Aug 14 1818 Carlisle Assizes #8 - Highway Robbery - Cumberland and Westmorland Newspaper Transcriptions

Aug 14 1818 Carlisle Assizes #8 - Highway Robbery

The Times, Friday, Aug 14, 1818; pg. 3; Issue 10435; col C

CARLISLE ASSIZES

HIGHWAY-ROBBERY. - SATURDAY, AUG. 8.

Robert MARTIN, aged 51, was charged with having assaulted, put in bodily fear,
and robbed John MATHEWS.

The robbery had taken place on the 18th of April, 1817. Four persons had been
concerned in it. DOWLING, STRAWNEY, and M'GREEDEY had been taken up soon
afterwards. No bills were found against the last two, as MATHEWS could not swear
to their persons. DOWLING was convicted and transported. The prisoner MARTIN was
apprehended in January last.

John MATHEWS gave his evidence in a very clear, positive, and unembarrassed
manner. He was walking homewards from Carlisle to Appleby, about 11 o'clock at
night, when he saw the prisoner walking on the path in the field parallel with
the road, and said, "Holla, my hearty, what road?" The prisoner gave him some
answer, and in an instant the witness was knocked down by a man with a bludgeon
behind him. The prisoner then jumped upon his breast with his knees. DOWLING
stood over him with a bludgeon. There were other two, but he was not sure of
their persons. He was quite sure it was the prisoner; he knew him well before,
although he had not known his name or his habitation till a fortnight
afterwards. As soon as he had ascertained these, he gave information in order to
have him apprehended; but he immediately disappeared, and was no more seen till
January last. On his cross-examination by Mr. COURTENAY, he admitted that he had
been treated with ale by STRAWNEY and M'GREEDEY's father, and that he had got
40L. reward for the conviction of DOWLING. He got no Tyburn ticket.

KIRK, the constable who took him, was called, but added nothing material. On his
cross-examination, he made wry mouths, and rolled his tongue in an unexampled
manner.

Henry M'GREEDEY, brother of Peter M'GREEDEY, who had been charged with the
robbery, was called for the prisoner, in order to contradict MATHEWS as to his
having been in the prisoner's house, and seen the prisoner the Sunday after the
robbery, and in order to prove an alibi. With respect to the first, he
contradicted MATHEWS, and left it a conflict of testimonies. As to the alibi, he
stated, that he remembered particularly having been at the prisoner's house on
the 18th of April, as a child of his had been very sick. He had gone first
between 7 and 8 o'clock, and stayed 10 minutes. He went back again at 10, and
stayed till 12. The cause of his going back was, that the child was thought to
be dying. The prisoner sat all the while at the fire-side without shoes or
stockings, and was much distressed for his child. The prisoner had been, from a
fortnight after the robbery till Christmas, in Lancashire.

Betty MARTIN, daughter of the prisoner, a girl of 15 [?13], as soon as she was
sworn, rushed into the box, and said "I'll tell you all I have to say; my father
was in the whole night -"

Mr. COURTENAY. - Stop, stop; answer me if you please.

She answered, that Henry M'GREEDEY was in the house, and that her father was not
out the whole night. She did not know whether M'GREEDY was once or twice in the
house. He went away the last time at 11.

Peter M'GREEDEY was called and sworn. You are the father of Peter M'GREEDEY, who
was charged with this robbery? I think so (a laugh). This man's evidence related
only to drinking ale with the prosecutor and his observations.

His Lordship summed up the evidence with a most determined inclination in favour
of the prisoner. - Not Guilty.

Adjourned a few minutes before 5.

Against two of the prisoners for theft no bills have been found. The Bank
prosecutions occupy the first place on Monday, and there are only two or three
more, so that the business of this Court must soon be ended.

It is hardly possible to conceive Courts more awkwardly and inconveniently
constructed, and, like all injudicious structures, they are in part unfinished
while another part is decaying.