npedrazzini/19thc_murder_suicide_news huggingface dataset:
The Staffordshire and Potteries Examiner. — 1881-05-28 (Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England)

CHARGE OF EMBEZZLEMENT.—Frank Dale, machineclerk, lately in the employment of the Weston Coynev Colliery and Iron Company, was charged with embezzelins, various sums of money, between the years 1877 and 1879, to wit, 13s. 4d. and 225. Mr Boddam appeared for the prosecutors. It would appear from the opening statement of Mr. Boddam that ths prisoner went into the employment of the prosecutors in August, 1877, as machine clerk and book-keeper, at the sva,,es of 30s. a week. Daring the time he remained in their emplc,yment he appeared to have kept his accounts pretty straight, and it was not until he absconded in December, 1879, that several d‘sfalcations were found out, amounting in all to nearly £2OO. As far as the present case goes the charge only so far as the abode two sums are concerned was gone into. The prisoner was engaged to receive moneys for coal and slack, enter the various receipts in the petty • cash book, then (have them transferred to The ledger, and pay over all such receipts to his employers. The prisoner appears to have entered the various receipts in the petty cash book very correctly, but at the same time he totted up the amount in such a way as to leave himself usually a large balance, consequently the abstract, when transferred to the larger book, appeared entirely wrong. Conspicuous !among the items of his defalcations were the sums of 225., received from Mr. Child, of High-street, Longton, for a ton and a half of coals in De.:eniber, 1879, and 13s. 4d. for another ton of coals received from Ralph Malpass, slip maker, Normacott, on the 13th of October in the same year.— Martin Forrester, Manager to the Company, gave evidence as to the above facts, and Ralph Malpass, and William Child, deposed as to the payment cif the sums referred to.—Sergeant John 13ishop, stationed at Longton, stated that he received the prisoner into custody from the Liverpool police, on Tuesday morning last. On the warrant being read to him, the prisoner said "1 dont see how they could tell what the amounts were, as the books had not been balanced up for for several half-years before I went into the employment of the company. 111 had known that the amounts were so small I would not have run away, I thought they were much larger."—After hearing the evidence, the prisoner had nothing to say, and was committed for trial to the Quarter Sessions. ASSAULT ON A WlFE.—James Fryer, millwright, was charged with assaulting his wife Emily Fryet, on the 21st inst. The prosecutrix who had been twenty-three years married to him, stated that the prisoner came home on Saturday night, and after a few words, struck her on the head rendering het insensible and cutting her.—The prisoner had nothing to say beyond expressing his sorrow for the act, and the bench, taking into consideration that he had been up before for attempting to commit suicide, sent him to prison for one month, and further granted the prosecutrix a judicial separation, she to be allowed the sum of ss. per week.
The Staffordshire and Potteries Examiner. — 1881-05-28 (Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England)

THE LATE DR. PUNSHON.  The will of the late Rev. Dr. Punshon has been proved, the personal estate being under £14,000. The Rev. W. Hirst, Mr. J. B. Ingle, and Mr. C. Smith are the executors. The plate, pictures and other household effects are given to his wife absolutely. His house is.left to Mrs. Punshon for her life, and is t be sold at her death for the benefit of his sons rley and Percy Henry. There are also the followi g legacies; Mrs. Punshon €l,OOO to Morley Punshon €l,OOO, Percy Henry £1,250; to his granddaughter Fanny Eleanor Rayner, £750, and €2OO to her father; to Annie Stuart Panton, of Sunderland, £100; to Eliza Graham Pantonand her sisters £2oo,as j oint tenantsand not as tenants in common; to Edith Maiw Geesham, of Hull €lOO, and to Ella fee sham, her sister £250; to two old servants £5O each; to the Wesleyan Missionary Society £5O, and £l5O to his executors and trustees. He gives to his trustees all his books, collection of autographs and manuscripts upon trust to permit his wife to relect- therefrom such as she may wish, and the remainder to fall into and form a part of his residuary personal estate. The trustees have Rower over the real and personal estate not otherwise disposed of by the will; they are to invest €4,000 and pay the income of it to his wife. At Mrs. Punshon's death the property is to be divided between his two sons or their heirs. .  A law has been enacted in California making opium smoking a crime, and the three first culprits to be found were not Chinamen, but white men. A man named Bowen was charged at Lambeth, on Tuesday, with attempting to commit suicide. A constable saw him jump into the river at Westminster Bridge on Monday night, swam after him, and induced him to return. Bowen 'aid he had no intention to commit suicide; he only wanted to swilllP.Cross the river to get away from his wife, who followed him wherever he went, and annoyed him. The wife said she only wanted him to gohome. The prie,oupr was remanded. The Directors of the Mancheater Chamber of Commerce at their monthly meeting on Wednesday passed a resolution approving in its general principles of the Bankruptcy Bill introduced into Parliament by Her Majesty's Government ; and a hope was expressed that the measure would become law during the present session, subject to certain modifications in matters of detail. Edward Payson Weston, the well-known long distance walker, intends " favouring" this country with another visit. He has long been debating a further descent upon the English innocents, and the opportunity has arrived at last. He will leave New York in the course of a month, and on reaching London will challenge Rowell and Vaughan. Doubtless Weston is finding backers in America; it is hard to believe that anybody would support him on this side of the water. Master Weston let down afgood many • people when he was here before, and they will be greater idiots than we take them for if they trust bia• never very transcendeu bilatto agaiu.  ,  '"
The Staffordshire and Potteries Examiner. — 1881-05-21 (Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England)

SUICIDE.  A fearful tragedy came to the knowledge of the police at Sheffield on Thursday, revealing the loss of two lives through misplaced love. For some time past there has been living in the Rivelin Valley, just outside the town, a Mr. James Shaw, master masoa and builder, who was married .and had three children. At- Hillsborough, a short distance away, resided a young woman named Wag-staffe, who was in the service of a surgeon there. Shaw had been on very intimate terms with this young woman prior to his marriage, and it is alleged that they have been improperly intimate since, On Monday' both Shaw and the girl had disappeared from the neighbourhood, and it was generally believed they had eloped. Shaw's friends thought they had taken a passage to America, and some communication was opened with the eteamship firms at Liverpool to ascertain if such was the case. It was afterwards discovered that the pair had gone to Sheffield, staying at a public-house, where they represented 'themselves as man and wife. They remained in the town until Wednesday night, and then returned to Rivelin Valley. Early on Thursday morning as two workmen were walking along the banks of the darn which feeds the Rowel Wheel they discovered the bodies of Shaw and 'Wagstaff in the water. Their wrists were tied together by a piece of braid such as would be found as binding on a man's -coat or won-lan's skirt. A boy who had passed along the same bank at an earlier hour, had found two letters, a hat, an umbrella, and a pay book. The letters had been written by the Woman in pencil, and one was addressed to Mrs. Wagstaite, her mother, and the other to Mrs. Shaw. They bear evidence of having been written by her while they were on the banks of the dam. In the letter to Mrs. Shaw she said in Shaw'sname that his end was near, and that Wagstaff° was the only girl he had ever really loved. The other letter to her father and mother contained her farewell to them, and the intimation that when they had it she would bone more. On cue of the letters was written, also in pencil, . "The policeman has just passed, but has not seen me." The policeman passed the ,dam shortly after two o'clock that morning. Shaw was 2S years of age, and Wagstaffe 25.
The Staffordshire and Potteries Examiner. — 1881-05-21 (Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England)

THE SUICIDE IN GEAFTON-STREET.—An inquest wile held in the Town Hall, on Tuesday afterneon, before Mr. J. West Jones, borough coroner, into the eircurastances attending the death of Christopher Simpsnr% aged forty-six, parian figure maker, who committee' suicide on Sunday. Julia Shaw, wife of Charles She!l/1 22, Grafton-street, said she last saw deceased alive about five o'clock on Sunday evening, when he said„fre her, "I have put you about; I will go upstairs." was then the worse for drink, and had been drinkTe heavily for a fortnight previously. Deceased was lotnesses's brother, and had lodged at her house eleyree years, being a widower. After he had gone upstaitl, witness and her husband went to Stoke, and nobody 1.12 the house saw deceased until shortly after ten, vibe witness, according to custom, went into his room take him a jug of water. On entering she knocke against his body, which was in a reclining position, erit the floor at the foot of the bed, the head resting agains the bedpost, and with a scarf tied tightly round tile neck. The body was quite cold and stiff. She at once called her husband, who immediately went off to tlis police station, and returned with Police-sergeant JoneB; —Charles Shaw, husband of the last witness, gal similar evidence, and also stated that deceased bad beelj out drinking on the Sunday. He seemed rather dejecteo daring the day, and partook of no other food small quantity of soup. During his fortnight's drinkll bout he had been in the habit of getting drunk two a% three times a day, his chief liquor being rum. George Edwin Jones, a sergeant in the borough police fere j described the circumstances of his finding the body, stated that the scarf was so tightly drawn round 'The neck, with a running noose, as to be embedded la flesh, the throat being much swollen. Death had dently resulted some hours. The jury returned a verdi,,, of "Suicide during a fit of temporary mental derfain ment, brought on by drink," one of the jurors obeernees that it was a most deplorable thing that facilities eFs' for a man to get drunk over and over again daring single day.  BURSLEAL f be Mr. Jesse Norris, on of Mr. James Norris, 0' 00 Leopard Hotel, who is articled to Messrs. T0mk,.07,-t-and Fumival, solicitors, 'recently passed the grmediate Examination for Law Students in the I°'" porated Law Society's Hall, London.
The Staffordshire and Potteries Examiner. — 1881-03-26 (Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England)

THEATRE ROYAL.—Fair houses, notwithstanding the very inclement weather, have attended the representations of the very amusing Comic Opera "Los Cloches de Corneville." Although termed a " return visit," the company is substantially a new one; In some respects it is not equal to the company which formerly presented the opera in Hanley—it is nevertheless an efficient one and the representation is a thoroughly enjoyable one. The " Gobo " of Mr. Harry Collier is especially noticeable as being a very amusing and energetic piece of come acting. The "Bailie "is again represented in excellent style by Mr. J. H. Rodgers. Miss Emma Chambers and Miss Grace Armytage as " Serpolette and " Germaine" well interpreted their respective parts. It is hardly necessary to say that the piece is pat upon the stage in the best and most liberal manner so far as dresses, scenery, and other accessories are concerned. The last representation of the opera takes place this (Saturday) evening. For next week is announced Mr. Clarence Holt's company from the London Duke's Theatre in the play of "Forced from Home. • REPORTED DROWNING OF A HANLEY Max.—The body of a man answering to the description of Mr. J. Leigh, landlord of the Lamb Inn, Lamb-street, was picked up in the Menai Straits, off Bangor, on Saturday. On an examination, the name "J. Leigh" was found written upon the deceased's cellar. The friends of Mr. Leigh, of the Lamb, were communicated with; • end as a consequence, his pion and brother-in-law went •o Bangor, to see whether the deceased was the proprietor of the Lamb. Mr. Leigh left Hanley on Friday afternoon last; and did not say where he was going to. Mr. Leigh's son, and brother-in-law—Mr. Gittees, of the Sensation Vaults, iv-tended the inquest, sail at once identified the body as that of their missing relative. The evidence did not show how deceased came into the water, and no one seems to have been cognisant of his arrival at Bangor. He left the Lamb Inn, on Friday morning, the 18th inst., saying he would return to dinner, but his friends saw nothing of him from that time until his remains were identified. Deceased has been in a low depressed state of late. The jury returned a verdict to the effect that deceased committed suicide while in a state of terns porary insanity.
The Staffordshire and Potteries Examiner. — 1881-02-05 (Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England)

ELTRAORDINARY SCENE IN A THEATRE.  At the Dale Street Police Court, Liverpool, on Saturday, before Mr. Raffles, a rough-looking young fellow named Peter Hagan was charged with assaulting Henry Rushton, an assistant at the Gaiety Theatre, Camden Street, and also with assaulting Police Constables 326, 637, 933. It appeared that the prisoner on the pz..evious night went into the pit of the theatre in a hilariously drunken condition, and while the performance was in progress ho suddenly conceived a dislike for some person who was sittin,r in the balcony, and tried to "got at him." Upon some of the persons near him rernonstratiog with him upon his disorderly he offered to fight the whole audience. When Mr. Rushton went to him to  try and eject him he " butted " him with his head, and threw him down. He "scattered" everyone around him, and varied his amusements by tearing i down a partition. The whole theatre was nan uproar, and eventually it took three constables who were called in, assisted by several of the audience, to secure the prisoner. Ho had to be carried to bridewell "like a frog" between four constables; but he struggled so violently on the way that his clothes were torn into shreds. It was not until he was safely locked up in the cell that he acknowledged himself beaten.—The prisoner had nothing to say, excepting that "he was quite sober," and that the police had attacked him and ill-used him \ shamefully.—Mr. Raffles committed him to gaol for three months, with hard labour.   On Saturday the judge of the Cambridge County Court appointed a receiver to the estate of the Earl of flardwickc, under a petition for liquidation. The liabilities are £210,000, but it was stated thatthe greater part of thii is owing to secured creditors. The value of the asseta has not yet been ascertained.  There is no cessation in warlike preparations either in Turkey or Greece. The Home Secretary has appointed a DepartInental Committee for the purpose of enquiring into the present practice of dealing with criminal lunatics. There is said to be no foundation for the reports published by sonic foreign papers alleging. that Germany contemplated taking isolated action in the Turko-Greek question. Telegraphic communication with the Transvaal has been restored. James Leaver has been committed for trial at Accrington, charged with the v;ilful murder of his stepdaughter by cutting her throat.  Ridley Hall, the new theological college, at Cambridge, has been opened. The principal is the Rev. H. C. G. Moule, Fellow of Trinity College. The Duke of Edinburgh has sent ten brace of pheasants from his seat at Eastwell Park, for the use -Qf the inmates of the Kent and Canterbury Hospital. •  'SUICIDE pF A
The Staffordshire and Potteries Examiner. — 1881-02-05 (Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England)

SUICIDE OF A MILITIA SERGEANT AT NEWCASTLE. THE INQUEST.  About midni;iht on Sunday, Sergeant William Rowe, a staff-sergeant in the 3rd King's Own Regiment of Staffordshire Rifle Militia, and who is a married man with a family living in Legge-street, committed suicide by shooting himself with a uifle. The inquest was held at the Castle Mona Inn, before J. Knight, borough coroner, when Mrs. Rom e widow of the deceased ; Charles Harris, lancesergeant in the Newcastle Rifle Volunteer Corps; and Thomas Bloor, a neighbour of the deceased, were called. According to their evidence, !the circumstances under which the suicide took place were to the following effect :—Deceased had been on the militia staff about seventeen years,and prior to that he had served a similar term in the 53rd Regiment of Foot, and had, during that period, been engaged in a considerable amount of war service. He passed through the Indian Mutiny, and receivpd a war medal for service there; also a clasp for the relief of Lucknow. For some months past the deceased had been suffering from a painful cancer on the lip, which developed in such a way as to cause the unfortunate soldier to feel terrible anxiety and forebodings, and it was represented that at times the pain from the cancer was so great that temporary aberration of the mind was the consequence. Deceased went on Sunday morning to the house of Charles Harris, a neighbour, and borrowed his rifle, under the pretence that he wished to show it to his brother, who had never seen a breechloader. He conveyed the rifle home without the knowledge of his wife. Rowe and his wife retired to bed shortly after midnight, but directly after, he got up and went downsta'rs. Five minutes after Mrs. Rowe was startled by hearing the report of a rifle in the house. She hastened downstairs and found her husband lying on the floor with the rifle by his side. Thomas Bloor, a neighbour, • was rouxed, and f ound tho deceased lying on his side dead. There was a wound on the left side of the body in the region of the heart. The jury returned a verdict that "Deceased had committed suicide while in a state of temporary insanity."
The Staffordshire and Potteries Examiner. — 1881-02-26 (Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England)

SUICIDE FROM THE VICTORIA EMBANKMENT.  Shortly before twelve the other night a young woman, apparently about 24 years of age, was seen by a gentleman weeping piteously near the Whitehall Stairs, Victoria Em'oankment, with her shawl and hat in her hand. She then walked towards *Westminster Bridge, and soon after a heavy splash in the river was heard. Mr. Inspector King and a boat's crew of the Thames Police, who were rowing beneath the arches of Westminster Bridge, noticing an objdct floating near the landing pier at Westminster, rowed to the spot, but on their arrival it had sunk. The hat and shawl were found on the pavement of the Embankment. At half. past twelve on Friday morning, while Inspector Long and the police were dragging near the bridge they found the body. The remains were removed to St. Martin's Mortuary to await an inquest and identification. The following is the official description of deceased :—" The body of a young woman, aged 25 years; length, sft. ha.; complexion fair, hair brown, blue eyes, thin featu: es. Black stuff dress, trimmed with wide black braid, three flounces. Red and white striped cotton petticoat, white bodice stays, ditto underclothing, grey stuff drawers, brown stockings (red and white stripes), elastic garters, linen collar, marked V. A. A. Cox, 18794 cuffs, M. Lee; black velvet hat, with black feather, and trimmeil with large black beads; button. up boots."  A Parliamentary paper, entitled " Fortir.cations and Defences Loan, 1879-80," has just been lasued. This showed that in the financial year ending ch 31, 1880, the sum spent was £18,450 15s. tia., while the total expenditure up to March 31, .1879, was £7,396,001 17s. 4d. Lord Rowton has left town to join Miss Corry at Algiers.  Lord I3erehavon, who is in London, purposes shortly ,to leave for the Cape of Good Hope, with the intention of going to the front should the war last. It is understood that a question will be asked in the House of Commons relative to the oppositioli which is being offered to the Caledonian flailwa company's Bill, and the motives that prompt it. It is stated that the Earl of Craven has granted to the tenants on his Berkshire estates a remission of 10 per cent, on their last half-year's rentals.  - , It is expected that the Lord Lieutenancy of Westmoreland, vacant by the death of Sir Richard Musgrave, will be conferred on the Earl of Bective.  The cattle disease is spreading very rapidly in Glamorganshire, and all the fairs have been proand other preventive measures resorted to. - -
The Staffordshire and Potteries Examiner. — 1881-04-09 (Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England)

BOMB " SCARE ON BOARD THE ROYAL  YACHT.  A Portsmouth correspondent telegraphs that some surprise has been expressed at the Queen having travelled from Portsmouth to Osborne, on Wednesday, in the Admiralty yacht Enchantress, when she might have used either of the Royal yachts, and when, in fact, the Alberta was lying alongside the jetty from which her Majesty departed. The step, however, is thus explained: In the course of the morning the authorities were informed that a bomb had been concealed amongst the coals of the Alberta, and they immediately ordered the Enchantress to be in readiness, at the same time sending the Alberta on a two hours' trip at full speed, in order to reduce her coal as rapidly as possible, without causiag the alarm that a sudden discharge of her fuel would have occasioned. The Alberta returned shortly before one o'clock, when her Majesty was timed to leave the dockyard, and the whole of her officers were ordered at once to the Enchantress, which crossed the Solent. A search has been made, but no bomb has been discovered.  The Emperor Alexander 111. is expected to arrive in Berlin about the 28th of May. The Carlyle Memorial Committee has already received £6OO towards the fund for erecting a statue of Mr. Carlyle on the Chelsea Embankment. The Swiss Federal Council has, it is reported from Geneva, received no complaints from any Pov?ir concerning the presence of foreign refugees XI Switzerland. Sir Henry Havelock-Allan, M.P., has telegrapileci; in answer to a question from his agent, that he has accepted a brigade command at Aldershot, but there is no truth in the report that he has resigned his seat.  Another suicide from the Clifton Suspension Bridge has been committed. The body has not been recovered; but it is believed to be that of a young man named Donovan. Several persons witneeeed the rash act. _ •