The Sun.
London, England, 1834-08-19 00:00:00

ASSIZE INTELLIGENCE.

OXFORD CIRCUIT.—GLoucEsrnz, Auo. 15.
(Before Mr. Justice WILLIAMS.)
Iphn Shipton and John Workman were convicted of
having stolen a fishing-net, 1.50 yards long, which they had
cut into smaller portions, to make gate-nets.to poach hares.
Mr. Justice WILLIAMS sentenced the prisoner Shipton
to be transported for seven years, and the prisoner Work-
man to be imprisoned for six months.
As soon as the sentence was pronounced, the prisoner
Workman took from his pocket a stone about half as large
as a man's fist, and threw it with great violence at the head,
of one of the witnesses. Fortunately he missed his aim,
and the stone did no injury.

SATURDAY.
William Clarke was charged with cutting and stabbing
Charles Ruscott, with intent to murder him.
Mr. GnEAvEs conducted the prosecution ; Mr. WATSON
the defence.

Thomas Smith said—l was on the 19th of June at the
Red Lion public-house, at Huntley. The prosecutor and
prisoner were then playing at skittles. The prosecutor
said that the prisoner played unfairly, and the prisoner said
it was fair. Some angry words passed, and the prisoner
pulled out his knife, but not till after the prosecutor struck
him. The prosecutor said he would knock the prisoner
down if he did not put down the bowl used in skittle play-
ing. The prisoner said he would not. The prosecutor
then struck the prisoner at the side of the head, and the
prisoner stabbed him with his knife, which he had taken

from his waistcoat pocket. The prosecutor was stabbed
inside the thigh. boot was filled with blood presently,
and he was then carried into the house.

Cross-examined by Mr. WATsoN—The prisoner was
very sorry, and wanted to see the prosecutor at the In-
firmary. The prosecutor is not quite 25, and is bigger
than the prisoner.
Mr. Justice WILLIAMS said that, if death had ensued,
the offence of the prisoner would have been manslaughter,
and not murder, and his Lordship directed an acquittal.
Verdict—Not Guilty.
Charles Oakford, a well-looking man, aged 21, was
charged with wilful and corrupt perjury, in a deposition
made by him before F. Trotman, Esq., and J. Parker, Esq.,
two magistrates of the county of Gloucester.
Mr. JUSTICE, with whom was Mr. CARRINGTON, stated
that it was an indictment for perjury upon an oath taken
by the defendant, which, if believed by the Grand Jury,
would have put an innocent man upon his trial for a mur-
der. The defendant was a servant of Mr. Lawes, a mil-
ler, who, in consequence of some suspicions, dismissed the

defendant from his service. The detendant applied for a
character, and the prosecutor having no positive proof of
guilt in the defendant, gave him a character for sobriety and
activity, but omitted the word honesty ; this led to an in-
quiry from another Mr. Lawes, into whose service the de-
fendant had gone, and on the matter being explained, the
other Mr. Lawes would not retain the defendant in his ser-

vice. It would be proved that the defendant left the service
of v,.- r -- ! .1_- - -1 42,10 t - .
April, 1833, the defendant to "a magistrate andligeef
rately charged Mr. Lawes with having committed a murder
on the 19th of October, 1831, and the defendant then said
that he was enabled to fix the time by cutting notches week by
week on a stick. Before these magistrates the defendant
had made his deposition, stating in the most precise terms
that he saw the prosecutor murder a child, the whole state-
ment being, from beginning to end, the wicked and diaboli-
cal invention of the mind of the defendant ; however, the
prosecutor was held to bail by the Magistrates, and the
defendant actually preferred a bill of indictment against
Mr. Lawes for the pretended murder, which was ignored
by the Grand Jury.
John Bellamy, Esq., produced the deposition of the de-
fendant, and also the indictment for murder which had
been preferred against Mr. Lawes, and ignored by the
Grand Jury.
Mr. John Lawes, a middle-aged man, of most respectable
appearance, said—l was before the Magistrates on the 30th
of April on a charge of murder. The Magistrates were
Mr. Trotman and Mr. Parker. The defendant was there ;
he was sworn. I heard the oath administered and the de-
position read over to him, and he put his mark to it. Mr.
Trotman made an addition to it before it was signed by the
defendant.
The deposition was read; it was to the following effect
Gloucestershire to wit—The information of Chas. Oak-
ford, of the parish of Wick and Alson, in the county of Glou-
cester, miller, who being upon oath saith, eighteen months
ago and a week last Wednesday, I was living as an indoor
servant to Mr. Lawes, a miller, at Wick ; at between 11 and
12 o'clock that day Jane Rice was taken ill. Mr. Lawes de-
sired me to look to the mill, as Jane was so bad he must
attend upon her. At about half-past nine I went to bed,
and about eleven o'clock I heard Mr. Laives go down stairs,
open two doors, and strike a light with a flint and tinder
box. He then came up again, bringing a light, which I
could see by an open space over my room door, and went
through the door at the top of the stairs towards Jane Rice's
room, without any shoes or slippers on. I saw it. I was then
in bed, and heard a child cry. I got out of bed directly.
opened my door quietly, and with my left hand pushed the
passage door open, and then Jane Rice's door being wide open
I could see into her room, when I saw Jane Rice sitting up
in the bed, and Mr. Lawes standing up and putting the can-
dle down on the chair. I saw him take something folded up
between a blanket and sheet off the bed, and then Mr.
Lawes came to the foot of the bed, unfolded the blanket
and sheet on his left arm, and then I saw the child. It had
hair upon its head. I heard it cry a second time. He took
from the chair where he had placed the candle a black half-
pint bottle, which he shook. He poured it into the child's
mouth, and then wrapped the child up in the Llanket and
sheet. The child did not cry or cough, nor did I see anything
run out of the mouth of the child. In about five minutes he
opened the sheet and blanket again ; the child was dead ; it
did not move at all. Mr. Lawes brought the child by me as
I stood at the passage door. He carried it down. In passing
me there was plenty of room for him to go by, though I could
have touched him with my hand. Mr. Lawes must have seen me
as well as I saw him, but neither of us said anything. He
went down stairs and out of the back door, and was away for
about twenty minutes. I did not go down stairs because my mas-
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door, which he shut. He went into Jane's room, where I
heard him talk. I then went to bed. The next morning,
between six and seven o'clock, I tracked Mr. Lawes, by his
shoe with no nails, from the back door to the well head, and
back again by the same path. The shoes are those he gene-
rally wears by way of slippers, which I know by cleaning
them. At eleven o'clock Mr. Lawes went to Bath, and told
me to take care of the mill while he went there to get some
person to wait upon Jane. I went to the top of the mill-head
and turned the water off down the. back brook, and left no
water but what I could see the mud. I examined up and down
but could find nothing. Jane White came to me at the mill
door. I asked her what she had been for to Mr. Boulton's.
She told me laudanum ; and I told her what I had seen on
the previous night. A nurse came in two days after. I re-
mained in my master's service twelve months after that event ;
and about four months after I told what I had seen to George
Colman. I never mentioned the circumstance to any one else
till after I left the service. I further declare that John Lawes,
now present, is the same person that I saw in the manner de-
scribed, destroy the child."
Mr. Lawes recalled.—The defendant was in my service.
He left it on the 9th of September, 1832. He had been
two years in my service. He had the care of my mill. I
had. gone to London, and on my return I missed some flour.
He would give me no account of it, and was very abusive.
I discharged him, and was obliged to send for the constable
to compel him to leave the house. He afterwards applied
to me for a character, which I gave. He wished the word
" honesty" to be introduced, but I said I could not do so
with propriety. The defendant got into the service of Mr.
Lawes, of Bristol, and I had some conversation with him ;
and after that the defendant came again, and asked to have
the word " honesty" put in. I told him I had said he was
Isober and active iri the mill. The defendant said he would
do me all the injury that he could, and bring my nose to
the grindstone. My housekeeper's name is Jane Rice. She
was ill in February, 1831. I sent for laudanum to Mr.