George Gill, surgeon, recalled – on the evening of Monday the 22nd of December the officer Smith brought to me a gun stock and a gun barrel. Those now produced are the same. I found upon the trigger guard the appearance of blood. On the breach of the barrel and about nine or ten inches from the breach there were marks bearing the appearance of blood. I did not observe that the barrel was bent. The witness here explained that he still adhered to his former statement as to his impression of the way in which the wounds were inflicted upon deceased. He thought the whole of the blows had been inflicted with the butt end of the gun.
… Jury finds William Graham GUILTY of the WILFUL MURDER of Thomas Simpson.
HENRY GRAHAM’S STATEMENT
The following is a copy of the statement of Henry Graham, one of the prisoners, taken on oath before the magistrates at Penrith, on Friday last.
Henry Graham upon his oath said – I am about thirty years of age. The prisoner William Graham is my brother. He is two years younger than me. In the month of November last we were both living with our father and mother at Longdales. I remember Saturday night, the 15th of November last. I was in the house during the evening. I was never out after dark that night. About seven o’clock that evening, William Graham came into the house. My mother and father found fault with him for keeping the young horse away. He got a gun down from the top of the crocks in the room we were sitting in, and said it was his.
He set it against the clock. It was an old gun and had been mended with tin about the lock. It was his own gun. He then went into the parlour, where he was hunting something, but he did not say what. I thought it might be for a bit of paper or something. At the time he was in the parlour, my mother clicked up the gun which he had placed against the clock, and said he should not go out with a gun. I told her that she need not bother herself, he would get the other one down. There was another one hanging where he got the first; it was my father’s. There was another gun of mine hanging at the same place. Mine had a green cloth on. Father and mother went to get a panful of potatoes, and William got my father’s gun down. My mother said to my father, “Look, Willie, he is going with your gun,” and I said, “He may thank you for that.” I meant because my mother had put his own gun out of the way. He got some powder and shot out of his pocket and put them into his shot bag and flask. He charged the gun on the floor, and then went away with my father’s gun. I did not see him any more that night. I went to bed about ten o’clock. John Hogarth was in the house when I went to bed. My brother Joseph was sitting on the top of the settle; my father was sitting, and my mother was stirring about the house when I went to bed. I slept in the room upstairs. There is only one room upstairs. When my brother William is at home, William, Joseph and myself sleep in the upstairs room, all in one bed. Joseph came into the same bed about ten minutes after me. I never found William come to bed; I was asleep. I awoke at seven o’clock next morning; I got up and when I was dressing myself I got hold of a stocking belonging to William which I thought was my own, and found it was wet. I then observed William was in bed. He had just wakened when I saw him. He spoke first.