;

for his sword and staff, and proceeded to the spot. The watchman caught the lodger in his arms, when Mr Anderson, a butcher with an axe, and a man with a poker, broke the cellarflap open. They all then entered, and began to look round the bar-cellar on coming to the staircase, they saw Mr Williamson lying on his back, with his legs upon the stairs, his head downwards; by his side was an iron instrument, similar to a stone-mason's crow, about three feet long, in diameter three quarters of an inch, it was much stained with blood. Mr W. had received a wound on the head, his throat was dreadfully cut, and his right leg also was broke by a blow, and his hand severely cut. From these marks of violence, it is supposed Mr W. made great resistance, being a very powerful man. While Mr Anderson was viewing the body, with petrified feelings, the party heard a voice saying, "Where is the old man?" The words proceeded from the persons who had entered in at the front door. At these words the party in the cellar proceeded into the sitting-room, where they saw Mrs Williamson lying on her left side; her skull was fractured, and her throat cut, bleeding most profusely; near to Mrs Williamson was the servant woman, lying on her back, supposed to have been in the act of laying the fire for the following morning, as her feet were found under the grate; her skull was more dreadfully fractured than that of her mistress, her throat most inhumanly cut to the neck bone.-The house was searched, and it was discovered that the murderers had made their escape through the back window which leads to the London Dock Company's premises. The shutters were marked with blood, and the window left open; the murderers had jumped about eight feet into the vacant space at the back of Mr Williamson's house.

Deposition of John Turner, who

lodged in the house." I went to bed about five minutes before eleven o'clock. I had not been in bed more than five or ten minutes before heard the cry "We shall be all murdered," which I suppose was the cry of the woman servant. I went down stairs, and saw one of the villains rifling Mrs Williamson's pockets. I immediately ran up stairs, took off the sheets from my bed, fastened them together, and lashed them to the bed-posts: I called to the watchman to give the alarm; I was hanging out of the front window by the sheets; the watchman received me in his arms, naked as I was; a great mob had then assembled opposite the door; as soon as I got upon my legs, the door was forced open : I entered, and found the bodies lying as described. There was nobody lodged in the house but myself, except a grand-daughter of Mrs Williamson. I have lived in the house about eight months, and during that time I have found them the most peaceable people that could keep a public house. The man whom I saw rifling Mrs Williamson's pocket, as far as I could see by the light in the room, was about six feet in height, dressed in a genteel style, with a long dark loose coat on. I said nothing to him; but, terrified, I ran up stairs, and made my escape as already mentioned. When I was down stairs, I heard two or three very great sighs; and when I was first alarmed, I heard distinctly the words" We shall all be murdered."-Turner further deposes, that when he went up to bed there was no person in the house but the family and himself; and Mrs Williamson at that time was on the stairs, taking up a silver punch-ladle and a watch, which was to be raffled for on Monday next, into her bed room, for sccurity.

The grand-daughter alluded to in Turner's evidence was so affected, that the magistrates asked her but few questions.

The villains robbed Mr Williamson of his watch, but it is not known whether they robbed him of money. The watch taken away had the maker's name on it," James Catchpole ;" and the respective pawnbrokers have received information from the magistrates to stop any person who should offer it.-Crowds of people assembled round the premises of the deceased family the whole of the day-every individual seemed horror-struck at the awful spectacle of another family being dispatched in less than a fortnight since the atrocious murders in Ratcliffehighway.

A person was examined on Friday at Shadwell-street office, on suspicion of being concerned in these horrid murders. He had in his possession, at the time of his apprehension, a gallon of brandy, which he said he bought at a public-house in Compton-street, for thirteen shillings and sixpence; a quart of whiskey, and a sample of British brandy. The magistrates examined the prisoner, particularly as to where he was at the time of the murder; and in order to gain some positive information, the man was committed for a farther hearing.-All the police-officers are on the alert, to discover some trace of the horrid miscreants.-The several magistrates of the Thames, Whitechapel, and Shadwell police offices, met together on Friday, at the Thames police office, for the purpose of considering and adopting the most effectual measures for the discovery of the perpetrators of the late atrocious murders, in the neighbourhood of their respective offices.--The churchwardens and overseers of Shadwell parish have advertised a reward of 100 guineas for the discovery of the villains.

The deceased Mr J. Williamson was about 56 years of age; his wife, Mrs C. Williamson, about 60; and Bridget Harrington, the servant woyears of man, 50 age.

In the afternoon of Saturday week, an inquisition was held on the bodies of Mr and Mrs Williamson, and their servant Bridget Harrington.

John Turner. I am a sawyer; I have lodged in the house of Mr Williamson about eight months; I lodged in the front garret. On Thursday evening, about twenty minutes before eleven, Mrs Williamson was standing at the front door; Mr Williamson was sitting in the middle room in his great chair; the servant was in the back room. I saw no other persons in the house; I stood by the fire; a little man came in, Samuel Phillips, for a pint of beer, and told Mr Williamson that there was a stout man with a very large coat on peeping in at the inner glass door in the passage: Mr Williamson said, "I'll see what he wants." He went out with the candle, and returned, saying, he could not see him, but if he did see him, he would send him where he ought, or would not like, to go. Phillips went out, and Mr Anderson came in directly afterwards, he did not stay above two or three minutes. Shortly afterwards the servant raked out the fire, and I went to bed, at which time Mrs Williamson followed me up stairs to her own room, with a watch and a silver punch-ladle. This was the last time that I saw them living. I heard Mrs Williamson lock the bed-room door and go down stairs again; there is no fastening to my bedroom door; I went to bed, and had not been there above five minutes before I heard the front door bang to very hard. Immediately afterwards I heard the servant exclaim-" We are all murdered," or " shall be murdered," two or three times. I had not been asleep. I heard the sound of two or three blows, but with what weapon I cannot say. Shortly after, I heard Mr Williamson cry out, "I am a dead man!" I was in bed still. About two or three minutes afterwards, I got

ear to within two inches of the right, penetrating through the windpipe, and down to the vertebræ of the neck; and the tibia, or large bone of the right leg, fractured a little above the ancle, apparently from a fall, as if down stairs, because if it had been done by any other means, I think there must have been a laceration of the integuments; no marks of violence upon any other parts. Elizabeth Williamson-the right temporal and parietal dreadfully fractured, apparently from a large poker, or some such instrument, comprehending nearly the whole of the right side of the head; the throat cut from ear to ear, through the windpipe, &c.; no marks of violence upon any other parts. Ann Bridget Harrington-the right parie tal bone laid open about four inches in length and two in width, with the brains exposed; and the throat cut about four inches in length through the windpipe; no other mark of violence appears. I conceive their throats to have been cut with a razor, as none but such sharp instrument could have cut so deep without tearing the parts, which is not the case in this instance, their throats being cut by one inci

sion.

Samuel Maclenior, a cooper, corroborated the testimony of the first wit nesses. After he came out of the house he proceeded up New Gravellane, where he saw two girls of the town, who informed him two men had run past them, one in a white rough coat, and the other a short man.

After the evidence, the coroner delivered the following charge to the jury:-" Gentlemen,-The frequent instances of murder committed in the eastern part of the metropolis, which no vigilance has been successful to detect; in a vicinity where the population of the lower classes of the community preponderates, increased by

the number of strangers and seamen discharged from time to time at the East and West India and London docks, and the influx of foreign sailors from all parts of the globe, imperiously call for the solemn attention of those more immediately intrusted with the administration of government; for the late and present murders are a disgrace to the country, and almost to civilization; while the exertions of the police, with the ordinary power of the parochial officers, are found insufficient to protect men's persons from the hand of violence, and the coroner has to record the most atrocious crimes, without the possibility of delivering the perpetrators to justice and punishment, our houses are no longer our castles, and we are unsafe in our beds. These observations, strong as they are, will be found warranted by the events which have lately taken place, within a short distance of the spot where we are now met, and by the numerous verdicts of wilful murder which, during the last three months, have been returned by juries against persons unknown, not one of whom has yet been discovered. Until some more appropriate remedy be pointed out, it appears advisable, in the present agitation of the public mind, that parties of the military, under the direction of the civil power, selected from the militia or guards, should patrole this district during the night. Your verdict, I am sorry to say, will, in these cases, be given generally on the evidence, as the perpetrators are unknown; but it may be hoped, by the aid of that Divine Providence, which seldom permits murder, in this life, to go unpunished, and with the exertions which will be used, that these inhuman monsters may be discovered and brought to justice. Your verdict will be wilful murder against some persons unknown.”

The jury, after a patient considera

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tion of the evidence from two o'clock until late in the evening, returned a verdict of "Wilful murder against some person or persons unknown."

Several persons were examined on Monday at Shadwell police office, and particularly a seafaring man, named John Williams, who underwent a very long and rigid interrogation. The circumstances of suspicion were, that he had been frequently seen at the house of Mr Williamson, and that he had been more particularly seen there about seven o'clock on Thursday week; that on the same evening he did not go home to his lodgings until about twelve, when he desired a fellow-lodger, a foreign sailor, to put out his candle; that, previous to this melancholy transaction, he had little or no money, and that when he was taken he had a good deal of silver. The magistrates desired him to give an account of himself. He avowed that he had been at Mr Williamson's on Thursday, and at other times. He had known Mr and Mrs W. a considerable time, and was very intimate there. On Thursday evening, when he was talking to Mrs Williamson, she was very cheerful, and patted him on the cheek when she brought him some liquor. He was considered rather in the light of a friend than a mere customer. When he left their house he went to a surgeon's in Shadwell, for the purpose of getting advice for the cure of his leg, which had been a considerable number of years disabled in consequence of old wound. From thence he went to a female chirurgeon in the same neighbourhood, in hopes of getting his cure completed at a less expence. He then went farther west, and met some female acquaintances, and, after visiting several public-houses, he returned to his lodgings and went to bed. The circumstance of his desiring his fellowlodger to put out his candle, arose in consequence of his finding the man,

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who was a German, lying in bed with a candle in one hand, a pipe in his mouth, and a book in the other. He accounted for the possession of the money found upon him, as the produce of some wearing apparel he left as pledges at a pawnbroker's. He never made any mystery of his having been at Mr Williamson's on Thursday evening; on the contrary, he told his landlady, and several other people, that he had been with poor Mrs Williamson and her husband a very short time before they were murdered, and remarked how cheerful Mrs Williamson was.

After this examination the following additional circumstances came out: -It appears that an iron mall, with which there is little doubt Mr Marr and his unfortunate family were killed, had been missing from a Mr Vermilloe's house, where the prisoner lodged, and where it had been left for safe-keeping, along with several other tools, by a German seaman, named John Peter. son, who was by trade a ship-carpenter. The mall was marked with the initials J. P. and the other tools found in Vermilloe's house bore precisely similar characters. Mr Vermilloe, who is now confined in Newgate for debt, was unable to attend; but one of the magistrates went with the mall to Newgate, for the purpose of interrogating him. Vermilloe recognized it as the instrument which had been left in his custody by Peterson; and said, that although he would not positively swear that it was the same, yet the confidence he certainly entertained of its identity, was very much confirmed by the circumstance of the sharp point of the mall in question being broken; and he remembered having broken the point of Peterson's mall one day when he was breaking up some fire-wood.

John Williams, was on Tuesday brought up for further examination, when