[list-cumbria] Carlisle Patriot, 24 Apr 1824 - Dumfries Circuit (2)

[Petra Mitchinson]

Saturday 24 Apr 1824   (p. 4, col. 4-5)

 

DUMFRIES CIRCUIT. 

 

[continued] 

 

Patrick Miller M'CLATCHIE, charged with fabricating a cautionary obligation, purporting to be signed in the hand-writing of Robert
THRESHIE, Esq. writer in Dumfries, and uttering a bill for £20 sterling, purporting to have been drawn by an unknown individual of
the name of George WORKMAN, and to which he forged the signature of William THOMSON, sen., Sheriff-Clerk of Dumfries-shire. Mr.
M'CLATCHIE is author of a novel in four volumes, entitled "Douglas, or the Field of Otterburn," and the cautionary letter was given
to Mr. SWAN, as security for part of the expense of printing that work. Though a very young man, he evinces talents which time and
additional opportunities might have ripened into excellence; and we sincerely regret that his early aspirations after literary fame
should have been accompanied by conduct so humiliating to the pride of mental superiority. The £20 bill was uttered after the
publication of "Douglas:" and the banker by whom it was discounted having become suspicious of the genuineness of the signature,
waited on a friend of Mr. THOMSON's, and on the faith of his statement, applied to a magistrate, and got M'CLATCHIE apprehended the
same day. On being placed at the bar, the prisoner pleaded guilty, and the public prosecutor having restricted the libel to an
arbitrary punishment, the judge mitigated the punishment to transportation for fourteen years—a sentence which appeared to give
universal satisfaction. His Lordship addressed the panel in very feeling and suitable terms, and gave him much sound advice as to
the regulation of his future conduct. 

 

Robert ARMSTRONG, of Kirkpatrick-Durham, was indicted for assault. He was charged—"1st. With violently and outrageously pushing
Joseph LESLEY, innkeeper or publican, in the same village; 2dly. With assaulting John FRASER, residing at Upper-bar; and 3dly. With
assaulting George BLAIR, constable, when sent for to apprehend him—striking him some severe blows upon the head with a pewter
half-munchkin stoup, whereby he was instantly felled to the ground, and severely wounded—and then springing on his body, and
striking him on the head with his clenched fists and the pewter stoup aforesaid, leaving him in a state of insensibility, and
half-choaked with the blood that rushed into his throat." The riot or assault took place at Kirkpatrick-Durham, on the 10th of
October last, which was the very day, we believe, that the duty was taken off whiskey. The rustics of the district had assembled to
celebrate a sort of fair or tryst, and, in reference to the affray, one of the witnesses characterised it as a "whiskey concern a'
thegither." Various persons deposed to the facts of the case, which resemble those of other drunken broils, and possess no peculiar
interest. Mr. MAITLAND very ably defended the defendant; and the Lord Justice Clerk, in summing up, was of opinion that the proof
merely sustained the assault upon BLAIR. The verdict of the jury was, delivered through Sir W. JARDINE their foreman, Guilty of
assaulting Geo. BLAIR while executing his duty as a constable, by throwing him down, and striking him when down with his fists, but
not with a pewter stoup; and they found him not guilty of the other charges in the indictment. One month's imprisonment in
Kirkcudbright gaol. 

 

Walter BELL, Edinburgh carrier, stood charged with two separate acts of assault: the first committed on the 16th of October, and the
second on the 30th of Dec. 1823. This was an aggravated case. In consequence of some high words, BELL, it appears, struck David
DINWOODIE, tacksman of the Dalstone toll-bar, a violent blow with a stick, by which he was knocked down and severely wounded; and on
his wife coming up to his assistance, she too was violently beat with the same weapon, as well as John BELL, who, while humanely
endeavouring to rescue a female, was violently assaulted by the prisoner and his companions, thrown upon the ground, and repeately
struck in that situation. The second assault was committed at Moffat, on the person of William BUTTARS, a Dalbeattie carrier, whom
BELL first struck in the face with his clenched fist, and afterwards pursued and kicked him in a most brutal manner. The prisoner
pleaded guilty; and his Lordship, in passing sentence, made some pointed remarks on the lawless and violent conduct that
distinguished so many carters and carriers. The case was one of a very aggravated nature, and in addition to six months imprisonment
in the jail of Dumfries, he thought it his duty to bind over BELL to keep the peace for five years, under a penalty of £50 sterling.


 

Alexander M'CAUGHIE, farm-servant at Wallacehall, Jas. BROWN, farm-servant at Woodhead-of-Dardarroch, and George BROWN, blacksmith
at Birkshaw, all in the parish of Glencairn, were accused of having, on the night of the 26th of November last, assaulted Robert
THOMSON, in Lochenhead, in the parish of Dunscore, and John THOMSON, at Burbrough-mill, in the parish of Closeburn, both in the
county of Dumfries, with sticks and their clenched fists, while travelling on that part of the road leading from Dumfries to
Dunscore kirk, which passes through the farm of Greenhead, in the parish of Dunscore. The offence was committed at night, on the
return of the defendants from Dumfries Martinmas fair. Evidence having been heard, the jury found the assault on Robert THOMSON,
proven; but that on John, not proven, and recommended the defendants, on account of their excellent character, to the leniency of
the Court. Six months' imprisonment, and surety to keep the peace for three years. 

 

James GRAHAM, jun., James WILSON, and John WRIGHT, all in the parish of Lochmaben, were charged with breaking into the house of
William RICHARDSON, at Heck, one of the water bailies of the river Annan, early on the morning of the 16th January last, and
carrying away a salmon fishing-net, then in the lawful possession of the said William RICHARDSON. Several witnesses were examined,
who proved the house-breaking, and forcible abstraction of the net, which had been seized by RICHARDSON a few days before, in the
execution of his duty as a water bailiff. Mr. MAITLAND, the counsel for the prisoners, admitted that the facts charged had been
proved, but contended that RICHARDSON was not a water-bailiff regularly appointed in terms of the act, which requires that the
commission shall bear in græmio that the individual had been named to the office at the Quarter Sessions of the peace, or in a
Circuit Court. The commission of RICHARDSON did not show that he had been so appointed; and therefore he submitted that the charge
must fall to the ground.—His Lordship concurred in this opinion, and the jury, without leaving the box, immediately returned a
verdict of—"Not proven." The prisoners, after a suitable address, were dismissed. This closed the criminal business for the circuit.


 

His Lordship then addressed the sheriffs. He said he was sorry to observe that crime seemed to be on the increase in this formerly
peaceable district. He particularly reprobated the practice of granting licenses in the indiscriminate manner now in use, and
pointedly called the attention of the magistracy to the disgraceful practice of allowing spirits to be sold at toll-bars, the
melancholy consequences of which had been seen in two of the cases just tried. He also adverted, in strong terms, to the want of
accommodation in the prison, for the proper classification of the criminals. He did not mean to say that prisons should be converted
into palaces; but, on the other hand, it was clear that they ought to be healthful, and afford some means for separating the less
guilty from the more hardened offender. His Lordship mentioned the county gaol of Ayr as an example to other counties. A jail,
county-rooms, and court house, had been lately erected in the burgh of Ayr, at an expense of £27,000; and he had no doubt that the
gentlemen of this district would come liberally forward, if properly called on, to attain the same desirable end. 

 

 

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