Volume III
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BENJAMIN TAPNER, JOHN COBBY, JOHN HAMMOND, RICHARD MILLS, RICHARD MILLS THE YOUNGER, AND OTHERS Revengeful Smugglers, who were executed for a Diabolical Murder, 18th of January, 1749 ing a greater brutality on the art of the murderers towards their victims than this. The offenders were all smugglers, and the unfortunate objects of their crime were a custom-house officer and a shoemaker, named respectively William Galley and Daniel Chater. It would appear that, a daring and very extensive robbery having been committed at the custom-house at Poole, Galley and Chater were sent to Stanstead, in Sussex, to give some information to Major Battine, a magistrate, in reference to the circumstance. They did not, however, return to their homes, and on inquiry it turned out that they had been brutally murdered, the body of Galley being traced, by means of bloodhounds, to be buried, while that of Chater was discovered at a dis- tance of six miles, in a well in Harris's Wood, near Leigh, in Lady Holt's Park, covered up with a quantity of stones, wooden railings and earth. At a special commission held at Chichester on the 16th of January, 1749, the prisoners Benjamin Tapner, John Cobby, John Hammond, William Carter, Richard Mills the elder and Richard Mills the younger were indicted for the murder of Daniel Chater; the three first as principals and the others as accessories before the fact ; and William Jackson and William Carter were indicted for the murder of William Galley. From the evidence adduced, the circumstances of this most horrid murder were proved, and it appeared that the two deceased persons, having passed Havant on their road to Stanstead, went to the New Inn, at Leigh, where they met one Austin, and his brother and brother-in-law, of whom they asked the road, and they conducted them to Rowland's Castle, where they said they might obtain better information. They went into the White Hart, and Mrs Payne, the landlady, suspecting the object of their mission, sent for the prisoners Jackson and Carter, and they were soon after joined by some others of the gang. After they had been all sitting together, Carter called Chater out, and demanded to know where Diamond, one of those suspected of the robbery, was. Chater replied that he was in custody, and that he was going against his will to give evidence against him. Galley, following them into the yard, was knocked down by Carter, on his calling Chater away, and they then returned indoors. The smugglers now pretended to be sorry for what had occurred, and desired Galley to drink some rum, and they persisted in plying him and Chater with liquor until they were both intoxicated. They were then persuaded to lie down and sleep, and a letter to Major Battine, of which they were the bearers, was taken from them, read and destroyed. One John Royce, a smuggler, now came in, and Jackson and Carter told him the contents of the letter, and said that they had got the old rogue, the shoemaker of Fording Bridge, who was going to inform against John Diamond, the shepherd, then in custody at Chichester. Here William Steele proposed to take them both to a well about two hundred yards from the house, and to murder and throw them in; but this was rejected, and, after several proposi- tions had been made as to the mode in which they should be disposed of, the scene of cruelty was commenced by Jackson, who, putting on his spurs, jumped upon the bed where they lay, and spurred their foreheads, and then whipped them; so that they both got up bleeding. The smugglers then took them out of the house, and Mills swore he would shoot anyone who followed or said anything of what had occurred. Meanwhile the rest put Galley and Chater on one horse, tied their legs under the horse's belly, and then tied the legs of both together. They now set forward, with the exception of Royce, who had no horse; and they had not gone above two hundred yards before Jackson called out, " Whip 'em, cut 'em, slash 'em, d-n 'em! " upon which all began to whip, except Steele, who led the horse, the roads being very bad. They whipped them for half-a-mile, till they came to Woodash, where they fell off, with their heads under the horse's belly; and their legs, which were tied, appeared over the horse's back. Their tormentors soon set them up- right again, and continued whipping them over the head, face, shoulders, etc., till they came to Dean, upwards of half-a-mile farther; and here they both fell again as before, with their heads under the horse's belly, which were struck at every step by the horse's hoofs. At last Galley expired, and they threw the body over the horse and carried it off with them to the house of one Scarde- field, who kept the Red Lion, at Rake. Jackson and Carter carried Chater down to the house of the elder Mills, where they chained him up in a turf-house. Their companions in the meantime drank gin and brandy at Scardefield's, and, it being now nearly dark, they borrowed spades and a candle and lantern and, making him assist them in digging a hole, they buried the body of the murdered officer. They then separated, but on the Thursday they met again with some more of their associates, including the prisoners Richard Mills and his two sons Richard and John, Thomas Stringer, Cobby, Tapner and Hammond, for the purpose of deliberat- ing what should be done with their prisoner. It was soon unanimously resolved that he must be destroyed, and it was determined that they should take him to Harris's Well and throw him in, as it was considered that that death would be most likely to cause him the greatest pain. During this time the wretched man was in a state of the utmost horror and misery, being visited occasionally by all his tormentors, who abused him and beat him violently. At last, when this determination had been arrived at, they all went, and Tapner, pulling out a clasp-knife, ordered him on his knees, swearing that he would be his butcher; but being dissuaded from this, as being opposed to their plan to pro- long the miseries of their prisoner, he contented himself with slashing the knife across his eyes, almost cutting them out, and completely severing the gristle of his nose. They then placed him upon a horse, and all set out together for Harris's Well, except Mills and his sons, they having no horses ready. It was in the dead of the night that they brought their victim to the well, which was nearly thirty feet deep, but dry, and paled close round; and, Tapner having fastened a noose round his neck, they bade him get over the pales. They then tied one end of the cord to the pales and pushed him over the brink; but, the rope being short, he hung no farther within it than his thighs, and, leaning against the edge, he hung above a quarter of an hour and was not strangled. They then untied him, and threw him head foremost into the well. They tarried some time, and hearing him groan, and fearful that the sound might lead to a discovery, the place being near the road, they threw upon him some of the rails and gate-posts fixed about the well, as well as some great stones; and then, find- ing him silent, they left him. Their next consultation was how to dispose of their horses; and they killed Galley's, which was grey, and, taking his hide off, cut it into small pieces and hid them so as to prevent any discovery; but a bay horse that Chater had ridden on got from them. This being the evidence produced, the jury, after being out of court about a quarter of an hour, brought in a verdict of guilty against all the prisoners; whereupon the judge pronounced sentence on the convicts in a most pathetic address. The heinousness of the crime of which these men had been convicted rendering it necessary that their punish- ment should be exemplary, the judge ordered that they should be executed on the following day; and the sentence was accordingly carried into execution against all but Jackson, who died in prison on the evening that he was condemned. They were hanged at Chichester, on the 18th of January, 1749, amidst a vast concourse of spectators. |