The Sun. — 1846-09-02 (London, England)

ATTIDIPTED MURDER—SUICIDE THROUGH JEALOUSY. (Prom the 117anchcst(r Examiner, Aug. 29.) An incraest was yesterday held by r. Chapman, the ' borough coroner, and a respectable jury, at the Bank of England Tavern, Pollard-street, Manchester, relative to the death of Abraham Ashworth, a weaver. The evidence showed that twelve months ago, yesterday, the deceased was married to a young woman seventeen years of age, who was employed in a factory ; that he was of a jealous temperament, and that his weakness was turned into a source of mirth by his fellow-work • men. He frequently charged his wife with being too intimate with a man named Royle, and on this score beat and quarrelled with her ; but he, nevertheless, seems to have loved her, and when he was in a playful humour she endeavoured to disabuse his mind of the foul thoughts that had fixed themselves there. Her efforts, however, were vain, and seven weeks ago the unhappy pair separated, and she went to live with her mother in a cellar in Junction-street, occupied by a married couple named Gregory. On Tuesday night last the deceased went, for the first time since the separation, to see his wife, told her that he was going to Bury-lane, near Leigh, and asked her to accompany him to the railway station. She went, and just before starting lie bade her farewell in a friendly manner, and promised to return in about a fortnight. In the course of the following night, after having been for some time asleep in Mrs. Gregory's, she awoke, and to her astonishment, saw her husband near her, " looking very vicious, and turning his eyes away from her very savage." He seemed to have had some liquor. She got up, and offered to prepare him some supper ; but he refused to have any thing to eat. He requested, however, to have a quart of beer ; this she went for, and he drank the whole of it, with the exception of a teacupful, which was divided between Mr. and Mrs. Gregory. He then began to accuse his wife of ins proper conduct; with Royle, who works in the same factory with her. She offered to go to the factory, and have the whole matter cleared up, and to this the deceased consented, declaring that reports of her infidelity were current through the mill. lie soon after went to bed. In the morning, at five o'clock, the mother of Mrs. Ashworth, Gregory, and his elder son went to work. In about half an hour after Ashworth sat up in bed, and his wife saw him take something from the pocket of his trousers. He asked her to lie with her face upwards, tied her cap• strings, and seemed in a more affectionate mood; and this opportunity the young wife seized to beseech him not to listen to the silly tales which he had mentioned on the previous night. lie burst intu tears, and attempted to jump out of bed; but she caught hold of him, and he had to rise. He then threw himself back, and attempted to raise his arm, as though he was struggling with powerful emotions and a deep resolution. The action, however, was sufficient to disclose to the alarmed wife something bright and flashing in his hand ; she thought it was a penknife, but it was a razor, and she screamed out violently. lie caught hold of her, and mingled his cries with hers ; but, when he was unable to hold her any longer, he raised both his hands, and inflicted a ghastly wound on his throat. Terrified, the young wife ran screaming into the street ; he hastily followed her ; but she had the presence of mind to close the door, and she held it so firmly that he failed in his efforts to open it. A man, attracted by her screams of " Murder!" came from a cellar on the opposite side of the street, and as soon as she saw him, she ran towards him, fainted, and fell. On recovering she found that her finger had been cut. Several persons soon entered the cellar. The unfortunate man was sitting on the fender, in his shirt ; around him was a pool of blood, in the midst of which lay the razor kith which he had, no doubt, intended to murder his wife, and with which he had inflicted on himself a wound, of which he died in about an hour and a half. The cellar, in almost every part of it, bore marks of blood. No one knew where he got the razor ; but there can be but little doubt of the object for which he had possessed himself of it ; for he had often threatened, as he expressed it, to put both himself and his wife out of the road. On one occasion, about two or three months before the separation, he was fondling his wife, as they sat alone ; and when her head was resting on his lap, he took out his penknife, and pointing it at her throat, said, " Jenny, I want your throat.' He made a movement with the weapon, and it penetrated the skin of her neck. The jealous man had evidently for some time entertained the notion of putting an end to his own misery and life, and of punishing the supposed infidelity of his wife. The jury brought in a verdict, that the deceased had cut his throat with a razor when in a state of unsound mind and distraction.