The Sun. — 1844-11-19 (London, England)

EXTRAORDINARY CASE OF SUICIDE.  Great excitement was occasioned in the village of }Townes, near Bedford, on Sunday morning, in consequence of a respectably dressed man being found hanging in a hedge quite dead. The following day an inquest was held before Ezra Eagles, Esq., coroner for the county, and the following evidence was ' given :  Josiah King, a labourer, deposed that on Sunday morning he was going up Mr. Armstrong's fields in the parish of llawnes, and in the hedge ; about a hundred yards from the road leading from Wilsted to Clophill, he saw something hanging, which at first he thought was a mawkin to frighten the birds with, but on going nearer he found it was a man. He was tied by the neck to an ash bough with a handkerchief, and appeared to have been hanging there for some time. He then told some other persons and the constable, and they removed the body to King's beershop. It was in a high state of putrefaction. When witness found the deceased he was on his knees. He was very respectably dressed. William Cole, the constable of Hawnes, deposed that the last witness fetched him on Sunday morning to Mr. Armstrong's hedge, to see a man hanging. He found the deceased suspended by the neck to an ash stem, with two handkerchiefs. He broke the stem and let the body down ; it was that of a person about sixty years old. He examined the skull, but could find no fracture. The deceased had on a black neckerchief, two shirts, pair of cotton drawers, coat, black trousers, and a fancy flowered waistcoat. He appeared to have been a round-faced man. His upper ,jaw was very round, and the under jaw rather sunk in. His hair was dark and rather curly and whiskers sandy; they extended underneath his chin. He had on Wellington boots cut open up the instep. He had white cotton socks. He had a black frock coat, lined with silk, and a black velvet collar. There was a hat hanging by the side of the deceased in the stem of the tree, in which were a pair of spectacles, a pair of scissors, a common horn comb, and a pencil. In the small-clothes pocket was a piece of paper, on which was written in pencil, " I ham in troble," and the figures 1844 and 1793 deducted, with 0047 below ; and 1844 and 1777 deducted, with 0067 below. And in the coat-pockets was a playbill of Mr. Jackman's company of the performance of Cato, and The Silent Family; another bill, "H. Brett, bread and biscuit-baker, 55, Fleet-street ;" another, " A true Friend in need," appearing to be a bill relative to a friendly benefit society at Mr. Jones's, 13ackcburch-lane, Whitechapel ; and part of another bill, relating to another benefit society, at Mr.Bowers'i, Turnmill-street, Clerkenwell. After the clothes had been removed, witness examined the body ; there were no marks of violence ; the handkerchiefs by which the body was suspended were figured cotton. Upon the black neckerchief the letters "W. S." were marked in white silk. On his shirt collar the letter " R." was marked in red cotton. He was five feet three inches in height, and was a stranger to witness. The body was not identified, and being in a high state of decomposition, was obliged to be buried directly after the inquest. The jury returned an open verdict, to the effect that deceased was found hanging. —Hertford Reformer.  The very extensive cotton mills, well known as the Salford mills, the property of Messrs. Phillips and Co., have been taken as a bonding warehouse for Manchester.