[list-cumbria] Carlisle Patriot, 06 Mar 1824 - Cumberland Spring Assizes (6)

[Petra Mitchinson]

Saturday 06 Mar 1824   (p. 2, col. 4 – p. 3, col. 5)

 

CUMBERLAND SPRING ASSIZES. 

 

NISI PRIUS. 

  

[continued] 

 

INSALL v. DANIEL BRETHERTON. 

 

Mr. PATTINSON opened the pleadings. 

 

Mr. BLACKBURNE said Thomas INSALL, the plaintiff, resides in Carlisle, and till lately was an innkeeper there. On the 18th of last
March he sold to the defendant, Mr. Daniel BRETHERTON of Liverpool, on his own account, three horses that had been employed by him
in the Robert Burns coach, for the moderate sum of £25. Whatever the horses might have been, this certainly was no great price, and
one would think that no objection could be made to paying it. To shew, however, that they were worth the money, and that the horses
were really purchased by the defendant on his own account, he (Mr. B.) would prove that he had resold them to Mr. HARRISON. To
recover the amount now claimed, an action was brought in the City Court, from which Mr. BRETHERTON had removed it into the superior
Court. He would establish the fact of the purchase. In truth, the defendant himself had acknowledged the justness of the claim; but
he resisted, he said, because Mr. INSALL had behaved shabbily in arresting him, and attempting to put him into the "stone jug"—by
which term he meant Carlisle gaol. The defence set would probably be, that the horses were purchased for another person; but the
contrary would be too strongly established to render the attempt effectual. 

 

William HARRISON examined.—I know Mr. INSALL, and Mr. Daniel BRETHERTON, and saw them on the 18th of March last. BRETHERTON did not
then carry on any business; he was a young man going up and down the country. At the time mentioned, Mr. INSALL sold him three
horses for £25, and was to return a guinea and a half; and Mr. BRETHERTON gave plaintiff one sovereign to bind the bargain. These
horses I afterwaids bought of Mr. BRETHERTON myself, on the 12th of April; I paid for them, and the receipt I now produce; the
hand-writing is Mr. BRETHERTON's, who delivered the horses to me. The signature to a paper now shewn to me is in Mr. BRETHERTON's
writing. 

 

The paper was put in. 

 

Mr. ALDERSON, for defendant, did not see how this could be evidence. 

 

Mr. Justice HOLROYD said it was evidence so far as to shew that the defendant had the power of disposal. 

 

Mr. ALDERSON.—I merely object, because I don't see how it bears upon this case; but it is of little consequence. 

 

Receipt read—it merely stated that HARRISON had paid him £25 for three horses. 

 

Cross-examined by Mr. ALDERSON.—I was a servant with Mr. Bartholomew BRETHERTON; and he and Mr. Peter BRETHERTON were connected in
coaching: I did not consider myself as Mr. Peter BRETHERTON's servant. 

 

Mr. ALDERSON.—Is it not Peter BRETHERTON, Daniel BRETHERTON's father? 

 

Witness.—I don’t know that he is his father; he thinks so himself, I suppose. 

 

Mr. ALDERSON.—Oh! I must speak by the card, I see; but I am very well pleased with your answer, Sir; it is very well. Perhaps, Sir,
you will tell us something about the horses—were they horses? 

 

Witness.—No, two of them were mares. (A laugh.) 

 

Mr. ALDERSON.—Very well again, Sir; I am not displeased with your conduct; it is very pleasant, you know, to jest upon one's oath. 

 

The cross-examination was continued at some length, and the witness conducted himself with so much impropriety as to draw forth a
sharp rebuke from the Bench.—The horses, he continued, had been in the Robert Burns coach, and that coach came to INSALL's house;
but I do not know that plaintiff had any share in it. 

 

On being again questioned as to the nature of his connection with the defendant's father, he roughly exclaimed, "I tell you I had
nothing do with Mr. Peter BRETHERTON." Yes, I was under bond of £200 to work the Burns coach, and they have put another in my place.
I can't say that I am particularly pleased at this, and I am not angry, because they did me a good turn against my will. I paid for
my horses at Liverpool, in Peter BRETHERTON's office, but he was not there at the time: the defendant's receipt was also written
there. I will swear that I had no conversation with Peter BRETHERTON about a luck-penny. 

 

Re-examined.—I am guard of the Independent coach. It is the practice of different proprietors to horse coaches with their own
horses. 

 

Mr. James FAIRBAIRN called.—I am a coach-proprietor in Carlisle, and know Mr. Daniel BRETHERTON, who is, I believe, a coach
proprietor likewise. In June or July, a difference occurred between Mr. BRETHERTON and Mr. INSALL; and the former applied to us to
be bail in a case of arrest by the latter. On hearing a statement of the case, I said it was a piece of folly, and a pity to throw
money away after it. Mr. D. BRETHERTON said he considered himself extremely ill-used, and that he was determined to resist. On
further remonstrance, he agreed to pay the debt, and I saw money paid to the sheriff's officer, who said it was for the debt, and
£10 costs. I observed to defendant that I thought the debt was a just one, and advised him to pay it; he said nothing to the
contrary, but expressed a determination to resist. 

 

Paper put in, signed D. BRETHERTON—it contained, in INSALL's hand-writing, an acknowledgment of a debt of £5, being a sum advanced
by Mr. INSALL and paid to Mr. John MARK on account of Peter BRETHERTON and Co., to compensate for damage sustained by him by the
upsetting of the Robert Burns coach at Garstang. Also a separate acknowledgment of a debt of £22 8s. 6d. for three horses purchased
by him (D. BRETHERTON) of T. INSALL. It began, "I acknowledge," and no mention was made of Peter BRETHERTON or Company. 

 

Mr. ALDERSON.—Is not that a promissory note? 

 

Mr. BLACKBURNE.—It is a statement of account. 

 

This was the plaintiff's case. 

 

 

[to be continued] 

 

 

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