The Northern Daily Times. — 1856-07-24 (Liverpool, Merseyside, England)

CONVICTION FOR MURDER  (BEFORB MB. BARON MARTIN.) DORCHESTER, July 21.—Eliz lbeth Martha Brown, described as a shopkeeper, aged 44, was arraigned for the wilful murder of her husband, John Anthony Brown, at Broadwinsor, on the 6th of July, 1856. Mr. Stock and Mr. Compton appeared for the prosecution ; Mr. Edwards for the prisoner. It appeared that the prisoner and deceased were formerly fellow-servants in a farmhouse, and about six years ago they were married. Deceased, who was about 19 years of age, kept a horse and cart, and acted as a general carrier,:while prisoner kept a shop for the sale of groceries. The result of the marriage was not very happy, and the prisoner was jealous of a woman named Mary Davis- On Saturday, the sth of July, about six o'clock, deceased and a carrier named Fooks, left Broadwinsor for Beaminster. On their way they were joined by Mary Davis, who however left them as soon as she got to the place where she was going to work. Fooks and deceased returned. from Beaminster about three or four o'clock in the afternoon. On arriving at Broadwinsor they remained drinking and playing at skittles till a late hour. About midnight he and Fooks left to go home. They went together till they came to Mount's corner, where Fooks left deceased going towards home with his horsy and cart, when, although intoxicated, he was quite capable of taking care of himself. About five o'clock in the morning the prisoner called no Richard Damon, deceased's cousin, who lived about 130 yards off, and begged him to get up, as the horse had nearly killed her husband. Damon went to the house, and found deceased lying on the floor of one of the rooms, and found that he was dead. The deceased had a great many cuts on his head, and a handkerchief was bound round it. In reply to questions Damon and others put to the prisoner, she stated that about two o'clock she heard her husband come down to the window, and that when she went out to the door she helped him in ; she said "Oh ! John, where have you been, or what have you been about?" and he said just "The horse," once, and that was all; she helped him in, placed him in a chair, and he laid down in her lap ; he took hold of her dress, and held her so tight for three hours, that she could not go to call any one ; that when he gos weak he let her go, and she went out and called Damon, The points chiefly urged against the prisoner were the absence of blood outside the house, on the door step, and in the passage (by which latter alone deceased could have been brought into the apartment), the absence of blood from deceased's face, and shirt front, the absence of dirt from his hands, and the testimony of the medical gentleman that the wounds could tint have been caused by the kick of a horse. Another remarkable circumstance was that there was a wound at the back of the head, as if he had been struck while in a stooping position. The deceased used to keep a small hatchet in the house, but after his death it could not be found. Mr. Edwards for the defence, urged that the wounds deposed to would have required extraordinary strength, and it could hardly be conceived that the prisoner had inflicted them ; that the prisoner had an interest in her husband's life, and that instead of thinking of murdering him, it was shown that she had prepared his supper for him. The fact that the coroner's jury had returned an open verdict was also noticed. The learned Judge having summed up, the jury retired, and after remaining three hours in deliberation, returned a verdict of "guilty." His Lordship, who said he entirely concurred in the decision of the jury, then passed sentence of death in the usual form. Before the prisoner left the dock she was asked by the Rev. A. N. de la Foss whether the story about the horse was not trumped up, to which she replied, "it was." She added, that the way in which her husband came by his death was by falling down stairs, and declared with an oath that she never struck him at all.  ADVICE TO OFFICIALS WHO WILL TAlK.—Persons in office cannot watch too carefully over their words. Better for a minister to do twenty foolish things than say one foolish one ! —Punch.