The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser. — 1841-12-07 (Liverpool, Merseyside, England)

HELENS, SUNDAY MORNING.—It becomes our painful duty to record the facts of a most diabolical:and barbarous murder which has been committed on a highly respectable farmer residing at Rainford, about two miles from St. Helens, whose name was Mr. Henry Grayson.  The unfortunate gentlem-an was in the habit of visiting St  Helens several time; during the week ; and on Saturday last, being market day, he had been at that town on his ordinary business. Having property there, he had received some rentals during the day, and therefore had a considerable sum of money on his person before he set out for home. Mr. Grayson, it is known, was in St. Helens after midnight, because he was applying for admittance at the King's Head public-house between twelve and one o'clock, but being refused it he went away from there. We have not yet heard that he was afterwards seen until found at a place called Denton's Green, which is about a mile from the town, and the direct road to his own house.  About five o'clock on Sunday morning a man, employed as ostler by the Denton Green Brewery Company, was proceeding to his stables, when he discovered the body of a man lying in the centre of the highway, and his suspicion was that he was drunk and asleep. He, however, raised him up, and finding him incapable of either speaking or helping himself, carried him into a barn immediately adjoining, and which belongs to Mr. C. Blades,:of the Gerard's Arms, Denton's Green. There the man left him, supposing he was still asleep, but returned some time after with a lantern, when► he fonnd  that he had been dreadfully wounded ou his head and other parts of his body, and if not then dead, was utterly insensible. He immediately gave an a arm, and medical assistance was procured, but the unfortunate gentleman was dead before it could be of any avail.  The body is now lying at the Gerard Arms, public-house, where hundreds have been this day to view it. It is shockingly disfigured, so that his late most intimate friends could scarcely recognise it. There are several severe wounds on  the skull, which, it may be surmised, have been inflicted by a hammer or some such instrument. The ribs are nearly all broken, and the face is covered with bruises, and very much swollen. No money was found on the person of the deceased, and the right-hand trouser pocket is cut out. The police, under the direction of Mr. Superintendent Storey, have been very vigilant and dexterous, and four parties are in custody on suspicion. The names of these ate Thomas Meadowcroft, Robert Wood, Charles Wood, and Isaac Jacques. These men are well known to the authorities as desperate characters, who have long infested the neighbourhood, and been imprisoned for various terms very repeatedly. As yet we cannot detail the principal grounds of evidence which will come out against them on the coroner's inquest ; but the imprint of one of the prisoner's shoes, which is remarkably formed, corresponds with some footmarks near the spot where the fatal deed was realized. A clasp knife, besmeared with blood, was found in the possession of one of these suspected characters, and a spot of blood has also been detected on his trousers. The excitement produced by the untoward event in the neighbourhood is, of course, very intense; and this is enhanced by the deceased gentleman being one who was well known and highly respected.