Maskel JESTER, who had been some weeks since committed to jail in Yadkin County for cruel treatment of his wife, committed suicide on Wednesday last.

The Judge (Court being in session) sent the Sheriff to the jail for the prisoner. He returned with the news that he found Jester hanging to the iron gate, dead. He had taken the thread from an old coffee sack and twisted it into a cord with which he hung himself. A slate was found in the cell with some writing containing directions of his children. It stated that "bad whiskey" was the cause of his dreadful end.

(Maskill Jester was about 40 years of age in 1853. He married Rachel Hayworth in Surry County about 1838 or 1839.) -- Faye Moran