A letter from Liverpool, dated March 14, says, "That on Thursday evening, the 6th instant, a most shocking murder was committed by William Whittle, on the bodies of his wife and two small children, at Farrington, near Preston in Lancashire.
The circumstances related of the affair, are, that the wife having lain in about nine days, the husband came home near ten at night, and observing the nurse in the house carding of cotton, asked her whether she would not go home (as she did not lie in the house) he being desirous of going to bed, to which she replied in the affirmative; as soon as the nurse was gone he went up stairs to his wife, and desired to lie down by her, which she refused, fearing he had some evil design, and immediately jumping out of bed, ran down stairs in her shift into the lane; when he pursued her, and intreated her to return back, promising he would do her no harm, to which she agreed; but she had no sooner entered the house than he knocked her down with an axe, cut off her head and right arm, and ripped up her belly, so that her bowels lay upon the ground; he afterwards went up stairs, and cut off the heads of the two infants, and left them on the bed, with the youngest child's heart by its side.
When he had perpetrated this horrid deed, he immediately went to the constable, (who lived near) and informed him that some person had been at his house, and murdered his wife and children; to which the constable replied, I doubt you are the murderer, and asked him how his hands and stockings came to be so bloody; struck with remorse at the question, he immediately confessed the fact, and was committed to Lancaster gaol on Saturday last, to take his trial at the ensuing assizes."
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