The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser. — 1844-08-06 (Liverpool, Merseyside, England)

THE DREADFUL NOTTINGHAM MURDERS.—At the Nottingham Assizes, before Lord Denman, William Saville, a frame-work knitter, of New Radford, was charged with the wilful murder of his wife and three children. The prisoner, in May last, was lodging at the house of a man named Sutton, near Birch-row, Radford. His wife and three children had been in the workhouse, but had come out on the day before the Tuesday when the crimes in question were alleged to have been committed. Saville had been paying some attentions to a young woman of the name of Tate. and the only motive that suggested itself for the commission of those awful murders was, that he wished to get his wife out of the way and rid himself of the incumbrance of his children. It appeared that when the poor woman left the workhouse with her children she said she would go in search of her husband and on the following morning the husband, wife, and children were seen in Nottingham together. In the afternoon of the same day he was seen alone, and was heard to say he had lost sight of his wife near Mannersstreet. With respect to the young woman Tate there was nothing against her character, for when she became acquainted with Saville she did not know he was married, and upon finding he had a wife and three children she broke off the connection. In the course of the Tuesday evening, Saville was heard to say he supposed his wife had drowned herself, and suspicion being excited inquiry was set on foot, and on the Wednesday the bodies were found in a little plantation, in the neighbourhood of Nottingham. From the appearance of the ground it was evident there had been a struggle between the wife and the prisoner ; In her hand was found a razor. The bodies were discovered by a man on the 29th of May. He went into the plantation to get something for his rabbits, where he saw three little children, lying, as he thought, asleep— one had its eyes open. Looking at the girls he saw them wounded—further from them the body of the woman was discovered with her throat dreadfully cut, and a razor in her hand, but quite loose, so that it would appear to have been placed there. The body of the woman was a few yards from the children. She lay stretched, as though dragged : the children lay together. There was a train of blood nearly all the way from the female to the children. The evidence went to prove the prisoner was seen near to and going in the direction of the spot in question, with his wife and children on the Tuesday ; that he was carrying the youngest child on his shoulder, their ages being about seven, five, and three, and that the bodies of the murdered children were those that had been seen with the prisoner. Two men named Bret saw the prisoner, his wife, and children, sitting on a bank within twenty yards of where the bodies were found. The children were gathering flowers. Saw the same man some time after come from the plantation alone—as be passed he looked very white. Many witnesses were called, a.d altogether a case of as strong circumstantial evidence was made out as could well be. The jury almost immediately returned a verdict of Guilty, whereupon he was sentenced to be hanged.