|
From the Kentish Gazette, 28 May 1844.
AN ATTEMPT AT MURDER AND ROBBERY.
At the petty sessions held in the Guildhall, Rochester, on Friday
afternoon, before the mayor. Larkin Allen, esq., and Edmund Buck, esq.
and Edward Manclurk, esq., two of the borough justices, three watermen
from Sheerness were brought tip in custody of Edward Buckhurst, a
constable of Minster, in the isle of Sheppey, charged with robbing a
sailor, and attempting to murder him, by throwing him into the river
Medway. The men, on being placed in the dock, gave their names and ages
as follows:—
Edward Monck, 29, Chas. Henry Jest 26, and George Chapman,
35. None of the prisoners could read or write. The hall was crowded with
spectators. Several gentlemen were accommodated with seats on the bench.
Abraham Davis, the sailor who was ill-treated, was brought into court by
the boatswain and the quarter-master of her Majesty's ship Ocean, lying
off Sheerness. His throat was plastered up, and he had a bruise on the
right side of his temple. On being sworn, he said that on Wednesday, the
22nd inst., he was paid off from the Vernon frigate, at Sheeness, and
received five sovereigns. He went on shore about two o'clock p.m., and
entered a public house facing the entrance on to Sheerness pier. The
prisoners Monck and Jest were there, and he asked them what time the
steamer started for Loudon. Monck immediately took away his bag of
clothes, followed by the prisoner Jest; he followed them. They went
under the pier, and entered a boat, which he also got in, the prisoners
saying that they would lay off and wait the arrival of the steamer. When
they got him into the river, instead of waiting, they pulled the boat
into the middle of the Medway, when the prisoner Jest demanded from him
a sovereign as his fare, and as he did not know what to do, he gave him
one. Monck, the other prisoner, then demanded a sovereign, and he told
the prisoner he should not get one out of him, but to satisfy the
prisoner he gave him 3s. The prisoners could see that he had another
Sovereign. Monck said that was not enough, and pulled the boat to the
opposite shore—the Isle of Grain. When about three lengths of the boat
from the shore, one of the prisoners dropped the anchor. During the time
the prisoners were rowing to the Grain shore, Monck swore that if he did
not give him more money, he would throw him overboard. When the
prisoners cast their anchor he begged of them to put him ashore. Both
prisoners immediately seized hold of him and threw him overboard, also
his bag of clothes. He arose and caught hold of the gunwale of the boat.
The prisoner Monck desired Jest to knock his brains out. He then
received some blows on the head, and also a cut in the neck from some
instrument. His neck bled very much. He thought the prisoners wanted to
strangle him. Being much frightened he had not time to look which of the
prisoners had the instrument, as he hung on the gunwale of the
prisoners’ boat. A boat’s crew came up and took him out of the river. He
had been drinking, but was sober.
Stephen Young, seaman on board the Ocean, lying at Sheerness deposed
that he entered the “Crown and Anchor” public-house about two o’clock in
the afternoon of Wednesday, when he saw the complainant, who asked him
the hour the steamer left for London. He saw the prisoner Jest seize the
sailor’s bag, and run off with it round the corner of the “Fountain
Inn;” he told the sailor to be after it, or he would lose it. After that
he saw the two prisoners with the sailor; one of the prisoners had the
bag; and he saw the three go under the pier and enter a boat. Feeling
satisfied that all was not right, when he got on board the Ocean he
mentioned his suspicions to the officer on watch. The Loudon steamer
came alongside the pier head about a quarter of an hour after the
prisoners had taken away the man.
Thomas Adams, boatswain and supernumerary on board the Ocean and John
Church, quartermaster of the same ship, deposed that they saw the boat
pass under the bows of the Ocean. The prisoner Monck was pulling, and
Jest was silting by the side of the sailor. The boat had a small sail
up, and they proceeded towards the west shore. With a glass they saw the
boat let go its anchor, and the men on hoard seemed hustling one
another; when an order came from Capt Fleming to immediately man the
galley, and proceed to the spot. They took six men with them. We saw the
violent assault made upon the sailor. We succeeded in getting the man
into our galley, and captured the two prisoners with their boat. The
sailor’s neck was running with blood. We towed the prisoners to the
Ocean, and they were had up before the commander. The wounded sailor was
attended by the doctor of our ship, who dressed the wound. The sailor
was neither drunk or sober: he gave witness Adams a post-office order
out of his pocket, as it was wet, also a sovereign, and one shilling in
silver.
To a question from the Court, the wound in the neck could not have been
inflicted by a boat hook; it must have been done by a sharp instrument.
Monck and Jest denied that they intended to murder the man. If they had
had such an intention, they could have taken him further out, from the
eyes of every body. The man was so drunk that they could not keep him in
the boat, and ho fell out of his own accord.
Monck and Jest were fully committed for trial. Chapman was discharged
for this offence, but was detained on a charge of assisting the two
prisoners in their escape, after they had been given into the custody of
a peace officer by the Commander of the Ocean. It appeared from the
evidence of the constable, Buckhurst. that when the two prisoners were
given to him, he handcuffed them and they then went into the “Jolly
Sailors,” opposite the pier, when the prisoner Chapman held a
conversation with Monck and Jest, and both prisoners darted out of the
house and entered a boat, in which the prisoner Chapman entered, and
rowed off with them towards the western shore of the Medway. The
prisoners were pursued by the galley, manned from the Ocean, and
captured and brought back to the Ocean, where they were confined, The
officer stated that he called upon several persons to assist him when
they escaped, but everybody refused; and his life was threatened if he
took them. One man, a relative of the prisoners, drew a knife, and
threatened to murder him if he took them.
The Court said such a resistance to the civil authorities they never
heard of, especially under such circumstances, and fully committed the
prisoner Chapman for trial.
|
)
