The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-04-08 00:00:00

SOUTH LANCASHIRE ASSIZES.

CROWN. COU'RT.--TriEsnAY
Baron Parke took his seat at nine o'clock.

SENTENCE ON HOWARTH.
Edmund Howarth, who pleaded guilty, on Wednesday
last, of forgery, was placed at the bar. He was sentenced to
ten years' transportation. He fell insensible into the arms
of the turnkeys on hearing his sentence.

BURGLARY, &C.-SHOOTING WITH ATTEMPT TO

MURDER, &C

Edmund Hardman, aged 29, was charged with having, at
Lower Stack, in Spotland, feloniously and burglariously
broken and entered the dwelling-house of James and John
Rothwell, and stolen therefrom two silver watches, one
comb, and seven shillings ; and with having feloniously fired
a pistol at the said James Rothwell, with intent to murder
him.

Dr. Brown and Mr. Brandt prosecuted.
Dr. BROWN laid the case very lucidly before the jury,
stating in the outset the law of the case. The offence was
one of those the punishment of which had been mitigated,
the crime being still capital.
James Roth well sworn. I live with my brother, John
Rothwcll, at Lower Stack, in the parish of. Rochdale. We
are farmers, and joint occupiers of the house and farm. No
other person lives in the house. We are both bachelors.
There is no house occupied near. On Monday night, the
20th December, we went to bed about ten o'clock. We slept
on the ground floor. The doors and windows were fastened.
They are lead windows, and do not open. In the course of
the night I was alarmed by the dog ; it was about two
o'clock. At a window I saw a man stepping back off a bench
outside the window. I saw the man plainly, and two others
standing a little back. I had a pitchfork in my hand, and I
made a push at the man with it. I kept the fork at the cor-
ner of the fire-place for protection. I heard a pistol fired,
and I felt the contents touch me. (Witness here placed his
hand on his right breast where he said the contents touched
him.) I felt it smart. More shots were fired immediately.
There were four or five shots, I believe : they were as quick
as could be one after another. After they had stopped a bit
before the window they went round to the back of the house.
I heard the window there broken, and then they come back
again to the front. I saw three of them there. They broke
another window, and then I heard them try to break open the
door. Previously to this they had fired two more shots through
the window. They did not force the door open. When I found
they could not succeed in breaking the door, I asked them
what they wanted. There is a porch to the house, and this
was the outer door. They replied, "We want your money,
and your money will have or else your life." More than one
spoke. I said we had no money or nothing of any conse-
quence. They said they knew better, we had plenty of
money. I said we had not ; we had only a few shillings ; I
could not tell trow much : they should have it if they would
spare our lives. One of them said, " Put it out of the win-
dow." I asked my brother to bring it. My brother brought
either 6s. 6d. or is. 6d. in silver, and I gave it to one of
the men, not the oile who fired. There were three together.
One of them asked where the half-sovereign was. It was the
man to whom I gave the silver. I said we had neither a
half-sovereign nor a sovereign in the housa. One of them
said, " Let's be off.;' Him that shot at me said. "No ;
there's money ; I know there's money, and I'll go in." I
said, there's none but what I have given you, but a few pen-
nyworths of copper, and you may have that. He said, "No;
I'll come in." I said, " I'll open you the door, and unlock
everything in the house, and you shall look for yourself."
He said, " I'll come in here," and he climbed through the
window and demanded a light. A light was given to him by
my brother. He had pistols, I thought, then in his hands.
I had then an opportunity of noticing him. I had never
seen him before, but I can tell now who he was. It was the
prisoner. I have no doubt of it. He was the man who shot
at me. He ordered me and my brother up stairs. There is

a door at the bottom of the stairs. The prisoner shut it.
After we were up stairs we heard a noise of furniture and
pots breaking. The noise continued nearly twenty minutes.
I could not tell by the noise whether there were more than
one man. The prisoner at length came up stairs. He bad a
pistol and a light. He came in front of me, and presented
his pistol near to my belly. He said we had money, and had
been hiding it; and "if you don't find it," said he, "I'll
blow into you." My brother was close to me. I was par-
tially dressed. He unbuttoned my coat, and felt outside my
poekets. He next went to a chest and opened it, and took
clothes out and shook them, and threw them on the floor.
He looked round the room. He went to some sacks of pro-
vender, and put his hands in. He then went down stairs.
He held the light in his hand all the time he was in the room.
I saw him well, and am sure he is the man. He went and
remained down stairs about ten minutes. We heard a din,
and at the end of the ten minutes he opened the stairs door,
and said, " you may come down now, we're going." We
went down in a few minutes. The men were gone, and the
house door was open. The house had been ransacked. The
desk was open, the drawers out, and everything strewed about
the floor. We missed two watches, one of mine, and one of
my brother's, which bad been in the desk drawer. I had
seen the watches the Sunday but one before. We missed a
comb out of the drawer of a salt-box, and a few pence in
copper. I cannot say when we had seen the comb, for we
were not in the habit of combing our hair more than about
once a week. (Laughter.) We had had the comb three or
four years. I found tbree billets in the house ; two were
flattened. There was a red spot on my side.