Part 16

1845—At the Lent Assizes, eleven poachers were put on their trial for the murder of Thomas Staite, one of the Earl of Coventry’s watchers, who was killed in a very desperate affray which took place between the keepers and the prisoners on the 19th of the previous December. One of them, however, named George Lippett, was admitted as Queen’s evidence; and another, Francis Dingley, while in prison made a full confession of the whole transaction. The keepers and watchers were nine in number, and they encountered the party of poachers at the gate leading into Park Farm, Pirton. A fight with bludgeons took place, in which the keepers were altogether worsted, and one or two of them left for dead. The poachers also fired off two guns, but the shots did not take effect. The unfortunate man, Staite, was found by his comrades, after the affray was over, in a ditch close by the Park Farm house, so badly used that he could not speak; and, indeed, he never uttered a word from that hour. He was taken first to a neighbouring cottage, and then to the Worcester Infirmary, where he died in six days. The identity of all the prisoners, and the part they had each taken in the affray, was very clearly made out by the evidence of four of the watchers and the statement of the approver Lippett. Mr. Godson, in a very able speech for the prisoners, contended that the case was not made out by the evidence of the keepers, and that Lippett was not to be believed; ending with a protest against the game laws generally, as the cause of much injustice and innumerable crimes. The Lord Chief Baron Pollock, before whom the case was tried, told the jury that they might find the prisoners guilty of manslaughter; and, acting upon this hint, the jury returned a general verdict against all the prisoners of “Guilty of manslaughter.” Witnesses to character were then called on behalf of some of the prisoners, and his lordship sentenced them to different terms of transportation as they seemed to have taken an active part or otherwise in the attack upon the keepers. Francis Dingley, Samuel Turvey, Joseph Turvey, and Joseph Tandy were transported for life; Thomas Hooper, William Broomfield, and John Cook transported for ten years; George Brant for seven years; and Thomas Cosnett and William Collins were sentenced to two years’ imprisonment. The prisoners were all Pershore men, but the case excited the most intense interest in that part of the county.

1846—At the Midsummer Assizes, Richard Farley, cabinet maker, fifty-three years of age, and Ann Jones, a married woman, were tried for forging the will of William Welch, of Llandilion, near Abergavenny. The will was first produced and attempted to be used in Worcester—hence the trial took place here. Farley was Welch’s son-in-law, and the will conveyed some property at Aston Ingham to him instead of to his own son, William Welch. A number of witnesses declared that the will was not in the handwriting of the deceased, and that one at least of the signatures was written by the prisoner himself. Ann Jones was an attesting witness, and repeatedly asserted the genuineness of the will. Farley was sentenced to fifteen years’ transportation, and Jones to twelve months’ imprisonment.

1847—At the Lent Assizes this year, a trial took place which excited considerable interest—that of HARRIS _v._ GRISSELL, being an action brought by Mr. George Harris, carpet manufacturer, of Stourport, against (really) the Severn Navigation Commissioners, though the ostensible defendants were the contractors of the works—Messrs. Grissell and Peto. Mr. Harris had a mill on the Stour, and he said that owing to the erection of the weir at Lincombe, the water in the Stour had been so pounded up as frequently to stop his undershot wheels, and to render his mill useless. A great number of witnesses were examined on both sides, and the learned judge (Mr. Sergeant Gazelee) having told the jury that there was no defence to the action, they returned a verdict for the plaintiff, with £500 damages; but this extraordinary summing up of the judge’s enabled the defendants to get a rule for a new trial, and the matter never proceeded further.

1847—At the Midsummer Assizes, Harklas Lovell Blewitt, a travelling tinker, was tried for the murder of his wife at Dudley, on the 3rd of June. They were staying at a lodging house, and the wife, to escape the ill-treatment of her brutal spouse, hid herself in the coalhole; he followed her there with a kettle of hot water, and, holding her down with one hand, poured it over her head and shoulders. She was so dreadfully scalded that she died in ten days; but though there was no pretence for saying that it was unintentionally done, the jury, to the amazement of the court, returned a verdict of “Guilty of manslaughter” only, and the fellow was sentenced to transportation for twenty years.

1848—At the Lent Assizes, four men, named Cartwright, Sweatman, Payne, and Turberfield, were charged with breaking into the toll house at Knighton-on-Teme, kept by an old man named John Mound, and his wife, and stealing £115. The burglars used very violent threats towards the poor old people, who most distinctly swore to all four of the men as the parties who robbed and assailed them. They were consequently found guilty, and sentenced to fifteen years’ transportation each. Yet it was afterwards distinctly proved that Turberfield was not engaged in the robbery, and he received a free pardon. Two other men, convicted of burglary at these assizes, on what appeared to be the clearest evidence, were discharged by the Secretary of State, because it was afterwards proved, beyond contradiction, that the crime had been committed by other men.

EXECUTIONS.

THE county has of late years been almost wholly spared the painful spectacle of justice proceeding to its direst extremity of taking away human life, though formerly capital punishments were but too common, and inflicted for what we should now esteem very inadequate causes of offence. Their policy and propriety in any case are now allowed to be fit matters for discussion; and it is probable that public opinion may, in a few years hence, demand their entire abolition.

1800—At the Lent Assizes this year, ten persons were sentenced to death, but seven of them were reprieved before the judges left the town. Richard and John Lane, brothel’s, were convicted of the murder of Thomas Goode, of Redmarley, in October, 1799. They were impatient to possess some property which would be theirs at his death, and having waylaid him, both shot him—one with a gun, the other with a pistol. They were executed on the 10th of March, and each died uttering execrations on the other.

1800—At the Summer Assizes, thirteen persons were sentenced to death, and three of them executed—one for burglary, and two for sheep stealing. They are said to have died “with the utmost resignation, and acknowledging the justice of their sentences.”

1801—At the Lent Assizes, five persons were sentenced to death for burglary, a woman for stealing two £10 notes, five men for highway robbery, three for horse stealing, one for stealing a cow, another for stealing two calves, four for sheep stealing, and two for escaping from prison after sentence of transportation—twenty-two in all! Six of these were left for execution; but great interest being made for some of them, only one was actually hung.

1803—MARCH—Richard Colledge executed for horse stealing.

1803—JUNE—Thomas Beach executed for uttering a forged £5 note.

1805—MARCH 22—John Sanky, _alias_ Young, convicted at the Assizes just concluded of uttering a forged bill of exchange, with intent to defraud Messrs. Knapp and Lee, glovers, of Worcester, was executed on a temporary gallows erected in Salt Lane. He addressed the spectators for a full half hour, acknowledging the justice of his sentence, and expressing his confident hope of pardon through the righteousness and atonement of our Saviour. He had attempted, in the interval between his sentence and condemnation, to escape from the gaol, but he now declared that he never entertained any idea of doing the gaoler or turnkey any personal injury. _He then gave out three verses of a hymn_, _and was joined in singing them by many of the persons who surrounded the fatal tree_; after this he prayed aloud in a very solemn manner for himself and the spectators. Several distressing mistakes were made by the executioner, but the unhappy sufferer retained his composure amidst all these blunders, and appeared to die with absolute cheerfulness. This young man was evidently possessed of considerable talents, but they had been miserably misapplied.

1805—AUGUST 16—W. Dalton, convicted before Lord Ellenborough at the Summer Assizes of two burglaries, one at Astley and the other at Kidderminster—executed at Red Hill. His demeanour was becoming.

1806—MARCH 19—John Davenport and William Lashford hung at Red Hill for a burglary at Bellbroughton. They confessed their crime, and behaved in a becoming manner.

1812—MARCH 20—William Scale was executed in the field of the New Gaol for committing a rape at Norton, near Worcester. He is described as “penitent, resigned, and met his fate with the fortitude becoming his deplorable situation.”

1815—JULY 21—William White was executed on a gallows erected “in the outer circle of the County Gaol,” for a rape on Ann Davis of Beoley. He is declared to have died, “as since his condemnation he had lived, full of contrition and piety.”

1816—MARCH 22—William Clements and John Batty executed at the County Prison for breaking into the dwelling house of Mr. Martin of Paxford, and stealing a large sum of money; and John Rowen for forging and uttering a bill of exchange for £315 on Messrs. Cox, Merle, and Co., bankers, London, with intent to defraud Messrs. Attwood and Co., bankers, Worcester.

1818—JULY 31—William Corfield sentenced to death for a burglary at the house of George Jukes of Tenbury, was executed at the new drop erected over the entrance to the County Gaol. He had conducted himself after his trial in a very refractory manner, and could not be brought to acknowledge the justice of his sentence. Shortly before his execution he wrote an exceedingly sensible and properly worded letter to his wife.

1819—MARCH 19—John Harris convicted of uttering forged Bank of England notes at Bromsgrove, hung in front of the County Gaol. He died “sincerely penitent.”

1820—MARCH 17—Robert Hollick, convicted of robbing Thomas Gittins and Thomas Hawker on the highway at Claines, and cruelly ill-treating the latter, was this day executed. As he was being led out of his cell, his mother, sister, wife, and child, came to see him, not having visited him previously. The execution was delayed awhile to grant them an interview—which, as may be supposed, was a most distressing one. It did not, however, unnerve the culprit, who died with great firmness, though fully admitting the justice of his sentence.

1821—MARCH 23—Thomas Dyer, capitally convicted of horse stealing, was executed at the County Gaol, but died protesting his entire innocence of the crime laid to his charge. He left a paper behind him, stating the names of the parties from whom he bought the horses, and the sums of money he had given for them; but it does not appear that anybody thought it worth while to make further inquiries about the matter.

1821—AUGUST 24—William Mantle and William Bird were executed at the County Gaol; the former convicted of stealing sheep, the property of Mr. Henry Hyde of Little Kyre; and the latter of breaking into the house of Mr. John Bird of Bromsgrove, and stealing wearing apparel, &c. The ropes were nearly extended to their full length when tied round the unhappy culprits’ necks, so that scarcely any fall took place, and they died in great agony, especially Bird. Their remains were interred in St. Andrew’s churchyard.

1823—MARCH 24—James Davis and Joseph Rutter, two young men convicted at the Lent Assizes—the former of horse stealing and the latter of sheep stealing—were executed at the County Gaol. Davis was a deserter from the army, and appeared to have stolen from sheer want. Rutter’s had been a long course of crime. Davis began to address the crowd when brought upon the scaffolding, warning them to avoid Sabbath breaking and vicious practices; when Rutter said, impatiently, “Come, let’s have no more of that;” and they were immediately hurried into eternity. He literally preferred hanging to a homily.

1826—JULY 21—John Hobday, a young man only twenty-one years of age, having been convicted at the Midsummer Assizes of a burglary at the Bell Inn, Kidderminster, and a savage assault upon the officers who apprehended him at Birmingham, was executed at the County Gaol this day. He was reported to be very penitent, and prepared for death.

1830—MARCH 11—Michael Toll, convicted of the wilful murder of Ann Cook, a woman with whom he lived, by knocking her into a pit at Oldswinford, was executed this day in front of the County Gaol. His body was given to the surgeons to anatomise, and afterwards exposed to public gaze at the Infirmary. In his stomach were found a number of pieces of blanket, which he had swallowed in order to produce suffocation.

1830—JULY 30—Charles Wall, convicted at the Summer Assizes of the murder of Sally Chance, at Oldswinford, was executed in front of the County Prison at six o’clock p.m., the execution having been deferred to that unusual hour in consequence of the election taking place that day. His body was delivered to a surgeon at Stourbridge, and afterwards exposed to view to great crowds who came from all the surrounding parts to see it. The party murdered was a little girl, whose mother the prisoner was about to marry, and he killed her by throwing her into a lime pit.

1830—AUGUST 13—Thomas Turner, a lad only seventeen years of age, convicted at the same Assizes of a rape upon Louisa Blissett, a child under ten years of age, at New Wood, about three miles from Kidderminster, was executed this day.

1831—MARCH 25—Thomas Slaughter, _a lad not eighteen years of age_, was executed for setting fire to a large wheat rick, the property of Mrs. Rebecca Tomlinson, of Elmley Lovett. The poor fellow was wholly uneducated, and evidently of weak intellect.

1832—MARCH 22—James and Joseph Carter, two brothers, aged twenty and twenty-two respectively, and condemned at the Lent Assizes for two cases of highway robbery at night, with violence, in the neighbourhood of Bewdley, this morning underwent the extreme penalty of the law in front of the County Gaol. Both men met death with firmness, but without bravado; and Joseph Carter addressed the populace from the scaffolding, warning them to avoid Sabbath breaking, drunkenness, and bad women. The crowd on this occasion behaved with unusual decorum, and seem really to have been impressed with a feeling of sadness at seeing two persons hurried out of life so early.

1834—MARCH 12—Robert Lilly, convicted at the Lent Assizes of the murder of Jonathan Wall, at Bromsgrove, was executed in front of the County Gaol. Wall had interfered to prevent his ill-using his wife, and Lilly stabbed him in the abdomen with a clasp-knife. There was a large concourse of spectators at the execution—principally females, but the culprit did not address them, and he died without a struggle.

1837—MARCH 23—William Lightband, executed in front of the County Gaol for the murder of Joseph Hawkins, shopkeeper, of Areley Kings, on the 8th September, 1836. He was a carpenter, entirely without education, and had pursued a sottish and irregular mode of life. However, the instruction he received when in prison seemed to have had effect upon his mind, and he met death in becoming manner. Though it snowed during the whole morning there was a great concourse of spectators, and the Rev. Mr. Dodd, assistant minister at the Lady Huntingdon’s Chapel, afterwards addressed them. Their behaviour was more decent than usual on such occasions.

1849—MARCH 26—The last execution which took place in Worcester was that of Robert Pulley, who was condemned to death for the barbarous murder of a poor girl, named Mary Ann Staight, at Broughton, on the 5th of December, 1843. The manners of the prisoner were so brutish and careless as to induce a doubt in his sanity; and at the expense of the High Sheriff, Mr. John Dent, counsel was provided at his trial to defend him on this ground. It was also made the plea for a memorial to the Home Secretary on his behalf, which was signed by many benevolent persons, and by those opposed to all capital punishments. His conduct after trial, however, was such as to convince all who conversed with him of his perfect rationality. He was lamentably ignorant; but listened with much attention to the exhortations of the ministers who visited him. He displayed great firmness in his last moments. The execution took place at noon on the roof of the County Gaol, in the presence of a large crowd of spectators, who behaved with much propriety.

The excitement occasioned by this execution produced much discussion as to the expediency of capital punishments. A public meeting was held in the Guildhall, Worcester, by those who wished their abolition, at which Mr. Charles Gilpin attended and spoke. Mr. George Grove attempted to show that Scripture contained a command which was conclusive on the subject, and required us to shed the blood of the man who took away the life of another; but a resolution, declaring capital punishments to be opposed to the spirit of Christianity and inexpedient, was carried almost unanimously. The Rev. W. H. Havergal and Dr. Redford also preached upon the subject—the former in favour of, and the latter against, death punishments.

RAILWAYS.

THE County of Worcester has hitherto been very poorly supplied with Railway communication—a strange fatuity having attended the various undertakings which have been projected for meeting its necessities in this respect. Worcester itself was, indeed, almost shut out from this advantage, now so indispensable to prosperity, till the half century had closed; but a brighter day appears now to be dawning upon us.

BIRMINGHAM AND GLOUCESTER.

THIS is the only railway which has yet been completed in this county, and it was promoted chiefly by parties living at the termini, who made it their only object to carry it in as straight a line as possible from point to point, with very little reference to the convenience of the towns by the way. If the shareholders could have foreseen the disastrous influence of such a policy upon their own funds, they would certainly have taken a different course, even though they felt no interest in the prosperity of the places which they so much injured by passing at considerable distances. The scheme was first projected in 1834, and the directors obtained their act on their first application to Parliament in 1836; the line was opened from Cheltenham to Bromsgrove, in June, 1840, and throughout the whole distance on the 17th of December in that year. The share capital subscribed was £1,142,125, to which £380,076 was afterwards added of money borrowed on debentures, &c. Though the line, except at the Lickey, presented no engineering difficulties, and was cheaply constructed, yet the rate of profit was very small; and in October, 1842, the £100 shares were quoted as low as 41. In January, 1845, it was amalgamated with the Bristol and Gloucester Line; and in 1846, when the broad and narrow gauge interests were each making such struggles for the ascendancy, the Midland Company entered into an arrangement to lease the line for 999 years, paying 6 per cent. upon the capital. The Great Western bid 5½ per cent., but would go no higher.

This undertaking was first introduced to the notice of the citizens of Worcester at a public meeting held on the 15th of January, 1834. The Company were at this time about to determine upon their route, and had two plans before them—the one eventually adopted _viâ_ Cheltenham, and another that was to have come by way of Stourbridge, Kidderminster, and Worcester; the former was marked out by Mr. Brunel, the latter by a Mr. Wooddeson. In consequence of this state of things some gentlemen had formed themselves into a provisional committee with a line of their own, and Messrs. Gwinnall and Hughes, the solicitors employed, procured the calling of this meeting, in the Guildhall, Worcester, with the Mayor, W. Dent, Esq., in the chair. The committee laid their plans, in the rough, before the meeting, and asked a vote of sanction and support from the meeting. Sir Anthony Lechmere wanted no railways at all. Major Bund and Mr. Gutch proposed a month’s adjournment. But a resolution to stand by the committee, and to approve of no railway but one which came right through Worcester, was passed by a large majority. The Grand Connection Railway project took its rise from the suggestions of this committee.

The Birmingham and Gloucester Company making no attempt to obtain an act in the session of 1835, the matter was not again discussed till the 22nd October in that year, when a meeting was convened, over which Mr. J. W. Lea, Mayor, presided. Some of the provisional directors were present, and admitted that they intended to carry the line through Spetchley. Mr. John Hyde proposed that the directors should be requested to include a branch to Worcester in their scheme. Mr. Pierpoint said the main line ought to be brought, and could be brought, much nearer Worcester; and if it were not so brought, the city of Worcester ought to oppose the line by every means. A committee of conference was appointed, and the meeting adjourned for a week. It was then announced that the provisional directors of the line had agreed to have a survey taken of a deviation line from Abbott’s Wood to Norton, as well as of a direct branch to Spetchley, and lay them both before Parliament to choose from. Several speeches were made to show that the whole line had been contrived without any regard to the interests of the city and county of Worcester; and on the motion of Mr. Hooper, seconded by Mr. Deighton, it was resolved that no railway should be sanctioned by the people of Worcester that did not bring the main line within a mile of the city. On the 4th November another meeting was called, to consider the propriety of surveying a line for a railway on the western side of the Severn, to go by Kidderminster. It was evident that the Birmingham and Gloucester directors intended to adhere to their original plan, and so the citizens of Worcester determined to oppose them vigorously, and entered into a subscription, headed by fifty guineas from the corporate body, to survey a fresh line.