A HIGH J VA Y MURDER 2 4 1 



It was on Thursday, 15tli June 1786, that two 

 sailors, paid oft* from H.M.S. Sampson, at Plymouth, 

 and walking up to London, came to this spot. Their 

 names were Gervase (or Jarvis) Matcham, and John 

 Shepherd. Near the ' Woodyates Inn' they were over- 

 taken by a thunderstorm, in which Matcham startled 

 his companion by showing extraordinary marks of 

 horror and distraction, running about, falling on his 

 knees, and imploring mercy of some invisible enemy. 

 To his companion's questions he answered that he 

 saw several strange and dismal spectres, particularly 

 one in the shape of a female, towards which he 

 advanced, when it instantly sank into the earth, and 

 a large stone rose up in its ^Dlace. Other large stones 

 also rolled upon the ground before him, and came 

 dashing against his feet. He confessed to Shepherd 

 that, about seven years previously, he had enlisted as 

 a soldier at Huntingdon, and shortly afterwards was 

 sent out from that town in company with a drummer- 

 boy, seventeen years of age, named Jones, son of a 

 sergeant in the regiment, who was in charge of some 

 money to be paid away. They quarrelled because the 

 lad refused to return and drink at a public-house on 

 the Great North Road which they had just passed, 

 four miles from Huntingdon, Matcham knocked him 

 down, cut his throat, and taking the money (six 

 guineas) made oft" to London, leaving the body by 

 the roadside. He now declared that, with this ex- 

 €eption, he had never in his life broken the law, and 

 that, before the moment of committing this crime, he 

 liad not the least design of injuring the deceased, 

 who had given him no other provocation than ill- 



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