X Stamford Mercury - Friday 12 December 1788 On Saturday last was
committed to Chester goal, Thomas Mate, of Handbridge, labourer, charged upon
the coroner's inquest with the wilful murder of John Parry, a peace officer, in
the execution of his duty. The circumstances of this unfortunate affair were is
follow; On Friday two Mate's neighbours came before a magistrate of Chester,
and upon oath that Mate was then beating and cruelly treating his wife, who
frequently called out murder, and appeared the at the window with her face very
bloody, and repeatedly toll the bye-standers, whom her cries had collected
together, that she was afraid her husband would murder her, intreating (sic), to
apply immediately to the magistrates for their assistance to save her life. A
warrant was therefore immediately granted for apprehending him, and the deceased
with three other constables, went to the house of the said Mate, but found the
door fastened, which they broke open, and the deceased proceeding up stairs the
room where Mate then was, a gun was fired off by the said Mate, and the contents
of it lodged in the breast of the deceased, which put a period to his life in a
few minutes. He has left a wife and six children to deplore his loss. Mate after
this shocking accident, fastened his door again, and threatened destruction to
any person that should attempt to take him; but on the magistrate ordering a
party of the 40th regiment to force the door again, he surrendered himself to
the Constable leading the party of soldiers. (Researchers Note: 40th (2nd
Somersetshire) Regiment of Foot under Major John Adlam)
Chester Chronicle - Friday 16 January 1789 Monday last, at the Crownmote Court
in and for this city, Thomas Mate was arraigned for the murder of John Parry, an
officer of the peace, whilst attempting to execute a warrant on the prisoner
(the particulars of which appeared in our paper of the 12th ult.) when, after a
trial of near five hours duration, in the court of which every possible
investigation the evidence, touching the facts, took place, he was fully and
clearly convicted of wilful murder, and received sentence, to be executed on the
14th inst. after which his body was ordered delivered to the surgeons for
dissection. On this occasion our learned Recorder, Foster Bower, Esq. conduced
himself in a manner that did the highest credit to his humanity as a man, and
his ability as a lawyer.— lt was essentially important, that officers of the
peace should be protected in the exercise of their duty. lt was not less
important that the rights of private individuals should be protected, and that
if, unfortunately, an act of homicide should be committed on the a person of a
constable who may rashly or ignorantly force an entrance into a house armed with
an illegal warrant, the offence could amount to no more than manslaughter;—but,
on the contrary, where the legality of a warrant is admitted, and is fully
proved, that the nature of an officer's errand was made known to the person
charged, to take the life a under such circumstances, was, clearly and
unquestionably, murder. He also said, that a man's house afforded him a security
only in civil processes, and actions for debt;—in all criminal charges it ceased
to become a sanctuary. The importance of this legal truth cannot be too
generally known, as a lesson or further consequence may be derived from it
;—namely, that magistrates and all administrators of justice will see the
necessity of using every possible precaution in the issuing of warrants, with to
the signing and sealing thereof—so that the lives of peace officers may not be
sported with, or taken with impunity. Some doubts having in the Recorder's mind,
respecting the legality of the warrant on which Mate had been apprehended, a
respite has been granted him for three weeks, before the expiration of which the
opinion of the Judges will he obtained. During the whole of the above solemn
trial, are sorry to say, he did not the show the smallest emotion of sensibility
but, on the contrary, even at the moment of receiving the dreadful sentence
(which Mr. Bower prefaced by an address as pathetic as ever delivered from the
bench) he betrayed a heart left to every sense of feeling, and seemed sunk to a
degree of ferocious and savage obduracy, incapable receiving the least
impression.
Chester Chronicle - Friday 23 January 1789 Mate's execution is now positively
fixed for Wednesday se’nnight, an order having arrived for that purpose on
Monday last —Our worthy sheriffs we hear, very properly determined, that this
daring offender shall forfeit his life near the spot where he committed the
fatal outrage. Sentence to be carried out on the 14th Instant, after which his
Body ordered for Dissection.
Chester Chronicle - Friday 6 February 1789 Wednesday last. Thomas Mate was
executed here, for the murder John Parry, an officer of the peace, whilst
attempting to serve a warrant on the person of the culprit, the particulars of
which have heretofore appeared. Seldom have the awful solemnities of public
justice exhibited a more shocking instance of an impenitent and unrelenting mind
than was shown in this man. From the moment his condemnation to that of his
dissolution, he betrayed a rooted, fixed, and almost savage obduracy; which the
most felicitous and arduous endeavours of a reverend divine, and other
well-disposed persons, could not possibly shake, or in any degree soften—Whilst
on the tremendous brink of a dread eternity, and when the soul was about to
launch into the presence of an offended God, whose chief attribute is mercy and
forgiveness, to hear the inexorable spirit of this poor creature loudly declare,
he would not forgive his prosecutors, and particularly his wife, (whom, tho'
near 70 years old, he charged with infidelity)—impressed the heart of every
spectator with a mixture of horror and astonishment. (Information from the
Cheshire Museum of Policing - 1789 Feb 4th - Thomas Hoate (Mate) for the murder
of John Parry a constable in Handbridge – on the gallows he charged his wife
with infidelity (she was 70 yrs of age) Hanged at Boughton.