William Dagnell

Level 81

Gail Robyn Newman on 2nd February 2021

AN OLD MAN ROBBED AND MURDERED AT WARRINGTON Yesterday week, Thomas Kendell and Wm. Leyland, two ruffianly looking men, and Elizabeth Leyland and Ann Green, the former a middle aged and the latter an old woman, were charged before the justices at Warrington with having robbed and caused the death of Mr. William Yarwood, of Appleton Thorne, Cheshire. The principle evidence given was that of Martin Brogan, a hawker, residing in Warrington, who said:- I was in the neighbourhood of Golden-square on Saturday night, and saw the prisoners, Kendall, Leyland and an old man. The old man was coming out of the Market shed, and the prisoners were going in. Kendall knocked against the old man. The old man said, “What are you doing?” Kendall said, if the old man did not go, he would make him go. There was an old woman with the man, and Kendall made a blow at her, because she called them blackguards. Yarwood, the old man, got between Kendall and the woman. Kendall then seized the old man by the hair of his head, and struck him. The woman continued abusing the men, both of whom afterwards made a savage attack upon Yarwood, whom they knocked down and kicked. Subsequent evidence went to prove that the old woman, Ann Green was an accomplice of the two male prisoners, and Elizabeth Leyland. About twelve the same night William Parkinson, hearing a noise in the street, went to the window, and there he saw Yarwood holding Ann Green by the throat, and calling out for the police, saying she had robbed him. A crowd assembled, and the woman Green recognising one of her acquaintances, calling to her to go and get some of her friends to rescue her from Yarwood. This person went, and presently several men, accompanied by Elizabeth Leyland, came, and rescuing Ann Green from the hold of Yarwood, made a murderous attack upon him, knocking him down and kicking him on the ribs and head. This took place in the midst of between 20 and 30 spectators, but no one interfered. He lay moaning in the street for quarter of an hour, and when at length he was taken into an adjoining house, it was found that he had been robbed of his money, and had received a frightful wound on the back of his head. He was taken home and medical assistance sent for; but when the surgeon arrived, he found the man in a dying state, several of his ribs having been broken, and he being otherwise frightfully injured about the head and body. The surgeon got bandages to bind the broken ribs, but the poor man died whilst under treatment. The examination being merely a preliminary one, the prisoners were remanded. On Monday, the four prisoners, Thomas Kendall, William Leyland, Elizabeth Leyland, and Ann Green, were brought up on remand, charged with robbing and compassing the death of William Yarwood. In addition to these, another man, named William Dagnall, was also placed in the dock charged with being implicated in the death of the old man. Evidence was given to prove that while the deceased and Ann Green were struggling together, the former to recover the money of which he had been robbed, Dagnall came and struck the deceased a heavy blow on the face which felled him to the earth. The woman Green then made off; and while the deceased lay on the ground Dagnall repeatedly kicked him in the head. The adjourned inquest was held on Tuesday, at Appleton Thorn, Cheshire. The prisoners were present. The principle evidence was that of Amos Moores who said: At twelve o’clock on Saturday the 15th inst., I was at home with my mother. We heard a noise. She went out and I followed her. We went to the corner of King Street and Heath Side, and I saw an old man and an old woman on the ground. The old man and woman appeared to be struggling on the ground. The prisoner Ann Green is the woman. The old woman said “Fetch me someone to help me.” My mother went away when she said this, and in about five minutes she came back with the prisoner Catherine Leyland. Whilst my mother was away the old man said, “I will give you sixpence if you will fetch a policeman.” He did not give me the sixpence, and I stood where I was until two young men came from the direction of Heath Side. One was the prisoner William Dagnall, and the other was his brother James Dagnall. The prisoner Dagnall struck Yarwood a blow on the face, which caused him to fall flat on his back. He kicked him several times on the head and ribs. He then left him, but presently returned and gave him a tremendous kick on the head. The old woman Ann Green, made off as soon as Dagnall struck the deceased in the face. The prisoner Dagnall then went away, and prisoner Catherine Leyland came up to the deceased and struck him on the face five or six times, saying as she went away, “Let them as has anything to do with it take it out of me.” Other witnesses gave corroborative evidence with respect to the ferocious attack made by William Dagnall on the deceased. Christopher Nugent Spinks, surgeon, said he had made a post mortem examination of the body of the deceased. The injuries he had maintained were of the most frightful description. There was a lacerated wound on the head about an inch and a half in length. There was another wound over the right ear. The man’s side had literally been kicked in, and his ribs smashed, the ends projecting into the cavity of the chest. The lower limbs were frightfully bruised. The case of death was inflammation of the pleura, or lining membrane of the chest produced by the injuries inflicted on the deceased. The Jury, after an absence of a quarter of an hour, returned a verdict to the effect “That William Dagnall was guilty of wilful murder, that Catherine Leyland had aided and abetted in the murder, and that Ann Green was an accessory before the fact.” The other prisoners, Thomas Kendall and William Leyland, were found not guilty. The coroner then committed Dagnall, Catherine Leyland and Ann Green to Chester Castle, to await their trial on the charge. On Wednesday the whole of the prisoners were brought before the borough magistrates at Warrington, when the three found guilty by the coroner’s jury were handed over to the Cheshire police; and William Leyland and Thomas Kendall were discharged. Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser, Saturday September 22, 1860