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CONTENTS.

1.-Francis S. Riembauer, for Assassination, 1805.......

73

22.-Joeph Wall, for the Murder of Benjamin Armstrong, at Goree, 1802... 228

23.-Vic-admiral Byng, for Neglect of Duty; at a Court-martial, held on

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Paga

1735.......

44.

50.-Mary Stone, for Child Murder, preferred by her Sister, at Surrey Assizes,
1817...

488

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CELEBRATED TRIALS

JOHN THURTELL AND JOSEPH HUNT,

FOR THE MURDER OF WILLIAM WEARE, AT HERTFORD, JANUARY, 1824.

No case of secret murder ever perhaps created in England so great an interest as this. It was so deliberately planned, and the parties, well known in certain circles, were of respectable connexions and good education. Thurtell was the unworthy son of an alderman of Norwich; Probert, one accomplice, lived genteelly, and was respectably connected; and Hunt, a singer by profes sion, seemed unlikely to engage in such atrocity.

Thurtell was dressed in a plum-coloured frock coat, with a drab waistcoat and gilt buttons, and white corded breeches. His neck had a black stock on, which fitted as usual stiffly up to the bottom of the cheek and the end of the chin, and which therefore pushed forward the flesh on this part of the face so as to give an additionally sullen weight to the countenance. The lower part of the face was unusually large, muscular, and heavy, and appeared to hang like a load to the head, and to make it drop like the mastiff's jowl. The upper lip was long and large, and the mouth had a severe and dogged appearance. His nose was rather small for such a face, but it was not badly shaped his eyes too were small and buried deep under his protruding forehead, so indeed as to defy detection of their colour. The forehead was extremely strong, bony, and knotted; and the eyebrows were forcibly marked, though irregular-that over the right eye being nearly straight, and that on the left turning up to a point, so as to give a very painful expression to the whole face. His hair was a good lightish brown, and not worn after any fashion. His frame was exceedingly well knit and athletic.

The deceased was a man addicted to play, and connected with gaminghouses. Thurtell had been his acquaintance, and in some practices of play, had been wronged by him of a large sum of money. The other prisoner, Hunt, was a public singer, and also known to Weare, but not in habits of friendship. Probert, who was admitted as an evidence, had been in trade as spirit dealer, and rented a cottage in Gill's-hill-lane, situated in a by-lane, going out of the London road to St. Albans, and two or three miles beyond Elstree. Probert was himself much engaged in London, and his wife generally resided at the cottage, which was fully occupied in the accommodation, of Mrs. Probert, her sister, (Miss Noyes,) some children of Thomas Thurtell's, (the prisoner's brother,) and a maid and boy servant. The deceased had been invited by John Thurtell, to this place, to partake a day or two's shooting; and he met the deceased at a billiard-room, kept by one Rexworthy, on the Thursday night previous to the murder, and they were joined there by Hunt. On the forenoon of Friday, October 24, the deceased was with Rexworthy at the same place, and said he was going for a day's shooting into the country. Weare went from the billiard-rooms, between three and four o'clock, to his chambers in Lyon's Inn, where he packed, in a green carpe bag, some clothes, and a change of linen. He also took with him a doublebarrelled gun, and a backgammon board, dice, &c. He left his chambers in a hackney coach before four o'clock, and drove to the New-road, where he went out of the coach and returned after some time, accompanied by another person, and took his things away.

In the morning two men, answering to the description of John Thurtell and

5.

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