-07 (London, England)

MURDER OF A WIFE.--John Randlesome was placed at the bar, charged with the wilful murder of Mary, his wife, by beating and throwing her into a pond of water, on the 17th of June last. The facts of this remarkable and most barbarous murder appeared by the evidence to be these :—The prisoner and one Elizabeth Punchard had formerly been for five ycar3 fellow-servants at a Mr. Parkinson's, at Broome, in this county, and having saved some money, he at Michaelmas last to:k a farm at Bungay, three miles from Broome. About this time he became acquainted with Mary Barnaby, the unfortunate woman whose untimely death formed the subject of this painful inquiry. She was a young person of mild and enduring temper, and their acquaintance soon ripened into a warmer sentiment. She became pregnant, and in the month of April last they were privately married at a church in Norwich. She was at the time living with her father, a respectable though not very extensive farmer, whose family consisted of herself, her brother John, and a lad named Kent. Immediately after this fatal marriage bad taken place she returned to the house of her father, who had no idea of her being in the family way or of her being married until a very short time before her death. Toe old man intending to have a housekeeper, it was settled that his daughter Mary should leave his roof, for which purpose she packed up her little property on Thursday, the 18th of June last, intending to quit on the following day. That day she never saw, for before it dawned this world bad for ever closed upon her. At midnight Steward and his wife (her sister) went to bed at twelve o'clock, and in about an hour they both heard a shriek as of a woman in the utmost agony. They started up in their bed, and the wife, with a remarkable presentiment, said " 1 hope nothing's the matter with our poor Mary." The shriek was then repeated, but more faint and sub. dued, and Steward jumped out of bed and called up his brother-in.law, John Barnaby, and they hurried on their clothes, and ran to the house of old Mr. Barnaby. The first thing that attracted their notice was a candle burning in the kitchen; they forthwith went into the house, the door of which was ajar, and made a hurried search in the rooms down stairs, but found nobody. John Barnaby then remembered that he had seen the prisoner in the straw-house at midnight on the Tuesday previously, and he and Steward prcceederl thither. They thought they heard a slight rustling noise within, but upon searching they could find nobody there. They went through the straw-house into the stackyard, in which stands the pool whence the family are supplied with water. To their indescribable terror and consternation they immediately saw the body of a woman floating in the pond; and baying procured a long pole, they dragged it to land, and found it to be the lifeless body of the prisoner's wife. By the side of the pond lay a heavy stake, which used to stand in the pond for the persons who drew water from it to take hold of : this stake they perceived had been recently torn from its accustomed place, and there was some fresh blood upon it. A surgeon was sent for, but his attempts to restore animation to the corpse were unavailing. A great deal of circumstantial evidence was adduced, which left no doubt of the prisoner's guilt. The Jury, after deliberating half an hour, but without retiring from their box, found the prisoner Guilty. The Learned Judge immediately passed sentence, without holding out the slightest hopes of mercy.