The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser. — 1840-08-04 (Liverpool, Merseyside, England)

THE LATE MR. JOHN BIBBY  We copy the following from the Albion of yesterday : The relatives of this lamented gentleman hare, in common with many other persons, imbibed a strong opinion that he was murdered • and they have, in consequence, offered a reward of .1:500 to any individual, not the actual murderer, who will give such information as will lead to the conviction of any party or parties who may have been active participators in the dreadful deed. The family of the deceased have, also, obtained authority from the Secretary of State to announce, that her Majesty's free pardon will be given to any person, not the actual perpetrator of the crime, who will give such information as above mentioned. It has been broadly stated that little or no investigation has been instituted for the purpose of throwing light on this mysterious event. The fact is directly otherwise. John Formby, Esq., Charles Birch, Esq., and the Rev. Miles Formby, all magistrates of the district, have never, for an instant, relaxed in their exertions to discover the true circumstances connected with Mr. Bibby's death. They have been most anxious on the subject ; and the police, both of the county and the borough, have been actively and unremittingly employed in seconding their wishes and those of the family of the deceased. The Liverpool Mail, of Tuesday last, with an uncalled-for sneer, tells his readers, that we had expressed an opinion that Mr. Bibby had committed suicide. This is a rnistatemeat. 'We never either surmised or hinted such a thing. We find no fault with those who entertain different ' opinions from ourselves as to the cause of this melancholy event; and, if our contemporary sincerely believes, that Mr. Bibby was murdered, as he says be does, we trust we have too much delicacy and good taste to enter into a controversy with him on such a subject. Meanwhile, the affair is involved in as much mystery as ever. The few available materials that offered themselves for the investigation of the police have been sifted to the uttermost. The watch which the deceased is supposed to have worn when he was last seen alive has not yet been found. The pond in which Mr. Bibby's body was discovered has been emptied, and the mud closely examined, whereby it has been ascertained, that the watch is not there. The statements of the coachman, respecting the time when he set Mr. Bibby down and his own return to Liverpool, have'been fully corroborated : so that the principal circumstance which gives a colouring of suspicion to the case is the continued absence of the watch. The Journal, of Saturday last, gives the following additional evidence, some portions of which we do not clearly understand :—" A policeman, residing at Litherland, had left his coat at Aintree, returned for it at night, and swears positively that he passed through the gates in the lane between the pond where the body of the deceased was found and his residence, and closed them all himself. This confirms the evidence of the lad relative to his closing them the evening before, on which some doubt has been thrown. It therefore follows clearly that, either dead or alive, the deceased must have passed through the gates between the hours of four o'clock, when, evidence has since been adduced to show, they were open, and five, when the policeman closed them ; and the presumption is very strong that he could not have been at that time in the lane, otherwise he would have been seen by the policeman. One of the gates, as was stated, was found propped open by a slate ; and this gate, it appears, was one which would not stand open itself, and would require to be propped for any thing bulky to be dragged through it." The same paper also says :—" It is not correct, we understand, as inserted.in a contemporary, (the Mail,) that the boots of the deceased had an appearance as if the body had been dragged with the toes depending. The only mark of dirt or clay was on the hands of the deceased, and a little on his boots, but not what might have been expected in the case of a person who had waded through such deep miry lanes. The only marks on his person, of apparent importance, were marks on each arm, as if he had been seized violently, and which, in the view of some parties who have looked carefully into the case, it is difficult to attribute to anything else."