The Sun. — 1832-07-28 (London, England)

MIDLAND CIRCUIT, LINCOLN, JULY 25. Clipshum Allen, aged 47, was put to the bar upon a charge of having teloniously set fire to a wheat rick, the prop. rty of Mr. Jonas Clarke, in Deeping Fen, in the parts of Kesteven, in this county, on the night of the 18th of Deceml'er, 1830. Other counts in the indictment charged the pr Boner with setting fire to a barn, a stable, and other premi,ea• The prisoner is a labourer, and a well looking man, with a countenance and demeanour bespeaking honesty and confidence in his innocence. lie had been committed to prison upon this charge soon after tha burning, hut the bill then pre'erred against him was ignored by the Grand Jury. Upon the discovery of more evidence he again apprehended, and was to be tried at the last Lent Assizes, but, in consequence of the absence then of a material witness, the trial was postponed to the present Assizes. . _ _  Then... were upwards of thirty witnesses examined against the prisoner, and three for him, to account for his movements in the previous part of the night of the tire. The Jury retired to consider their verdict.  The prisoner, who stood very firmly at the hir all day, ,:ow fainted from weakness, and from the pain caused by an attack of hernia, to which he was subject. He was taken out into the gaol, attended by the surgeon. The Jury soon returned, and found a verdict of Not Guilty. William Wells was indicted for having, on the night of the 14th of May last, in the parish of Louth, in this county, viol ntly assaulted Jane Rouse, with intent to corn:nit a capital offence. The prisoner is a strong and powerful, but coarse-looking man, about thirty years of age. The prosecutrix WEIS a girl of fourteen only. On being examined by Mr. CURZON, the Counsel for the prosecution, she stated that, on the morning of the 14th of May, she went with Ann Hardy, another young woman, to the fair of Louth. It rained in the evening, arid she and the ether young woman, and a young man, a friend of the latter, took shelter under a shed. The prisoner came and asked if he might take shelter there also; he did come under the shed, Ann Hardy and her friend  left the shed, telling witness they would return soon. Atter they went, prisoner took witness to a barn, and there he made the assault on her. She cried for half an hour, and screamed for help, and the prisoner was abusing her ail the time. A Mr. and Mrs. Addinshall came at last, and the prisoner then went away. On cross-examination by Mr FIYNELLY, she said she had been 'walking about the fair from nine to six o'clock ; she was neither buying nor selling, nor did she go to be hired as servant. It was ten o'clock when she and the young woman were under the shed. She did not know where she and her friend went to. They did not come to her assistance though she screamed loud. The prisoner did not force her inro the barn; she did not make resistance to going there, but she did not go there willingly. Mrs. Addinshall and her husband came to the barn on hearing the screams; they thought murder was committed. As they entered the barn the prisoner came out, and said, on hieing rsked what he was doing, that he was doing nothing. The presecutrix was then found ; her bonnet was all broken; she cried, and said the prisoner bad abused her. Prisoner asked the girl if she would take a guinea and be silent; she said no, nor two.  A Surgeon, who examined both the prisoner and the girl at the time, said the girl w ie tossed about a good deal, but no other violence was effected.  T,.e Jury found the prisoner Guilty, and the Learned JUDGE sentenced him to two years' imprisonment in one of the gaols of the county.  vEircu v.