On this page
-
Text (5)
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
THE BURNOPFIELD MURDER . The trial of John Cain and Richard Rayne for the murder of Mr . Robert Stirling , a young Scotch surgeon , on the 1 st of November , 1855 , on a high road near Durham , took place towards the close of last week at that town . The body , it will be recollected , was discovered on the 6 th of November in a copse near Derwent Bridge , horribly mangled , and with the pockets in the clothes evidently rifled of what valuables they had contained . The police made inquiries , and in process of time the two men who have just been tried were arrested under very suspicious circumstances . Their trial , however , has ended in a verdict of Acquittal . The facts were very remarkable , and rather elaborate ; but they
have been so admirably and so judicially summarized in a leading article of the Times , that we here repeat the story as there told : — " Against Cain , the chief prisoner , the evidence was very strong . He seemed to be strangely acquainted with all the particulars of the murder , and mentioned little facts in conversation which were afterwards shown to be correct , and which suggested personal knowledge . He said to two women that he knew ' the place of the murder as well as their house floor . ' He stated that there was a quickset hedge near the place , and that the dead body had been trailed into it for the length of twenty yards ; that he saw the first man who came past after the murder , and that he was on horseback , while on the right side of the . road there was a
man ploughing , —all which was subsequently discovered to be true . Besides these admissions , the fact of a glass button being found near the murdered man , and identified as belonging to one of Cain ' s waistcoats , was not without significance . And there was still a third proof , which connected him with the time and place of the murder , in the evidence of Mr . Stobart , who is the last person known to have seen Robert Stirling alive . Mr . Stobart saw the two prisoners , and tried to avoid them , as he had some money with him , and their appearance terrified him . He was obliged , however , to pass on ; he observed them particularly ; and immediately after passing them he met a young man who , from the description , seems to have been the deceased . ' It ' s a fine day ,
sir , ' said Mr . Stobart . ' It is a very fine day , the stranger replied , with a broad Scottish accent . The old man ( Stobart ) walked on , turned to the right , heard a shot which was precisely in the direction of the two men ; and we are left to the conclusion that it was at this moment that Stirling was murdered . Nor was this the whole of the case for the prosecution . It appears that the young surgeon had on the day of his murder a silver watch , in an engine-turned case , with gold figures on the dial , and before starting on his fatal journey he borrowed a watchguard from one of his friends , attached
it to his watch , and placed it round his neck . When his body was found , the watch was gone , having been wrenched from the guard , part of which still remained . This very timepiece , with gilt letters on the dial , with engine-turned silver case , and with half of a broken watchguard attached to it , was brought to a pawnbroker named Raine , and offered first for 30 s ., then for a lower . sum , and lower still , until at last Is . was asked , the pawnbroker being obliged to refuse it from having no license to receive silver . Lastly , the servant at a publichouse declares that she washed a . shirt for Cain and
another for his supposed accomplice , both of which were covered with blood ; and it may be added that the lancet and lancet-case which Mr . Stirling had in liia possession at the time of his death wen ; ottered for sale to a gentleman in Durham by an intimate friend of Cain ' s , at whose home Cain was seen the day after the murder . " On the other side , there arose a doubt as to the watch . In the first place , it was not to be found ; in the second place , while the pawnbroker ' s wife declared that it was Cain wiio offered it for pledge , her servant girl as solemnly swore that it wad not Cain , but the other prisoner . Then the man who was at the publichouse at Newcastle , and asked to have hist shirt washed along with Cain ' s , was sworn by the servant girl not to
have been the prisoner Knyne , but somebody else . Apart , too , from these instances in which the prosecutors failed to prove their point , . small facts appear to have been brought forward which individually were of no use , and therefore only tended to weaken the case by distracting attention ami displaying a poverty of evidence . The counsel for the defence naturally dwelt on these factf , exposed their futility , and asked , ' Where is the evidence ? ' It then became nioro easy to explain uway the statements of Stobart an the druiun of a timid old man . The button , by an ingenious argument , was shown to bo different from the buttons of tin : waistcoat ; mid , to qualify tho admissions of Cain , liis couiiter-Htatomonta wore turned to Mm best account . "
Untitled Article
FALSE IMPRISONMENT . An action for iirhiuiU and false imprisonment was brought at tho Muiristono Aasiz . tia by a young man mimed HolincH againot th « pariah constable of Ilulstoad , a blacksmith of tho iiiimo of Walton . Holmes wan courting a certain Rosanno Whitehcud , and , on tho < voninir of the tfrd of luwt March , ho was with the fair
one at her parents' cottage until eight o'clock , when he went away , and indulged in potations at a neighbouring public-house . These potations , it would seem , were imbibed on a liberal scale , and under their influence the
ardent lover was induced to return to the cottage of his sweetheart , and to look through the window . He then fancied he saw Rosanne sitting on a man ' s lap . The sight moving him to exceeding rage , he dashed in the window , cut his hands severely in so doing , and then , according to his own statement at the trial , found out his mistake , and was pacified . It appeared undeniable , however , that he was very drunk ; and the case for the defence was that he behaved so violently that the Whiteheads sent for the constable and implored him , " for God Almighty ' s sake , " to take Holmes away and
lock him up for the night . The blacksmith accordingly carried him off in a cart , handcuffed , to the nearest police station , which is at Sevenoaks ; but here they refused to take the charge , and Holmes was driven back to Halstead , still handcuffed , and with blood streaming from his wounds , and was locked up in his own house during the night . On the road back , Holmes and Walton drank a large quantity of hot gin and beer at various public-houses . On the following morning , Holmes was taken before a magistrate , and discharged ; and he now brought his action . A verdict was given for the plaintiff ; damages , one shilling .
A rather similar case was tried immediately afterwards . A poor man living at Ringwold , near Dover , became notorious for quarrelling with his wife , and for general violence . The rector of the parish , Mr . Charles Vernon Holme Sumner , caused Greenstreet , the man in q uestion , to be taken before a magistrate , on a charge of threatening to do him some mortal injury . He was accordingly imprisoned for a certain number of days , and then again brought before the magistrates , when the charge was not proceeded with ; but Greenstreet was examined by some medical men with a view to showing that he was insane . This , however , was not satisfactorily proved , and the man was discharged . He now
brought an action against Mr . Sumner . In the course of cross-examination , it was shown that he was subject to delusions with respect to the boys and men of the village insulting and worrying him , and to his wife having been faithless , and entertaining a design upon his existence . It also appeared that the police , on going to apprehend him when the warrant was out , found him armed with several deadly weapons . After a good deal of technical discussion between the counsel on both sides , the Chief Baron said , he was of opinion that there was no evidence of malice , or of want of probable and reasonable cause for the proceedings taken by the defendant ; and the plaintiff was thereupon nonsuited .
A third action for false imprisonment was tried at Warwick . The plaintiff in this case had been employed as a clerk by the defendant , a timber merchant . One day he was given into custody for embezzlement ; but it was subsequently found that one of the sums said to have been embezzled was duly entered and accounted for . The plaintiff was minutely cross-examined , and , for the defendant , it was suggested that the item which had been overlooked in so extraordinary a manner had , in fact , been entered and accounted for by the plaintiff long after the charge was made . As to ttie other items alleged to have been embezzled , it was urged that the defendant hud been compelled to withdraw his charge , not from any want of probable cause , but from a technical defect of proof . The trial of this cause occupied several hours , and in the end the jury found a verdict for the defendant .
Untitled Article
Tins Convict Dovk . — It is stated that Dove still retains his coolness and confidence , and that he calculates on si commutation of his sentence . Great efforts towards this end are being made by his relatives and by several Wesleyan Methodists . Should they fail , ho will be executed this day week , the Oth of August . Likic in Australia . —A man named ilallam brought an action at the Norwich Assizes against n Mr . Robe , the question raised being as to whether certain property and title-deeds belonged to the plaintiff or tlio defendant on the 9 th of February last , when they were seized by the police of Norwich in Iiiillani \ s house under a search warrant procured by Kobe . Ilallam had been residing in Australia , and it came out in cross-examination that ho went there on account of his having been tried for receiving stolen property , owing to which , though acquitted , ho found it necessary to leave tins country . In Van Dicnun ' s Land he married a certain Mrs . Galley ;
but hero again it appeared that there wore Homo auspicious circumstances . Tho woman was already married ( oho asserted , in cross-examination , that hIio believed , at tho time of her . second marriage , that hor former husband was dead , though this was not tho case ) , and nho acknowledged that sho had been transported for seven years for taking soino of her inistresse . i chemises , when j-ho wan a lady ' s maid , " instead of her own . " Alluding to this c ' rcuin . st .. -ince , she said hIio had " fallen into tho mcsliiiH of the law in a vuvy . simple manner . " After her marringn with the plaintiff Ilallam , but whilo ho was absent at . tho diggings , sho wont into puitnornhip with Robo oh a spcclc . H of jeweller . Rolie boarded with Mrs . Ilallam , and , an alleged by the plaintilf , ho loft tho property with her na ( security for inonny he owed on account
s of boarding . According to the evidence of Mrs . Hallam r and another witness , Robe was in love with her , adored : the ground she trod on , and wanted her to go to England : and live with him ; but he had an amour with anothei \ woman , whom he afterwards married . On being called , the defendant , who seemed to be a very respectable elderly man , denied the assertions made by Hallam and his wife , and affirmed that they jhad robbed him and made off . He added : —" It ia not true that I said 1 worshipped or would kiss the ground Mrs . Hallam walked on . It is not true that I took a passage for Mrs . Hallam and forfeited it . I forfeited my own , because I wished to stay longer on business . I never triad to get into Mrs . Hallam ' s bedroom . I never asked her to live with me or be my wife . I never expressed any affection for her in particular , except as a landlady . I did not admire her- ^ -not much , except in the way of courtesy . I am sure I don ' t mean courtship . I followed these people home chiefly for my title-deeds , which I hope to be very valuable . " Lord Campbell summed up in favour of Robe , whom he regarded as an honest , respectable man : and the jurv found a verdict in accordance .
Pastoral Morality . —Two charges of perjury , both having reference to the same case , were brought forward at the Norwich Assizes , the one being against Charles Coe , the other against Maria Vassar . The latter was a girl of eighteen , who was recently delivered of an illegitimate child in the workhouse . She affiliated the child on Coe ; but Coe swore he was not the father . Subsequently , however , the girl obtained a reversal of the decision originally given against her , and Coe was ordered to be prosecuted for perjury . He appealed against this decision , and brought forward a young man named Rickaby , who acknowledged that he was the father of the infant , and said that fair play to Coe induced him to make that confession . The bench of magistrates being puzzled , determined to send both Coe and the girl Vassar to trial for perjury . Coe was tried first , and Vassar
produced several witnesses to prove the intimacy that had existed , as she alleged , between herself and Coe , who on his part called his sister to prove an alibi on the night when the seduction was said to have taken place . Among the other witnesses was Rickaby , who had enlisted in the Hussars , and who now appeared in his uniform , sa \ -ing , " he stood in those clothes on account of Maria Vassar . " In addition to these witnesses , a girl , who was also confined in the union with Maria Vassar , asserted that she was advised by that young woman to swear her child to a rich father , as she was going to do , rather than to a poor fellow -who could not support it . Coe , it appeared , is the son of a farmer in good circumstances . The jury found a verdict of Guilty against Coe , and the charge against the girl Maria Vassar was then withdrawn . Coe was sentenced to two years' imprisonment with hard labour .
A Palliating Circumstance . —George Marston , a private in the 13 th Dragoons , has been tried at Exeter for shooting at Corporal Fraser . He was found Guilty ; but something in the course of the evidence induced the Judge to postpone sentence , and , from inquiries he made , it was discovered that Fraser had seduced , or attempted to seduce , the prisoner's wife . When Marston discovered thl « , Fraser threatened he would serve him out at his drill . Mr . Baron Martin observed that it was not to be tolerated that officers should hold out a threat
to the men under them that thoy would serve them out at their drill if they did not allow them to debauch their wives . He thought in this instance tho commanding officer's attention ought to be called to the matter . The prisoner had received the greatest provocation that could be offered to a man , and he did not think he ought to punish him ; but still he must not take the law into his own hands . He would be discharged upon entering into his own recognizance to appear to receive judgment when called upon .
Bigamy . — Captain Richard Emmerson , the master of a ship trading between London and Newcastle , has been examined before Mr . Yardley , at tho Thames policecourt , on a charge of bigamy . It appeared that in November last , while his first wife was still living , Captain Einmerson became acquainted with a widow named Judith Roquin Per Putron , whoso husband had been dead eight j-oaiv , with whom he cohabited , and whom he afterwards married in December . He always told the widow that lie was a single man . He went out on throe separate voyages after his second marriage , and ho lived for a fortnight at a timo with his newly murried wife , on his return homo from each . Somo timo afterwards , wheu tlioy were at . Sunderland together , tho husband alread
second bride found out that her wns y mnrrn . nl to another wife , whom hIio saw at that place . Mho remonstrated with Captain Kminorsoii on the subject in presence of tho other woman , and he then dc-. sertod hor , and , although she frequently met him afterwards , ho always disowned her . About three weeks ago , . she gave him into custody . Mr . Brandt , the prisoner's counsel , having mibjectod Mr . s . Der Putron to a very Hovcro cross-examination , succeeded in showing that she wan a woman of notoriously bad character ; but Mr . Yiirdloy , who declined to enter into tho moral part of the question , nnid tho bigamy had been proved to his Muti » faction , and ho therefore aunt tho caHO for trial at the Central Criminal Court . Bail wua accepted . —A necoiid case of bigamy has been , brought forward before
Untitled Article
OUR CIVILIZATION . —¦»—
Untitled Article
August 2 , 1856 . ] THE LEADER . 725
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 2, 1856, page 725, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2152/page/5/
-