FRANCIS HASTINGS MEDHURST.
CONVICTED OF MANSLAUGHTER.
MR. MEDHURST was a young man of highly respectable connexions, and the offence of which he was found guilty was that of the manslaughter of a schoolfellow, Mr. Joseph Alsop, at the Rectory House Academy, at Hayes, in Middlesex. It would appear that this establishment was kept by the Rev. Mr. Sturmer, a clergyman of the Established Church, and minister of the parish of Hayes. Mr. Alsop and Medhurst were his pupils, the latter being about twenty-two, and the former twenty-one years of age. Mr. Dalison, another pupil, had quitted Mr. Sturmer’s establishment on the morning of the day on which the unfortunate occurrence, which was subsequently the subject of judicial investigation, took place. On Saturday the 9th of March, 1839, Mr. Sturmer was in his study with Mr. Alsop and a pupil named Bunney, when Medhurst entered the apartment, and complained to Mr. Sturmer, that Dalison, whom he designated as “a blackguard,” had broken the glass of his watch. Mr. Alsop, who had been a constant companion of Mr. Dalison’s, indignant at the language applied to his friend, and perhaps irritated at former bickerings with Medhurst, exclaimed, “You are a liar and a blackguard for saying so!” and thereupon Medhurst, who carried a stick in his hand, immediately struck him several severe blows over the head and arms. A scuffle ensued, in the course of which Alsop wrested the stick from his opponent, and they had separated to the distance of five or six feet, when just as Alsop was again advancing towards Medhurst with the stick upraised as if to strike him, the latter suddenly drew a clasp-knife from his pocket, and opening it, stabbed his unfortunate antagonist in the belly. Mr. Sturmer had quitted the room at the commencement of the affray; and Bunney, horror-struck at the dreadful act of his fellow-pupil, rushed from the apartment to procure assistance. Mr. Sturmer now hastened back to the scene of the affray, and he found that Alsop was on the floor, supported by Medhurst, while the latter appeared to be bitterly lamenting the act of which he had been guilty. They both of them declared that they had been in the wrong, and Mr. Alsop freely forgave his scarcely less unfortunate fellow-pupil. Surgical assistance was obtained; but it proved to be without avail, and after lingering a few days the unhappy young man died.
It was not, however, until Friday the 15th of March, that Medhurst was taken into custody; and on the next day, and the following Monday, an inquest was held on the body of the deceased. From the evidence which was then produced, it appeared that the deceased and the prisoner had quarrelled upon more than one occasion before the 9th of March, and that in all these misunderstandings the part of the deceased had been taken by his fellow-pupils. Expressions of a violent description had been made use of by Medhurst, as to using a knife in case of his being attacked; and he was shown to be in the possession of an instrument of a most dangerous character. It was his habit, it appeared, to carry a stick almost constantly in his hand; and Mr. Sturmer admitted that he had known him go about the house, armed with loaded pistols. In the course of the inquiry, facts were elicited which showed a great want of energy in the conduct of Mr. Sturmer, who by his interference on the morning of the 9th of March, might have prevented the melancholy result of the quarrel, the commencement of which he witnessed. A verdict of “Wilful Murder” was returned against Mr. Medhurst by the coroner’s jury, and he was conveyed to Newgate to await his trial upon that charge.
At the Central Criminal Court on Saturday the 13th of April, the prisoner was put to the bar to be tried upon the indictment which had been preferred against him, and he was found guilty of the minor offence of “Manslaughter.”
Upon this conviction he was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment in the House of Correction.
Mr. Medhurst, as we have already stated, was a young man of respectable connexions, and of considerable expectancies. It is not a little remarkable, that his grandfather was also tried for murder, though he escaped the consequences of his act, by proof being given of his insanity. His wife, it appears, was the victim of his attack; and her death was caused by a stab which she received from the hand of her husband in a moment of passion. For this alleged murder he was tried at the York Assizes in the year 1804, but acquitted as we have stated, on the ground of his being insane. At that time the unfortunate man was a stock-broker of eminence, possessed of great property in Yorkshire, where he kept a large establishment and a pack of hounds. At the time of the conviction of his grandson he was still alive, and an inmate of a lunatic asylum at Hillingdon, Middlesex, but bowed down by age and infirmity almost to the grave, and unconscious of the guilt of his descendant. The father of young Medhurst died about two years before his son’s conviction. He had married an Italian lady, and the unfortunate culprit whose case we have detailed was the offspring of the union. There were other sons, however; one of whom was an esteemed member of the Church of England at the period of his unhappy brother’s trial.
WILLIAM JOHN MARCHANT.
EXECUTED FOR MURDER.
THE criminal in this case held the situation of footman to Mr. Henry Edgell, a magistrate, resident at No. 21 Cadogan-place, Chelsea, and the victim of his crime was a young woman, named Elizabeth Paynton, who lived as under-housemaid in the same family.
The circumstances of the case are few and simple, and may be narrated in a short compass. On Friday, the 17th of May 1839, Mr. Edgell and his family quitted the house in Cadogan-place in their carriage, for the purpose of proceeding to Foot’s-cray, in Kent, leaving Marchant, the deceased, the cook, and the upper house-maid, at home. The two latter individually also went out, and thus Marchant and the girl Paynton were left alone in the house. On their return they were unable to obtain admittance; and the coachman and upper-footman having now got back from Foot’s-cray, they went to the stables and procured their aid. Middleton, the coachman, scaled the garden-wall, and with some difficulty burst open the back-kitchen door, and having let in the other servants they all proceeded to examine the house. On their reaching the drawing-room, they saw the deceased lying on the floor, and it was at first supposed that she and Marchant were lying there together. This idea, however, was immediately dispelled by the discovery of a pool of blood near the head of the unfortunate young woman, whose throat was observed to be dreadfully cut. A razor lay by her side, which was evidently the weapon with which she had been killed; and it being ascertained that Marchant had absconded, suspicion at once attached to him. Surgical assistance was at once called in, but in vain. The carotid artery and jugular vein had been severed by a most determined cut; and the wretched young woman must have been dead some hours. Upon an examination of the body it became evident that the deceased had struggled hard before the murderer was able to effect his object, as her hands were found to be much cut; but there were no appearances to justify the supposition which was entertained, that there had been any criminal assault committed upon her person.