The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1820-08-03 00:00:00

YORKSHIRE'ASSIZE,.

;S.
CROWN COURT, SATURDAY, JoLv 22.
HIGHWAY RORBF.RY.

Joseph Piekersgill slow; charged with robbing
Mr. Squire Harnsdeti on the highway, near Wakes
field Out-wood, of a pocket bunk and some silver.
This was a case attended with circumstances of
great cruelty.
Mr. Squire jtatioselen stated, that he lives at
Wakefield Oat-wood ; had been at the market at
Wakefield on Friday, the 5 li of May : lie called at
a publec-house in Brag-lane,• kept by a person of
the name of Waterhouse; it was about a quarter
past ten when he went there, and he remained an
hour and a half ; Joseph Packersgill, the Prisoner,
came in soon after he got there. Witness asked
him to go home with bin as far as their road lay
together, which he promised to do; but when the
witness got up to go home, the Prisoner excused
himself. front going just then. The witness there-
fore set oil* alone; when be had got about seventy
yards he was overtaken by Mary Norton, who was
going to work all night in 6,1)4 at which the Pri-
soner was hackman. After walking with him a
short distance she turned another road, and the
witness was then alone ; after going on about 100
yards farther, he thought he heard a footstep
behind him, and• turning his head to pee what it
way, he was knocked down; he fell to the ground,
and the person who had knocked him down began
to punch him on the head and Lice with his feet ;
witness cried ont for help, and the Prisoner then
said, 4.4 Wilt thou not give over ?" and he punched
hint over the mouth with• his. feet. Witness
knew the Voice; it was that of Joseph Pickersgill,
the Prisoner. at the bar had known him ems
yeire; ha was Weicompa at-a pit is • ifiti


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RAPE.
Matthew Hanson, • private in the 84th regi-
ment, stationed at Halifax, was charged with coms
mitring a rape on the person of Mary Buckley, a
girl of the age of 14. Though the trial termi-
nated in the acquittal of the Prisoner. it disclosed
a scene of very gross inipeorieloct on his part, and
conduct most infamous oil • the part of a female
who appeared to have acted es his accomplice.
The Prosecutrix, a young girl of the tender age
of fourteen, was sent by her mother to a public
mangle. at Southfield, Halifix, on Tuesday, the
18th of April last. The mangle was kept in a
chamber iii which was a bed. The Prisoner
was turning the mangle for a woman of the
name- of Betty Edwards, when the Prosecutrix
got there. The soldier not appearing to turn
the mangle very vigorously, the girl said she
thought lie was weak, and wanted some drink.—
The soldier made reply, that he could turn
the mangle if she was upon it. The Prosecutrix
was sitting on the edge of the bed, and the
Prisoner quitted the mangle and threw her upon it,
but without at that time committing any gross in-
decorum. The Prosecutrix said she was very
angry Bud struck at him, and called him a villaiu,
upon which he again threw her upon the bed and
effected his purpose. The Prosecutrix said she
screamed out as burl as she could for the pressure
upon her, hut that Betty Edwards would not afford
her any assistance. The Pruiecotrix stated that she
communicated what had passed to her mother the
following day, but not before she had been inter-
rogated by her respecting it ; it was her intention
to have mentioned it, but she•could not fir shame.
Ann Davies, a little girl, ten year. of age, was
in the room when this shocking outrage was com-
mitted ; she confirmed us muds of the stateineut
of the last witness. as could be expected froM so
young a•child ; but F.tie said that Mary Buckley
laughed the first time that she was thrown upon the
bed. The second time she cried out " Murder !"
She called upon Betty Edwards, who said she
would. have nothing to do with .hers
The JUDGE thought the levity of the girl upon
the first liberty being taken with her, 'night have
operated as an enconragement to the Prisoner, but
whose conduct was deserving of the severest repre-
hension; he therefore suggested the propriety of
going no further into the case.
The Counsel for the prosecution acceded to the
suggestion—the Prisoner was ',quitted..
His Lorth.liip said, no language he could use
could sußiciently express his detestation at the con-
duct of Betty Edwards, who was deserving of the
severest punishment. His Lordship said it was a
case most deserving of being brought. before p
Jury, and he should with the greatest pleasure al-
low the costs Of the prosecution. The parties had
bee.. before Colonel Horton, who after hearing the
evidence of Betty Edwards, dismissed the cam-
plaint, and the Prisoner was discharged ; but on a
subsequent examination before Michael Stocks,
Esq. that Magistrate thought it his duty to cow-
, mit the Prisoner for trial.
' Isaac. Wright was charged with administering
a certain mixture to Ann Redact!, with an intent
to procure an abortion of a child; with which she
was then.pregnant.
Ann Rodwell stated, that she was last summer in
the service of Mrs. Heaton, of Ackworth; the Pri-
soner was her sweetheart. and she became pregnant;
upon communicating her situation to hiqb he told
her be world get something which would-sake her
miscarry l old he gave her metric' bottles. one of
which she Wok, but tbq did not produce that
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MURDER OF HIS WIFE AT BRADFORD.
Last week we gave some particulars of the trial
of this Prisoner, for the murder of liis wife, which
terminated in bit conviction, and he received sen-
tence of death. winch sentence was to have been
carried into effect on Monday last. It may be pro-
per here to state the effect of the evidence givers
upon the trial. The deceased was found lying dead
in the kitchen early in the morning of the 27th of
June. There were a great many bruises on diffe-
rent parts of her body, and two wounds on her
head, bat none of those bruises or wounds were, in
the opinion of the surgeon, the cause of her death,
which was prodoced by the rupture of a blood ye.-
-sel on the brain, in other words, by apoplexy, either
produced by intoxication, or by a fall or blow. It
was the decided opinion of the surgeon, that after
the effusion of blood had taken place, the deceased
could not possibly have come down stairs ; it fol-
, lowed therefore that the mortal blow or fall must
have been received in the kitchen, and it was the
inference of the Joey, from the facts !waved, that
the Prisoner, having begun to ill-treat his wife up
stairs, had followed her into the kitchen, and there
had given her the blow which bed produced her
death.
The facts to support this inference were the fol-
lowing :—The deceased was heard to cry out
6' Murder !" in her lodging-room, in which there
were only herself and her husband : drops of blood
were traced all the way from the lodging-room to
the kitchen. mid bloody footsteps were visible on
the kitchen floor, as if a person with bloody feet
had been walking about. To these facts are to be
added the brutal exclamation of the Prisoner when
the death of his wife was communicated to him.
There was also an extreme improbability in the ac.
count which Oldfield gave of the matter, as it was
barely possible that the wounds and bruises discovered
on the person of the deceased could have been occa-
sioned by any falls however frequent ;and there probe.
bly remained no doubt on the mind of any person who
'heard the trial that te had brutally assaulted her in
the lodging-room, whether her death blow had been
received up stairs or hot. Further than this the wit-
nesaes did not carry the proof with any degree of cer-
tainty. Under these circumstances many pentane
thought t hat the Jury, in filiding the Prisoner guilty
of murder, had come to a hazardous conclusion. and
the Judge who tried the Prisoner was nut so fully
satisfied in his own mind of the propriety of the
verdict as to rest opal the evidence as it was
given in Court. hot afterwards examined the
witnesses more fully for his own satistiction.-:-
The answers he received removed what remaining
doubt he had entertained, and upon consulting
with Mr. Justice Bayley, it was determined that
the execution should take place on Monday morn-
ing, in pursuance of his sentence; and so lao! as
Sunday morning, no doubt existed but that a few
hours would terminate the earthly existence of
this unhappy man. But in the course of Sun-
day foreman& a letter was received by Mr. I lardy,
one of the Counsel for the Prisoner, front Mr.
Sharp, the surgeon, of Bradford, iu which he
stated a fact, which furnished a decisive proof that
the deceased had not been followed into the kitchen
by the Prisoner, cud that consequently the effusion
upon the brain hid either been produced by a fall,
iu which he had no hand, or by intoxication. We
cannot state the nature ui the fact communicated by
Mr. Sharp, but it was of such a nature as to induce
Mr. Justice Park, to whom this letter had been
of course immediately delivered, to sign a reprieve.
—This reprieve was communicated to the Prisoner
at three o'clock in the afternoon;by the /tee. Wm.
Flower, Chaplain to the Castle. The Prisoner who
up to this time had- ■a.tained himoeif with a firm-
ness approaching to obduracy, was not proof against
this unexpected change in his prospects; he burst
into tears and appeared greatly affected, lie was
shortly after removed oat of the 000llemned cell,
and is now treated as an ordinary Prisoner.--
(Leeds ilerciry.l '
MONDAY, JULY ZS.

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FORGERY.
TAmas Wilson, a pruner. was charged with
forging • check, purporting to be signed- by John
Hutton, sod addressed to Hutton and Co. banker',
ittchmond, for the payment of It/. 74. payable to
James LongiLite. or bearer—Goilly.
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