Donally in his defence, acknowledged that he had met Lord Fielding twice; that he had addressed him with decency, and desired him to hear something respecting his brother; and that Sir John Fielding had made the Honourable Charles Fielding carry on the prosecution. He did not deny the receipt of the guinea at the grocer’s in Bond-Street; but averred that he did not deserve death on account of the charge against him.

The jury, having considered the whole evidence, brought in a verdict of “Guilty;” but Mr. Justice Buller, before whom the offender was tried, reserved the case for the opinion of the judges on a point of law.

On the 29th of April, 1779, the judges met, and gave their opinion on this case, pronouncing it a new species of robbery to evade the law, but which was not to be evaded; and the prisoner therefore underwent its sentence, which he had, with most abominable wickedness, brought upon his own head.

Another diabolical villain of this description, named John Staples, was, on the 6th of December, 1779, hanged at Tyburn, for extorting money from Thomas Harris Crosby, Esq. by charging him with an abominable crime.

MORGAN PHILLIPS.
EXECUTED FOR MURDER AND ARSON.

THE case of this malefactor so strongly resembles that of a person named Edward Morgan, an account of whose crime we have already given, that we are induced to hope, for the sake of humanity, that some mistake has arisen in describing them as separate offences.

The crime for which the person whose case we are now considering, most justly suffered, was attended with extraordinary acts of cruelty.

The inhabitants of Narbeth, a small village in the county of Pembroke, were, in the middle of one night in the month of March, 1779, alarmed with the appearance of fire bursting from a farm-house near the turnpike. Before they could render assistance the house was nearly razed to the ground, and the family were missing. On examining the ruins the remains of the owner, Mr. Thomas, an old and respectable farmer, were found on a bench in a leaning posture, but so much burnt that it was impossible to determine whether he had been first murdered, or had perished by the flames.

Proceeding in the search, the next unhappy victim found was his niece, a fine young woman of about thirty years of age, whose body lay across the feet of a half burnt bedstead, with a thigh broken, and an arm missing. Among the ruins of another room was discovered the body of a labouring man, much burnt, but with a large wound on the back of his head, from which much blood had issued; and Mrs. Thomas’ servant-woman, who was exceedingly robust, was also found dead at the entrance of one of the rooms, with several deep wounds in her head, and her hair clotted with blood. Her body was not so much burned as the others; and near her was discovered a large kitchen spit, half bent, with which it was conjectured she had opposed the murderers, for there could now be no doubt that the horrid scene which presented itself was the work of some person who, for the sake of plundering the house, had massacred its inhabitants and had then fired the premises, in order to conceal his bloody crimes. So horrible a deed excited universal attention, and every means was taken to secure its author.