Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW : 1803 - 1842), Saturday 7 July 1832, page 4


ATROCIOUS MURDERS IN

UPPER CANADA.

On the 21st January the following dreadful murders took place in the London district of Upper Canada : A man named Henry Sovereign called at a neighbour's house, and pointing to a slight wound in his breast and left arm, said that there were two men at his house, and he was afraid they would kill his wife and family. The neighbour, followed by Sovereign, immediately went to the farm. The first object that attracted his notice on his arrival, was a little infant about three or four months old, burning on the fire ; one of its legs was burnt off nearly to the knee, the back part of its head was consumed, and its body was much burnt. Near the hearth lay another child in a state of insensibility (since dead). By the side of the door was another, in a sitting or squatting posture, having been struck on the head with a bludgeon, or some large instrument, which occasioned instant death. A fourth was found out of doors at the corner of the

house, lifeless and bleeding on the ground. About a rod from the house, in a patch which led to an old novel, was seen a fifth in the same state. Nearly a rod farther in the same path was found a young woman, about seventeen years of age, a lifeless corpse. In the yard in front of the hovel, lay the mother and another little boy, close together, weltering in their blood. Close by the mother was observed the blade of a knife, all bloody. This was recognised as Sovereign's knife. Sovereign, when other persons came to the scene of slaughter, denied that it was his knife, and took it out from his pocket, and it was also covered with blood ! Sovereign has long brutalized himself by intemperance, and had rendered his family very unhappy, whom he frequently threatened to kill. The bodies had the appearance of having been dead some time before the arrival of the neighbours. These and other circumstances were detailed at the inquest on the dead bodies, and the result was the apprehension and committal of Sovereign to gaol.The Rev. William Ryerson, who relates these particulars in a letter, states, that the day after the murder he called at the house, where the mangled bodies still remained. He then gives the following harrowing description :-" Picture to yourself, stretched on one bed, close by the side of each other, all stiff and cold in death, a mother and five lovely children-the most of, them. were very handsome-with the half-consumed remains of an innocent babe, three or four months old, in her arms. At the foot of the bed stood the aged father of the lifeless mother, whose soul appeared to be oppressed with grief too big for utterance-a grief that wrung and chilled the very heart, so as to deny him the melancholy consolation of bedewing the cold remains of his children with the fear of affection and sorrow I

was deeply affected with the old gentleman's submission and resignation to this mysterious and most painful dispensation of Divine Providence. After showing me the several places where the children were found, and returning to the house, he took me by the hand, and, with a faltering voice, said, " My case is like that of Job-all my children are taken from me in one day ; but I must submit." By the side of the old man

stood an elder sister and brother of the murdered mother, both of them overwhelmed with sorrow. On being introduced to the woman she appeared to be incapable of re-straining the violence of her feelings, but, weeping aloud, said-" OF Mr. R-, did you ever witness such a sight? who would believe that any man could come to this ?" &c. Indeed, such were my feelings, that after saying a few words to the afflicted friends I left the place as soon as possible,"