The Sun. — 1845-06-30 (London, England)

MAN REMAINS. A discovery, which has created considerable interest and excitement, took place at Birmingham on Tuesday. A number of workmen, in the empl of Mr. P. Smith, the town surveyor, were engaged in sinking what is termed a dome well, at the Public-office, in Moor-street, when about seven feet from the surface of the ground they met with the remains of a large dog. This created no surprise, but immediately beneath the excavators found their work im peeled by appar ntly a large box, bu, which. upon examination, proved to be an oak eoffii. On its top was a porcelain pipe, of curious, and evidently antique c•mstruction. anti an engraved heart, with the initials " W S " The coffin, con• sidering the number of years it is suppo ed to have been in the ground, was in a state of excellent preseivatiot.. Curiosity, as a matt. r of eour,e, was exe ted to a•c, rtain it. (-rodents, and, upon bog opened anti exammed, it was found to contain the skeleton of a human being, through which, as in past times in the case of r xecuted malefact Jra stake had been driven. The ',mains were -übmitted to the ex,mination of one .it the medical gentlemen connected with th. Queen's .Cl egg arid H„-peal. and he pronounce, the.. to he th sk to en of a none. abet' the age e.I sor 6. The only polio pre• tr. d worthy of obse-vation was an iiirt,r,tion o the torefieot, f.: m wh eh it. would he i..ferreit that lie deceased came to hi' death by violence. These are. how• ver, very plausible rea-nos for com•rig to a different conclusion. L not at all improbable that the f, aeture of the forehead was the result of the violence of the writ kpeople employed in the excava ion ; and if the man whose remains are found was murdered, it does not appea• likely that his mur• deters would have honoured his corpse wit!: an oak coffin, decor ted with expensive insignias. Moor-street, in which the remain= were found, is now simuate in the very cerore of iiiimingharn; but two hundred years ago, vt which time ,he !atee, is is •u, posed the b sty twist have b,en interred, it funned part of an ext.-nsive pails. belonging, as sdme say, t the J timings family, and so sequently to the ancestors of the oresent Earl Howe. His Lori:slop holds exteosive property in the neighb urhood at the present time. M-ridtn-street, Pa, k-street, Jennings-row, &c., constituted a part of the original domain. The probability is that the body found is the r• mains of some member of the family to whom the esta• e forin--rly belong, d, and who, as is ft, quently the ease, eve,, in modem tones, was bur ed within the precincts of he family grounds. This view is confiranoi by the fact that in Oxford-street, now standing upon a portion of the came domain. a few weeks ago the workmen employed by the to, n surveyor met with the skeleton of a man ho had e‘idently been buried for a great number of years, and between whose thighs was placed a large black bottle containing a black fluid. Unfortunately, however, the cupidity of an Irish excavator employed upon the work. who expected to find something to drink, led him to break the bottle, and its contents were never correctly ascertained. It is needles to say that the di-covery of the remains of a human b-ing in the immediate neighbourhood of di, public prison has led to many vulgar and unfounded surmises. How these notions are to be corrected it is difficult to say, but it is to be presumed that the worthy borough Coroner, who, during his tenure of office, has been most extraordinarily industrious in the discharge of its duties, will find in popular clamour a justification for sitting in judgment upon the discovered bones.