The Sun. — 1846-02-03 (London, England)

FATAL AND SINGULAR OCCUR RENCE.  We have this week to notice n, most melancholy event by which a young man, naaied John Brotherton, a farm' labourer, from BeckwHishaw, loft his life on Sunday morning, at the residence of Mr. Nathan Atkinson, a farmer, residing at a lone house adjoining to Stainburn Moor, about five miles from Otley. Before detailing the circumstances of the case, it may be as well to menticn that the inmates of Mr. Atkinson's house consisted of himself and Mrs. Atkinson, a maid servant named Ellen Brotherton, and two teen servants named llugh Ingle and John Dickinson. An inquest was held on the body of the deceased at the house of Mr. J. Holmes, innkeeper, Stainburn, on Tuesday, before Thomas Brown, Esq.. of Skipton, and a highly respectable jury, collapsed of parties residing at Stainburn. and from the adjoining townships of Lindley and Righton. It appeared from the evidence of John Dickinson and Ellen Brotherton, that they retired to rest about nine o'clock on Saturday evening. That about half-past twelve Mr. Atkinson was awoke by the breaking of glass in the room window under his bed room. That he went down stairs, came back, and called the men out of bed. They got up, put on their trousers, went down stairs, and got a light. They found the windows broken and the glass scattered about. They saw the hair of a man's head at the bottom of the window, but could not distin.  guish any person outside. The person slunk away. Dickinson and Ingle then went out into the g irden with a lantern and candle, but could see no one. While there, sticks and stones were thrown at them, and they returned into the house, and locked the door. They fastened the window-shutters again (we may, perhaps, mention that the bar which secured the shutters, inside ones, did not fit tight, as the spring was weak) and they were immediately broken open. This was done several times. At this time the impression on Dickinson and Ellen Brotherton's mind was, that the attacks were made by r avigators, on account of some of those parties having attempted to get into Mr. Michael Dickinson's house, in the same neighbourhood, a few days before. Mrs. Atkinson brought the gun down stairs, and it was charged with shot. Mr. Atkinson fastened the shu'ters again, tied them with a band, and called out, "Now, my las, it you arn't off, or make yourselves known, you'll be shot immediately ; he also said aloud to Ingle, that if the windows were broken open again, he was to fire immediately. The shutters were broken open. Ingle fired, and all was still. It was dark and rainy at the time. The attacks had been kept up for near an hour and a half, as it was about two o'clock when the gun was fired. The servants sat up till daylight, but Mr. Atkinson went to bed. The deceased was found dead the next morning, in a field about forty yards from the house.  Ellen Brotherton also stated that Mr. Atkinson and his men were on the best of terms with the deceased, who had been at the house the Sunday previous, and that the greatest good feeling prevailed amongst them. Mr. Spence, of Otley, surgeon, had made a post mortem examination of the body, and found that the charge had skirted the lung, and lodged in the liver. Mr. Smith called Mr. Cowgill, the landlord of the public-house at Beck nrithshaw, from whose evidence it appeared that the deceased was at his house drinking from four o'clock in the afternoon until ten minutes past eleven at night. The jury returned a verdict of "Excusable Homicide." The deceased courted the young woman Ellen Brotherton, and he knew where her bed-room window was, and he must have been in a gross state of intoxication, or he would not have acted in the manner he did.—Leeds Mercury,