[List-Cumbria] Carlisle Journal, 17 Sep 1814 - Assize Intelligence

[Petra Mitchinson]

Saturday 17 Sep 1814   (p. 3, col. 2)

 

ASSIZE INTELLIGENCE. 

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LANCASTER ASSIZES. 

(Concluded from our Paper last week.) 

 

The Assizes ended on Friday the 9th inst. In addition to the four prisoners mentioned in our last to have received sentence of
Death, not less than 14 others have been since convicted and condemned, viz. 

 

Thomas ROBERTS, for uttering forged notes; Thomas WOOD, for stealing in a dwelling-house; Augustine ANTONIO, for wilfully stabbing;
Robert ARMSTRONG, Ann MOLINEAUX, Thomas MARTIN, Charles RILEY, William and Jane GETTY, for coining and uttering counterfeit coin; J.
C. KERSHAM, John RADCLIFFE, Allen ROBINSON, for highway robberies; William MERCER, for stealing a cow; and William HORTON, for
burglary. 

 

To be transported for life-G. YOUNG, for stealing notes. 

 

To be transported for 14 years-Ann DOWNS, Ann PAUL, Rachael SLADEN, for uttering forged notes. 

 

To be transported for 7 years-William COOPER, Thos. IRELAND, Joshua SMITH, for stealing cotton-cloth; James HUDSON, for embezzling
money belonging to his employers. 

 

To be imprisoned for different periods. Mary EASTWARD, for concealing the birth of her bastard child; James KELLY, for stealing a
portmanteau; Wm. WRAGG, for breaking into a dwelling-house; Thomas TAYLOR, for embezzling his employers' money; Ann DILLON, for
stealing notes; Winifred RICE, for passing base money; William ARMSTRONG, George LOWE, and John HOUGH alias BROWN, for bigamy; Henry
CORNISH, for stealing wearing apparel; Robert CHARNOCK, James SATCH, for manslaughter. 

 

Several were acquitted, and against others no bills were found. 

 

CHESTER ASSIZES. 

 

At these Assizes, Henry RIGBY, aged 29, a cotton-spinner from Manchester, was indicted for bigamy, he having on the 10th of October,
1812, married Isabella FLEMING, at the parish church of Wigan, in Lancashire; his former wife, Sarah KELSALL, whom he married in
1804, being still living. A copy of the marriage register in each instance was put in and sworn to, and witnesses examined in
support of the prosecution. The prisoner, being asked what he had to say, made rather a long and curious defence. He began by
stating, that he was left to himself at an early age, and became acquainted with his first wife a very short time previous to their
marriage; that her father was at the time unknown to him, under sentence of transportation in Lancaster Castle, for felony, where he
remained till the expiration of his sentence; that then he went to Carlisle, where he invited the prisoner and his wife, promising
to provide for them; but when he arrived, he was coldly received by KELSALL, who accused him of stealing his daughter, saying "he
was sure she would never have married such an ill-looking, blink-eyed, round-shouldered -- as he was!" That the old man (KELSALL)
afterwards took his wife from him, and got him turned out of his employ; and his wife, through the persuasion of her father,
declared she would not live with him; that she stripped his premises in his absence, quitted him, and went on a roving cruise of
seven months to Dumfries, when she returned, and confessed to him that she had been living the greater part of that time as a
prostitute. After he had taken to her again, her behaviour became worse than before; she refused to do any thing for him, and
continually beat the children, if he took the least notice of them, tauntingly assuring him they were none of his; that she was
tired of his company, and would rather see his back than his face. His wife again quitted him, and, after an absence of two years
and a half, returned, and presented him with a fine boy, fifteen months old. This trifling error he likewise overlooked; but still
her conduct was so bad that he could not endure it. On one occasion she turned him out of the house and got a number of men to
ill-use him, urging them to throw him into a pond. He had been advised to put a halter round her neck, and sell her; but he gravely
assured the Court, he could not think of doing any such thing, as his conscience would not allow him to palm so arrant a vixen on
any man whatever. He stated that he had, on one occasion, caught her father in bed with her! 

 

The simple manner in which he recited his catalogue of grievances frequently excited the risible faculties of the Bench and
auditory. 

 

The Judge summed up the evidence, and as both marriages were fully proved, the Jury, without hesitation, returned a verdict of
Guilty.-Sentenced to pay a fine of sixpence, and to be imprisoned twelve months in the common gaol. 

 

 

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