The Sun. — 1826-11-08 (London, England)

THE MURDERS NEAR LEATHERHEAD.  Ever since the perpetration of the murders at Fetcham, considerable suspicion has been attached to a man named William Page, alias Cobbler Will, the paramour of Mary Ayres, the grand-daughter of John Akehurst, who was so inhumanly murdered on the night of the 13th of October. Although every exertion has been made since the murders to discover the retreat of the above individuals, no intelligence whatever was learnt respecting them until Saturday morning last, when it appears Mary Ayres went into the shop of a tobacconist at Weybridge, and having asked to be supplied with half an ounce of tobacco, commenced of her own accord to converse on the subject of the late murders to the person who served her. " Why," said she, " I have heard lately, that John Akehurst and his housekeeper, Elizabeth Haines, have been murdered at • Fetcham."—" Yes," said the shopkeeper, " and a dreadful murder it has been." She replied, " Then John Akehurst was my grandfather, and the man that I live with is the person who is suspected of having committed the murders." She then said, "My name is Mary Ayres, and lam now going towards Oakshot, where my father sad mother live, to show them and the world that I am innocent." The tobacconist allowed her to depart; but soon after she had left Weybridge she was mat by a constable named Watson, who, it appears, had gained previous information of the road she bad taken. When the constable first saw her she was walking along the road, smoking a pipe of tobacco. He did not immediately pretend to know who she was at the time. Being in a gig, he throve the horse up alongside of the footpath where the was walking, and addressing her, he asked whither she was going? she replied without hesitation, that she was going to Oakshot to see her father and mother. The constable then asked whether she should like to have a lift along the road ? " Ay," said she, " and thank you too." She then stepped into the chaise, and the constable, desirous of ascertaining whether she would give any account of herself during the fair at Leatherhead, that took place on the 11th of October, asked her whether she had been there ? she said she had not, but that on the very day the above fair commenced, she was present at one that took place in Hampshire, upwards of 60 mile; from Leatherhead. The constable then inquired her name ? she, without the slightest degree of embarrassment, replied, " My name is Mary Ayres ; and having heard the report of my grandfather, John Akehurst, and his housekeeper, Elizabeth Haines, being murdered in their cottage at Fetcham, and that Will Page and I were suspected of being the murderers, I am now on my way to my father's house, and intend to go to Fetcham before the Justices to clear myself of the charge. " Who is Will Page?" asked the constable. "Why I (said she), he is the man I have been living with, and is as innocent of the charge as I am." Watson then drove ou to Fetcham, to the residenoe of J. Hankey, Esq., where an examination of this woman took place before that gentleman, the Rev. J. G. Bollaud, and the Rev. Mr. Heberden. The examination took place at a late hour on Saturday night. Mary Ayres is rather ,a well-looking woman, above the middle stature, with an expression of countenance approaching that of the Lipsey tribe. She was dressed in a brown cloak, and wore a cottage-shaped black beaver bonnet, with boots laced up in front. Mr. BOLLAND then commenced the examination—You are the grand-daughter of John Akehurst, who was murdered lately at Fetcham ?—" I am." Mr. BomaNn then warned her not to answer any questions which would tend to criminate herself. Mary Ayres curtseyed, and thanked the Magistrates, intimating that she had nothing to conceal; she was anxious, she said, to clear herself of the charge of having any participation in so horrible a crime as the murder of her own flesh and blood, meaning her grandfather. Mr. BoLtaxu—Where were you on the 1I th of October, the day on which Leatherhead fair begoA? Mary Ayres, having taken a short time to recollect herself, said, " On the 11th of October I was at Weyhill fair, in Hampshire, along with Will Page." Mr.