The Sun. — 1852-11-03 (London, England)

AWFUL MURDER IN DEVO.NSHIK.S.  A most barbarous and shocking murder was committed at the village of Milton, in the parish of Buckland Monachorum, on Friday night or Saturday morning last. This hamlet is situated about four miles south-west of Tavistock, and about ten miles from Plymouth, ae.d the person murdered is a Mrs. Mary White, a widow, about sixty years of age, who carried on a small hue kster't business, selling tea, c,ff: e, candles, &c. The c,ld lady bore an excellent character for frugality and 'nonesty. She was last soon alive on Friday night abortt eleven o'clock, at which hour she was sitting up for a man named William Glanville, who had gone to 'Tavistock, and from whom she expected to receive wee e lees. Ie the course of the evening she hal called upon. several of her neighbours to have a gossip, and abut) t half-past ten she returned to her house. Shortly afterveards Glenville brought her the lees, and after she bad received them he saw her no more. She lived in the house alone, occupying the lower room of a somewhat ntiserable cottage as her shop, and the up-stairs room wa;f her sleeping apartment. In this room she had a large box, about three feet long, and in this she kept her money, which was believed by all her neighbours to he ccin,iderable, though no person has been as yet able to state the amount. Mrs. White, the deceased, was a smart, active woman, and althcugh about sixty years of aat,e, she wee accustomed to milk one of her neigbour's cows, both night and morning. Oa Saturday morning, therefore, as she did not appear, about eight o'clock ono of her neighbours began to speak of its being odd that M:'.ry White had not come down; and shortly eftee nine one or two of them tried the door. It was foua,3 that the door was locked, and that the key was not ins ide, v. hereupon one of them got a ladder, and ascended. to a window over the shop, about 12 feet high, and having cut the fastening, opened it, and crept into that chamber. He saw some one lying in the bed, the bed clothes up-. perently undisturbed, and the person being to. :All appearance in a calm sleep; but on coming close, aced slightly moving the clothes, he found that there vras an immense gash in the throat, and that the eerson had either committed suicide or had been mureaered. ale immediately returned to the window, and descended into the street, but so horror-stricken was he with what he saw that he thought it was a man, and not Mrs. White, whom he had known when living, but who was so disfigured by the blood that was about her face that he was unable to recognise her. This person, immediately he had come down, ran over to Mr. White's, the brother of the deceased, with whom also her e.on lived, and there stated what he had seen. Young Wanite came over, with others, to the house, and a shoeinalo a., named Westlake, came along with White and one or two other men, and Westlake broke open the door. Tho party found all below undisturbed. They imme f lately peeceeded up stairs, and one of the men went furward end pulled down the bed-clothes, and then a most :awful sight presented itself. The poor woman was floatil ig in a pool of blood; her heed had been almost. literallyhe severed from her body. Young White, conwsacr.edisngdisc: r, said that it was his mother. money, with the except' Ducted that taken, the money-box had IbtFoeWnnAoiraoakfetewnr lo)penence, ahnadd btheaent made for an instrument, but and this fact, coupled with other eircumsta,eces, led to that a most foul murder hs.idhbeeeinnuprtdherfa,..l,. found with which the conviction inflicted. It it 3 r secreted himself in thew hat hues Pe: Penang, immediately:bk.nee gd , room, tnphseettrhaintegdu.wdhearS:ebraeerearnhwaWs behind the truckle bed, and that he had obtainedadmission could have the dinectoeatsheedcowtastageouint. thlencfoorumrsaetioofn, a respectable jury at was elevenim p sent to the coroner, Mr. A. Bone, andwh e on Monday morning en o'clocke e , and evidence taken, of which in the above we have stage' the principal facts that were elicited. deceased, a stolid person, se The son of the seemed to regard the death of his mother, under the circumstances, with, to say the Mr least, great calmness. _ Bone questioned him very closely as to the quarrels that had occurred between himself and his mother. It is a singular fact thee the son went to Tavistock on Saturday for Merritt, and asked him to come ever to Milton, as a woman had been murdered, end it was some time before Merritt learned that this " woman" was his own mother. In the course of the day a man named Corber was taken into custody on suspicion, but was liberated, there being no evidence to warrant his being detained. The investigation was continued till seven in the evening, when, there being no further evidence, the inquiry was adjourned till the 13t1 inst. An application will probably bo made to the Government to offer a reward for the apprehension of the murderer.  has been formed for