The Sun.
London, England, 1846-08-13 00:00:00

- The prisoner, though unmarried, had previously had
two children, one of which was still alive, to which she
testified her mistress was very kind, and which she
supported.

The defence was, that the child having been born
suddenly, as the prisoner was going down stairs to the
kitchen, Lad received the injuries causing death by its
mother accidentally stepping on its head.
After an address to the jury by Mr. Symons, and an
able summing up by the Learned Judge,
The jury found the prisoner Guilty of concealment of
the birth only.
His LORDSHIP sentenced the prisoner to imprisonment
for three months.

NORTHERN ClRCUlT.—Appleby, Aug. 10.
The assizes for the county of Westmoreland commenced
here to-day; Mr. Justice Wightman presiding on the
civil side, and Mr. Justice Cresswell in the Crown Court.
Five causes are entered for trial. The calendar contains
the names of thirteen prisoners, the greater number of
whom are charged with petty thefts. The charge of rape
against four men engaged on the Lancaster and Car-
lisle Railway has caused a great deal of excitement in
the county, as well on account of the respectability of
the persons who suffered from the outrage, as of the
peculiarly brutal circumstances by which it was accom-
panied.

(Before Mr. Justice CaxsswEnn.)
Thomas Burrows, aged 18, Geo,ge Lees, aged 18, John
Smith, aged 21, and William Smith, aged 19, were in-
dicted for a rape on the person of Jane Dover, at Shap,
on the 19th of April last.
Mr. Matthews and Mr. James conducted the prose-
cution. The prisoners were defended by Mr. Ramshay.
The prisoners were striking specimens of the class to
which they belong, strong robust youths, but evidently
utterly ignorant, and who conducted themselves through-
out with apparently a total indifference to their position.
Mr. MATTHEWS opened the case, and called the fol-
lowing witnesses :
Jane Dover, a delicate-looking girl, about seventeen
years of age, stated that she was the daughter of a
farmer at Scarside, near Shap. He is now dead, but
the farm is still kept by her mother. Her brother Mat-
thew and her sister Elizabeth lived in the house. Her
sister Mary lived at Haeltinthorpe Hall, and on Sunday,
the 19th of April last, had come over on a visit to her
mother. The witness and her sister Elizabeth accompa-
nied her part of the wa;. home, along a footpath leading
from a place called Bampton Grange, past Scarside, to-
wards the high road leading from Shap to Penrith.
On reaching the high road they parted, the witness and
her sister Elizabeth returning home by the footpath.
From Thrinaby Grange, where they left Mary, there
was no house in the neighbourhood of the path except
their own home, which was about a mile distant. When
within about a quarter of a mile from home they met
four men, whom they identified as the prisoner!. In
consequence of an elevation in the ground, the witness
and her sister did not see them until they were within
thirty yards, and on their coming up the young woman
went off the footpath to let them pass. Two of the men,
the two Smiths. seized hold of Elizabeth. Jane at-
tempted to run away, but was caught by Burrows and
Lees. She was thrown down upon the ground, and
Burrows attempted to perpetrate the offence with which
he now stood charged. He called to Lees to hold her
feet, and succeeded, notwithstanding her screams and
struggles, in accomplishing his object. Lees then com-
mitted the same offence, being in a similar way assisted
by Burrows. During this time she was aware that her
sister was struggling with the other two men, but one of
them now left her and came to the witness. He also
perpetrated the crime. Both the young women were
detained in this struggle for upwards of an hour and a
half ; and before the witness finally succeeded in get-
ting away from her assailants, one of them, she could
not tell which, repeated the offence. Another
of them then took her up and carried her
towards a plantation, at some distance from the
path, where he again attempted to violate her
person. While he was struggling with her her sister,
who had finally got away from those by whom she had
been attacked, came up to her on her hands and knees,
on which the man left the witness Jane and went to her
sister. Jane then got to her feet, and ran home,
where she gave the alarm to her brother. He imme-
diately mounted a horse and rode off to the spot, where
he found Elizabeth lying insensible ; she also having
been repeatedly outraged in the same way as her sister.
Both were in a dreadful state when they reached home,
their clothes torn to pieces, their faces bleeding from
blows inflicted upon them by the hands of their assail-
ants, and their persons severely bruised in the long and
desperate struggle which they had maintained. Early
the next morning the police went in search of the pri-
soners, who had all been together drinking at a public-
house at Bampton on the evening in question, and had
been seen very shortly before the time when this out-
rage must have taken place proceeding from Bampton
along a path leading to the spot, and in its immediate
I neighbourhood. It was found that at a very early hour
on the Monday morning they had left the " barrack," a
cluster of temporary huts in which they lived, and they
were traced step by step across the county of Westmore-
land, and finally into Durham, where they were taken
into custody near Hartlepool. On examining their
persons it was found that Burrows had but one of his
braces on. It was of rather a remarkable pattern, and
corresponded precisely with one which was found in the
field the morning after the outrage. The spot, it was
stated by the witnesses, was so 1 trodden in the struggle
that it was some weeks before it was again covered with
grass as before, and it was strewed with portions of the
dress of the young women, crushed fragments of their
bonnets, torn gloves, and broken combs.
According to the testimony of the medical men Jane
Dover had suffered extreme violence from the persons
by whom she had been assailed. The particulars of the
injuries sustained by her sister Etiaabeth (whose case
was the subject of another indictment) did not transpire
on this trial ; but they were understood to be of a most
serious kind.

The prisoners were convicted.
His LORDSHIP, in passing sentence, said they had been
convicted of a most aggravated offence, under circum-
stances of such atrocity as reflected the greatest disgrace
on the country in which they were born. When men at
their early age were so brutified any observation would,
as to them, be thrown away. There was no possibility
of exciting in such minds either regret or shame, and he
(the Learned Judge) had never seen four men apparently
more lost, more shameless, more dead to every manly
feeling. As an example to others, however, it was ne-
cessary to refer to the fate which awaited them. They
were about to leave a free country fora state of perpetual
servitude, without intermission of their toil, without
wages, without any reward but that daily bread which
would enable them to continue their daily labour, to
spend the remainder of their lives in suffering and de-
gradation. The Learned Judge concluded by content:.
mg the prisoners to transportation for life.

ESTERN Aug.lo.
CROWN COURT.—(Before Mr. Justice ERLE.)
John Gaudfield and Thomas Gaudfield were indicted
for breaking and entering the dwelling-house of Ann
Champion, at Curry Rival, on the 18th of January, and
stealing therefrom upwards of 601.
Mr. Edwards was counsel for the prosecution, and Mr.
Stone and Mr. Saunders defended tie prisoners.
It appeared that on the 16th of January Mrs.
Champion had about 60/ in her house ' • she had placed
it in her pocket-book, and then locked it up in a box,
which she kept in her bed-room. On the following day
(Sunday) she saw that the money was all safe. On the
Illonday morning, about seven o'clock, she discovered
that the lock of the box had been broken, and that her
money was gone. The prisoner John Gaudfield lived in
a cottage belonging to the prosecutrix, and almost ad-
joining her house, and shortly before this his brother,
Thomas Gaudfield, had come on a visit to him. Thomas
Gaudfield had a house at Glastonbury, and William
Russell occupied two rooms in that house. In the
month of January Thomas Gaudfield was absent from
his house for a fortnight, but returned one evening ac-
companied by his brother John. On the 22d of
January, about 11 o'clock at night, both the prisoners
came to Thomas Gaudaeld's house and called up Russell,
who opened the door for them:; they then appeared
to be very much agitated. They went into one of the
rooms, and shortly afterwards Russell heard them
quarrelling, and one of them said, "Don't curse and
swear so ; we have broken into Mrs. Champion's house,
every d— farthing, and we must hide
iatn
tilld taken a
then anoise ay
is over." Russell, upon hearing this,
went down stairs and saw them counting money on the
table. They remained in the house about a quarter of
an hour, and then went out, the prisoner, Thomas, hav-
ing a small box under his arm. Russell told this to a
woman with whom he cohabited, named Mary Ann Rus-
sell, but he desired her not to mention it to a soul, be-
cause he had heard one of the prisoners say that he
would murder any one who split upon them. Mary Arn
Russell corroborated the statement of the former witness
as to what he had told her. She had named it to twenty
people. She had never been in gaol for thieving ; but
she had had a bad husband who had sent her for some
cloth which had been stolen, and she was taken up for
" finding" the cloth. She was tried, and bentonced to
six months' imprisonment. Her husband had been trans-
ported two years since. The prisoners had been seen
with large sums of money in their possession shortly
after the robbery.
The jury found the prisoners Guilty, and they were
sentenced to be transported for ten years.
Susanna Joan Morris, a respectably attired woman,
was indicted for stealing ten pairs of gloves and other
articles, the property of Mr. Dight Gay, at Exeter.
Mr. Phinn conducted the prosecution. and Mr. Stone
defended the prisoner.
The prosecutor is a tradesman in Exeter. The pri-
soner lived at North Curry, where she kept a school, and
Mr. Gay's child was boarded and educated by her at
2/. 10s. a quarter. In July the prisoner went on a visit
to Mr. and Mrs. Gay at Exeter. At that time Mr. and
Mrs. Gay were on a visit to Miss Yarslake, at the vil-
lage of Ede, near Exeter. The prisoner accordingly
wen‘ there, and after staying a couple of days alto wei4

after staying there some time returned into her room
and threw herself on the bed, and after lying there
about twenty minutes, went down stairs again, and while
below called out, inquiring whether .Sarah Young was
dressing to come down, to which the latter replied that
she would be down in a few minutes. Sarah Young
when dressed went down, and observing some stains of
blood on the kitchen pavement, made inquiries of the
prisoner as to what had occurred, as also did her mis-
tress when the fact was communicated to her. On being
questioned subsequently, she admitted that she had mis-
carried and thrown the child into the privy, where, how-
ever, nothing was found on a search. Afterwards, in
the course of the same day, the body of a child was
found in the prisoner's room, wrapped in a gown near
her bed. It was proved that the child was full-grown.
The surgeon described the injuries as of a most
grievous nature, and stated on examinatio❑ that this
must have resulted from extreme violence. On cross-
examination, however, he said that a person treading
accidentally on the head of a newly born child might
possibly have inflicted them.