The Cannock Chase Examiner. — 1877-01-26 (Cannock, Staffordshire, England)

THE S'I•RANGE CONFESSION OF MURDER IN SHROPSHIRE. On Friday, William Taylor, who was arrested heat I week at Eccleehall, Stafford, charged on his alleged confession, with the murder of George Norton, Who was killed in a poaching affray, on December 6, 1857, at Child's Ercall, was brought up on remand at Market Drayton. On the night in question sixteen keepers were out watching on the Adderley I Estate, when they encountered forty poachers, one half of whom were armed with guns, and the rest with spears and bludgeons. The keepers let two dogs loose, but they were speedily disabled by the 'shots of the poachers, and a terrific struggle, which lasted half an hour, took place. Whilst this was Ong on the man Norton was stabbed in the bowels with a spear, and another watcher named Speed was shot in the abdomen. Norton died in a day or two afterwards, and Speed's life was for a time despaired of, but he recovered, and was one of the witnesses at the examination yesterday, several of the shots being still in his body, After the affray broken guns, spears, and bludgeons were found scattered about the ground; and at one place, where a " stand " was made bj the combatants, the shots were so numerous that the whole of the twigs were shot off an adjacent hedge. The witness Speed recognised Taylor as a resident in the neighbourhood at the time; but neither he nor any of the other witnesses examined were able to say that he took part in the affray. The evidence implicating the prisoner was that of Edward Owen and Mary Jane Evans. The former stated that on the last day in 1876 he was in a house in Eccleshall, where he lodged, and the prisoner and ' his wife and some other people were also there. Some allusion was made to that neighbourhood (Market Drayton), and prisoner asked witness whether he recollected the poaching affray in question. Witness replied that he did; upon which Taylor added, "1 was one of that lot. The flails the *keepers used were awkward things; but I only got one blow, at the back of the head. Owen said there was one man killed, his belly having been "ripped open;" and to this prisoner said, "No, he was not killed with a knife, but with u spear, which was sunk in a slide about a yard long, and at the other end was an iron screw about the size of my two fists." Prisoner also said, "It was not pushed straight into him, but upwards. We after war& lay three weeks in a coalpit at the Trench to hide."  Sarah Jane Evans, a widow, living at Eccleshall, said. she was in the lodging-honse' and heard the conversation about the poaching affray. Taylor was the first to mention it. He said it was a fearful affair; that one man was killed, and that the others wanted it. Owen said the man had been cut open with a knife, and the prisoner said, "No, it wasn't a knife, it was a spear; for I am the man as did it." He jsaid the iron spear was put in an ash-stick, and that on the other end there was an iron knob. The spear, he added, was fitted into his pocket, and [ after the affray he and some others hid for throe 1 weeks in a pit. That night prisoner and his wife went out singing, and they did not get to bed till two o'clock. While in bed witness heard the prisoner groaning and crying out, "Oh, if the Lord will only forgive me for what I have done ! Something is tearing at me, and I cannot rest." The next morning prisoner said he had a blow at the back of the head, and it had never been right since. In answer to the charge, the prisoner said he was innocent, and knew nothing at all about it; that the two last witnesses had spoken falsely; and that it was all done through jealousy. He was committed for trial to the Assizes on the capital charge. Taylor is a married man, and appears to be in a delicate state of health. Norton's widow and children, are still living in the neighbourhood.