The Westmorland Gazette 09 Nov 1844 09 Nov 1844 Police Office/Kendal

09 Nov 1844 Police Office/Kendal

LODGINGS TO LET.  On Tuesday, the 5th inst., EDWARD LEE, a blacksmith,  WM. HARRISON, a woolcomber from Bradford,  and  CATHERINE READ, alias RILEY, a Scotch woman, who stated that her husband was employed as a 'navvy' on the railway, were brought before EDWARD WILSON, Esq., under the following circumstances: MR. LIPSETT stated that LEE and HARRISON were charged with assaulting READ, with intent to commit a rape, when drunk in a stable at the rear of the Black Bull, Kirkland. Police-constable FURNESS stated that at half-past two on Tuesday morning he was called upon by MR. GEORGE JENNINGS, the landlord of the Black Bull, to assist in clearing out his company.  The male prisoners, JENNINGS said, were stopping in the house as lodgers, and the female was quite unable to take care of herself from the effect of sundry glasses bestowed by the male prisoners and others. The landlord promised to let MRS. R. enjoy the privilege of a stall in his stable, which was not engaged, but which certainly might have been much more honourably tenanted by its usual bestial occupants than by the biped who took their place, who was, if anything, a disgrace to the stall. At half-past three o'clock, the attention of the constable on the beat, as well as of most of the inhabitants within a hundred yards of the place, was drawn to what they believed to be the cries of a female in distress, and on FURNESS getting over the gates, he heard several voices and some scuffling. After listening a short time, he knocked at the door, and demanded admittance, but was informed that there was neither ingress nor egress except through MR. JENNING's, and from what he had heard of the affair, he thought it necessary to call MR. JENNINGS up; and, having obtained the key, on entering the stable he found LEE and READ in one stall, his face much scratched and covered with blood, while the lady's clothes were much torn. She then stated that LEE had taken improper liberties with her.  LEE and HARRISON, on the other hand, said the female came into the Black Bull, where they were stopping, and had liquor given by them and others, which she never refused until she could neither stand nor sit, when the landlord requested them to assist him in carrying her to her berth in the stable, when they also took a fancy to the apartments and remained with her. MR. WILSON discharged the prisoners, the female admitting that she could only remember some person had attempted to take liberties with her, which she resented. The magistrate expressed his surprise at the conduct of the landlord, and directed the superintendent to summon him for suffering drunkenness in his house;  and on Thursday, he appeared before DR. PROUDFOOT  and  G. B. CREWDSON, Esq., at the Town Hall, when MR. LIPSETT's information was read, and Police-constable FURNESS called, who proved seeing the female and some men drunk in the house of the defendant between two and three a.m. MR. JENNINGS admitted that fact, but denied being aware of the men sleeping in the part of the stable in which he had placed MRS. READ; and, to use his own language, they were to have slept on the hayloft and he bedded her down in the stall and left her as comfortable as he could make her, and having some loose articles in the stable, he locked the door lest any of them should vanish with the lodgers.  He added, that she screamed out all the time they were removing her to her quarters, and frequently when no person was near her, and that her clothes were torn while being carried. The bench inquired how the house had been previously conducted, and on being informed that it had only been in JENNING's possession about a month, ordered him to be more careful in future, and to pay the costs. On Thursday, MRS. READ was again introduced to the Bench, having been found drunk and unable to stand in Highgate at eleven p.m. on Wednesday.  At her previous examination, on Tuesday, before the magistrates, the prisoner had expressed great sorrow for what had taken place on Monday night.  She said it was all through drink, and she would take care that it should never cross her lips again. Her resolution, however, appears to have been very short-lived, for by seven o'clock on Wednesday morning she was at the house of MR. LAMB, Kent Street, threatening to break all the windows in the house if MR. LAMB would not supply her with drink.  He sent for the superintendant of police, who arrived, but not till she had taken leave, and had two equally fruitless walks to other houses, including her old host of the Black Bull, but no sooner did she enter than the police were invited to visit. She however evaded their vigilance until eleven p.m., when, having sold all her songs, a trade she carries on from one public-house to another, she ran foul of some steps, where she rested, and was singing "Happy Land," when SERJEANT HUTCHINSON, with the assistance of another officer, removed her to a more quiet receptacle place in Finkly Street, where she finished her song. On promising to leave town immediately the bench discharged her once more. The same officer had, however, the trouble of assisting her to Finkle Street once more at half-past eight of the same evening, having found her lying in Capper Lane, and she spent the third night in the cells. WILLIAM ROBINSON was charged with being drunk and disorderly in the Market Place at six p.m. on Wednesday.  Fined 5s. JOHN and MARK CLARK were summoned for assaulting ESTHER WARRINER in Kirkland.  Ordered to find sureties to keep the peace.

 

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