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ROBBERY and MURDER NEAR FARNHAM.  

    In former numbers of this Paper we have given accounts of George Chennell, jun. of Godalming, and William and George Chalcroft, his associates being committed to Horsemonger-lane Gaol, upon suspicion of having committed two murders, one of old Mr. Chennell and his housekeeper, at Godalming, and the other, previously, of a man named Searson, within a quarter of a mile of Petersfield. We have now to add the particulars of a third barbarous murder, supposed to have been committed by young Chennell and his associates. About June, 1816, an elderly man named Stilwell, who possessed a cottage and a few acres of land in the parish of Frencham, upon the borders of Holt Forest, which is situated within four miles of Farnham and about nine miles from Godalming, was found by a neighbouring farmer lying in the passage of his house, having been horridly butchered. His body was cut and mangled too dreadful to describe accurately. Near thirty wounds were discovered on the body, most of them of such a nature as was supposed would have been sufficient to have caused almost instantaneous dissolution. The deceased was a very extraordinary character; penurious in the extreme; and had hoarded by his sole labour some hundred pounds. He was a married man, but had been separated from his wife on account of a disagreement between them, from her disposit on being so opposite to his. After the separation, he never suffered a female to come near his house. He kept several cows, poultry, and other things connected with husbandry. He was the sole and entire manager of every thing. He milked the cows, churned the butter, tilled the ground, and regularly every Thursday he went with the produce of his small farm to Farnham market. By his exceeding penurious mode of living he acquired considerable property, and so careful was he to secure it from robbers that might attack him by day (for he lived at a considerable distance from any other house) or by night, that he always kept his doors locked and his windows fastened, and if any person went to pay or receive money from him, they had to wait until he unlocked the door, and the moment he admitted them into his house he invariably locked the door, and fastened them in his house, before he proceeded to do business with them. The day preceding that on which he was found murdered, he had been to a friend of his, a butcher, at Farnham, to ask him if he knew any person who wanted a few hundred pounds on interest, and was willing to give him good security for the money. This friend informed him that he did not know any such person; but he would inquire before the next market day. He always went to one particular public-house at Farnham, where he confined himself to a half-pint of beer; he on that day conversed with several persons, and was generally known to have a heavy purse. It was supposed that he was dodged from Farnham to his own house by a sea-faring man, whom he was seen in conversation with, but from circumstances which arose during the investigation before the Coroner, such suspicion seemed to be not at all confirmed; but, on the contrary, disproved. The witness who was examined before the Coroner, stated, that he found Mr. Stilwell’s front-door open, a circumstance never before known by him, and which gave him some surprise. When he entered the passage, he found a stream of blood on the floor, which lay in clots aloung the ground from the front to the back door, at which place the lifeless body of the old man lay weltering in his own blood. The corpse was quite cold, and life appeared to have been extinct some hours: it was, therefore, the general opinion, that he was murdered on the preceding night. The witness found in Mr. Stilwell’s garden two knives with common wood handles, such as are used by shoemakers for cutting their leather; they were covered with blood, and appeared to be the weapons used by the murderers for dispatching the old man. From their being two knives it appeared that there must have been more than one person concerned in the atrocious deed. That the villains broke into the house before Mr. Stilwell arrived from Market was the general opinion, and waited in the house until he returned: it is supposed that when he entered the front door and locked it they attacked him, and that he struggled with them from the front door along the passage to the place where he fell near the back door, as there was a track of blood from one door to the other. After he was dispatched the boxes in which he kept his money were broke open, and all the bills and gold which he had hoarded carried off. On their return from the house they threw the knives into the garden. The back window of Mr. Stilwell’s house was found to have been the place where the assassins entered the premises, from its being broke open with an iron crow. Two persons were seen about the neighbourhood, but they could not be traced, and the sailor who was suspected was discharged. Subsequently a man named Jeffreys was apprehended, and examined, on suspicion of being the murderer, but he proved himself innocent, and he was discharged. From that period not a single event has taken place, until the apprehension of young Chennell and his companion, that could in the least tend to elucidate this mysterious murder and robbery.

    Since the committal of G. Chennell, jun. and the Chalcrofts, by Lord Middleton, and the investigation taking place relative to the murder near Petersfield, another investigation has, at the instance of his Lordship, been proceeding into the mysterious murder of Mr. Stilwell. The house of Mr. Stilwell is on the borders of a forest called Holt Forest. At the time the murder was committed, the younger Chennell and Chalcroft were at work in the forest in the employ of Mr. Marshall, of Godalming. Upon reference to Mr. Marshall’s books, it appears that they were timber carting; that is, they were drawing timber from Holt Forest to Godalming. The knives, stained with crimson gore, found in old Mr. Stilwell’s garden, were produced before his Lordship. A man, who was in the employ of old Mr. Chennell at the time Mr. Stilwell was murdered, was examined: upon looking at the knives he said, that he would not swear that they were old Mr. Chennell’s, but it was his firm opinion that they were. The place where Chennell and Chalcroft were at work was not more than two-thirds of a mile distant from Mr. Stilwell’s house, and from two strange men being seen near the house on the night Mr. Stilwell returned from Farnham market; from Chennell and Chalcroft being at work so very near his house; and from two knives being found, such as are used by shoe-makers, and which are believed to have been the property of old Mr. Chennell—they are suspected of being the perpetrators of this murder and robbery, in addition t the black catalogue already enumerated.

    We have stated merely plain facts (having avoided all extraneous matter that might tend to prejudice the parties at their trials), the accuracy of which we can vouch for. We understand that Chennell jun. and the Chalcrofts will be tried first for the murder of Mr. Chennel, sen. and his house-keeper; and if the evidence should not be sufficiently conclusive to convict them, they will be put upon their trials either for the murder of the young man at Petersfield, or of Mr. Stilwell.