The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1881-09-03 00:00:00

THE FATAL PI r ACCIDENT AT

BRIERLEY HILL.

MANAGER AT OLD HILL.

At the Old Hill Police Court on. Wednesday,
before Messrs. B. Hingley, W. Bassano, H. T.
Hickman, H. A. Wigan, and H. Walker, Francis
Jones, manager, residing at Cradley, was brought
up in custody charged with embezzling the sum of
£l5 19s 2d, the property of his employers' Messrs.
Timothy Parkes and Sons, chain manufacturers,
Old Hill, on or about the 31st January, 1881.
There were other charges against him of em-
bezzling the sums of ..t7 14s 10, 5.13 is id, .£l5 us
9d, £lB 10 sd, and £2l 7s Od,between the 18th of
November, 1880, and the 24th of June, 1881, also
the property of Messrs. Parkes and Sons
Mr. T. Homer. of Brierley Hill, prosecuted, and
Mr. Shakespeare, of Oldbury, (instructed by Mr.
T. Cooksey) defended.
Mr. Homer in opening the ease said that he ap-
peared to prosecute the prisoner upon the charges
which had already been read out: The first charge
that be should go into %you'd be the case of Albert
Woodhouse. It appeared that in October, 1879,
the prisoner entered the employ of Messrs. Pa_kes
and Sons as their manager, at a salary of £l2O a
year. In October, 1880, his salary was increased to
£l6O. At that time they placed in him implicit
confidence and everything was placed entirely
under his control. In January, 1880, Messrs.
Parkes arranged with Albert Woodhouse. nail
manufacturer, to sell to him a quantity of nails,
and they were invoiced by the prisoner to him and
delivered at prisoner's request by Parkes's man and
in Parkes's wagon, on the 17th January. They
came to about, he thought, £35. The next day the
prisoner sent other nails, the property of Messrs.
Parkes and Sons, and this was the first charge
amounting to £l5 19s 21. Those nails were not
invoiced by the prisoner in a billhead belonging to
Parkes and Sons, but were entered on a slip of
paper in blacklead, and the wagoner delivered it to
Woodhouse. The money was received for the
first account but not for the second. The prisoner
called upon Mr. Woodhouse and made a deal for
the nails. Woodhouse had a sow and pigs—the
sow was origivally the property of the prisoner—
and prisoner arranged to sell the nails :to Wood-
house for the pigs and a horse, the prisoner to give
£6 to make up for the value of the horse. The pigs
and the horse were handed over to prisoner and
Woodhouse had the nails. The other charges were
charges in connection with some transactions with
a man the name of Allen, who was a rivet manu-
facturer, and who had transacted business with
Parkes and Sons for a number of years. The mode
of dealing was very common in this district. Iron
was supplied to him and it was made up into rivets
and Parkes's deducted so much for the value of the
iron. In 1880, there was no date to it, but it was
prior to the 17th of January, Mr. Jones credits
Allen in the books of Parkes and Sons with iron,
and that item stood in Parkes's hooks "Iron B & L
not to be hhed." The impression of that was, that
Mr. Allen had supplied Parkes's with rivets for
which they bad not fu nished the iron, which
amounted to .21 Is 3a. That sun was obtained
from Messrs. Parkes and Sons by prisoner and put
in h:s own pocket. The next charge in Allen's
accounts amounted to £l3 Is id. In 1881 Messrs.
Parkes and Sons gave to Mr. Allen an order for
rivets, and the prisoner entered in Parkes's books
three sums of money (C 5 £2 7s 6d, and £5 3s 7d).
There were no dates to these items but they were
phtced to the account of Allen, and it so happened
that the order in this particular instance amounted
to .233 9s 911, Those sums of money were placed
to the credit of Allen, and they handed £33 9s 01
to prisoner to pay to Mr. Allen, but out of that
amount prisoner kept £l3 1E ld. The next item
amounted to £l5 lls 9.1 and that was exactly
similar to the items he had just explained in the
previous account. It represented rivets sent in by
Mr. Allen to the works. Prisoner entered them
into the book aua obtained cash to pay over to
Allen, but kept it himself and did not pay it. The
next was .218 lOs 5d received from Parkes's by the
prisoner and not paid over to others. The last
account was £2l 7s id, money received from
Parkes's and kept by plisoner. He asked the
magistrates to commit the accused for trial on the
six charges.
William Parkes stated that he was a member of
the firm of Messrs. Parkes and Sons, chain manu-
facturers, Old Hill, and the prisoner was engaged
as manager, in October. 1879, of the nail and chain
business, at a salary of £l2O a year. His salary
was increased in October, 1880, to .£l6O a year.
He sold to Mr. Albcrt Woodhouse, nail manufac-
turer, Rowley, a quantity of nails which were sent
to him on the 17th January in this present year.
On the 18th January nails were sent, the value of
.£l5 19s 2a, but he had not received the money for
them. It was the duty of prisoner to enter all
monies into his cash book and turn it over to him
Cross-examined: Mr. Shakespeare : The charge
preferred now is Woodhouse.
Witness: Yes.
Mr. Shakespeare: What do you charge him with ?
Witness: With receiving payment of £l5 I.Bs 2d
for nails sold by me to Woodhouse and not paying
it over to me.
Mr. Shakespeare : Did you know that the nails
were sold to Mr. Woodhouse?
Witness : I did.
Mr. Shakespeare : Did you see the nails go?
Witness: 1 do not know that I did.
a Mr. Shakespeare : As far as your own knos%ledge
goes, you don't know whether they were delivered
by Mr. Jones's order.
Witness: I know from what the wagoner told
me.

On Saturday Mr. W. H. Phillips (Coroner) held
an inquest at the Town Arms, Brierley Hill,
touchiug the death of Thomas Timmins, aged
fifty-sir years, an engineer, lately in the employ of
the Earl of Dudley, at the Nine Locks Colliery,
Mill Street, Brierley Hill. Mr. Scott (Government
Assistant Mines Inspector) was present, as well as
Mr John Skidmore (certificated manager) and Mr.
Haneox (mining age nt).—The evidence Ns• ent to
show that the decemed and another engineer
named William Smith, were engaged in the water
pit at the Nine Locks Colliery, changing the
bottom bucket on Thursday. Smith was at work
some fifty yarls below the place where Timmins
was engage 1, when the capstan rope broke near the
drum. Alarmed by the noie, Smith retreate 1 into
man-hol, and escaped unhurt, but Titualias was
severely injured, and died shortly after he was
drawn up the pit and had been conveyed home.—
Smith -tated that the portion of the rope in the
pit was examined by him as it was customary for
him to do, but that portion of the rope on the
drum he did not examine. Smith also said he
should think that the rope was capable of bearing
twenty tons, but that the weight on it at the time
of the accident would be about six or seven tons
George Constable, head engineer, stated that the.
rope had been on the drum nine years. For the
first three years after it was put on the pit did not
work, but after that time it had been used regularly
up to the present time. When the rope broke he
should say the weight upon it would be four or five
tons. He, however' considered it would bear
twenty tons. It was the largest rope "this side
of Dudley on Lord Dudley's estate. He did not
consider;nine years was too long to keep the rope
and could give no reason for its breaking.—Mr. J.
Skidmore said Henry Lucas, whose duty it was to
examine the rope, had never rap.irted that tin rope
was defective. Although the witness said there
had been no jerk in lovitninot the reds, he thought
there must h :ve been to break the rope. He could
not account f.,r the rope breaking by any ordinary
strain.-Henry Lucas, inspector of colliery machinery
under the Earl of Dudley, said he had noticed that
the rope was frayed, but did not consider it to be
out of order. He accounted for the rope breaking
. .

-7 -
either through a jerk or through receiiing an ex-
traordinary btrain whilst lifqng the rods. lie had
on Thursday morning looked at the rope, but did
not minutely examine it, as he had received no
notice that it was to be used.—Mr. W. B. Scott
agreed with the last witness as to the cause of the
accident. The rope was a good rope, but it ought
to have been minutely examined by Mr. Lucas
before being used, and Timmins or Smith should
have given notice of it.—The jury returned a
verdict of "Accidental death," and recommended
that on each day that a capstan rope was used, it
should be examined from end to end ; and they
further recommended the use of steel ropes in
preference to hemp oru.s.

Mr. ShakesPeare : You paid him a quarter's
salary instead of giving him notice?
Witness : I did.
Mr. Shakespeare: Did the prisoner want the
accounts gone through then?
Witness: No.
Mr. Shakespeare: Has he done so since the
charge was preferred?
Witness: No.
Mr. Shakespeare : Why did he leave your employ?
Witness: I found him taking money.
Mr, Shakespeare: On this you discharged him
and paid him a quarter's salary in advance.
Witness: With the exception of £2O which was
kept from him for money he had had.
Mr. Shakespeare Is that your letter (producing
one) you gave to him.
Witness : Yes.
Mr. Shakespeare then read the letter which was
to the effect that the cause of Mr. Francis Jones
leaving their employ was that they were giving Up
the nail trade over which he was manager.
Mr. Shakespeare: At the time you gave him this
letter did you know he had taken the money?
Witness : No.
Mr. Shakespeare: The way you made out is that
he stole other monies and you gave him a false
statement.
Witness: We thought of glving up the nail
trade.
Mr. Shakespeare: Was he leaving,_your employ
because he had etolen monies?
Witness: Because we were giving up the nail
trade.
Mr, Shakespeare: On the 19th July, 1881, was
he leaving our employ because he had stolen
money.
Witness: He left our employ because he had kept
monies.

SATURDA Y, SEPTEMBER 3, lBBl.

EXTENSIVE EIIBEZZLEMENT BY A • I,rr S I.:,pe3r,> :I, wa% a. large alteration.
: :•;(1.
Mr. :.ql.ak spear,: : Did y ra find on his table any
papers containing any accounts of the transac.ion
with Woodhouse.
Witness: No.
Mr. Shakespeare: Did you move the table your-
self?

- Witness : No, someone helped me.
Mr. Shakespeare: Was there a clip upon the table?
Witness : No.
Mr. Shakespeare: Did you look in his drawers
Witness: I might have done.
Mr. Shakespeare: Did you take any papers out
of the drawers?
Witness: No.
Mr. Shakeapeare : That is all I wish to ask you.
Re-examined by Mr. Homer: The reason why he
did not prosecute him in the £3O case was because
they had got iro to that amount in their hands be-
longing to Perrys.. My legal adviser said it would
be a doubtful case. We subsequently found thc se
other cheques out. It was our intention at the
time to give up the nail trade. The altentions were
made this year. The invoice of the nails sent to
Woodhouse for £3B was entered into his books. He
had no account of the other nails delivered on the
18th January. They had only had the money for
the one lot.
The witness was going on to prove Allen's case,
when Mr. Shakespeare objected to him !coking at a
book which he had in his hand, because it was na
in his own handwriting.l
A clerk was then called to prove the handwriting
of certain entries in the cash book, upon which Mr.
Shakespeare suggested the case should be adjourned
in order to enable Mr. Homer to go through the
book and to present the case to the Court in a
proper manner. As they were going on now it
would take six hours to go through what they
would be able to go through in a quarter of an
hour.

The MagistrateA Clerk : I shall certainly decline
to take the depositions in the way that Mr. Homer
wishes.
Mr. Homer: Shall I take them for you?
Tile Magistrates Clerk: I can perform my duties.
and I only wish you to perform your duties in a
proper manner.
M:. Shakespeare suggested that the ease should
be adjourned to enable him to look through the
great mass of figures which had been produced.
Mr. Homer (after consulting with Mr. William
Parkes and Mr. Alfred Parkes): If the prisoner
will plead guilty to the first charge of embezzling
£1.5 19s 2d, I will not proceed with the other
Mr. Shakspeare : My friend has put forth his case,
and I am bound to say to some extent, there is
some truth in the statements put forward; and al-
though I am bound to admit that my client has had
some money bPlonging to the prosecut irs, be has
not had the amount put forth in the charges.
In answer to the Bench Mr. Homer said that the
prisoner had withdrawn his plea of not guilty z.nd
pleaded guilty.
Mr. Shakespeare: It is a very sad thing for this
young man and it will ruin him whatever pu ish-
ment you may inflict upon him. However small the
punishment may be it would injure him to a certain
extent, as he had been a man, who no doubt had
lived in the luxuries of life. He had always preri-
°Ugly borne a good character. It is for you to fix
the punishment—there is a maximum punishment—
and I ask you to deal as mercifully as you can with
him.

Albert Woodhouse was sworn and deposed: I
have paid over to Jones £l5 19s 2d by rayment of
a sow and pigs, and a pony, for some nails received
from Parkes's.
Mr. Homer: I am bound to say that they had
placed implicit confidencelin him and paid him
good wages, but the better they did by him the
worse he behaved to them and robbed them right
and left. They had alwap behaved well t ) him,
and there is not the slightest excuse for the pri-
soner's conduct.
Mr. Hingley : It appears to be a very serious
case and we have decided to inflict the full penalty
we can give you and that is six months' hard labon

Mr. Shakespeare: You received this money from
him that he had kept of yours?
Witness: We kept it out of his salary.
Mr. Shakeipeare : Did he pay you back the £3O,
which he had kept from you.
Witness (on being pressed) : Yes.
Mr. Shakespeare: Then you gave him a letter to
ev.y that the cause of him leaving your employ was
that you were giving up the nail trade.
Witness: Teat was so.
Mr. Shakespeare To show to the country.
Mr. Homer: I object to the question
Mr. Shakespeare: For what did you give him the
letter.
Witness: We did not want to disgrace the man
after he had made the thing up.
Mr. Shakespeare: When he left you he issued a
circular, didn t he ?
Witness: Yes.
Mr. Shakespeare: Was the circular to the effect
that the customers having expressed themselves
dissatisfied with your chain he had made up his
mind to re-commence business.
Witness: It was.
Mr. Shakespetre : You were very displeased with
that circular.
Witness : Yes
Mr. Shakespeare: I believe you have had some
alteraticin made at your office.
Witness : Yes, we have.
Mr. Shakespeare: It was priseter's duty to
enter into the books the cash which was received.
Witness: Yes.
Mr. Shakespeare. Prisoner used to travel for you
and go on long journeys.
Witness : Yes.
Mr. Skakespeare : Has he left pieces of paper to
give you information to make entries in the books.
Witness: I don't remember any scraps of paper
being left at all.
Mr. Shakespeare: With regard to Woodhouse,
. were all the papers removed out into some other
places.
Witness: I don't known,
Mr. Shakespeare: Was the alteration made after
he left on a journey for Ireland.
Witness: No.
• Mr. Shakespeare: Was not his t.ble and desk
taken out of his office into yours?
Witness: No.
Mr. Shakespeare: Was it done crrafully.
Witness: Yes.
Mr. Shakespeare: Was there mC V 5O ?
Witness No, there was no coui