Catalogue description Folio(s) 100-104. Letter from John Shipden, Town Clerk of Dover [Kent], returning the...

Folio(s) 100-104. Letter from John Shipden, Town Clerk of Dover [Kent], returning the proceedings of a Court of Inquiry held at St Helena [at folios 119-130] and the Mayor of Portsmouth's letter to the Home Secretary [at folios 95A-95B], both of which he had received from [Thomas Bateman Lane], Dover magistrate, to whom they had been sent by [Francis Cobb] of Margate. He encloses copies of the depositions taken at the inquest on John Ancell [Ansell] and of the indictment found at the October 1796 Sessions against Charles Twyman for Ancell's murder. Shipden states that Twyman's servant William Kendall, present at the murder and the principal witness, was said to be aboard the Prince man-of-war two months previously.

Enclosed is a copy, authenticated by Shipden, of the indictment found by the Grand Jury of Dover on 8 April 1786 against Charles Twyman for the murder of John Ancell.

Also enclosed are copies, authenticated by Shipden, of the witness statements sworn on 10 April 1786 at an inquest held at the Fountain, Margate, before Thomas Bateman Lane, Mayor and Coroner: of William Kendall, stating that, returning home to St Peter's [Broadstairs] from Margate late on 8 April 1786, Twyman had beaten Ancell with a large knobbed stick in a field near Draper's Wall, trampling him with his horse to ensure his death; of Richard Blaxland who had discovered and identified the body on the following morning; of John Wakelin testifying to seeing Twyman and a boy servant in the Five Bells alehouse between 10 and 11 pm on that day; and of John Silver, Margate surgeon, confirming death to have been caused by blows about the head and body.