Darlington & Richmond Herald. — 1874-10-17 (Darlington, Durham, England)

ALLEGED INTIMIDATION AND ASSAULT AT GUISBROUGH.  The extraordinary case or intimidation and assault, which was partially heard at the Gaisbrough Police Court on Thursday !at, was again brought on for hearing, before Admiral Chaloner, Mr H. W. Yeoman, sea., and Mr Yeoman, jun., at Gaisbrough, on Tuts, lay. The prisoners were William Wilson, joiner, Harrison Winter, joiner, Charles Preston, joiner, and Henry Charlton, bricklayer, all of Guisbrough, and the charges against them were for intimidating and assaulting a 'fellow workman name John Collings, at Biakeyhouse, near Rosedale, on , Tuesday nigliC` week, and with usicg threatening and A abusive lapgriage to the Rev. J. R. Ellis, and assaulting Police-constab.e meson, in Westerdale, on the following day.—Mr Skidmore, barrister, of Darlington, appeared on behalf of the prisoners.—The facts of me case having already been given in our columns at considerable length, it is unnecessary to give more than a brief resume of the case. Ali isolated place on the North Yorkshire Moors, known as Blakey, having been leased by the Blakey Ironstone Company, mining operations are about to commence, and a number of workmen in the employ of Mrs Howcroft, contractor, &c., Guisbrough, have been engaged during the last few weeks in putting up several temporary dwellings for the miners and others in the service of the company. Owing. to the joiners., having left their work and gene on the spree, Collings was sent out by Mrs Howcroft to look after them, and soon after his arrival at Blakey, he informed them of his errand, and was told to his surprise that they did not want him, they could do without a foreman, and that if he showed his face on the job again they would kill him. The prisoners were the only men who showed any ill-teeling against him, and in the evening as he was retiring to bed, Wilson knocked him down and struck him a few times, and some one kicked him, but as all the prisoners were pre,rnt, he was unable to say who his assailant was. When . he was knocked down, Wilson remarked " We'll let the see whether he will come out and be a foreman over us," and a short time afterwards, about half-au-hoar. after he had gone to bed, Wilson and Charlton came to his bed side and turned down the bed clothes, Charlton observing as he did so that he had nearly a gaod mind to kick in his ribs and make him so that he would not be able to work any more. Owing to the treatment he received, he was afraid to go to work the next day. He afterwards heard that his tools • were destroyed. The prisoners also left work the same day, placing their tools in Mrs Howcroft's conveyance, and driving off to Westerdale, where they ordered ham and eggs and champagne at the Dancombe Arms Ilan, and refused to pay for it. The Rev. Mr Ellis, of Westerdale Vicarage, who had heard of their misconduct, rode after them and asked them, to pay the landlady for what they had had, and they threatened to murder him if he interfered. with them. In oaisequence of their threatening attitude he proceeded to Castletou and informed Police-constable Imesou, and that officer at once made his way to the Gnisbrouglt-road and int4rcepted them. Winter, Preston, aud . Chariton ran away, but Wilson kept his seat in the conveyance, and the officer got in beside him and asked him his name. He at first refused to give it, but he afterwards' said he alight as well tell it, and as the officer was withdrawing his pocket book for the purpose of enteiing it, the prisoner struck him a blow on the side of the head, leaped out of the conveyance, and ran off.- The officer followed and captured him, and thens. brought him on to Guisbrough.—Por the defence it was contended that Collings did not inform the men when he first went out that he was going to . act as foreman, over them, and that as they thought he was acting unfairly in not doing so, it caused them to quarrel. It was, he contended, quite a personal affair, and the Act relating to intimidation did not, he maintained, apply to the case under notice, but only to trades' union outrages and rattenings, where an. attempt was made on the part of workmen to prevent others from obtaining employment. The Messrs Yeoman took this view °I the case, but Admiral Cikaloner dissented. The case was consequently dismissed, there being two magistrates against any conviction. The chaige of using threatening language to the Rev Mr Ellis and assaulting the officer were dismissed.