Carlisle Patriot 01 June 1844 01 June 1844 Dreadful Murders

01 June 1844 Dreadful Murders

NOTTINGHAM. On Thursday evening week a quadruple murder, of a most revolting description, was discovered to have been committed at Colwick, about three miles from Nottingham. The victims of this massacre we Anne SAVILLE and her three children, two boys and a girl, of the several ages of seven, five, and four years, who were found with their throats cut from ear to ear, in a retired spinny. The husband and father, there is little doubt, was the atrocious criminal. It appears Mrs. SAVILLE and her children, after having been in the Union Workhouse, at Nottingham, for the last three months, came out at the request of her sister, (a Mrs. BROWNSWORD) on Monday week, and went in search of her husband, a framework knitter, employed at Mr. SUTTON"s shop, at Radford. On her finding him he came back with her to the town, and left her to sleep at the house of Samuel WARDLE, in Wood-street, Meadowplatts; next morning, after breakfast, he fetched his wife and children away, and set out with them to visit her sister at Carlton. He afterwards returned on the same day to WARDLE's, and as his wife and children were not there, he professed to be much alarmed. It seems he was paying his addresses to a young woman at Radford, named TAIT, and on that evening he actually went to her and offered to marry her; the girl told him that she understood he was already married, and refused to have anything to do with him. SAVILLE replied "She's not my wife, she has never troubled you, and never will; she is safe and the children provided for." The next day he went again to WARDLE's, and his wife not being there he said he thought she must have drowned herself. Afterwards he made some other statement of contradictory nature, which gave rise to a suspicion that he knew more of her than he was desirous to have understood. This having got abroad, an immense mob collected round the house, and, if the man had not been taken into custody, he would probably have received rough treatment at the hands of the populance, who believed that he had drowned his wife and children in the Trent, at Colwick Weir. While under examination before the Mayor and Alderman HEARD, intelligence arrived that the bodies had been found in a spinny between Colwick and Carlton, a picturesque spot, across which is a footpath. The children lay together, but the mother, with her throat shockingly mangled, was at some distance. A razor was in her left hand, but was held in such a manner as to render it evident that it had been put there since death. The unfortunate woman does not appear to have struggled much, and her hands were uncut; there were also, traces of her having been dragged upon the grass. The bodies were quite cold and stiff, and the blood was congealed. The razor can be identified as one that the prisoner was in the habit of using; and when the prisoner's box was searched, his razor case proved to be empty. Spots of blood were also found upon his trousers. The bodies were removed to Mr. PARR's barn, whither the inhabitants of the districts surrounding have flocked in thousands to satisfy their curiosity by gazing upon the bloody corpses. The prisoner was committed till the result of the inquest.

 

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