364 LON 
It was impoflible to detain him: lie burft into the bed- 
cbarnber, and immediately locked the door after him. 
Apprehenfions were entertained for his fafety, and the 
door was broken open, when he was feen kneeling with 
clapfed hands over the body of his father. His friends 
bore him away, and hurried him, tottering and fainting, 
into an adjoining chamber.” 
No caufe could be difcovered for the perpetration of 
this inhuman aft; but, from the fubfequent conduft of one 
Philip Nicholfon, footman to the deceafed, who was the 
only male fervant that flept in the houfe, fufpicion was 
attached to him. He had fhown himfelf very officious 
about the bodies, with a ((range mixture of eagernefs and 
affefted coolnefs; and was the firft to dilturb the (late of 
the room, carrying the bloody linen away into his own, 
and rolling it up with his own (fleets. Some other circum- 
Ifances alio appeared to fix imputation upon him ; parti¬ 
cularly his riding to town for a furgeon, and not return¬ 
ing home at night. A warrant being accordingly granted 
for bis apprehenfion, Forefier the officer, after a diligent 
fearch on Monday, found him drinking with an acquaint¬ 
ance at the door of the Three Nuns in Whitechapel. He 
■was fecured, not without a fcuffle, and conveyed to the 
Giltfpur-ttreet Compter, where he was queftioned by Mr. 
Aftley Cooper and fome other gentlemen, but to no pur- 
pofe ; nor was an examination before the lord-mayor of 
any greater avail. He is defcribed, indeed, as having 
been in a (fate of intoxication approaching to infanity. 
On Tuefday he was again brought up to the Manfion- 
lioufe, and was then in a condition to fpeak. He faid that 
on the night of the murder he had gone to bed at twelve 
o'clock, and knew nothing of what happened till eight 
the next morning. With regard to his conduct when he 
firft left the lioufe, he admitted that he left Chiflehurft 
a little before eight, and refrefhed himfelf and the liorfe 
three times on the road, himfelf with three glades of rum, 
and the horfe with three pints of porter; notwithffanding 
which delays, Mr. Affley Cooper was enabled to afeertain, 
in addition to his own acknowledgment, that he performed 
the vrhole of his journey in about forty minutes. He firft 
■went to that gentleman to inform him refpeefing his mif- 
tfefs ; then in queftof one Dale, who had been difeharged 
from Mr. Bonar’s fervice, and whom, on finding him at 
the Red-Lion public-houfe near Bedlam, he told of the 
murder, adding, “ and you are fufpeffed of itand laftly 
to the office in Bow-ftreet, where he gave information, 
and alfo mentioned his having feen Dale ;—after which, 
inftead of returning home, he went to Whitechapel, and 
was found making merry with his friends, when he was 
taken into cuftody. The examination, for the prefent, 
being fufficient, he was fent to Chiflehurft, in cuftody, to 
attend before the coroner’s jury, who afiembled thereat 
fix o’clock in the evening ; and, about one in the morn¬ 
ing, while the coroner was reading over the depofitions, 
an alarm was given that Nicholfon had cut his throat. 
The officers who had him in cuftody had fuffered him to 
enter a water-clofet, and he there made a tremendous gafti 
in his throat with a razor which he had found means to 
conceal. Fortunately, a furgeon was at hand; and the 
wound, being clofed up, was found not to be mortal. A 
verdidf of Wilful murder whs found againft him ; and he 
was committed to fafe cuftody, under the care of an emi¬ 
nent furgeon ; but was kept pinioned down in a ftrait 
•wailtcoat, left he fhould again attempt bis life. While 
be lay in this (fate, namely, on Tuefday the 8th of June, 
be voluntarily requeued Mr. Bramfton, the catholic prieft, 
who had been with him afliort time, to bring young Mr. 
Bonar to him immediately. Mr. Bonar went to him, 
when Nicholfon burft into tears, and entreating his for- 
givenefs, expreffed his wifh to make a full confeffion. 
Mr. Wells, the magiftrate, was fent for ; and in the pre¬ 
fence of the magiftrate, and other gentlemen, Nicliolfon 
made, and afterwards figned, a deposition, acknowledging 
himfelf to be the murderer. The following are the parti¬ 
culars ; That on Sunday night, after the groom left him, 
D O N. 
be fell afleep upon a form in the fervants’ hall, the room 
where he was accuftomed to lie ; that he awoke at three 
o’clock by dropping from the form ; he jumped up, and 
was inftantly feized with an idea, which he could not 
refift, that he would murder his tnafter and miftrefs. He 
was at this time half undreffed ; he threw off his waift- 
coat, and pulled a flieet from his bed, which he wrapped 
round him : lie then lnatched a poker from the grate of 
the fervants’ hall, and rufhed up ftairs to his mailer’s 
room. He made diredtly to his miftrefs’s bed, and ftruck 
her two blows on the head ; file neither fpoke nor moved. 
He then went round to his mafter’s bed, and ftruck him 
once acrofs the face : Mr. Bonar was roufed ; and, from 
the confulion produced by the Running violence of the 
blow, imagined that Mrs. Bonar was then coming to bed, 
and fpoke to that effect. When he immediately repeated 
the blow, Mr. Bonar fprang out of bed, and grappled 
with him for fifteen minutes, and at one time was nearly 
getting the better of him; but, being exhaufted by lofs of 
blood, be was at length overpowered: Nicholfon' then left 
him groaning on the floor, lie went down flairs, ftripped, 
and waffled himfelf all over with a fponge at the fink in 
the butler’s pantry. He next went and opened the win¬ 
dows of the drawing-room, that it might be fuppofed 
fome perfon had entered the houfe that way ; he then took 
his fliirt and ftockings, which were covered with blood, 
(the fheet he had lett in his mafter’s room,) went out at 
the front door, and concealed his bloody linen in a buffi, 
covering it with leaves: the buflv was oppoffte the door, 
and not many yards from it. He then returned without 
(hutting the outer door, and went into the fervants’ hall: 
he opened his window-fhutters and went to bed ; (it was 
not yet four o’clock :) he did not ffeep, though he ap¬ 
peared to be afleep when King came for the purpofe of 
waking him at half-paft fix o’clock. He ftated, in the 
molt folemn manner, that no perfon whatever was con¬ 
cerned with him in this horrid deed; and to a queftioa 
put to him, whether he had any affbeiate, anfwered, 
“ How coQld he, when he never in his life, before the mo¬ 
ment of his jumping up from the form, entertained the 
thought of murder.” He can alfign no motive for what 
lie did : he had no enmity or ill-will of any kind againft 
Mr. or Mrs. Bonar. 
Nicholfon was tried at Maidftonc on the 20th of Auguft. 
It is not at all neceffary to enter into the evidence, after 
fuch a plain and full confeffion, which was read over to, 
and confirmed by, him on the trial. He was of courfe 
convifled ; and fuffered on the 23d, at Pendennen-lieath, 
about a mile and a half from Maid (tone. He died very 
penitent. 
The following infeription lias been placed on the mo¬ 
nument erected to the memory of Mr. and Mrs. Bonar, 
at fiiiflehurft : 
Sacred to the Memory of 
Thomas Bonar, of Camden Place, in this Pariffi, Efq. 
Aged Seventy '; and of 
Anne (Daughter of Andrew Thotnfon, of Roe- 
hainpton, Efq.) his Wife, 
Aged Fifty-nine; 
Murdered in their bed-chamber by a domeffic fervant! on 
the 31ft of May, 1813. Let not this melancholy proof of 
the infufficiency of virtues even fuch as theirs (fo great, 
fo winning, and fo mild !) to ftiield them at the midnight 
hour againft atrocities fo monftrous, induce.the belief, 
that virtue is not the care of Providence below' ; rather 
let it be remembered, that furely none could have been 
better prepared for an event fo awful ! That from them 
nor only were averted the many fufferings attendant on a 
diffolution in the common courfe of nature; but that, 
full of honour and of years, loaded with the bleffings and 
the veneration of all who knew them, and each uncon- 
feious of the other’s fate, they only ffept to wake in 
Heaven ! Nor be it omitted here to record their conftant 
prayer, their fervent wifh, (fo frequently expreffed, and 
fo myfteriouffy fulfilled.) that they might leave this world 
together I 
