MURDER OF A CLERGYMAN.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XIV, Issue 5056, 31 December 1887, Page 3

MURDER OF A CLERGYMAN.

THE WIFE AND HER PARAMOUR. London, Oct. 5 An extraordinary and apparently inexplicable murder was committed at the qui^t country village of Crelingham, in Suffolk. on Saturday night laar, when the curate of the pariah, a young man named Cooper, calmly, and apparently without concern, entered the Vicar's (the Rev. William - Meymott Farley's) bedroom, and in the presence of his wife, deliberately cut the old man's throat from ear to ear. The victim of the tragedy is the Rev. Meymott Farley, vicar of Crestingham, and the facts which have already come to light nnhappily leave no room for doubt that he was deliberately murdered by hia curate. Mr Farley, who was 73 years of age, has been f(# some time Buffering from an attack of paralysis, which has incapacitated him from doing anything but occasional duty at the church. About vtwelvo montha ago he engaged as curate, T the Rev. A. F. Gilbert-Cooper, who I came from Burwaah Weald, in Sussex, ' and was recommended by the Yen. Archdeacon Groonio. Apartment were proTided for him at the vicarage, and he was received and treated as one of the family. The curate took the whole of the clerical duties of the parish, but does not aeem to have gained the 'affection of th« parishioners. H* was credited with High Church proclivities, whereas the yicar was an evangelical clergyman. There does not, however, seem to have been any quarrel or dispute between the vicar and the curate, and there never was atiy reason to suppose that any ill-feeling existed between them. On the contrary, circumstances show that very friendly relations existed between Mr Cooper and Mr and Mrs Farley. On Saturday morning the vicar, who had been under tho eire» of Dr Jones, of Framlingham, was unable to leave his bed, and the curate also complained of feeling unwell. According to a statement made by Mrs Farley, she ■pent the greater part of tha evening wading to her husband, tho curate beiny in the dining room, which i 3 immediately below the vicar's bedroom. Later in the evening, after her husband had gone, Mrs Farley joined Mr Cooper, and, as he complained of sleeplessness, she promised that she would read to him, as she had done to her husband, until he fell asleep. Mr Cooper replied, " I heard you reading to the vicar, and it rather irritated me." It seams there had been a previous c >nveraation about the state of the curate's health, because Mrs Farley statei* jthat in the morning her husband advised him to {;«t an opiate. Mr Cooper and Mrs Farcy had supper together, and afterwards the curate read the prayers as usual. A groom named F. Bilner, and a maidservant named Annie Whiteman, were the only other persons in the house, and all went to bed between nine and ten o'clock. Mrs Farley had had a email bed moved into her husband's room, and placed it near the foot of the bed, in order that she might attend to him during the night. Her. rest bad been broken on previous nights, and she believes thab she went to ■leep almost immediately. Mr Cooper had previously gone to his bedroom, which immediately adjoins, and nothing was heard of him until about twelve o'clock, . when Mr Farloy called out " What is that V This awakened Mrs Farley, and •he then heard what she described as a *• rattling noise " outside the bedroom door. She first thought it was the maid rattling with a candlestick, and got up and went to the door, which was locked on the • inside as usual. She unlocked it, and upon L opening the door saw the curate standing *in his dressing-gp.wn, holding a lighted candle in his hand. He was perfectly quiet, but deadly pale, and sho cried out —"Good gracious ! What do you want ?" kHe replied — " I want to come in," and I tried to force his way into the bedroom. some difficulty she prevented him, and, having succeeded in closing the door, ■he turned the key, exclaiming to her husband as she did so—" Why, he~s mad." Mr Cooper called out — " I want to come in and see the vicar." " Oh, poor fellow ; open the door, and see what he wants." Mrs Farley accordingly opened the door again, and Mr Cooper walked into the room. He made no remark, but went right into the room round by the foot of the bed, past the crib on which Mrs Farley had been sleeping, and then to the side of the vicar's bed. All this time he had the candlestick in his right hand. Nothing was observed in his '*■ left, but that he had a razor there could be no doubt. He approached the bedside ' and quietly put his left hand in the direction of tho vicar's throat. Mr Farley exclaimed — " What do you mean ? What do you mean ?" The curate laughed, [ tamed round, and walked quietly out of [ the room. Before he reached the door, i Mr Farley exclaimed, in a feeble voice — f "He's cut my throat," Mrs Farley at first believed that her husband was in a | delirium, and, as she could see no blood, '- she replied, — "Oh, nonsense." She, ' however, followed the curate to his room, 1 and while going there heard Mr Farley tfc^call "Frank," the coachman, twice by l name. She went up to Cooper, and, I in as firm a voice as she could ooromand, said to him : " What have you ' got in your hand? Give it to me." He c replied : " I have got nothing," and even p then she could not see that he had any \ weapon. She then went bnck into her '* husband's room and found Mr Farley '■ lying on the floor, with blood rushing L from his throat. Stricken with terror,she I ran back to the curate's room and said to I Cooper :" Gome and help .me. You I don't know what you have done." Cooper I made no reply, and she ran back to her IL husband and tried to staunch the blood. W Meanwhile she despatched the groom for L Dr Jones, of Framlingham, but long beW fore he arrivW Mr Farley had expired. ft THE INQUEST. I A new and unpleasant light was thrown K upon this dreadful affair at the inquest by B a juryman named Juby, whose questions W 'ndicated that village gossip had been busy ■ vith the names of Mr Cooper and Mrs B* Parley for some time past. Mrs F. adV nitted that her husband had been jealous Wt >f Cooper, bub not latterly. She had K ilways treated the curate as quite a lad. ■ le was very boyish in some of his ways. Hf <Jhe knew her character had been aspersed. B^lPeople would talk. Mr Farley had nevei f" struck Cooper. He had fits of temper al ■■times, hjit they soon wore off. Mr Farley believed the gossip about heraelj Cooper. She used to tell her husband out that he was jealous. Cooper, or occasion, took the vicar by th< and told him ho ought to be better. She never kissed Cooper, she had there would have been no ham ifc. She was a motherly person. Shi objected to Cooper's associating witl j^^^ther females, because it waa'nfc good fo |H '\ Witness indignantly denied having jB bebti guilty of any impropriety whateve: with Cooper.. At this point the prisoner, ttsing with a flushed faoe, interjected — " ] think you need talk of that matter I may be allowed to speak. " Mrs Far V who had apparently not noticed hii before, turned to him with a H^Kteitled air, and crying out — " Oh, poo P oor b°y," went off into hysterics was carried out kicking and ncreaming The Vicarage servant said Mrs Farle; used occasionally to enter the curate' before he got up, but she neve there long. A verdict of wilful murder was returnei against; Mr Cooper, who merely observedK. » I can only Bay it waa't wilful." W A. good deal of ill-feeling i 3 show Wk --gainst Mrs Farley at Cullingham, bee jus torn the first aha has Beemed more con eerned about the curate's situation tha her husband's fate. She is a stout vi tomantic, motherly person, and if aj petnnces go for anything, the account ah

gives of her relations with Cooper should be true. Mr Juby's questions .at the inquest most certainly angered rather thut alarmed her. Fur ih ■<-. village gossip she expressed the profoundest contempt " People must talk, " she moro than one said. Mr Farley was so stout that for sf»mtime he had been unablo to conduct dn mc service. Cooper, according to a roport, neither read nor preached well. Hisuffered fiom severe sunstroke as a boy, and ha 3 ever siuci-|been thought " queer." Nearly everything in Eastern literature which has real excellence and interest is marred by excessive length ; the authors or compilers never remember that the half is better than the whole, and constantly overburden us with repetitions or episodes. — Athenaeum. The earliest known specimens of printing are included in a collection of Chinese and Japanese illustrated books now on exhibition at the British Museum. These specimens are three copies of tho Chinese version of a Buddhist Sutra, printed by order of tho Empress Shiyautoku about the year 770. SKINNY MEN.— Wells' Health Renewer restores health nnd vigor, cures dyspepsia, impotence, ssxual debility. At chemists' and druggists . Kempthorne, Prosaer, and Co . agents Auckland WENLS HAIR BALSAM.— If grey, restores to original color. An elegant dressing, softens and beautifies No oil or grease. A tonic restorative. Stops hair oming out ; strengthens, c^anses, heMs t^lp