Northern Weekly Gazette. — 1907-03-16 (Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland, England)

CUTHBERT HADDEN. aCZCMCMC4-CLIMZEKIMACML  By J.  9.41  him. Pure jealously was the first result—a jealously which became mutual, through a curious artifice employed by Aram to torment his wife, in turn. He used to dress up a shapely boy, one of his pupils, in female attire, and contrive that his counterfeited attentions to the "fine girl" should catch the view of Anna Aram! It may readily be imaTined how all thi.s contributed to the domestic misery of the shy scholar, who liked hi l books and his studies better than anything else in the world. But we must go on with our story.  About the year 1744 there was living at Knaresborough a Jew boy who travelled the country for one Levi, his master, carrying on his back a box of jewellery and other trinkets for sale. A confederacy, at the head of which was Dan Clark, the shoemaker, wall formed for the robbery of this poor lad, who, being decoyed to a lonely srot, was supposed to have been murdered by Clark and Houseman. The suspicion was deepened by the sudden transition of Clark from poverty to comparative affluence. This was the first act of the tragedy wherein Clark played a principal part; and it was the accidental finding of th(i bones of the boy by a labourer, digging for limestone in 1758, that led to the discovery ol the re mains of Clark himself.  Flushed with their sue3ess, their crime undetected, the tame parties (joined now by one Terry, a publican) projected another plot. Clark, possessed of money, had just been married to a young woman "with about £2OO to her fortune.' Well, the plot was, that Clark should go among the tradesmen of Knaresborough and borrow plate and other valuables suitable for a great nuptia) feast. The other parties, Terry and Houseman, were to turn the valuables into money, and Clark, with a big share of the spoil and his wife's fortune, was to decamp and for ever abandon the hapless female who had only three weeks before stood with him at the altar.  Aram was undoubtedly privy to the scheme. He was wretchedly poor, with a large family to support. He was burning, too, with revenge for the dishonour of his own bed. At first, however, he probably contemplated nothing beyond a share in the spoils of the borrowed valuables. It was Houseman and Terry who evidently conceived the idea of getting rid of Clark, so that their individual shares of the bcoty should be greeter. At e.ny rate, when, on the night of February 7th, 1745. Clark and Houseman came to Aram's hernia, Aram went out with them. They proceeded to St. Robert's Cave, in the near neighbourhood, their purpose being to beat up the " borrowed " plate there. From that cave Clark never emerged. He was killed, it is said, with a pickaxe which was immediately used to dig his grave. Who did the deed? Aram retained hie liberty; so did Houseman. No immediate action was taken by the authorities. In explanation of their apparent apathy it is suggested that everybody that year was filled with concern about the Pretender and the Jaece bite Rebellion in Scotland. Not for thirteen years does there appear to have been any suspicion that the schoolmaster had made away with Clark. True, he left Knaresborough under suspicion, but it was only suspicion of being concerned with Clark in the stealing of the afore-mentioned valuables. Aram led a roving life in the meantime, teaching in various schools.; at one time earning his bread as copyist to a law stationer in London, but continually prosecuting hi 3 studies, to which botany, heraldry, French, Arabic, and the Celtio tongues were added, and laying the foundation of a comparative dictionary of all European lan grages If this man was really the murderer of Clark, what a study in psychology his character presents.._ _ _ _  I say if he was; for, though he roust have been present, there is no absolute proof that. he actually committed the deed. He was arrested on the charge in August, 1758, when he wa serving as usher in a private school at Lynn Regis. Houseman had long been Suspected, and the cLieovery of the Jew boy's skeleton, supposed to be Clark's led to his apprehension. "This," said Houseman. " ii mere more Dan Clark's bons thian it is  • • 4,4.11•••00......11.111.11...111.0011  q4l* MacZabIeeiMEMOCOCCMTI " .... . V-4.D.ekg-)!elsegoelysLiseAselsr_Lcsis,,eeki. 0.,,5y&-t-attaUtaMinit