The Sun.
London, England, 1844-12-13 00:00:00

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daughter, 4 ; forgery, 1 ; rape, 2 ; arson, 1 ; burglary,
13 ; maliciously wounding, 12 ; night-poaching, 1 ;
horse-stealing, 2 ; procuring abortion, 1 ; concealment of
birth, 3 ; unnatural offence, 1 ; and the remainder for
larcenies.

MIDLAND CIRCUIT.—Derby, Dee. 11.
(Before Mr. Justice Parresox. )
TIIE:GLOSSOP BURGLARIES.
This morning the family of the Swans, who for some
time past have been the terror of the northern part of
this county, were placed at the bar charged with burg-
lary, or otherwise receiving property knowing it to have
been stolen. The names of the prisoners were John
Swan, the elder, Peggy Swan (father and mother), James
Swan, George Swan, Samuel Swan, and John Swan
(brothers), and Robert Hartley and Mary Ann Hartley
(sister and brother in-law). The indictment charged
James Swan, George Swan, and Samuel Swan, with
having, on the 14th of July last, burglariously broken
into the dwelling-house of Mr. Joseph Bennett, of Ash-
ingclough, in the parish of Glossop, and stolen thereont
a silver plated tankard, half-a-dozen knives and forks,
one ring, a five-shilling coin of the reign of Charles 11.,
and various articles of wearing apparel. John Swan,
the elder, Peggy Swan, John Swan the younger, and
Robert and Mary Ann Hartley, were charged with
Laving received the same articles, knowing them to have
been stolen.
Mr. Wildman and Mr. Macaulay conducted the pro
secution, and Mr. Wilmore defended the prisoners Jelin
Swan the eller, Samuel Swan, Peggy Swan, and the
Hartleys. As the trial lasted from eleven in the morn-
ing until seven in the evening, a detailed repo-A is out
of the question, and a mere narrative must suffice.
The prosecutor, Mr. Bennett, is a respectable farmer
residing with his wife and daughter, a young lady about
eighteen or nineteen years of age, at Ashingclough, in
Glossop, just at the point where the counties of York,
Lancaster, Chester, and Derby form a junction. Within
x short period a son lived with his parents in the house,
but in consequence of marriage, although he still assists
in his father's business, young Bennett sleeps on the
Saturday and Sunday nights at Hayfield, a village some
distance from his father's premises. In addition to car-
rying on the business of a farmer, Mr. Bennett, who is
understood to be a person of independent income, is the
collector of the property-tax ; and it was thought that on
the night his house was broken into he was iu possession
of a very large sum of money. His house is situated its
one of those woody, secluded dells, which are so cha-
racteristic of the scenery of North Derbyshire and the
West Riding of Yorkshire. About one o'clock on the
morning of Monday, the 15th of July, the prosecutor was
alarmed by a noise on the stairs and the bursting in or
his bed room door. Three men with their faces black.
erred entered the room and demanded his money, or if
he refused the death of himself and his family and the
burning of the house would be the consequence. The
intruders next demanded a candle. Although their faces
were blackened, Mr. Bennett to-day swore positively he
could, notwithstanding, identify the features of the pri-
soners James Swan, George Swan, and Samuel Swan.
Mrs. Bennett told the men that the candles were in the
cellar, when James and Samuel went down stairs, and
George remained armed with a sword and pistol, as a
guard over the prosecutor and his wife. The two pri-
soners James and Samuel afterwards returned, and com-
pelled Mr. Bennett to leave his bed and furnisilthem
with a taper. During this time, Miss Bennett, who
slept in a higher story of the house, became alarmed,
and, descending to her father's bed-room, saw the pri-
soners proceed to ransack the house. Her first excla-
mation was, " Don't murder my father and mother !"
The father, at the same time, interceded for the safety
of his daughter, when the prisoner George said (ad-
dressing Miss Bennett), " Curse your eyes ! if you don't
hold your noise I'll blow your brains out." The thieves
then allowed Miss Bennett, who was in her night dress,
to get into the bed of her father and mother. James
was armed with a bludgeon, and had in his hand when
he first entered the room a lighted taper. Samuel had a.
poker, and George, as before stated, had a pistol and a
sword. They remained in the house upwards of an hour,
and carried off with them the various articles already.
enumerated. The evidence connecting the three pri-
soners charged with the burglary with its commission,
and corroborative of Mr. Bennett's statement, is briefly
as follows :—The previous night the prisoners, who re-
side at Staleybridge, in Lancashire, a distance of four-
teen miles—Ashingclough being within two miles of
Chapel-en-le-Frith—called at a beer-shop at Hayfield,
and went from there together in the direction of Mr.
Bennett's house. The next morning they were traced
all the way, at several and consistent hours, from
Ashingclough, through Hayfield, Charlesworth, and
Mottram, carrying bundles, to Staleybridge, where
they arrived shortly before six o'clock. The old man
(the father), John Swan, formerly kept a beer-shop,
and immediately adjoining the house in which he lived at
Staleybridge is an unoccupied cotton-mill. From the
evidence it would have appeared, had it not been for a
mistake made by James Swan in his cross-examination,
of a witness, that the mill was in such a state of dilapi-
dation, that any person at all hours might have had
ready access to it. The fact, however, proved to be
otherwise. The mill is surrounded by a wall, and the
keys, as tenant of his house and the entire premises, were
in the possession of James Swan the elder. In this mill
were found concealed, not only a considerable quantity
of the property stolen from Mr. Bennett, but the pro-
ceeds of various other robberies committed in the neigh.
bourhood. The discovery of the robbery as affecting
the prisoners was not a little singular. It appeared that
eight days after the robbery at Mr. Bennett's, and when
the whole county was excited upon the subject, a Mr.
Glossop, a draper, of Ashton-under-Lyne, was at Staley.
bridge, and accidentally saw a shawl which had been
pawned by Peggy Swan, a daughter (aged 14) of the
prisoner John Swan the elder, on the previous Ft iday.
Mr. Glossop, being a relation of Mr. Bennett, imme-
diately identified the shawl, and the mine which
ultimately involved the whole of the prisoners
in its explosion was immediately sprung. On search-
ing the premises of John Swan the elder, and with
whom James, John, George, and Samuel lived, there
were found a loaded pistol, a number of bullets, a Quan-
tity of skeleton keys, a dark lantern, and a plated
silver tankard, beaten to pieces, and thrown into a
"swill-tub." In fact, a variety of articles were concealed
in the house or the mill at its rear, and all of which
were either identified by Mr. Bennett or his family,
or proved to be the produce of other burglaries. Per-
haps the most distressing incident in to-day's proceed-
ings was the calling of young Peggy Swan, the daughter
of John and old Peggy, and the sister of the other pri-
soners. The unhappy girl, who wept bitterly, deposed
to her having been sent by her father and mother to
pawn various articles now identified by Mr. and Misa
Bennett as property stolen from Ashingclough on the
night the robbery was committed. After completing the
search of Swan's house, the officers proceeded to that of
Hartley, who married a daughter of the elder Swan,
where they found the sword (identified by Mr. Bennett
as the one is. the hand of George Swan), a blue dress, a
black silk cloak, and various other articles, which Hart-
ley said were his property. The evidence, however, as
to the guilty knowledge of the male prisoner Hartley
was very weak, whilst as against his wite, Mary Ann, it
was clear and indubitable. She was found in possession
of the knives and forks stolen from Itlr. Bennett, and
also a ring, upon which were engraved the words—" Re-
member the giver." Hartley, although there was another
indictment against him for burglary, seems to have been
the victim of his unfortunate family connexions. He
bore an excellent character from his employers, and, had
it not been for his wretched brothers-in-law, would in all
probability have passed through life as a respectable man,
Mr. Justice PATTESON, in summing up the case, re-
marked that he did not think the evidence materially
affected John Swan the younger and Robert Hartley.
It was true that John the younger was found in posses.
sion of some of the articles of property taken from Mr.
Bennett's, and also that other articles were found in the
possession of Hartley ; at least, they were found in his
house. Still he did not think there was very cogent
proof of guilty knowledge against those prisoners. The
Learned Judge went at great length through the whole
of the evidence, and concluded by expressing his cornice
tion that the jury, who had paid such minute attention,
to the case, were fully competent to draw a correct dis-
tinction between the evidence as it affected each prisoner.
The jury consulted together for a few moments, and
then returned the following verdict :—James Swan,
George Swan, Samuel Swan, John Swan the elder,
Peggy Swan, and Mary Ann Hartley are Guilty; Robert
Hartley and John Swan the younger are Not Guilty.
Mr. Justice PATTESON proceeded to pass sentence.
The prisoners had been convicted of a very fearful of-
fence, an offence for which only a few years ago they
would have forfeited their lives. There was in his opi-
nion sufficient evidence to show that the attack upon Mr.
Bennett's house was premeditated ; and he (Mr. Justice
Patteson) was of opinion, armed as the three prisoners
were, if resistance had taken place murder would have
been committed. It was, indeed, a most melancholy
spectacle to see a father and mother bringing up chil-
dren in the way in which they had brought up the pri-
soners now charged and convicted of the burglary. In
all probability had those young men been differently in-
structed they would have avoided their present disgrace
and the severe punishment about to be awarded to them.
It was, however, he (Mr. Justice Patteson) believed, of'
no use talking to any of the prisoners of the enormity
of the offence which they had committed. The sen-
tence of the Court was, that James Swan, George Swan.
and Samuel Swan, be transported for the period of their
natural lives; that John Swan, the :elder, and, Peggy
Swan (the father and mother), be transported for 10
years; and that Mary Ann Hartley be itaprisoned and
kept to hard labour for 12 calendar months.
The case of Gallimore, a surgeon at Chesterfield,
charged with manslaughter, is fixed for to-morrow
morning.

NORFOLK CIRCUIT.—Bury St. Edmund's, Dm 1.
(Before Mr. Justice WILLIAMS.)
His LORDSHIP haring briefly charged th, grand jury,
with whom he sympathised on the necessity which ex-
isted for their being called together at a distance from
their respective homes at this inclement season, while he
congratulated them on the smallness of the calendar,
proceeded to the despatch of business as soon as the ma-
terials were supplied to him by their labours.
John Luhes, aged 25, stood charged with having bur-
gloriously entered the dwelling-house of William Jack-
ion, at Clare, on the nth of November last, and stealing
therein six penoilcases, some silver loin, and two brass
candlesticks.

Mr. O'Malley appeared for the prosecution.
The prosecutor is the village schoolmaster of Clare,
a small village-like town on the borders of this county.
his school-room, wherein the "young idea" was taught
to shoot, forming part of his residence. This im-
portant place might, perhaps, have been left in
unconsidered security. Not so, however, for, though
locked up on the night of the day named in the indict-
ment, which was Saturday, the outer door was found
broken open on the following morning, and the articles
in question purloined by the intruder. Among other
particular parts of the system of education pursued by
the prosecutor, he was in the habit of delivering to his

upils a peculiar paper for the prposes of taking notes
°f the pastor's sermons, which from that circumstance
came to be designated in the establishment as " sermon
paper." This article, however, was sometimes put to
viler uses, and was Occasionally applied to the candles,
in order to steady them in the sockets of the missing
candlesticks. Not lung after the robbery, a veritable
dealer in marine stores who hawked red herrings, taking
in exchange for them_pence -when his customers had
them, or " any odd thing or so by which he could turn
la penny," called at the prisoner's house and sold him
three herrings for each, and, took some broken up
brass candlesticks in payment, which he in turn sold
again at Sudbury to a genera! dealer, by whom they were
stopped, as part of the schoolmaster's property. Among
the pieces shown to the prosecutor was one of the
sockets, which being examined was found to contain a
lining of " sermon paper."
Tbe prisoner when called on for his defence denied all
knowledge of the pieces of brass, and put into the box a
female friend, who dep )sed to her having found them
herself in a field, not long before they were handed over
to the hawker; but her statement being directly at va-
liance with her conduct during the dealing, and the evi-
dence of the hawker, the jury instantly convicted the
prisoner, and he was sentenced to six months' imprison-
meat.
ARSON.—Henry Serfeants, aged twenty-one, was in-
dicted f.fr felonious setting fire to a haulm-stack, at Buz-
halt, on the 9th of March, the property, of Thomas
Dykes.___

Mr. O'Malley and Mr. Couch were counsel for the
prosseation; and Mr. Prendergast defended the pri-
soner.
The property which was the subject of this charge
was situate a short way from the residence of the pro-
secutor, in a field, through the hedge of which was a gap
leading across two other fields, towards the farm of one
Pilgrim, and it abundantly appeared that it had been set
on fire on the night in question, when it was partially,
if not entirely, consumed. Many person came to the fire,
but none of them, according to the testimony of one
Parish, quitted it through the gap, but all, including Mr
Pilgrim, came and went by the road and gate. No clue
was found to the offender, but on the following morning
some indistinct footmarks of a man were traced from the
stack to end through the gap. Just before the last
assizes at Ipswich, et which the prisoner was charged
- with and acquitted of setting diva to some other stacks
in the same parish, the grandson of the prosecutor, a
man of thirty, informed him of a singular conversation
he had had with the prisoner while they were working
together about a fortnight after the fire now in question,
in which, as he stated, the prisoner had confessed sits guilt
to him. In consequence of this Serjeants was detained in
cu'tody to take his trial on the charge, and the principal
wi ness rigainst him was the grandson. According to
his stetsment a &Tuts arose during their work as to its
fair division between them, when the prisoner grew
angry, and the witness said, " I suppose if you had
your own way you would burn it, as you did my
grandfather's stack," to which the prisoner replied,
" How will you prove that ?" " Why," answered the
witness, "you don't know, perhaps, that I saw you lean
over the hedge and fire it." On this the prisoner
called him " a d—d liar," and added, "You don't know
nothing about it, for I got over the hedge a good bit
higher up, and pulled an armful out of one end of the
:'tack, which I set fire to, and shoved into the other end.
I then went through the gap, and laid down under the
kedge, expecting that old Pilgrim would go to the fire
that way, and if he had I intended to have made a better
fire at his farm; but he didn't, so I went away." When
cross-examined, the narrator of this strange confession,
not only admitted that he had not acquainted his grand-
. father of it till July, but also that he had not mentioned
it to a constable, named Barnes, till he had himself been
charged by the prisoner's wife with assaulting her, in
conjunction with his brother, during- her husband's ab
sence in prison, and compelled to find sureties to keep
the peace towards her, while he further acknowledged
that he had not long since been charged by Mr. Pilgrim
with poisoning his ducks.
Mr. PRENDERGAST having addressed the jury on be-
half of the prisoner,
His LORDSHIP summed up the case to them, leaving it
to them to say whether, under all these circumstances,
they could attach such credit to the testimony of the
grandson as would lead them to a conviction.
The jury, having deliberated together for ten minutes,
returned a verdict of Not Guilty, whereupon the prisoner
was removed from the dock, but not until he had re-
ceived a suitable admonition from the Bench, to " take
heed to his ways."
William Howe, aged 20, was also indicted for having
maliciously fired a stack of straw, and another of clover,
•n the night of Saturday, Sept. 28, the property of John
Darrant, of Monk's Eleigh, in this county.
Mr. O'Malley conducted the case for the prosecution.
The prosecutor is a large farmer, holding two farms
in the parish of Monk's Eleigh, and the prisoner, who is
a labourer, dwelt with his mother in * cottage at the
further end of a road called "Folly-lane," which led
from the Plough public-house, accross a green, threugh
Folly-farm, towards the premises of Mr. Durrant, where
there was a goodly array of barns and stabling, sur-
rounded by quantities of stacks of all descriptions, and
which were all safe at about 10 o'clock, P.M. About
that hour the son of the prosecutor, who had had some
" dealings in nuts" with the prisoner, went to his cot-
tage, and not finding him at home he awaited his araival.
In a few moments ho saw the prisoner coming from a
gate which opened into the lane from a close near his
father's farmyard, and called " Norton's-field," at great
speed. Crossing the lane he rushed into the house, and
was unable fir some moments to reply to the inquiry of
his mother as to the cause of his being "so muddled,"
but having recovered his breath, he said, that as he was
coming along he saw " a fire at farmer Durrant's," and
added, that he had come home that way in order that she
might not know where he had been. Upon this the
alarm was given, the farmyard being not very far off,
• and the fire, which was then "quite fresh and only as big
as a bucket," was speedily extinguished by the
united exertions of the family and soma neighbours
Who came to their assistance. Even then, however,
the two stacks in question were nearly consumed,
which etooti against the barn, and from which the
flames, had there not been a plentiful supply of hands
and water, would soon have communicated to the entire
property on the premises. When at the fire the prisoner
seemed to lend his aid very clumsily—so much so, as to
cause observation, and he was told either "to work
effectually, or give place to others who would," on which
he seems to have gone away for a time, though here-ap-
peared at two o'clock in the morning, when a liberal
distribution of bread and cheese and ale was made by the
grateful farmer to his friends. On the following day a
question was asked in the presence of the prisoner by
the prosecutor as to "who first saw the fire ?" when he
claimed that dangerous pre-eminence, asserting that he
saw it as he was coming from the Plough across the
green, and then again a little further on near Folly-farm,
when it seemed to be as " big as a lantern and a basket."
It then appeared on inquiry that the prisoner had been
spending the ev, ning at the Plough, which he left at ten
o'clock, with a pipe, though it was not proved that it was
alight when he quitted the house. A daughter of the
prosecutor next saw him crossing the front of Folly-
farm soon liner ten o'clock ; and the case on the part of
the prosecution then assumed that he had soon after-
wards turned to the left out of the lane into a close
called the " Great Lay," in which the farm-buildings
and stacks stood, and that he had thence made his way
into the Little Lay three/0 a fresh gap, which was dis-
cover, d- on Sunday, and so into Norton's field, after
hating fired the stacks, and so donn in the lane again
opposite to his own cottage. In support of this presump-
tion it was shown that there was no access into Norton's
field save down the farmyard, aid that no trace of any
gap wes discoverable in the hedge, through which he
could and must have gone if he had not passedilirough
the staskyard. It was then &worn, that no one could
possibly have seen the fire at all, or even the premises,
from the spots diecribed by the prisoner on the green ;
while preof was adduced of his haling said, on a former
occasion, that "if ever he saw a fire at Mr. Durrant'e
he never would tell him of it, as he was sure he would
be suspected to have done it."

There being no counsel for the prisoner, who ener-
getically protested his innceence throughout the trial,
Mr. Justice WILLIAMS closely cross-examined all the
witnt sscs adduced agsdlist him, and afterwards truest
carefully and impartially sitinated up the case to the
jury, to whom he left it to say whether they would go
along with the inference presented for their considera-
tion and adoption, en the part of the prosecution, as to
the prisoner's proceedings in the critical period w hick
elapsed after he passed Folly-farm and his appearance
at the gate leadi:,g out of Norton's field into the lane.
The jury having consulted together some little time,
returned a verdict of Guilty.—Sentence deferred.

THE NEWRY RAILROAD.
MEETINU OF THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
nL --

BELFAT

The meeting on Monday in the Commercial Rooms,
rspect.ing the railways westward, was attended by the
most influential geht:emen engaged in commercial
matters, in this town. There was only one opinion
exprecsi d regardi:ig the necessity of supporting the in-
terests of the Company formed for the construction of
the railway from Newf., to Enniskillen, which was re-
garded by the meeting as an extension of the Ulster line
from Belfast, which would pass through almost the only
manufacturing districts of the west. The advantages of
the line to the agricultural interests of the west were very
wointedly state d.
.The improvements eft wed in the navigation of the
two Ltai:,ll! Erne, which now allow steam ce.nmuuica-
tion, in a laircct line, for upwards of fifty statute miles,
render the formation of a railway from Enniskillen--the
key of tho two Loughs—to Belfast and Newry, unques-
tionably the two b,?st ports on the east coast of Ireland, a
proj,ct more likely to be remunerative to shareholders
And all other parties concer: ed than any other Irish rail-
%/1,. speculation with vvhich we are acquainted. The
meeting was perfectly unanimous in supporting this line,
to prepare and forward petitions in its favour,
and agrees,
which will carry with them all the weight and influence
which can be atutdfied to the unanimous opinions of the
merchants and traders in the greatest commercial town
in Ireland.—Buener of Mier, Dcc. 10.

BEITII.—SPEEDT DISSOLUTION OF A STRI/C.E..--On
Thursday evening week, seven of the workmen at the
Glengaroock iron-works were brought into Beith under
the charge of a strong party of constables. A prccog•
nition being taken by the examination of one of the
principals, farther -proceedings were delayed till the
following day, when a special meeting of the Justice of
Peace Court was held. It came out, on examination,
that twenty-four persons bad been engaged in the strike,
An oiler had been made by the masters that the men
should return to their duty, which was refused; but on
the three first examined being sentenced, two of them to
fifty, and the other to forty days' imprisonment, the re-
maining four of the seven succumbed, and promised to
return to their labour, while the other three were imme-
diately dispatched to Ayr.—Ayr Observer. - •