[List-Cumbria] Carlisle Journal, 01 Apr 1815 - Assize Intelligence

[Petra Mitchinson]

Saturday 01 Apr 1815   (p. 4, col. 4-5)

 

ASSIZE INTELLIGENCE. 

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YORKSHIRE LENT ASSIZES-Closed on Wednesday the 22d March, when sentence of DEATH was passed upon 14 persons; all of whom were
reprieved before the Judge departed for Lancaster, with the exception of Mr. Joseph BLACKBURN, an attorney in Leeds, for forging his
Majesty's stamps, who has been left for execution,-and Mr. ROBERTS, a bankrupt, for defrauding his creditors, but who was respited
until the 13th of May.-Mr. WAINWRIGHT, the partner of Mr. BLACKBURN, who had been indicted along with him for cutting off the stamps
from old deeds, and affixing them to new, was acquitted. 

 

The trial of the unfortunate Mr. BLACKBURN excited a considerable degree of interest. On being put to the bar he was dressed in a
suit of mourning, and had his hair powdered, looked extremely pale, and considerably thinner than when he was first committed. There
was in his appearance a solemnity and deep-rooted sorrow, which powerfully excited the feelings of every person in Court, and the
most profound silence was produced when he appeared at the bar.-On being found guilty, the prisoner seemed very deeply affected. 

 

Mr. Justice LE BLANC, in passing sentence upon the prisoners, said,-"The offences of which many of you have been convicted must have
been contemplated in your minds a considerable time before they were committed, and were not the results of a sudden impulse.-Means,
and ingenious means, were used to effect your purposes; and, I am sorry to remark, that one of you, whose education and habits of
life should have raised him above such a degradation, and who had the honourable means of maintaining himself with credit, should
have been induced by the thirst of money, and the wish to grow rich by ways more rapid than those of patient industry, to plunder
the public revenue, and to involve individuals in poverty and ruin; by a long series of ingenious contrivances you managed to
imitate the stamps used in the conveyance of property and other securities, from which is one of the great supports of the public
revenue; and, by affixing these stamps on other deeds and securities, you not only grossly defrauded the revenue, but put the
property of individuals to hazard, and that to a great extent." 

 

LANCASTER ASSIZES-Commenced on Saturday last. There are not less than 88 prisoners for trial-viz. 4 (females) for child-murder; 2
for manslaughter; 1 for rape and robbery; 1 for maliciously cutting and stabbing; 4 for highway robberies; 15 for burglaries; 8 for
forgery; 7 for arson; 2 for uttering base coin; 2 for horse-stealing; 2 for sacrilege; 3 for stealing letters from the Preston
post-office; and the others for divers minor offences. 

 

 

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