An Account of a most Inhuman And Barbarous MURDER Committed by one William Sherloge and his Whore, Upon the Bodies of his own Wife & Child; And how he set his House on Fire, Was Apprehended, and Carried before Captain Evans, Examined and Committed to Cork-Goal.  
Eniskean, December the 10th. 1700. SIR,  
THis Bearer promising me to see you before he left Dublin, gave me the occasion of troubling you with this Letter, requesting that you will be mindful of my small business, amidst the many more of greater concern; for my sole dependence is upon your care in the management of it, etc. But before I leave you, I must acquaint you with a most Horrid and Barbarous Murder committed by one William Sherloge (and a certain Woman that was a Neighbour of his, who was both his Wench, and his Accomplice) on the Body of his own Wife and Child, on Sunday night last the 8th of this Month: And thus it was; This Villain Sherloge (as was found upon examination) had kept company with this Woman, who lived near his own House; and because they could not have the freedom of each others unlawful Embraces, they both consulted to Dispatch his Wife, and accordingly he went out after night fell, and returned with his Jezabel in the dead time of the night, and entered the House, where they found his Wife and Child a-sleep, and arming himself with a Hatchet and Sword, he went to the Bedside, and took his Wife by the Hair, and knocked her Brains out, and afterwards stabbed her in several places: the Child seeing her Mother so strangely Butchered, lamentably wept, and begged her Father not not to kill her Mother, and she would kiss him; yet nothing prevailed with him. In the mean time this Jilt was not Idle, but employed herself in murdering the Servant-Maid, which she supposed she had done, by knocking her on the Head with a Mallet, and then dragged her out of the House, but (by providence) the Maid revived, and made shift to creep to a Neighbour's House, which was about a Musquet-shot from the place. But in the mean while, (which is the most dreadful part of this Narrative) the cursed Whore told him that the Child must be killed, or else she would Hang them both; he told her that he could not kill his own Child, but bid her do it; which she immediately did in a most cruel manner, and laid the innocent Babe (which was about six years of age) by her murdered Mother; and having got some dry Wood, they placed it about the mangled bodies, and then sert the House on fire. The day approaching, the Woman-murderer went out, and not finding the Maid, she went home, and Sherloge appeared early in the morning, almost naked, crying out, that Rogues had murdered his Family, and set his House on fire, and that he had escaped out at a Window; but the Maid's discovery caused both him and his Whore to be apprehended, and carried before Capt. Evans, who committed them to Cork Goal. Great care is taken to recover the Maid, and it is supposed she will do well. My curiosity led me to the place, where I saw the remains of those murdered bodies; the Child's heart, and some part of her body remain untouched, and that part of the Mother's body and head that received the strokes. If I should descend to every particular, it would exceed the bounds of a Letter; and therefore I have only sent you what I heard delivered by the Girl afore mentioned, and am,  
Sir, Your Humble Servant, Richard Ward.   

Dublin, Printed at the Back of Dick's Coffeehouse in Skinner-Row.