Reading Room 2

Friday, September 28, 1860.

UNLAWFULLY LETTING OFF FIRE ARMS.
   Three men, named John Oaks, John Melling, and George Dainty, were charged with firing their guns on the public highway. Police-constable Worrill said: On Wednesday morning last, about a quarter past one o'clock, I saw the defendants in Whelley, close to the residence of Mr. Wright, one of the borough magistrates. They had each a gun, and I heard one of them say he would disturb Mr. Wright, if he could, but he did not say it in exactly those words. - The Chief Constable: Well, you need not repeat them. - Worrill: I saw Melling fire twice, and Dainty once. Oaks was so drunk that the gun dropped from his hands. - Melling, who acted as spokesman for the trio, admitted the guns were fired, but it was for their own amusement. They had been to Southport shooting, and he had a double barrelled gun which his companions said he had made but little use of, and he thought he would let them see what he could do. They did not intend to disturb any one. - Mr. Leach: Do you belong to the Rifle Corps? - Defendants, smiling: No. - Mr. Ingram: Well, you must pay costs. - Mr. Leach: I would advise you to join the Haigh Rifle Corps.

Friday, September 28, 1860.

ASSAULT.
   Samuel Duckworth was charged with an assault upon Sarah Huntington. - Complainant said that on Monday week the defendant came to her house, and without any provocation struck her on the head and kicked her, afterwards going away. She told some one that she would get him a summons, and the defendant, hearing of her intention, went to her on the following morning and again assaulted her, saying he would give her something to get law for. - Defendant: She threw a stone at me. She is a prostitute. - The Bench: Well, that does not justify your assaulting her. You are fined 10s. and costs, in default one month's imprisonment.

Friday, September 28, 1860.

PALTRY CHARGE.
   A respectable-looking young woman, named Mary Ann McCann, was charged with stealing a piece of calico from the Sovereign Mills. The overlooker exhibited the calico, the value of which was under a penny, and said he found it at her loom, one piece having been sewn to a chemise she appeared to have been repairing. He told the Bench that they were to deal with the case in such a manner as that it might act as a check upon others in the mill. - The girl was remanded till Wednesday, the Bench saying the case was an exceedingly trivial one.

Saturday, September 29, 1860.

SUDDEN DEATH AT INCE.
   On Monday evening last, Henry Hesketh, a man sixty years of age, who kept a beerhouse in Broom-street, Ince, went into the cellar for the purpose of drawing some ale. Being absent rather longer than natural, a member of the deceased's family went to look after him, and found him upon the floor apparently in a state of insensibility. He was removed at once, and Mr. Mackenzie was called in, but without avail, as Hesketh died the following morning, apoplexy being the cause.

Saturday, September 29, 1860.

A COUPLE OF WIFE BEATERS.
   On Wednesday last, at the Moot Hall, before J. Woodcock and G. Daglish, Esqrs., county magistrates, Joseph Orrell, a man upwards of 50 years of age, was charged with assaulting his wife Alice on the previous Friday. - Complainant said her husband came home drunk, and after abusing her with his tongue put her out of the house. She had had to complain of his conduct before, and she thought she had got too far advanced in life to be put out of her own house. She wished her husband to be bound over. The bench, however, discharged him with a caution. - William Greenough, a young man, was also charged with assaulting his wife Mary, who said that on the Thursday previous, between nine and ten o'clock in the morning, her husband, who had had some drink, came in the house and ordered her out. She refused to go, when he said he would make her, and seizing her by the neck, he pulled a clasp knife out of his pocket, with which weapon he said he would "rip her open." She got away from him, and ran out. She said she had had her husband before the bench previously but he had not improved in his conduct, and she asked the magistrates to send him to prison. - He was accordingly committed to Kirkdale for one month.

Friday, October 5, 1860.

ASSAULTING A LAMPLIGHTER.
   Edward Molyneux, a youth about 17 years of age, was charged with an assault upon Andrew Taylor. - Mr. Darlington appeared for the complainant, who said that he was in the employ of the Wigan Gas Light Company as lamplighter. His district was in the Scholes, School-lane forming part of it. Lately, when he got to that part of his district a number of boys had made it a practice to seize his ladder and knock him to the ground, and if he said anything he was struck and kicked. On Tuesday last he was proceeding to light the last lamp when he felt his ladder pulled from behind. On turning round he saw that defendant had hold of it and told him to let go, at the same time giving him a push. The lad refused, and about a dozen of his companions joined him, when complainant was thrown to the floor and set upon by the whole party, getting kicked about the head and face. His jacket was also torn from his back. Defendant was the only one whom he could at the time recognise. - Molyneux denied that he got hold of the ladder, or that he struck the complainant, and called a witness, named Joseph Ince, to support his denial. On getting into the witness box complainant recognised the man as one of those who had assaulted him. - The bench said Taylor was a public servant, and they felt bound to protect him. They should fine Molyneux 10s. and costs, and advised a summons to be taken out against Ince.

Friday, October 5, 1860.

STEALING A CAP.
   James Crawley, a young man, a collier, was charged with stealing a cap, the property of Henry Mears. - Prosecutor, who is a clock maker, living in Scholes, said that he was going to bed on Sunday morning, a little before two, when he heard a row going on under his room window. He went out to see what was the matter, and found two men fighting, with several people standing round, one of them being the prisoner. He asked the prisoner to separate the combatants, and after a little more scuffling the prisoner seized prosecutor's cap, making off with it down Morris-street. A police-officer came up at this time, to whom prosecutor stated that he had had his cap stolen, when the prisoner was observed coming back from Morris-street towards the scene of the row, and getting to where the prosecutor was standing he was seen to remove a cap from under his jacket and attempt to put it more securely out of sight. - A woman named Mary Norman saw the prisoner without a cap on his head running down Morris-street, but did not know the cause. She also saw him come back to where the prosecutor was, and observed him attempting to secrete a cap he held behind him. - Mr. Walter Mayhew, for the defence, admitted that the prisoner took the cap, but not with a felonious intention. In the row which took place the prisoner lost his cap, and got the prosecutor's, but on discovering that he had made a mistake he returned to the prosecutor, and seeing a police-officer present he, rather than be found with the cap in his hand, was in the act of dropping it on the floor when he was given into custody. - The Mayor said cap stealing in drunken rows was rather common, and they wished to put a stop to the practice; but in this case they would only order the prisoner to be kept in gaol for 24 hours.

Friday, October 5, 1860.

JUVENILE DELINQUENT.
   William Pollitt, a lad about 13 years of age, was charged with stealing a jacket and waistcoat, the property of James Senior, ready-made clothes dealer. The youth was in the service of the prosecutor as errand boy, and on Friday last he went to the pawnshop of Mr. Leach, Wallgate, and offered for pledge a jacket and waistcoat. He asked 4s. for the articles, but the pawnbroker suspecting all was not right, offered to give 2s. This sum the lad was willing to take, and his readiness to accept it strengthened the suspicion against him. The pawnbroker accordingly asked him if the things were Mr. Senior's, and if that person had sent him. The youth replied that a woman who lived next door to his father had sent him, and this answer determined the pawnbroker to send for the police, when the boy was given in charge. - Mr. Senior said he hoped the bench would deal leniently with the boy, and gave his evidence with seeming reluctance, observing in answer to the Chief Constable as to whether he had not missed many articles from his shop, that he had had articles of trifling value taken away. When the boy was taken into custody a silver watch was found upon him, and the supposition is that he purchased it with the accumulations of his petty thefts. - He pleaded guilty to the charge preferred, and the Mayor said he was to be kept in prison for 14 days, as he did not think it desirable to send boys such as the prisoner to the house of correction. He could not help observing that the boy had evidently been neglected, for a prudent parent seeing his boy with a silver watch in his possession would have asked how he got it.

Friday, October 5, 1860.

CAUTION TO COLLIERS.
   Yesterday, at the Town Hall, before R. Bevan, W. Lamb, and J. Jacson, Esqs., and the Rev. H. St. George, a collier named John Aspinall was charged by the manager of the Bickershaw Colliery with a breach of colliery rules by working in his place with a naked lighted candle, locked lamps only being allowed in the mine. The defendant had expressed his regret, and as he had promised not to offend again the prosecutors did not press for any punishment. The Bench accordingly discharged the man with a caution on payment of costs.