Upper Darby Township.

were subjected to a separate examination, Judge Hopkins sitting in the court-room for that purpose. The first man examined gave his name as William Jones, stating that he was from Westmoreland County, and that in search of work he had gone to New Castle, Del., where, being unable to obtain employment, he had crossed the river on the morning of his arrest, and on the New Jersey shore had fallen in with the other men, whom he had never seen before, and that he was on his way to Philadelphia when apprehended. He was, he declared, never nearer Darby than the high bridge in Kingsessing; but he was unable to tell exactly where he was on the night of the murder. On a second examination he stated that his name was Washington Labee, but could offer no reason why he had given a false name. He then said he remembered he had been on an oyster-boat with Abraham Boyce and others, and had sailed from Philadelphia on the morning of the day the murder was committed. Abraham Boyce stated that he was employed on an oyster-boat, and came from Cape May in a boat with Labee, but could not tell when he left the Cape; he also called Labee Thomas, and stated be did not know his other name. He declared he was on board the oyster-boat the night of the murder. The authorities found secreted on his person a number of keys, several other articles, and a small axe. On his second examination he said the scissors-chain he had picked up on the road in Jersey, and did not know where such a place as Darby was. He declared that he knew Labee, and until that day had never before seen Michael Monroe, or James Wellington, as he was called.

The latter asserted on his examination that he had never met the men until the day before his arrest; that he did not remember where he was the night of the murder, but the following Sunday he was in West Chester. He stated on his second examination that he had been working at shoemaking in Philadelphia, under the name of James Wellington; that he had no reason for changing his name; that before he came to Philadelphia he had worked in New York, but declined to have his employer there written to. He declared he had never been to Darby, never heard of such a place before. A pair of blue pantaloons, a coat of the same color, and a shirt being shown him, he said they belonged to him, and that he had purchased them from a man he met on the West Chester road. The scissors-chain found on Boyce was recognized as the one stolen from Mrs. Warner, the pantaloons and coat found in Wellington's bundle were identified by the tailor who made them as belonging to Bonsall, and a counterfeit ten-dollar note stolen at the same time had been passed at Sculltown by one of the men.

Judge Hopkins committed the accused to jail at Woodbury to await a requisition from the Governor of Pennsylvania, and, to prevent an escape therefrom, a guard of citizens was stationed around the prison.

On Tuesday night, the 7th of June, the prisoners were brought to Chester by Sheriff Weaver and lodged in the county jail. On Thursday and Friday they were separately examined in the court-house, before Justices Luke Cassin and George W. Bartram. The men in their examinations told substantially the same story they had related to Judge Hopkins, excepting that Labee stated be hid received the ten-dollar note from Wellington, who told him if he passed it he might buy a pair of shoes, giving him, Wellington, the change, and that he, Boyce, and Wellington had been in prison in Philadelphia, and that all three had been discharged from the jail between the 7th and 20th of May of that year. Wellington also acknowledged that he had been convicted of a store robbery in New York, had been sentenced for life to the penitentiary, had served five years, when he was pardoned by the Governor on condition that he would depart from and never return to that State. Mrs. Warner and Mrs. Bonsall, who were present at the examination, identified the men, and testified that the scissors-chain belonged to Mrs. Warner, the Peruvian dollar was similar to that carried by the murdered man, and the clothing taken from Bonsall, which Sheriff Weaver found thrust into a stove-pipe hole in Wellington's cell at Woodbury, was identified by both the witnesses as property taken from their house. The prisoners were held to await the action of the grand jury.

In the mean while, the fourth man had been apprehended at Baltimore, the cause of his arrest being the possession of a volume of poems written by Mrs. Gardner, of Darby, the owner's name having been carefully cut from the title-page. Among the articles taken from Bonsall's trunk was a volume of these poems, and he had written his name at the top of the title-page. The man then arrested as John Thompson was surrendered to the State of Pennsylvania on requisition, and shortly after lodged in the Delaware County jail.

On Saturday, Oct. 20, 1824, the grand jury having indicted the four men for the murder of Bonsall, Deputy Attorney-General Edward Darlington called the case of Michael Monroe, alias James Wellington, who being without counsel, Judge Darlington assigned John Edwards, Jr., Matthias Richards Sayres, and Benjamin Tilghman to manage his defense. Edwards and Sayres were residents of this county-seat, the first named being afterwards member of Congress from this district, and the latter, who was a promising member of the bar, popularly known as "Dick Sayres," died at Chester early in 1826, in the thirtieth year of his age. The case having been opened, it continued over into the following day, - Sunday, - and the court-room was crowded with spectators during all that October Sabbath, who had come from the every section of the county to hear the trial. The circumstances as heretofore related were established by the evidence, and on Tuesday - for the trial con-