DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.70267#0082
64 EXAMINATION OF SPRAGG, &C.
On Wednesday after his interment three persons ap-
prehended on suspicion of the murder were examined
before the Magistrates at Union Hall, viz.
Joseph Spragg, Arthur Bowers, and Robert Bowers,
three gypsies lately apprehended upon suspicion, for the
murder of this inoffensive man Matthews, commonly
called the Dulwich Hermit, were brought up pn Wed-
nesday for examination.
Thomas Davy the first witness, stated, that he is a
watchman, and carries on the bus mess of a.fishman, at
Sydenham, and that he is also a constable of Camber-
well, which is the adjoining parish ; that on the morning
of Tuesday, the 23th of December, a few minutes after
two o’clock, as he was coming down towards his part-
ner’s box, he saw the two chimney-sweeps at the bar,
Spragg, and the boy Robert Bowers, at the watch-box ;
as his box was much more under the wind than his part-
ners, he let them go down with him, and gave them some
of the pea-straw he had in his box, to put his feet on, to
sit on, that they might be kept from the ground, and an
old split sack to put over them ; this he did because he
had known something of Spragg before, and that he
understood they were out at that time through a mistake,
in getting up between one and two, and had not to go to
work till six. As they sat or lay there, he entered into a
conversation with Spragg, as to how he ordered it to get
away from Maidstone Gaol, where he had been con-
fined.—Spragg explained how, which he did by getting
a conditional pardon. This led to-a conversation, as to
where they slept last, and where they came from. This
he also explained, by saying that he came from Dorking;
that their tents were pitched on the side of Sydenham
Common, about 200 yards from Matthews’s cave. On
speaking of Matthews, Spragg observed, that they had
been to his cave yesterday afternoon, or evening, the
vvitneSiS
On Wednesday after his interment three persons ap-
prehended on suspicion of the murder were examined
before the Magistrates at Union Hall, viz.
Joseph Spragg, Arthur Bowers, and Robert Bowers,
three gypsies lately apprehended upon suspicion, for the
murder of this inoffensive man Matthews, commonly
called the Dulwich Hermit, were brought up pn Wed-
nesday for examination.
Thomas Davy the first witness, stated, that he is a
watchman, and carries on the bus mess of a.fishman, at
Sydenham, and that he is also a constable of Camber-
well, which is the adjoining parish ; that on the morning
of Tuesday, the 23th of December, a few minutes after
two o’clock, as he was coming down towards his part-
ner’s box, he saw the two chimney-sweeps at the bar,
Spragg, and the boy Robert Bowers, at the watch-box ;
as his box was much more under the wind than his part-
ners, he let them go down with him, and gave them some
of the pea-straw he had in his box, to put his feet on, to
sit on, that they might be kept from the ground, and an
old split sack to put over them ; this he did because he
had known something of Spragg before, and that he
understood they were out at that time through a mistake,
in getting up between one and two, and had not to go to
work till six. As they sat or lay there, he entered into a
conversation with Spragg, as to how he ordered it to get
away from Maidstone Gaol, where he had been con-
fined.—Spragg explained how, which he did by getting
a conditional pardon. This led to-a conversation, as to
where they slept last, and where they came from. This
he also explained, by saying that he came from Dorking;
that their tents were pitched on the side of Sydenham
Common, about 200 yards from Matthews’s cave. On
speaking of Matthews, Spragg observed, that they had
been to his cave yesterday afternoon, or evening, the
vvitneSiS