“In October, 1747, the custom-house at Poole was broken open; the smugglers who did it, on their return, passed through Fordingbridge, where Chater saw Dimer among them; and having declared, so was obliged to make oath of it; on which information Dimer was committed to gaol for further examination: and on the 14th of February, Chater was sent by the collector of Southampton, in company with Galley, with a letter to Mr. Battine, Surveyor General of the customs, in order that Chater might see if the man in gaol was the same person he saw at Fordingbridge.
“These two men, having enquired their way at the New Inn at Leigh, one Jenkes undertook to direct them, and carried them to widow Payne’s, at Rowland’s Castle, who saying she feared they were going to do the smugglers some mischief, sent for Carter and Jackson, Steel, Race, Richards, Sheerman and Howard, who, having made Galley and Chater drunk, and seen the letter to Mr. Battine, consulted what to do with them. Some proposed to murder them, others to send them prisoners to France, and others to confine them, till they saw what had become of Dimer, and to treat them as he was dealt with.
“Having sent Jenkes away, these poor men were left absolutely in the power of the smugglers; and indeed, into worse hands they could not have fallen; had they been taken in battle they would have had quarter, and been treated with humanity; had they fallen into the hand of enemies of those nations who give no quarter, their lot would have been immediate death; but as it was their hard fate to fall into the hands of smugglers, to have neither quarter or immediate death, but they were reserved to suffer the most cruel usage for several days and afterwards murdered.
“These poor wretches, after having been beat and abused at Payne’s by Carter and Jackson, and the rest of the gang, were carried away by force, both set on one horse, with their legs tied under the horse’s belly, and whipt and beat by direction of Carter and Jackson, till they fell; then they were set up again in the same manner, and whipt and beat again, till they fell a second time; and were then set on separate horses, and used in the same manner, till Galley had the good fortune to be delivered by death from their cruelty; after which they carried Chater, who was bloody and mangled with the blows and falls he had received, to Scardefield’s, at the Red Lion at Rake, who observed Jackson’s coat and hands bloody; and while Carter and the rest buried Galley, Jackson and Sheerman carried Chater to old Mills’s in the night, between the 14th and 15th of February, where he was chained by the leg in the skilling, or out-house, till the Wednesday night following, and Sheerman and Howard guarded him.
“Imagine to yourselves the condition of this unhappy man, certain to die by their hands, uncertain only as to the time, and the cruel manner of it: suffering for three days and three nights pain, cold and hunger; and what was infinitely worse, that terror and anxiety of mind which one in his situation must continually labour under; he must doubtless envy the condition of his companion Galley, who by an early death was delivered from the misery he then endured.
“On Wednesday following, the 17th of February, all the prisoners at the bar (except Old Mills) met at Scardefield’s, and there were present also seven more; at which meeting it was unanimously agreed by all present to murder Chater; and Young Mills particularly advised it; and said if he had a horse he would go with them and do it; and either then, or at another meeting at Scardefield’s, when Carter and Jackson said, that as they came along, they brought Chater by a steep place thirty feet deep, Young Mills said, ‘If I had been there I would have called a council of war, and he should have come no further.’
“This being determined, the prisoners Tapner, Cobby, Hammond, Carter and Jackson, together with five more of that company went to Old Mills’s, where they found Chater chained and guarded by Sheerman and Howard, and told him he must die; he said he expected no other. Tapner then said he would be his butcher, and, taking out a knife, cut him across the eyes and nose; on which Old Mills said, ‘Don’t murder him here, but take him somewhere else first.’
“Tapner, Cobby, Hammond, Carter, Jackson, and the rest, who came there together, with Sheerman and Howard, then carried him away to murder him: Sheerman, Howard and Richards, having been concerned in Galley’s murder, said the rest should kill Chater, and therefore went away to Harting; Carter and Jackson having been likewise concerned in Galley’s murder, when they came to Lady Holt Park Gate, turned in there, and left the others; having first told them, ‘The well is a little way off, you can’t miss it; ’tis fenced round with pales, to keep the cattle from falling in.’
“Tapner, Cobby, Hammond, Carter, Jackson, and the rest, went then to the well, where Tapner put a rope round Chater’s neck to hang him; and some of the pales being broken down, Chater would have crept through. Tapner would not let him, but made him climb over the pales, weak as he was, and then hanged him in the well about a quarter of an hour, till they thought him dead; then having drawn him up till they could take hold of his legs, they threw him headlong into the well; and fancying they heard him breathe or groan, threw posts and stones in upon him, and went their way.
“The terror of this act of cruelty had spread through the country, stopt every person’s mouth who had it in their power to give any information; so that the body was not found till September, when it was so putrified and consumed as not to be known but by the belt, and which Chater’s wife will prove to be her husband’s. If there was any doubt as to the identity of the man, we could shew likewise, that being examined by the smugglers just before he was murdered, he said his name was Daniel Chater.