The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1859-08-30 00:00:00

LIVERPOoI., ArGunT

Civiwx Couut.—(liefore Mr. Baron WAysoN.)
The trial of Richard Hardy, John Hope, and Joseph
Berry, on the charge of fording the will of Ann Dean,
Ik-ceased, at Salford, on the 18th of April last. Wll4 pro-
ceeded with this imitating at the sitting of the Inert.
By the direction of his Lordship Buth Berry was
Remitted, she having, in the m of his Lordship,
acted under the coercion of her husband, the prisoner
Joseph Berry.
Mr. Pope then addressed the jury on behalf of the
prisoners, contending that the evidence of Luke Hard-
man, the approver, was not corroborated in any mate-
rial particular, and that without corroboration his evi-
deuce was to be discarded. and relying on the previous
good character of the prisoners Hardy and Berry as
rendering it improbable that they should commit such
an 4,ffct:ce, and setting down the accusation to the
malice of the approver at not being able to exisori.
! lunacy from the prisoners.
! The address of the learned counsel occupied nearly
two hours.

'The Court adjourned at 7 o'clock till next 1110r1141..
His Lordhip, at the sitting of the Court, proceeded to
sum up the evidence against the !limners. He directed
the jury that, if unoirrohorated, the approver was not
to lie believed, and he must be curruborated in some
material particular relating to the charge as affecting
each of the prisoners. The corroboration of the wit.
nom, called proved only that the prisoners were at cer-
t:.in places when the approver said they were concocting
the will ; this corroboration &moulded to little, as the
prisoners might have been at those places innocently.
But the important point was whether the will was in
reality forged, for, if KO, the prisoner Berry wrote it,
Hardy attested it, and Hope drew it up. The theory
of the defence was that the will was made at 10 o'clock
on the night of the 13th of April, at Hardy's beerhouse,
by the deceased, who then sat up in bed and made her
mark to it, the will itself having been copied from an
old will of her mother's, and altered as PIM required,
Iterry copying it, and Hardy being one of the attesting
witnesses, the approver /fanlinan being the other. The
evidence, however, of Mn,. Fletcher, of Hardy's ser-
vant, and of the medical man was, that the deceased
woman was then dying, feeble, and almost insensible,
and that up to between 11 and 12 o'clock that night she
never made any such will, and there was evidence
that Hisrchnan, the approver (one of the attesting wit-
nevem), was in bed that night at 9 o'clock. If she
did not make it, then the will must be forged, as the
deceased died in the course of that night. Then, if forged,
who forged it? The will itself was the strongest cor-
roboration of the approver's shltensent. Then, in addi-
Mon to this, there was found on the prisoner Hope a
bill of costs for his work as an attorney in the matter,
in which the first item was for examining the papers
of Ann Dean on the Irith of April, two days after her
; death, and also an item "for reading her will at the
Hare and Hounds publichouse, at S.dford, on the 18th
of April." This was one of the days and places spoken
to by the approver HAMM."... For these items the pre-
! poaterous charges of L 2 4s. Gd, and five guineas were
made. The last item in this bill of the prisoner Hope
was dated the 11th of July, and the total amount
charged by him, which was a circumstance to be nonal,
was 4.75 16s, for nerviers which would be extrava-
gantly paid for by • 1:10 note. It WA, a curious circum-
stance that there was also found on the prisoner Hope
another document bearing date the 23rd of July, which
purported to he an indictment against the prisoner
Hardy and against the prisoner Berry, charging them
with having on the 18th of April, at the Hare AIM
Hounds, Salford, forged a will of Ann Dean, and with
having subsequently, at Memel,. Lloyd and Entwiatle's
Lank, at Safford, uttered the same on the 23rd of June,
well knowing the said will to be forged, and then obtain-
ing CM by means of the said forged will from the
bank. This was perfectly good evidence against Hope'
it corroborated the evidence of the approver, flow did
Hope know the will was forged? Why did he draw
up this doc 1111 l ent ? Had lie failed to extort from the
other prisoners the preiswterous charges in his bill for
hi.s share in the transaction, arid was the pretended
indictment shoe n to them as a threat that he would
, expose them if they did not pay him his demand? All
, this was for the consideration of the jury. His Lord-

„
ship having carefully gone through the reinalumg evi-
deuce,
The jury retired and on their return found all the pri-
toners guilty of both forging and uttering the will.
A previous conviction .4 felony against Hope, the at-
torney, having been proved.
lila Lonlabip, in passing i.entence, said he hoped this
case would be a warning to all who engaged in great
crimes that at any periisi they might be turned round
upon and brought to punishment by their smomplines.
In the present case, if Hanluion hail not first turned
round upon the prisoners it was evident the prisoner
Hope was quite re.nly to have done an. It was quite
evident that when this poor 11,1 woman was dying at
Hardy's house the prisoner Hardy and Berry and his
wife had conceived the crime of forging a will for her in
their Own benefit, and they had afterwards met with a
ready tool to assist them in their criminal and abomin-
able design in the prisoner Hope, with his mischievous
smattering of law. He hoped that the sentence he should
pass would be a warning to all that inch designs, when
found out, would meet with exemplary punishment.
The sentence of the court was that each of the prisoners
undergo 14 years penal servitude.
This case finished the criminal business of this assize.
Ilis Lordship then proceeded to take common jury
causes.

At the Warwick ftilAlDell on Wednesday, Mr. Jansen
Neusor Smith, an attorney in Birnsiughans, had a ver-
dict given against hilts for assaulting a young holy,
named .tdaum by hewing her; and the jury asses ,ed the
damages at kbo.