GUILDFORD ASSIZES.
Horrid Murder and Parricide
On Wednesday morning all the avenues to the Court were filled, so great was the interest excited by the trial of G. Chennel and J. Chalcraft, indicted for the wilful murder, at Godalming, on the evening of the 10th November last, of Mr. Chennel, sen. and Eliz. Wilson, his housekeeper.
Mr. Gurney, in stating the case to the Jury, said, that even the horrid crime of murder had its gradations of atrocity. It was aggravated when committed by the strong upon the feeble—when by servant against master—and above all—when by the son against his aged father. The deceased, Mr. Chennel, was a respectable tradesman at Godalming, and a man of considerable property. The prisoner Chennel was his son, and the other prisoner his carman, and had been so for many years, he having a little farm in addition to his trade of a currier. Eliz. Wilson, the other person murdered, was a harmless old woman, who had been also for many years his housekeeper.
A variety of witnesses were examined, who testified to a variety of minute particulars which tended to fix the murders on the prisoners; among the witnesses was Sarah Hurst, who stated herself to have been an accomplice, and gave a very straight-forward account of the horrid deed; Mr. Sergeant Lens, however, in his address to the Jury, did not appear to believe her. The evidence for the prosecution being closed, the prisoners gave some account of themselves on the day the murders were committed, which in no material degree affected the case of either; after which, the Judge (Mr. Sergeant Lens) proceeded to sum up the evidence. The jury almost immediately returned a verdict of Guilty against both prisoners. Very little change was observed in the appearance or countenance either of Chalcraft or Chennel when the verdict was pronounced. The learned Judge then proceeded to pass the awful sentence of the law, apparently much affected. He told the prisoners they had been found guilty by a jury of their country-men, after the most mature and patient investigation of the case; and he might now mention what he had studiously abstained from hinting before, that he thought the conclusion they had come to the only one to which any reasonable man could come on the evidence against them. After the long examination into which the Court had already entered, he felt that he could not much longer make a demand on their attention, but he could not omit stating to the prisoners the situation in which they stood with regard to the deceased. The one of them stood in the relation of a son—a relation which should always create the utmost reverence and love; the other in that of a servant, which should always command duty and respect. Murder committed in these relation could scarcely admit of aggravation, but the crime in their case had been aggravated by circumstances of almost unexampled atrocity. The one had lifted up his hand not only against his father, but that father aged and feeble; and the other against a master whom he himself had denominated kind and benevolent. If they had not yet prepared their minds by repentance to supplicate that God whom they had offended, they should employ the few hours that yet remained for that purpose, without uselessly denying their guilt, and endeavour to place their souls in a state to receive pardon in another world for a deed like this. He had now only to pronounce the awful sentence of the law, which was, that they be taken hence to the prison from whence they came, and on Friday next carried to the place of execution, there to be hung by the neck till dead, and their bodies to be anatomised and dissected according to the statute. This being the sentence of the law, the Lord have mercy on their souls. The prisoners were then led away, Chalcraft protesting that he was “as innocent as the child unborn,” and Chennel saying nothing. The latter seems a person about 40; he is a stout made man, rather inclined to be corpulent, with the outline of a good face, apparently rendered heavy and dull by the effects of indolence and irregular habits. He was dressed in a black jockey coat, a striped waistcoat, and a black neckerchief. He displayed, on his entrance into Court, the utmost indifference to his situation, and did not appear to be much touched by any thing that occurred.—The trail began a few minutes after eight in the morning, and lasted till nine in the evening.
In the afternoon of Thursday the wife and child of Chennell visited him at his own request, as did the wife and six children of Chalcraft; the wife of the latter urged him to confess, if he was guilt—he replied by asserting his innocence. Yesterday morning, after the sacraments had been administered to the unhappy men, a clergyman urged them to confess, but still they refused; Chennel saying that whatever crimes he might have committed, he was not guilty of that for which he was about to suffer; and Chalcraft echoing the words without variation. At nine o’clock the wretched culprits were placed in a caravan, and arrived at the place of execution about eleven. Here the crowd was greater than it was imagined would have been collected on such an occasion. The gallows was erected on an extensive meadow to the north of Godalming, which, together with the neighbouring heights, was covered with people of all conditions: the meadow was within sight of Chennel’s farm. Every endeavour to induce a confession proving fruitless, an officer, who knew Chalcraft, and to whom he said, that on arriving at the place of execution, he would “tell the whole pedigree of it,” now went up, and asked if he was ready to perform his promise, and make confession? He again refused, and protested his innocence. Chennel appeared utterly indifferent to his situation, but Chalcraft was much agitated. No appearance of a design to confess being manifested, the platform was drawn from under them, and they were launched into eternity. After hanging an hour, the bodies were cut down, taken into Godalming, and drawn up the street in which the murders had been perpetrated. The caravan stopped before the residence of the late Mr. Chennel, where, after a pause of some moments, the bodies were taken from the vehicle, carried into the house, and delivered to the surgeons for dissection.
Thus these two great criminals suffered the penalty of their offences near the spot where the most atrocious part of them was committed. We say a part because there is now great reason to suspect that they were concerned in the murder of a sailor at Petersfield and also in the murder of an old man who lived in a lone house near Farnham.—Chennel appears to have been an instance of the melancholy effects of indulgence, for we learn that his father repeatedly rescued him from dilemmas into which his crimes had brought him, and had injured his property by these acts of parental tenderness to an only child!
[One account says, “Mr. Mann put the question direct to Chennel in the most solemn manner, “Mr Did you, or did you not, commit the murder, or assist at all in it?”—Chennel lifted up his eyes, and said, in reply, “I never had any concern in the murder.” Chalcraft turned his head round, and looking at him very expressively answered, “You did, George, you know you did.””]