HERTFORD ASSIZES.—At these Assizes, which opened on Wednes- day, two
men have been tried and convicted of setting fire to five stacks of corn, at Hole farm, Standon, the property of Joseph Crawley. Ths fire took place on the 30th of January ; the damage was estimated a 4001. ; the prisoners, whose names are Goddard and Webb, are both labourers. It appeared, abet on the night of the fire, they had been drinking, with a number of others, in a public-house near Mr. Craw- ley's; when they laughed and talked of a cornet that would rise at eleven o'clock and set at five in the morning. On leaving the house, they separated from their companions ; and, when last seen, were in a lane leading to the farm-yard. After they were apprehended, Webb made a full confession ; they set fire to the stacks by means of a tobacco:pipe. The Jury recommended them to mercy, on account of character ; but the Judge, Baron Garrow, held out no hopes of commu- tation.
• INCENDIARIES.—At Salisbury, on Wednesday, Henry Wilkins, a labourer, was convicted of having set fire to a cottage belonging to Peachey, Esq., on the 20th November. There were two fires on the ground on the same night ; the cottage, which was thatched; was set fire to by means of a red-hot hinge of a barn-door, which the prisoner tore offend threw on the roof. Wilkins was sentenced without any hopes of escape being held out to him.
A-lumpish-looking boy, named Slaughter, servant to a Mrs. Rebecca Tomlinson, of Emly Levett, has been tried at the Worcester Assizes, and found guilty of setting fire to a wheat-rick, belonging to his mistress, with whom it appeared he had had some words, and who had threatened to send him to Droitwich to the Magistrates. The only proof against him was his own confession, that he set fire to the stack, because his mistress had quarrelled with him ; that he repented as soon as the straw took light, and tried to extinguish it, but could not.
SWING LETTEas.—Jolin Anderson, a soldier of the 14th Light Dragoons, was tried at Salisbury on Tuesday, for sending a threatening letter to Mrs. Anne Chandler, at Church farm, Pewsey. The arrest or Anderson, at a public-house in James Street, Covent Garden—whither the answer of Mrs. Chandler was directed to be sent—will be in the, recollection of our readers. The criminal is nephew of the person threatened ; and it was admitted that at the time that the letter was written, he was in great straits for money, which had indeed been the cause of his enlisting. He was sentenced to transportation for life.
Previous page
