The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser. — 1841-04-06 (Liverpool, Merseyside, England)

ATCHERLY.  lam a 'sawyer at Ashton. The Saturday night before the murder happened I was at the King's Head. Williams was there. He ordered Job Arundel to bring a pound of coarse _ _  blasting powder from Oldham. Arundel Went., and he brought 2 lbs. of powder back. He gave me the powder, and I gave it to Williams. I was at the club-house on the afternoon of the day of the murder. Williams and several other persons were there. A motion was made that a deputation should go to the masters to see if they could compromise matters.  Williams said, " Oh, it's of no use, there only wants five or six good volunteers to finish it." Witness was with Williams in the Staleybridge lockups. I said, " I wonder if the man was killed dead;" and Williams replied, "Why, man, there might be five or six bullets into him, and all that I'm sorry for is that there was not another done at another place." He said, " It was intended that a coping stone should be taken off the wall adjoining Mr.Goldthorp's yard, and one of these things planted there and fired into Mr. Goldthorp's pit." I was afterwards with Williams in the Liverpool lockups, and I told him that Davies had been telling all that he knew. He said, " Then Ido not care how soon lam dead." I said, " Does he know anything that will criminate you?" He said, " Aye, he knows as much as I do myself." I asked him if he had not told Davies that it was Hulme who fired the shot ; and he said, " Why, I might have let it slip in conversation." I know the book produced. It is a memorandum book that I kept of the sums I paid on account of the club. Robert Newton took it from me when he apprehended me. There is an entry in it of ss. Williams demanded that of me for Hulme. I was ordered to pay it to him, and I did so. I remember being in the lockups at Droylsden on the Bth of January, half way between Manchester and Ashton. I found the prisoner Hulme there. We were in the same place there. When we were alone together he started a praying, and wanted me to pray too. I made no reply. He then said, " How can I stand before thee, 0 God, and ask for forgiveness, since I have taken life ?" He also added, " I have taken what I cannot give." Sometime that night Newton put Williams into the same cell. The following day they both knelt down and prayed together. Hulme was the speaker, and he said, " I pray thee, 0 God, to bless the widow and the children that we have made fatherless." When I was in Kirkdale about three weeks since, Hulme said Davies had sworn to the wrong dates as to the time of making two attempts, and he recollected remarking, if it was not made then, it would be too late as the lamps would be lighted. Cross-examined.-1 am a sawyer. I have been in prison since the 11th of December. He asked me whether I knew anything or the murder, and I told him I did not. I was in the same yard at Kirkdale with Davies and my brother Samuel. Nobody was present when Williams said four or five bullets had gone into the man. I did not order any powder myself ; but I am sure I heard Williams order Arundel to get it. Arundel gave it to me. Davies was not present when the powder was ordered. I first told this story on the 13th January at Ashton before the magistrates. I did not tell the whole of what I have told to-day. I did not tell them about the praying in the lockups. By the