CHRONICLE. 



129 



mouth Dock were soon on the 

 alert, and vigilantly examined the 

 whole of the public houses, &c. 

 on Sunday, without effect. 



On Monday morning, however, 

 although it blew a most tremend- 

 ous gale, Mr. Lane crossed the 

 new passage, near Plymouth Dock, 

 and seized the murderer in the 

 passage house, on the opposite 

 side, at Torpoint, preparing to go 

 into Cornwall. He had then on 

 the clothes of the husband of the 

 deceased, instantly confessed the 

 fact, and was recognized as a 

 well-known pedestrian who had 

 been in the habit of supplying the 

 counties of Devon and Cornwall 

 with ballads, &c. He said that he 

 approached the house in which the 

 deceased lived, and having ascer- 

 tained the absence of the owner, 

 he entered the kitchen, found the 

 woman busily employed about 

 dinner, knocked her down with 

 a broom-stick, took up a bill-hook 

 which he stuck into her neck, and 

 finished the business by cutting 

 her throat with a pruning knife. 

 That he then took 4/. out of her 

 pocket, and opening a drawer, 

 took out the clothes of her hus- 

 band and put them on, leaving his 

 own on the ground. 



Being strongly suspected of the 

 horrible murder of 3Iargaret Hux- 

 table, of Dedbrook, he declined 

 answering the questions put to 

 him ; said, that he knew he should 

 be hung, and that if he had any 

 confessions to make, he had time 

 on the road, and should have some 

 conversation with the officers. Be- 

 fore he quitted Plymouth Dock, 

 he was recognized by an officer, as 

 having been sentenced to two 

 years imprisonment at Exeter, in 



Vol. LIV. 



the year 1809, for attompting to 

 violate and murder a child. 



" This wretch has since confessed 

 the murder of Huxtable. 



19. A horrid murder was com- 

 mitted at Longford, a small village 

 near Market Drayton, Shropshire, 

 (about ten miles distant from the 

 place where Mrs. Moray and her 

 servant murdered Mrs. Moray's 

 husband), on the bodies of Mr. 

 Francis Bruce, a farmer, and his 

 housekeeper, who were both found 

 on Tuesday morning in their 

 kitchen with their throats cut, and 

 the house robbed. On Wednesday 

 the coroner's jury sat, but no dis- 

 covery had then been made of the 

 wretches who had perpetrated the 

 deed ; but it was supposed to have 

 been done before eight o'clock in 

 the evening, as they generally re- 

 tired early to bed. The blood had, 

 however, been traced on a style 

 and gate at Morton, a distance of 

 about a mile, which It is hoped w'ill 

 lead to some discovery. 



A court martial was held on 

 William Gaiter, landman, oa 

 board his Majesty's ship Coquette, 

 in Portsmouth harbour, for maim- 

 ing himself, by chopping off his 

 left hand, at the wrist joint, on 

 the evening of the 1st of Septem- 

 ber. The court agreed that the 

 charge had been proved ; and hold- 

 ing in great abhorrence the com- 

 mission of so atrocious and un- 

 manly an act, by which his coun- 

 try is deprived of his effective ser- 

 vices, did adjudge him to be em- 

 ploj-ed in the most menial situatiou 

 on board such ship of his Ma- 

 jesty as the commander in chief of 

 his Majesty's ahips and vessels at 

 Spithead, and in Portsmouth har- 

 bour, or the lords comniissionera 



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