away with, and in 1816, ten years after the murder, she induced the magistrates to order the search of a clover-rick which had been put up a few days after Mr. Parker’s murder, and had not been disturbed since. The search brought nothing to light; the widow could give no ground for her suspicions, and the whole thing was beginning to assume a traditional aspect, when at last a discovery was made, which showed that the widow was right in her suspicions after all.
In January, l830, twenty-three years and more from the time of Mr. Parker’s murder, a carpenter was employed in taking down an old barn on a farm which, in 1806, had been occupied by a farmer named Clewes. In the course of his work he was removing the earth near the foundation, when he came upon a pair of shoes and a carpenter’s rule. Without proceeding any further, he at once gave information, and the earth about the spot was carefully searched. At the depth of two or three feet was found the complete skeleton of a man, who must have been considerably under the middle height. The upper and lower jaws, and the skull, had been beaten into many pieces, and the surgeon who examined the remains declared that these injuries had preceded the burial of the body, and had in all probability been the cause of death. With the bones thus found were portions of a woollen waistcoat and of corduroy breeches, a whetstone, and a pocket-knife. Heming’s widow, now re-married, identified these objects as having belonged to her former husband; and no doubt could be entertained that here was evidence of a second murder committed on the assassin so long sought for in vain.
The lapse of a quarter of a century had loosened the old ties which had formerly bound the parish together, tongues were untied, and at the inquest which was held, all the evidence that could be collected was gone into minutely, with the object of discovering the accomplices of Heming. But the chief of them had before this been called to another tribunal to account for his share in the murder: four years previously Captain Evans had removed to Droitwich, and there he had died without confessing his guilt.
The inquiry lasted for five days. Before its termination, Clewes, the former occupant of the farm on which the skeleton had been found, was committed to prison. While here he stated that he was anxious to make a communication to the jury, and persisting in his design after he had been informed that his revelations might be used against him, he was heard. He said, that about seven o’clock in the morning, on the day after Mr. Parker’s murder, George Bankes came down to him, saying that Heming was up at Captain Evans’s, and that they did not know what to do with him. Clewes refused to let him come down to his house, and Bankes went away, saying that he was lurking about the meadows. About eleven o’clock Clewes went up to Oddingley, and Captain Evans then called him, and told him that Heming was lurking about his (Clewes’s) farm, and that something must be done to get him off; he would try to get into Clewes’s buildings during the day, and at night they could meet there and give him some money, and contrive some plan to get him out of the way. Clewes at last agreed to meet the captain at eleven o’clock that night. He did so, and found with the Captain, James Taylor, a farrier (since dead), and a third man, whom he believed to be George Bankes. They had met at the door of Clewes’s barn, which they now entered, the Captain calling softly, “Holloa, Heming, where beest?” Heming answered from under a heap of straw, and Taylor and the Captain, who had pulled out a lantern, stepped up to the place where Heming was, and the Captain told him to get up—he had something for him. Heming, who seemed to have been lying on his back, then rose, and as he did so, Taylor hit him two or three blows over the head with a stick. Clewes declared that he protested, but the Captain said, “He has got enough;” and Taylor asked what was to be done with the body. It was a light night, and to avoid the risk of being seen, it was determined to bury the body in the barn. A place was found full of rat-holes; a little earth was shovelled out; the Captain called to Taylor to catch hold of him; the two dragged the body into the hole, and Taylor then covered it up. The whole thing was over in half-an-hour. The Captain promised Taylor another glass or two of brandy, enjoined Clewes, with oaths, not to “split,” and the men then separated and went home. Clewes had afterwards received twenty-seven pounds, which was at first intended for Heming’s passage-money, and the Captain told him that he should never want for five pounds, if he held his peace. He had bought a mare of the Captain, and had never been asked for payment, and a hundred pounds had been lent to him by a Mr. Barnett, a wealthy farmer, who was only second to the Captain in his hatred of the rector. Some days after the murder of Heming, several loads of marl were brought into the barn and spread over the floor. Clewes had refused to be bound by an oath not to give information, although the Captain reminded him, with a curious appreciation of his functions as J.P., that he himself could administer it, as he was a magistrate!
Clewes, Bankes, and Barnett were put upon their trial at Worcester, in March, 1830. The verdict of the coroner’s inquest on Heming was one of murder against Clewes and Bankes, while Barnett was found to have been an accessory before the fact. The grand jury had also found three bills of indictment; one charging Clewes alone with the murder of Heming, both as a principal and as an abettor; a second against all three prisoners, as accessories before the fact to the murder of Mr. Parker, alleged to have been committed by Heming; and a third against Clewes alone, as an accessory after the fact to the same murder, by harbouring Heming. The indictments relative to the murder of Mr. Parker were, however, abandoned, on the ground that the principal had not been convicted, and Clewes was then arraigned for the murder of Heming. The jury, hopelessly bewildered by the maze of indictments, found him guilty as accessory after the fact, a finding that could not be received, as he was indicted as principal only. They again withdrew, and almost immediately acquitted him. The