Newspaper Extracts
Murder at Chapeltown
27th March, 1865Murder near Sheffield. - A very shocking murder was committed in the mining village of Chapeltown, near Sheffield, on Saturday morning.
A woman named Elizabeth Drabble, 61 years of age, for a number of years past has lived in a small cottage at Greenhead, Chapeltown. A young man named Solomon Stenton, her Grandson, lived with her. It appears that when a child his parents died, and that since that time he has been brought up by the deceased. He is 21 years of age, and is a labourer employed at the Thorncliffe Ironworks.
Persons in the immediate neighbourhood state that he has frequently ill-used the deceased and threatened to murder her. He has frequently been brought before the magistrates on charges of assaults.
In consequence of his drunken habits, the deceased has been accustomed to draw his wages every alternate Friday evening. On Friday evening she went to Mortomley, for this purpose, and upon arriving here she found Stenton in a public house. About 12 0'clock he went into a public house at Chapeltown. He left it at closing time with a companion named Hanson, and his Grandmother urged him to go home. He then struck her over the head, knocked her down several times, and kicked her with great violence, in spite of the efforts made by Hanson to prevent him. After she had been knocked down the fourth time she did not move, Hanson called out, "she is dead," and ran off for the nearest medical, and Dr. Drew was shortly in attendance, his assistance, however, was of no avail, for upon reaching the spot he found the old woman was really dead. Stenton went away apparently unconcerned.
Police-sergeant Tomlinson went to the house of the deceased, where he found Stenton, who by this time was perfectly sober. Tomlinson charged him with having killed his Grandmother, and he replied, "I have been in many scrapes, but this is the worst of them all." On Saturday, at the Town-hall, Stenton was brought up in the custody of Inspector Bouchier, charged with the murder of the deceased. No evidence was offered, and the general remand was applied for and granted.
