MURDER OF A DAUGHTER BY HER FATHER, AND SUICIDE OF THE MURDERER.

New Zealand Colonist and Port Nicholson Advertiser, Volume I, Issue 7, 23 August 1842, Page 4

MURDER OF A DAUGHTER BY HER FATHER, AND SUICIDE OF THE MURDERER.

On Monday evening Inst, one of the most distressing* circumstances which has ever fallen to our lot to record, occurred at Clay-lane-end, immediately adjoining* the beautiful, and hitherto quilt, little village of Clear well. The circumstances connected with this horrible tragedy are as follow: —A man named Philip Willis, resided in a cottage about three hundred yards from the residence of the late unfortunate Mr. Yanvorth, who was shot at near Pill’s Elm, and died some few weeks since. Willis held the situation of under-ground agent in some mines in the forest of Dean, the property of the Clinderford Iron Company, and was very comfortably oft. The • unfortunate man had been for some time in an unsound state of mind; and about six months ago lie became an inmate of the lunatic asylum at Whitchurch. On the 10th of May last he cut his throat, but through the skilful attention of Mr. Marsh, surgeon, of Colcford, lie recovered. For the last fortnight, a man had always slept with him ; hut on Monday his wife informed this man that she considered her husband so much better, that she should not he afraid to occupy the same bed with him. During the whole of the Monday he was excited and nervous, seeming* to be afraid of every one who came near him; about five o’clock on Monday evening, Willis, his wife, and daughter, a very pretty and most amiable girl, and of whom he was most doatingly fond, sat down to tea together; just before tea, he kissed his child, and said, “You don’t know, my dear Ann, how I love you.” He also knelt down and prayed, as he often used to do, that the Lord would strengthen his mind. Whilst they were at tea, he said that lie should, on the morrow, go down into the measure off the men’s work. On his observing this, his daughter said, in a jocular manner, “ All, do, father, or we shall be famished.” Willis replied, “ Oh, no, my dear, we shall not, 3*oll may depend.” After tea the daughter went outside the cottage door, and was in the act of chopping sticks to light the fire the next morning, when her father, who had taken a hacker (an instrument resembling a bill-hook), went quietly behind her, and, as she stooped, aimed a deadly blow at the back of her head, and buried the hacker in her skull, which was cut through in a most frightful manner : immediately on receiving the blow, she cried out, “Oh dear! oh dear!” Her mother hearing this, rushed out, and was met in the doorway by Willis, who attempted to cut her down. A dreadful struggle ensued between the infuriated husband and the terror-striken wife, in which the latter received a dreadful cut in the arm, and a deep gash was inflicted on the left shoulder, her gown and under-garments were cut through, and her face bruised, both eyes being blacked, and much swollen. Whilst the struggle was going on, the poor girl (wonderful to relate) went to a neighbour’s cottage, forty yards distant from the scene of blood. Mr. Marsh, of Colnford, was soon in attendance, but she died in an hour after having received the injury. She spoke several times, and asked why her father did not come to her ? The neighbours being alarmed, ran to Mrs. Willis’s assistance, who, on seeing them, exclaimed, “ Run, for your lives, in the orchard, my husband is gone there.” They immediately went in search of him, and, horrible to relate, found him at the foot of one of the trees, with his throat cut in a shocking manner, his right hand grasping the razor. The poor wretch was still alive, but he died in a very few minutes after being discovered. The escape of the wife was almost miraculous, and it was a providential occurrence that his other two children were absent from home on a visit, or it is probable that they too would 1. ave fallen victims to his fury. As might be expected, this tragical occurrence has created the most intense excitement in the neighbourhood where it occurred. Willis was fifty-two years of age, and his unfortunate daughter only seventeen. —Weekly Dispatch.

Romance in Real Life. —A romantic incident has just occurred in the Marylebone infirmary. Ann Dempsey, a young and interesting girl, who had been the support of an • aged mother, had gone into the infirmary for the purpose of undergoing an operation for the removal of a dropsical complaint, which had assumed the form of a large tumour. She was warned of the painful and even perilous nature of the operation, hut she expressed her resolution to submit to it, owing to the ardent wish that her life might be spared for her mother’s sake. The operation was accordingly performed in the presence of her mother and several eminent medical men. It lasted one hour and forty minutes, and the magnitude of the tumour taken from her may he imagined, when it contained no less than two gallons and a half of water. Notwithstanding the long and painful operation, singular to relate, this heroic girl never uttered a single cry ; but at the conclusion tears were observed rolling down her cheeks, and, being desired not to shed them, she replied that “ they were tears of joy at her freedom from the incubus which had so long afflicted her.” As she appeared in a sinking condition, the medical gentlemen, upon a consultation, deemed a fresh infusion of blood in her veins absolutely necessary. On making

inquiries as to whom they could procure to provide the blood, it was ascertained that two men *wcrc m an adjoining room, one 25, and the other between 30 and 40 years of age, anxiously awaiting the issue of the operation. Believing them, in the first instance, to be relatives of the poor girl, they were ushered into the room, when it turned out that the eldest was her employer, for whom she worked at shoe-binding, and the other a journeyman in the same employ, both devotedly attached to the unfortunate young girl. On being made acquainted with the state and what was required to be done for the patient, they both simultaneously volunteered to supply the blood from their veins. Much bitterness of feeling and contention between them ensued, as to which should do so, which was put an end to by the decision of the surgeons in favour of the youngest, who, baring his arm with much energy exclaimed, “ that he was willing to lose the last drop of his blood to save her life.” The blood was then carefully infused from his arm into the veins of the poor sufferer, till the young man fainted from its loss. On this taking place, the elder lover implored permission to supply the remainder, but the girl recovering, it was deemed unnecessary. The poor girl began to improve, and great hopes were entertained of her recovery, but unfortunately these hopes were blasted, for, unknown to the surgeons, she was found to be afflicted with a severe diarrhoea, which increased until it became a confirmed case of cholera, from the effects of which she died on the fifth day after the operation. She was sensible to the last, and the death-bed scene was represented as truly affecting. She expressed a wish to see the young man who had lost his blood for her, kissed him, bade him cut off a lock of her hair, and begged of him to be kind to her mother. She then entered into prayers with the Rev. Mr. Moody, the chaplain to the workhouse, and in the midst of it expired.— lbid.