The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1865-12-12 00:00:00

AN ORPHAN'S

STORY: DAMAGES LAID
AT 2200.

In the Court of Queen's Bench, Terry v. Retford, last
Friday, at Dorchester, before Mr. Deputy-Sheriff
Coombs, and a jury impanelled under a suit of inquiry,
to assess the damages the plaintiff, Maria Terry, had sus-
tained against the defendant Captain Retford, for false
imprisonment. The aotion.was brought to recover £2OO
damages in oonsequenoe of the plaintiff having given de-
fendant into custody on • charge of felony, which fell to
the ground, and plaintiff allowed judgment to go by de-
fault, whereupon this writ issued to assess damages.
Mr. Howard, of Weymouth, appeared on behalf of
plaintiff, and Mr. Harker (Aldridge and Harker) of
Poole, for defendant. The inquiry occupied the oourt
nearly seven hours. The witnesses examined on behalf
of plaintiff were Miss Terry, Supt. Gifford, Mrs. Sarah
Haines, Mr. William Penny, chemist, Mr. G. H.
MPledge, Mr. Thomas Godwin, Mrs. Harriet Keynes,
and Mrs. Matilda Bartlett, and the case as by them net
forth is u follows :—The plaintiff, Miss Terry, was left
an orphan at an early age—her father dying when she
was about three years of age, and her mother when she
was • child of five. An aunt took charge of her and her
sister, and reared them up to a respectable position, and
when plaintiff's sister (Matilda) was married, her
husband, Mr. Bartlett, foreman of H.M.'s shipwrights at
Devonport dockyard, received her at his house, where
he and his wife gave the girl a: respectable education
and taught her two trades—dressmaking and tailor-
ing—whereby she might gain an honest livelihood,
and Mr. Bartlett was about to start her in business,
when application was made for her to go and live with
two aged and afflicted relatives—Mr. and Ms. Tucker,
residing at Poole. Thereupon she resigned her pros-
pects of badness and went there, acting as nurse and
servant for them till they both died. Mr. Tucker was
partly paralysed and totally unable to help himself in
any way : he died 411 years after she went there, and
Mos. 'fucker died six months later. Mr. Tucker left
the bulk of his property—nine houses, &c.,—to Captain
Retford, and gave Miss Terry a house, vaue £9 a year,
and a legacy of 19 guineas. Plaintiff, at this time
—the end of December, 1863—by the advice
of her friends, opened a school for small children,
charging about 6d. per week. At the commence-
ment she had nine pupils, and in the month of
March the number had increased to 26, and there
was every prospect of her having ere long one of the
best schools of its sort in Poole. Miss 'ferry was
allowed to remain in the house which had been occupied
by the Tuckers till the 25th of March, as she could not
remove to her own house till that time. At that time
she removed from the garden a few daisies, primroses,
and • " gully flower." On the evening of the 23rd March
as she was sitting in the house with her sister, Captain
Retford came to the door, and said, "Mary, what have
you been destroying my property for?" Plaintiff answered
she did not know what he meant. He then said, "Yen
have been tearing up flower plants of mine." She replied.
" I have only taken a few flowers which the neighbours
gave me and I put in the ground." He said he would
get a policeman and have her taken up. She told him
she thought he could not do that, as she bad only taken
what was her Own. He rejoined he would do so, and
then said she knew something about a book that was
lost, and on her denying it, called her a liar, a thief,
and a swindler. Retford went away and returned with
P.C. Brown, and gave her in charge for stealing his
flowers. She toll the policeman she did not think he
could take her without a warrant, for she had done
nothing, and could not think why defendant was acting
so cruelly towards her. The constable asked Retford
what he was to do, and he said "take her in charge."
She was overcome with the thought of going to prison,
and sank down on the sofa, crying bitterly, where she
remained • short time. Thinking then that the con-
stable might take her by force, she appealed to Retford
not to let him take her. Defendant then said, " Well,
leave her till morning, and then we'll have her," and
went away. She was very much agitated, and in the
course ot the evening was in hysterics. Her nearest
male relative was at Devonport. After a sleepless
night, she rose to answer a knock at the door about 7.30
a.m., when she found Retford and the policeman had
come for her. Both walked into the parlour, and P.C.
Brown said, "You know what we've come for ; put
on your things and come with me." She burst into a
fit of crying, and said She could not go. lEle put out his
hand to lay hold of her, when she said she would put on
her things. She did so, and when they were in the
passage she asked Brown if he could take her without a
warrant. He said, "That's not yonr business; yLn're
to come with me." As they were going out the
constable said to her, "Remember, this is not my doing;
it is Captain Retford who has given you in charge."
From Lougfieet she was taken, the policeman walking
by her side, to the police-station. Many of the neigh-
bours and people in Poole came to their doors to look at
them. She was crying as she went along. Captain
Retford went to the police-station by another way. On
arriving at the station she buret into a fit of crying,
when a policeman said, "Do give over crying or you'll
kill yourself." Superintendent Gifford was sent for,
and on arriving he salted plaintiff what she was there
for, when she told him. He then spoke to Captain
Retford, when be said to plaintiff, "You know where
that book is, Mary." Supt. Gifford said, "There is
evidently more in this than the charge of stealing
flowers, and refused to detain her. Es told defendant he
could take out • summons if he liked. He considered that
if a person of respectable position gave anybody into
custody on a charge of felony that the aot was that of
, the said person. He cautioned Brown SS to the future,
.who had aim* left the force. Mr. Haines, a tradesman
of Poole, who had children under plaintiff's tuition,
met her at the polioe-station, and took her to his house,
,Where she remained for some time in a fainting and
hysterical state. Mrs. Haines did what she could to
soothe and cheer her, and after a while sent her elder
daughter home with her, and wrote to plaintiff's sister
at Devonport to come to her. From this time the
plaintiff, who had hitherto been in good health both
bodily and mentally, became highly nervous and quite
incompetent to conduct her school, and although the
friends of her pupils out of charity allowed their
children to remain with her for s time, they were
obliged to take them away, and the school dwindled to
eight pupils. She went to Mr. Penny, a druggist, for
advice - this to save expense—and he said he found the
plaintiff when she called on him three days after the
arrest, to be in a state of great nervousness, bordering
on clentraiim. .He told her that entire rest and quiet
were the only things to do her good, and recommended
her to give up her school. He prescribed for her three
bot'les of medicine. Witnesses spoke to plaintiff's good
character, to her being a Sunday school teacher, and a
member of a Church, to her ability as a schoolmistress
previous to the arrest, and her incapacity afterwards,
all agreeing that "she was not like the same person.',
The plaintiff was under examination about two hours,
at the end of which she was carried from the Court in
hysterics. Mr. Harker' in mitigaion of damages, ex-
plained that Captain Retford was legally wrong in
giving plaintiftinto custody because he did not see her
taking up his flowers; he ought to have summoned her.
He maintained that the flowers were the property of his
client, and asked the Deputy-Sheriff to rule so, and to
role further that the present claim could not be
sustained because the specific damages for which
olaim was made were not stated in the declaration.
He explained the plaintiff's losing of scholars by removing
from Longfleet to Poole, and to the next house to an
old established school, and contended that it was totally
incredible that all the effects alleged had resulted from
a single excitement. Be called the defendant, his wife,
and P.O. Brown. The latter didn't 'lee that plaintiff
cried much or was much agitated by the '
"moped a bit." Captain and Mrs.
kind '• - had been to • • `ln,
theirs and
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