Glasgow Courier. — 1850-03-28 (Glasgow, Strathclyde, Scotland)

DREADFUL OCCURRENCE IN THE COUNTY OF ARMAGH.  The peaceful town and neighbourhood of Portadown have been horrified, to an unprecedented extent, by an act of deliberate assassination, committed in the vicinity on the night of Tuesday, the 19th, when Mr. John G. Woolsey, of Clounagh, about three-quarters of a mile from the town, was shot in his room while preparing to go to bed. From the evidence taken before the magistrate and coroner, the facts appear to be these :—Mr. Woolsey, who had quitted the house after tea, returned about half-past nine, and, after stopping for a short time in the kitchen, took his candle and proceeded up stairs to his bed chamber. He had not been long there—not more than ten minutes--when the maid-servant, who had remained below, heard a shot, succeeded by the falling of some heavy body in the room above; on entering the room she found Mr. Woolsey extended on the floor, near the window, bleeding, but still showing signs of life. An alarm was instantly made, and the beet medical aid procured from Portadown, with as little delay as possible, but to no purpose, the unfortunate gentleman having expired a short time after. Oe essanisation, it appeared that a bullet, fired from without, after orating the glass of the window, had passed through his head, ' was found lodged among some clothes in a wardrobe. It appeared Mr. Woolsey having placed the candle on the chimneypiss, was occupied at the wardrobe, whicll stood between the fireplugs and window, which was a large one; the position of the light the. rendered him a defined object for the assassin, who would sees to have been no ordinary marksman, and sho took his aim with fatal certainty. From the direction taken by the ball it was not difficult to ascertain the point from whence it came, being from beside a tree about thirty paces in front of the house. The police were immediately on the alert. Mr. Miller, R.M., arrived on the spot at an early hour on Wednesday from his residence near Looghgall; Colonel Blacker, D.L., arrived son after, and those magistrates being joined by Count de Balk, proceeded to hold a special session in Portadown, where they con-uued many hours in investigating the horrible occurrence, while Atkinson, the serener, was taking the necessary steps for iing an inquest on the body. Suspicion having attached Los relative of the deceased, chiefly from the known bad on which they unhappily lived, and which had on various alone been the subject of strong and feeling observations from Partadown Bench, this individual having been met by the , was placed iu arrest. It is but fair, however, to ty that .ng came out before the Magistrates to justify his committal; the contrary, it was sworn by a respectable person that the gentleman -bid been at his house, full two miles and • from the scene of the murder, at the precise time it .ed from the concurring testimony of several witnesses to been committed. The horrible occuretice is so far involved Sm. One thing is clear that the deed must have ode. on private motives, and those only. It is needless to the ^ • of the excitement perva ling ins quarter of ", of this awful nature are, happily,  Iperforating wawa. re  Vindicator gives the following particulars respect..  throughout Wednesday afternoon, and was not having concluded at the departure of , no positive c Against any litigation ma , occasions had 1-- ' in ejecting _ - existed surmise