The Blackpool Herald. — 1876-04-07 (Blackpool, Lancashire, England)

EXECUTION FOR THE MURDER OF A PARAMOUR.  The convict Fordred, convicted at the last Kent Spring Assizes of the wilful murder of his paramour, Mary Anne Bridger, expiated his crime upon the scaffold at Maidstone Gaol, at nine on Tuesday morning. The miserable man, since his conviction, has adhered to the statement that though he believed he was the cause of the woman's death, yet he had no wilful intention. During Monday night he slept soundly, and w-,ke at about five on Tuesday morning. He paid earnest attention to the ministrations of the chaplain, and expressed regret at the bad life he had led. Shortly before nine o'clock the convict was delivered into the hands of Marwood, the executioner, who pinioned him in the condemned cell, and, on the completion of the process, the procession to the scaffold started, it being preceded by the governor of the gaol, the under-sherifx, and th 9 chaplain, the latter gentleman reading the burial service. On arrival at the scaffold, Fordred, who exhibited remarkable firmness throughout, was placed upon the drop, and the bolt was quickly drawn. There was some slight movement of the body for two or thee° minutes after the drop fell, but the man appeared to die easily. The execution was witnessed by a number of the gaol officids and a few representatives of the press, and immediately afterwards the black flag was hoisted over the main entrance to the prison. But very few people congregated outside the gaol.  William Sheels and his wife, of Rathbrhn Church, county Meath, have been remanded on a charge of murder committed in 1865. The alleged victim WM a bailiff named Thomas Devlin.  Miss Margaret Poulton has been elected a member of the managing committee of the Inverkeithing Parochial Board. This is probably the 91.4 election of the kind which has taken place in Scotland.  John Peebles, a book canvasser, was charged at the Dundee Circuit Court with the murder of a carter named Alexander Robertson. His plea of culpable homicide was accepted, and he was sentenced to ten years' penal servitude.  The last rumour is that there is to be a "CksMenge' Bee, in which there will be sides composed or victori• ous competitors in previous bees, each party to supply the other with sets of words. This arraneement will provide for the words being sufficiently difficult. _ .  At the Wilts Quarter Sessions, held at Salisbury, on Tuesday, the resignation by the Earl of Radnor of the chairmanship of -the Salisbury and Warminster Sessions was received, and the question of appointing his successor was adjourned until the neit sessions. A millworker named Cosley has been apprehended at Dundee on the :barge of having murdered his sweetheart, a mill girl, tamed Brunt&ld. It is alleged that be pushed the girl down a stair, and that it was from the injuries then received that she died. Mr. Sclater-Booth, on Tuesday, promised a deputation which waited upon him urging the necessity of inserting in the Valuation Bill a clause giving to aggrieved parties right of appeal on questions of rating independently of the decision of the chairmen of quarter sessions, to consider the matter. Lieutenant Cameron brought with him from Africa. one civet cat, one ocelot, one lemur, one fox, three parrots, one porcupine, two wild cats, two monkeys, four palm birds, one marabout, and one eagle. The creatures were taken charge of by a representative of the Zoological Society and removed to London.  A VACANT COLONIAL Bisnortuc.—The Right Rev. Dr. Wilkinson has resigned the Bishopric of Zululand, but the Provincial Synod have adopted a resolution declaring that, while they unwillingly feel contrained to accept the resignation, sufficient cause has not in their judgment been assigned by the Bishop to render the resignation necessary. Tux