The Glasgow Chronicle. — 1849-05-09 (Glasgow, Strathclyde, Scotland)

LINCOLNSHIRE.  On Thursday forenoon, the 26th ult., the wife of a labourer in the service of the Earl of Yarborough, at Brocklesby, was brutally murdered upon a footpath between the village of Brocklesby and the neighbouring one of Keelby. It appears that, on that morning, there was residing in the parish of Brocklesby, about half a mile from Brocklesby Hall, a labourer named John Farrow, with his wife, about 54 years old, and two daughters about 14 and 20 years of age. Their house stands in a field through which there is a foot-road to the neighbouring village of Keelby, which is about a mile and a half distant eastward on the road to great Grimsby. Farrow went in the morning to his work at Brocklesby; and in the forenoon, his wife, as usual every Thursday, went to "the shop at Keelby," taking with her a little butter for sale, an empty flour bag, and some money, viz., two sovereigns, two shillings, a sixpence, and a penny. This was about twenty minutes past ten o'clock. She had proceeded only three quarters of a mile when, in a field, near a gate, where four ways met, she was assailed and murdered. Her pocket was torn from her side, its contents taken out, and the lifeless body was left in such an undisturbed state that none of the persons who afterwards found it, nor even the surgeon of the next village, who then examined it, the least suspected that a violent end had taken place. And even when the money was missed, so absent from the thoughts of all persons was the idea of murder, that it was conjectured that some tramp might have robbed the dead body. It was not until the corpse, which had been removed to her residence, was being prepared for interment, that the state of the head under the hair led to the suspicion that foul play had been used. Then, the same surgeon, who, upon a more superficial survey had believed in a natural death, was convinced otherwise. This was on Friday. Immediate intimation of the fact was sent to the Coroner of the district, who attended on Saturday, at the house of the deceased, and there swore in a jury of neighbours, and ordered a port mortem examination. The inquest was adjourned until Monday morning, and the house of the deceased being small, the use of a portien of Brocklesby Hall was offered by the steward--the Earl and Countess of Yarborough, with Lord Worsley and family, being absent in London. The medical men—consisting of one from Grimsby, one from Keelby, and a third, the travelling medical attendant of the Pelham family— made their examination on Sunday and this placed beyond doubt the fact of the murder. The evidence adduced on Monday, bears strongly, almost beyond a doubt, against the man in custody, whose name is Charles Overton, aged 32. He is married, and has two children. He was formerly a labourer of fair character, but having become a poacher, has been twice in prison for that offence, and once for burglary.  The enly-criminating evidence yet adduced against the prisoner is, the finding of an axe and a fir bill, which he said he bad purchased, and which turned out to have been stolen; his having been seen in the vicinity of the murder, and having tendered a sovereign in payment of an ounce of tobacco, and another in payment of some ale, bread, and cheese, on the day ef the murder. The prisoner appears to be a bad character.