The Potteries Examiner : — 1876-04-15 (Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England)

THE ALLEGED TRADE OUTRAGE AT  BOLTON.  On Monday morning five men, named Edwin Ashcroft (aged 30), James Atkin (33), John Barnes (25), Thomas Ainsworth (25), and Thomas Haslam (36), were placed in the dock before the Bolton borough magistrates (Messrs. J. Musgrave, G. Fell, and J. Green), charged, first, with wilfully, of malice aforethought, killing and slaying one James Thompson, in Slater Lane, on the night of the Bth inst. ; also, with violently assaulting James M'Curley, and doing him grievous bodily harm in Slater Lane, on the night of the Bth instant. Before the above-mentioned five were charged the names of 29 of the men out on strike at Messrs. Slater and Co.'s works were read over, and they were, at the request of the chief constable (Mr. Beech), discharged.—Mr. Hall, the borough prosecutor, said that the prisoners were there on a charge of having killed a man named James Thompson. On Saturday at ht, between Vin and eleven o'clock, James Thompson and two other men were in a beerhouse, and on their way home, or to the Works, were attacked by a number of men. One of them (Thompson) WM killed on the spot by the violence of somebody, and one of his companions, James M'Curley, was severely injured, and rumble to make his appearance. The other man (Wright) got away without being injured. This affair, he believed, bail arisen from a dispute which had existed for some time past at Messrs. Slater's, Back-cith'-Bank. The three men (Thompson, M'Curley, and Wright) were employed at Mestre. Slater's up to this time, and it was supposed that the men who committed this outrage were the men who bad left the employment of Messrs. Slater, aiol felt a grievance with respect to these men continuing work. That was the only motive that could lie suggested, as these three men were inoffensive men, and had had no augry words at the beer. house, and there was no reason for the outrage except that arising from the dispute among their fellow. workmen. Thompson, lll`Carley and Wright were on their way to the works when they were set upon. At present he asked the Bench to remand the prisoners till Saturday, and by arrangement he had made with Mr. Richardson, who represented all the prisoners, it woo understood that from Saturday the case should be adjourned again for a week, when it would be thoroughly gone into. This was merely a formal adjournment, it being perfectly understood that the trial would not take place until Saturday week.— The Chief Coestable (Mr. Beech) then gave evidence to the effect that the five men were in custody on a charge of having wilfully murdered James Thompson, and also with having grievously wounded James &Curley. He had reason to believe that if the prisoners were remanded he could prove that these men were concerned directly or indirectly in the murder of Thompson and the injury of M'Curley, and he wished the remand in order that he might make inquiries into the circumstances.—The prisoners were accordingly remanded.— Mr. Richardson appeared for Atkin, and Mr. Fielding for the other prisoners.—The strike at Slater's bleach‘,.eas, which is presumed to be at the bottom of the outrage, took place about the latter end of January, and originated in an apparently simple circumstance. Some cloth had come to the works to be bleached, and also to be stamped in a particular fashion. The men when told to stamp the cloth in the manner d.esired, refitted unless they were paid extra, as the stamp would be required to have been made at a little distance from the corner in what would be the middle of a triangle when the cover was bent over. They left work when their own notice was up, and the firm advertised for men in Scotland and Ireland. A number of these men commenced work, and M'Curley and Wright were of the new comers.  On Tuesday nothing further had transpired with reference to the Bolton murder, except the arrest of another man named Edward Birch, formerly in the employ of Messrs. Buck and Son, Bolton, in whose emplornent the murdered and injured men were engaged. This raises the number of the accused to six, the rest haring been discharged.