The Sun.
London, England, 1858-02-25 00:00:00

SPRING ASSIZES.

NORTHERN CIRCUIT.
CARLISLE, FEB. 23.

M. Baron Martin arrived here yesterday at noon,
and opened the commission. Mr. Justice Byles
arrived from Appleby about 5 o'clock. Their lord-
ships having attended Divine service, the Courts
sat this morning at 11 o'clock.
There were two causes on the civil side, one an
action about a watercourse, and the other for money
lent.:

On the criminal side the calendar cmtains an
entry of the names of 14 prisoners. One of them is
charged with murder, the rest with minor offences.

CROWN COURT.
(Before Mr. Baron Martin.)

For nearly three hours, until 2 o'clock, the pri-
soners arraigned pleaded guilty as fast as the grand
jury brought in bills.
Joshua Sewell was indicted for shooting at
Thomas Lancaster with intent to maim him, at
Kirkland, on the 14th of January last.
Mr. Monk, Q.C., and Mr. Scott prosecuted ; and
Mr. Price defended the prisoner.
It appeared that Thomas Lancaster and a party
of young men had been drinking in the village of
Kirkland on the night in question at a publiohouse,
and on leaving there at 12 o'clock they tosk it into
their heads to pass the defendant's house and en-
deavoured to knock up his maid-servant by throw-
ing earth at her window. The prisoner's attention
was attracted by this, and he threw open a window-
sash to tell them to go away—that he knew them
all. They, however, threw clods at him through
his window. He then threatened to shoot if they
did not go away, and, coming downstairs to his
doorway with a gun fired it off in the direction of
the young men. The shot from the gun struck
Thomas Lancaster in the face and destroyed the
sight of one eye. For the defence it was contended
that the shot was fired, not at them, but for the
purpose of frightening them away, and that the
injury was an accidental one.
His lordship having summed up,
The jury found the prisoner guilty of unlawfully
wounding.
Sentence was deferred.
Mary Simpson Carruthers, a handsome-looking
woman, apparently about 36 years of age, was in-
dicted for bigamy in having intermarried. with
William Amos Wilson, at Gretna, on the Ist of
November, 1838, her former husband being then
alive.

Me. M'Oubray prosecuted, and Mr. Campbell
Foster defended the prisoner.
It appeared that in May, 1838, the prisoner had
been driven in a gig to Sark tollbar, over Gretna-
bridge, from Carlisle, by Richard Carruthers, a
butcher of Carlisle, she then being only 16 years
of age, and in the presence of the driver, a man
named Moore, was married by Janet Beattie, the
daughter of the tollbar-keeper, according to the
law of Scotland. This event took place at two
o'clook in the morning, and the cross-examination
elicited that a great deal of frolic and joking was
going on at the time, Carruthers saying they had
come to- be married, and Janet Beattie saying she
could soon manage that for them, making them
join hands, and asking them'if they were single ,
and willing to be married, which questions were
answered in the affirmative, declared them to be
lawfully married. The ceremony was preceded and
finished by glasses of whisky for the driver and
husband, (t c., and the parties drove back to Car-
lisle, where there was some evidence that the pri-
soner, who was the daughter of a barber in Car-
lisle, lived with Carruthers about a month. In
November in that year William Amos Wilson, now
a veterinary surgeon at Liverpool, was paying his
addresses to the prisoner, and told her he had heard
she was married. She denied it, and he then per-
suaded her, or, as ho said, she persuaded him, to
run off to Gretna and be married, and the cere-
mony was again performed there by another priest,
the village publican, named Linton. After this th
e
prisoner appeared to have lived, with occasional in-
tervals of separation during quarrels, with Wilson
until the present time. In 1846, at Liverpool, t
satisfy some objection and to make the marriageo
surer, they were married
again at St. Martin's
Church in Liverpool. arurautt.liers died about 4 yeari
ago, and the crossie9x.yaemairs
wliotiajg Wilson elicited
that, after living
prisoner, he h•xcl
ainie
ja,naepcplarrently
instituted this prosecution ag
ah
with the intention of marrying
who lived with him as his housekeeper,
child by him. Scotch "experts" proved that the
marriages in Scotland were lawful according to the
Scotch law.
His Lordship being of opinion that both mar-
riage contracts were clearly proved.
The prisoner was found guilty.
learned counsel for the defence then, in
mitigation of punishment, said he was instructed t
say that the
of only
prisoner at the time of the first mar-
riage, being a girl 16 years of age, had in a
frolic driven with Carruthers, as stated, to Sarktiien
tollbar, but bad no idea that', the ceremony
gone through in the way described was a marriage,
and had afterwards persisted to Wilson that she