The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1858-05-25 00:00:00

WIMBORNE.

SUDDEN DEATH.—On Friday hat a person named
Charlotte Futcher, aged 37, the daughter of parent.
residing at Holt Woods, near this town, wall taken
ill on her way thence to Wimborne. Being peroeived
by two men who happened to be near to her in
hinting state, they supported her to the roadaide,
and in a very few minutes afterwards she expirecL
An inquest was held on the following day at the
Union house, where the body had been taken, anis,
verdict in accordance with the facts was returned.

THE LATE REPAIR'S— 7; .—T.II66iiii;;;EZIA
public meeting of the inhabitants has beim convened
at the magistrates' room on Friday next to adopt
some means of liquidating some deficiency in the
Reparation Fonda. It is, we hear, proposed to
obtain the sanction of the Charity Commusioners to
Jesse out some charity property vested in the Church-
wardens for 99 years, and apply the premiums
towards the deficit.

Em.PuTrehraSirinseasni7L,
o(Belynfnore,
J. H.
C. Lambert,,
D. F. G. Dalton, Faq.,)—A labourer in the employ of Mr.
Samuel Hamby, farmer, Mitchington, was summoned
for stealing a small quantity of hay. Mr. /lumby stated
that he did not allow his carters to provide themselves
with hay when his teams went on journeys, but be Lute
mitted that the prisoner had never been told so by him..
The prisoner stated that lie had no intention of stealing
the hay, and that he was directed by his father to fetch.
it from the stack as a provision for his master's horses
on the road during a long journey to be taken the next
day, and in this statement he was corroborated by his
father. Mr. liumby then withdrew the charge.
ALL ABOUT NINEPENCE.-Emily Clench, Bridget
Norman, and another' were brought up on warrant on
the prosecution of Mr. W. H. Fryer, for stealing from a
copse belonging to him at Verwood called "Gullivers,"
30 pieces of wood, of the great value of 9d. A witness
named Wilcox proved that he SAW one of the prisoners
run away in the copse with one of the bundles of wood,
and that he knew them, and was sure that they were the
parties. A man named Hail, • bailiff of Mr. W. H.
Pryer, spoke as to the identity of the wood. On cross-
examine tion it was elicited that the wood in question
WAS more than a mile from the prisoners' place of abode.
The prisoners, by the advice of their attorney, elected to
be tried by the Bench. Mr. Freeman then addressed the
Bench on behalf of the prisoners, remarking on the
severity of the prosecution as being altogether unworthy
of an English gentleman and man of property, against
three poor women, one of whom was the mother of6ve
children, and another with an infant in her arms, and
whose characters had hitherto been unimpeached. At
the close of these observations Mr. Fryer offered to
withdraw the prosecution, provided the prisesers paid
the expenses. This course the prisoners attorney ad-
vised them to accept; but preferring that the matter
' should go on, two witnesses named Coombs were
called for the defence, whoewore that on the 6th e 1 Ma.
last, the day on which the prosecutor had charged no
theft, they were in company with two of the pri-
soners from 7 o'clock in the morning till 8 at night barley
sowing, and that the prisoners were not out of their sight
the whole day, excepting for 10 minutes to fetch water.
One of these witnesses, however, lived in the same
house with one of the prisoners unmarried, but the
other appears to be more disinterested. The prisoners,
when called for what they had to say, in the usual way
persisted in their innocence. The Bench, however, not
feeling justified in giving credence to the prisoners' wit-
nesses, committed each prisoner to Dorchester gaol for 21
days' hard labour. The case excited great intertiat,
and occupied nearly three hours in its investigation.
A drover, named Joseph Cotetey, in the employ of Mr.
John Cron, • cattle dealer, near Sturminster Newton,
was charged by Superintendent Baynton with cruelly
using a bullock on its way from Sturminster Newton to
tlle Wimborne station, a few days since. It was proved
that when nearing Wimborne the bullock appeared to
be fatigued, and that the drover bled it in the nose with
a view to prevent ham stringing, and that after this, the
animal being unable to move, was beaten about the legs
(to use the words of the witness) to • jelly. Upon the
attention of the police being called, necessary steps were
taken, and competent parties were desired to see the
animal who decided that the animal ought at once to be killed, which was accordingly done. The defendant
urged that he intended no cruelty to the animal, but
was merely endeavouring to carry out his master's in-
structions in good time for the train; he also stated
that his conduct was precisely similar to that frequently
resorted to by drovers under like circumstances. Fined
El, and El 12s. costa.
Benjamin Barrett, of Farnham, was convicted in the
penalty of El, and costs, for assaulting P.C. Abbott in
the execution of his ditty in the parish of Gasbags All
Sainte.

Nathaniel Joy, a carter in the service of the Earl of
Shaftesbury, was consisted in the nominal mitigated
penalty of Bd., and Si. costa, on account of his long ser-
vice and good character for 30 years, for riding without
reins on the Cranbonie road.
Muni ON FIRIL-011 Sunday week about half
past six in the evening six acres of heath situated on
Canford Heath, were destroyed by fire. The heath
was the property of Edward Lever, Esq., of Marley
Hall, and it is believed the heath was wilfully set
on fire.