The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1862-10-21 00:00:00

SOMERSET MICHAELMAS SESSION&

These sessions commenced at Wells on Tuesday, Biz
William Miles, Bart., M.P., presiding.
The grand Jury having be.m sworn, the proclamation
against vice, profaneness, and immorality was read, and
the Chairman charged the grand jury at considerable
length. He congratulated them upon the lightness of
the calendar, which showed a diminution of twenty-one
prisoners as compared with the corresponding period
last year. He did not know to what this might be
attributed, but it was a fact that must be extremely
satisfactory to the county.
COUNTY EXPENDITURN. Bills amounting to
£.r9 4s. 11d, were ordered to be paid. The balance in
the bands of the treasurer was stated to be £2,312 is. 71.
A county rate of oae farthing in the pound was granted.
A police rate of three-farthings in the pound was made.
New COUNTY ABBESSIINNT.—The memorials f;orn
the Glutton and Bridgwater Boards of Guardians
praying for a new county assessment, presented at the
spring and midsummer sessions, were, on the motion
of the Chairmen, further postponed until the spring
sessions of 1863.

TetlFroN GAOL—The visiting justices of this gaol re-
ported that they had taken into consideration the
question as to whether persons sentenced to imprison-
ment for fraudulent conduct as debtors, or for wilful
disobedience of the orders of the County Court, should
be employed in useful labour, but they made no recom-
mendation upon the subject. The visiting justices
stated that they had received an application from the
county of Middlesex' asking this oonnty to take •
hundred prisoners at £2,200 per annum, which offer
they recommended the court to accept. They also re-
commended the granting of a gratuity of /10 to Sergeant
Hardage, who had been for twenty-three years engaged
at the gaol, and had been employed in offices of trust.
The recommendations were agreed to, and the report
was received and adopted.
THZ HlGHweir Aor.—A long discussion in reference
to the new Highways Act took place. The Chairman
explained the steps that had been taken in the matter,
and moved that the county of Somerset be divided into
highway districts. Mr. E. A. Sanford seconded the
motion, which was eventually carried. A committee
was then appointed to consider the subject and to report
to an adjourned sessions, to be held at Wells on
Tuesday, the 18th November, when • provisional order
for carrying the above resolution into effect will be
made. A number of petitions from parishes in the
county against the Act were presented.— The court then

CROWN COURT.-WEDNESDAY.

(Before Sir W. Mites, Bart., M.P.)
Henry Beck pleaded guilty to stealing a fustian jacket
at Dawlish Water' and a firkin at Hatch Beauchamp.
The prisoner bad been convicted before, and sentenced
topenal servitude. The court sentenced him to one
week's imprisonment for the first offence, and seven
years' penal servitude for the seeond.
James Albion Mozham, formerly a clerk and tra-
veller in the employ of Mr. Edgar Nicholls, of Bridg-
water, pleaded guilty to having embezzled three stuns
of £1 1,. 11d., 19s. 3d. and £l2 17s.—The Chairman
said the Court regretted to Bee a man in prosecutor's
position in such a condition. The charge was one of
great magnitude, he having held a responsible situation
for seven or eight years. /n the event of a future con-
viction, penal servitude would be awarded. For the
preasatoffence he would be imprisoned and kept to
hard labour for twelvemonths.
James Walbarton (on bail) was charged with steal-
-1,,g 155., the property of Thomas Kingsbury, at the
Bing Alfred Inn, in the parish of Lyng. Senteneed to
six months' iumnsonment with hard labour.
William Hurley was charged with stealing a whip,
the property of George Fudge, at Spaxton, on the Bth
Flptember.—Mr. Speke nroaecuted.—The prisoner,
Lacing been formerly convicted, was sentenced to three
years' penal servitude.
Samuel Cox was charged with breaking and entering
S shop at Pilton, and stealing • sack of flour of the
value of L'2 Is., the property of Charles Mullins. Not
guilty.
John Carr Barber. hairdresser, and Henry Wilkins,
gun locksmith, natives of Birmingham, were charged
With breaking into and entering the house of Mr.
Henry Bowden, at Frome, and stealing Property to the
value of £9o.—Mr. Edlin prosecuted : Mr. Cole de-
fended Barber, and Mr. Prideaux Wilkins. Several
witnesses were called to prove having seen the men
near the premises, and to have watched them from the
booze to Backhand. Sentenced to ten years' penal
aervitade.

SECOND COURT.
(Before Mr. C. A. MOODY, M.P.)
John Dart and James Smith were charged with
dealing lead attached to the dwelling-house of
Thomas Stephens, at Shiphain. The prisoners were
teen taking the lead by the prosecutor. Dart was sen-
tenced to three months, and Smith to two months'
imprisonment.
Daniel Reiley was charged with stealing spume and
10s. 6d., the property of Marian Simmons. Mr. Speke
Prosecuted ; Mr. Pndeaux defended. The propecutrix
was on the way from Shipharn to Churchill, and dropped
her pone, which the prisoner was seen to pick up. He
subsequently denied having it, but the purse was found
On hhu, and some money. Mr. Prideaux contended
that.there was no felonious intent, and the jury
acquitted the prisoner.
Railway Lang, in the employ of the Bristol and Exeter
Company, was charged with stealing beans at
"nrston• The prisoner was seen to take the Deana from
4 field, and when spoken to offered the man a shilling
to gay nothing about it He, however, told his master
at once. The prisoner was sentenced to six weeks'
iwPritonnient with hard labour.

CROWN COURT, rIII3IMDAY, 06t. 16.
(Be(ore SIT. Wit. MiLins, Bart., MP.)
Mr. Cooke applied to the court to liberate Charles
Thomas, Benjamin Bias, and James Richards, cherpd

with robbing Martin Kavanagh, at Waston.imGordano,
near Bristol. The Chairman : I shall reeoinniit the
prisoners for trial at the assizes. Mt. W. Glydo, their
attorney, caked that the bail of £lO each, which had
been granted by the 'Murton magistrates, should be re-
newed. The Chairman declined to do so, and the
prisoners were committed to Taunton gaol.
John Greece and William Clark, two dmytnen, in
the employ of Messrs. Bracher, brewers, of Bath, were
charged with stealing two hogsheads of beer, the
property of Charlotte Mary Mendul, of the White Hart
Inn, Tiverton, near Bath, on the lot of September,
1862. Mr. Saunders prosecuted, and Mr. Cole de-
fended. The evidence showed that the proseentrix
purchased beer of Mews. Timelier, and her business
was managed by a sister named Ann Knight. On the
22nd August, according to the evidmee of Mrs. Knight.
there were eight hogsheads of beer in the cellar, and
two empty casks. This fact had bean ascertained by
Mm. Knight, who went into the cellar with the
traveller in the employ of Messrs. Bracher. On the
let of September the prisoners called at the house and
asked for the keys of the cellar to take away the empty
casks. They went to the cellar and returned the keys,
when Mrs. Knight asked how many empties there were,
and the prisoner Groves replied there were five.
She said that could not be, but he said it was so, and
she must have drawn more beer than she was aware
of. The prisoners repeated this remark to her and left
with the dray. She immediately went to the cellar and
found that two full casks and two empty ones had been
taken. A girl named Miller, a servant cf the
prosecutrix, was called, and she swore that she saw
the prisoner Clark bring out an empty barrel from the
cellar, and put it on the dray. The two prisoners
then brought out another barrel, which they rolled
out. They then used the "skids" to roll the casks
on to the dray, which they did with the assistance of
• inan named. The cask appeared to be full, and
there was a difficulty in rolling it up. Another heavy
cask was rolled up in the same way, and then an empty
one thrown up by one man.—Mr. Cole, for the defence,
characterised this as an improbable story, and he
particularly called the attention of the jury to the
fact that when before the magistrates the girl Miller
swore that the cask was pushed up lengthways, a task
six men could not perform, and now she said it was
rolled. He called the man Tanner, who positively
swore that only empty casks were brought out, and
also a woman who lived near the cellar, who gave
similar testimony. The jury acquitted the prisoners.
Charles Fry and Edward Bird were sentenced to six
months' imprisonment for stealing • duck at Chilcom-
ton, near Wfls.. -
A MAO named Crane, a youth named Arthur Stone,
and an elderly woman named Bailey were charged, the
fernier with stealing, and the latter with receiving
tome hay, the property of a man named Stone, at St.
George's, Gloucester. Acquitted.