[list-cumbria] Carlisle Patriot, 07 Feb 1824 - Public-Office

[Petra Mitchinson]

Saturday 07 Feb 1824   (p. 3, col. 2)

 

PUBLIC-OFFICE, TOWN-HALL.-At this office, on Saturday, fourteen persons attended to settle a complaint against a carter belonging to
Mr. POTTS, of Low House, for misconducting himself in English-street, Carlisle, on the preceding Saturday evening, so as to drive
his cart against that of Mr. WATSON, farmer, by which both were upset, and Mrs. WATSON and several persons who were in the cart with
her, were considerably injured, and might have been killed on the spot. On being applied to by Mr. WATSON, the carter refused to
tell his name: on this part of the offence it was that the summons was founded. By the evidence given, it appeared that the man was
to blame; but the parties ultimately came to an accommodation without calling for the decision of the Magistrates. John HART, the
younger, stocking-weaver, was brought up under a warrant, for an unprovoked assault upon Mr. John WILSON, of Finkle-street, while on
guard over the dead and the King's peace at St. Mary's church-yard in this city. Mr. WILSON deposed that on Thursday night, as he
was passing down Castle-street, under the trees, on his way home, at a seasonable hour, he saw a person looking over the wall, and
merely turning his head, that person struck him a violent blow on the cheek, just under the eye, with a large stick. The assault was
so completely unprovoked, that Mr. WILSON did not speak a word. He afterwards ascertained that the offender was HART: when he got
home, his cheek had swelled up to the eye. HART declared that he was not aware of having assaulted any one; but if he had, he was
sorry for it; he was perfectly sober. Mr. C. H. THURNAM having been sent for, stated that as he was passing under the trees about a
quarter past ten on the same night, a man behind the wall also struck him on the face with a stick; but who the person was, he had
not been able to discover, though he made an attempt to do so, by clambering over the wall, when several persons who were there ran
off. HART's face was very black, particularly between the eyes; on being asked how he sustained the injury, he said "by tumbling
over the grave stones." In reply to another very natural question, he said he drank nothing all night but a little whiskey, which he
took with him to keep out the cold. The Court said it was rather too much when the guardians of the peace thus wantonly broke it:
and they ordered HART to find bail to answer for the offence at the sessions; which he did.-Mary BIGHAM, of Penrith, an itinerant
gambler, and a Weaver resident in Shaddongate, who had been playing with her at the end of the bridge, were apprehended in flagranti
delicto, and brought to the office. It appeared that the man had just won 15s. of the luckless BIGHAM; but he was not, as at first
suspected, in any way connected with her; he therefore was discharged, and she sent to gaol till Wednesday. She begged hard for
liberation even on her knees; she said she had an infant in the town, and had been brought up to better things; but it was thought
necessary to detain her, as there are numerous sharks of her class prowling about for the purpose of tricking the unwary out of
their money: yet it must be confessed that she had the wrong pig by the ear in the Shaddongate man, whose good fortune was more than
a match for BIGHAM's experience. On Wednesday she was again brought up, and discharged, after being admonished to seek out more
reputable means of getting a livelihood, which she promised to do: she admitted that she was the worse for liquor on Saturday; and
said the weaver's story of having won 15s. of her was untrue; he won only three or four shillings.-On the same day, Ann REEVES, the
keeper of a bad house, Joseph LANCASTER, shoemaker, a pensioner of 9d. a day, living with REEVES in an improper manner, although he
has a wife at Dalston; Ann WADDILOW, and Margaret JONES, two girls of the town, were brought before the Court; the women on a charge
of having robbed a private of the 4th Dragoon Guards, who came to Carlisle with a deserter, of all his money, while drunk and asleep
in REEVES's house; LANCASTER for assaulting one of the Peace-officers in the execution of his duty. JONES was intoxicated and
execrably dirty. She told a long, disgusting story; but the robbery could not be brought home to either of the parties. WADDILOW, it
appeared, was a stranger, a native of Staffordshire, but recently from Dublin, whence she had come in company with a soldier: on
promising to quit the town instantly, she was liberated. REEVES was likewise enlarged, expressing penitence, and a determination to
abandon her present evil courses. JONES was sent to gaol as a rogue and vagabond; and LANCASTER was also consigned to durance, in
default of bail, to answer for the assault.-An elderly man from Workington, named DAVIDSON, a regular trader in whiskey, according
to his own confession, was examined, he having been in company with a woman on Saturday, while she uttered a base half crown and a
shilling, in a pie-shop in Scotch-street. The keeper of the shop deposed that the prisoner and woman unknown to her, came into her
shop after dark, and ate four penny pies, to pay for which the female tendered half-a-crown, which witness examined very carefully
and rubbed on a black tea-pot, a test to which she commonly resorts; but the basis of the counterfeit being brass, she could not
detect the imposition by candlelight; therefore she gave the stranger 2s. 2d. by way of change. Having succeeded so well in this
attempt, the woman bethought herself of another expedient. She wanted three more pies; to pay for which she had only twopence in
copper; so she again requested change, and laying down a shilling, she says, "Good woman, that is your own shilling." Not suspecting
otherwise, the unfortunate pie-maker gave the deceiver nine-pence in good money, and finally discovered that the shilling, as well
as the half-crown, was worth just nothing! DONALD, however, pretty clearly proved that the offender was a stranger to him, and that
he had no knowledge of the trick which she had practised; a fact corroborated in a great degree by the pie-woman herself, who
stated, that when the utterer of the spurious coin said she had only two-pence to pay for the last three pies, he offered her a
penny, which was refused. DONALD acknowledged that a great many persons were engaged in "the whiskey trade," as he called it. They
purchase, he said, two gallons at a time at Springfield, (which quantity they obtain without permit) from 6s. to 7s. a gallon, and
sell it in and near Carlisle, at 10s. or thereabouts; in short, the whole country is completely inundated with this terrible evil,
and riot and drunkenness, to an unparalleled degree, are the consequences. One of the Bench very properly observed, that a
representation of the state of the case ought to be sent to Government by the Magistrates.-John CUTHBERTSON appeared to summons, to
answer to a charge of fraudulently and clandestinely conveying away from the shop of James CUTHBERTSON, whitesmith, situate in the
King's Arms Lane, certain tools and other articles, in order to deprive Mr. ATKINSON, the owner of the premises, of four pounds, the
amount of half a year's rent After some evidence had been gone into, the defendant conferred with Mr. ATKINSON, and the matter was
settled, without further magisterial interference, by CUTHBERTSON undertaking to pay the sum due. 

 

 

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