2 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1814. 



of human bones that remained. 

 When pressed more closely on the 

 subject, he confessed, that " she 

 was gone to ashes." He was com- 

 mitted for trial. 



5. Between 10 and 11 o'clock 

 at night the watchman going his 

 rounds in Troy Town, Rochester, 

 was alarmed by the cries of a fe- 

 male, which proceeded from the 

 house of Mr. G. Peeke. The man 

 endeavoured to procure admission, 

 but was not able to succeed ; he at 

 length obtained the assistance of 

 some of the neighbours, and forced 

 the door : on entering the room 

 from whence the cries proceeded, a 

 most shocking spectacle presented 

 itself; they discovered Mrs. Peeke 

 lying on the floor, her clothes all 

 consumed to tinder, and her flesh 

 burnt to a state of blackness. She 

 expired in a few minutes. Mrs. P. 

 was sitting up for her husband, 

 and, it is conjectured, had fallen 

 asleep whilst sitting by the fire, 

 when a spark caught her clothes, 

 and produced the fatal accident. 



6. About half past two o'clock 

 in the afternoon, a dreadful fire 

 broke out at the paper-mills of Mr. 

 Thomas Horn, at Buckland, near 

 Dover, which burnt with such 

 fury, that by six the whole of the 

 mills were burnt down, the dwell- 

 ing house was in flames, and the 

 roof had fallen in : the furniture 

 had previously been removed, and 

 no lives were lost. It was feared 

 that other houses would also catch 

 fire, as large flakes of burning pa- 

 per were flying in all directions. 

 Every possible assistance was given 

 by the military and town's-people, 

 but without much ifftct. 



7. On the evening of the 5th 

 the wife of Mr. Mann, who keeps 

 the Marquis of Granby public- 

 liuuse in Gray'^-Inn-lane, Itft her 



home, telling her husband that she 

 had got an order to admit two to 

 the Sans Pareil theatre, and was 

 going to take a female friend with 

 her. She went ofFaccordingly, and 

 between ten and eleven o'clock a 

 journeyman baker, whom the hus- 

 band knew, called upon him, and 

 told him that his wife had been 

 taken extremely ill, and was at an 

 apothecary's in Fleet-street. He 

 acknowledged that Mrs. Mann did 

 not take a female friend with her 

 to the theatre, as she told him, but 

 bad taken him, agreeably to a pro- 

 mise, that the first order she got 

 for a theatre she would take him 

 thither. The husband hastened to 

 the apothecary's, and found his wife 

 in a senseless state. It was the 

 opinion of the medical gentlemen 

 attending her, that she had either 

 voluntarily taken something im- 

 proper, or that it had been admi- 

 nistered to her by some other per- 

 son. The account given to Mr. 

 Mann of the way in which his wife 

 came there, was very different from 

 that stated by the journyman ba- 

 ker ; and was, that she had been 

 brought to the shop from a house 

 of ill fame by three men, but that 

 she refused to tell where the house 

 was, or who the men were. There 

 being no appearance of her reco- 

 very, her husband took her home 

 in a hackney coach. Yesterday . 

 morning the journeyman baker 

 called in Gray's-Inn-lane, and in- 

 quired of Mr. Mann how his wife 

 did. He replied, she was happy, 

 having died at three o'clock. The 

 body was afterwards examined, and 

 some very severe bruises appeared 

 on various parts of it, 



Mr. Mann attended yesterday 

 morning at Bow-street, and stated 

 these mysterious circumstances to 

 Mr. Birnie, the magistrate, who 



