CUMBERLAND ASSIZES

CARLISLE, WEDNESDAY AUGUST 9

CROWN COURT. - (Before Mr Justice Cresswell)

                              CHARGE OF MURDER

Joseph Todd was indicted for the wilful murder of Joseph Jackson at Penrith, on the 28^th July last, by shooting him with a gun.

               Mr Mathews and Mr Brett conducted the prosecution, the prisoner was defended by Mr Sergeant Wilkins.

              The deceased, Joseph Jackson, had been for many years a tenant on the farm of Mrs Youngson, near Penrith and at the time of this occurrence occupied a cottage behind the mansion house and communicating with the yard. The prisoner was the woodwarden and gamekeeper of Mrs Youngson, and had for some time lodged at the cottage of the deceased. Mrs Youngson and the family were from home, and the house was left in the care of two servants, Elizabeth Dobson, the housemaid, and Elizabeth Pearson, the cook. The deceased, Joseph Jackson, being a trustworthy person, was also directed to exercise a superintendence over the establishment during Mrs Youngson’s absence. It appeared that on the 27^th July, a person of the name of Nicholson was at the house in the yard with Mr Jackson, and that he left about ten o’clock. About one o’clock a gun was fired in the neighbourhood of the house, supposed to be by Nicholson, and the deceased Jackson on going out the next morning, found one of the gates open which had been shut the night before. He made some inquiries respecting the matter from the servants, and told Todd at breakfast, on the 28^th, that Elizabeth Dobson had imputed the firing of the shot to him. Todd merely smiled on this being told him, but made no observation. He went to his bedroom, where there were two guns, one a single barrel and the other a double barrel, the latter being the one he generally used. The latter he loaded and left it in the room. This bedroom was at one end of the cottage, and was reached by a passage from the kitchen at the other end, at the back of the bedroom which lay between them, and was occupied by Mrs Jackson and her daughters. Out of this passage a descent of a few steps led to a back kitchen, communicating with a small garden at the back. The prisoner came back to his dinner about twelve o’clock. While he was having his dinner he leaned over the table to Mrs Jackson, and said, “ There’s no getting into your house for your master is always walking about.” Shortly after he left the house, and nothing more was seen of him until immediately before the time when the deceased was shot. When he came back, deceased, and a man of the name of Carruthers, were engaged in loading a cart near the garden fence. The prisoner was without his coat, and his waistcoat open, with his sleeves tucked up. He came towards his house, as one of the witnesses said, rather wildly, and seemed as if he had been drinking. He spoke to deceased and Carruthers as he passed, saying, as Carruthers thought, they were loading rather heavy. He then went into the house through the back kitchen, where Mrs Jackson was washing the milk dishes, and into the passage leading to the bedroom on one side and the front kitchen to the other. He entered the front kitchen, where there then were Elizabeth Dobson, Elizabeth Pearson, Mrs Lutenor (a married daughter of Mrs Jackson), and Mary Jackson, her sister. He immediately seized Elizabeth Dobson by the neck and threw her down. Elizabeth Dobson cried out, and on Mrs Jackson coming up into the front kitchen she found her on the floor, and the prisoner on his knees beside her, still holding her by the throat. Mrs Jackson endeavoured to release her from his grasp, and she finally got away, on which she and Elizabeth Pearson ran out of the house and across the yard to Mrs Youngson’s. Mrs Lutenor endeavoured to pacify the prisoner, and he sat down for a minute or two on the window sill in the kitchen when he suddenly sprang up, using violent threats towards Elizabeth Dobson. He swore at Mrs Jackson for assisting her, said he wished he had choked he when he had her down, and finally said he would shoot her that night, and hastily went off towards his bedroom, apparently for the gun. Mrs Jackson, in great alarm, ran down the steps into the back kitchen, and out through the garden, to where her husband and Carruthers were, and told them to get out of the way as Todd was coming with his gun. Mr Jackson said he would go and pacify him, and immediately went into the house. He went through the back kitchen, and up the steps leading into the passage, at the top of which he met the prisoner with his gun. He put his hand across the doorway, and said, “ Todd, what are you going to do ? ” The prisoner said, “ Let me go, I will shoot the faggot before I rest.” Jackson said, “ Give me the gun ; ” on which the prisoner drew back a step or two, and raised the gun towards his left shoulder, when it went off, and the contents lodged in the left breast of the deceased. He turned round, ran down the steps through the back kitchen and into the small garden, where he fell dead. Carruthers, on hearing the shot, went towards the house, and into the front kitchen, where he found the prisoner standing in the middle of the floor. He said to the prisoner, “ Oh, Joe, you have shot him dead.” The prisoner exclaimed, “ Oh, Joseph, Joseph,” and returned with Carruthers to the garden, where he partly lifted up the hand of the deceased and then returned back into the house. He went out it appeared, into the yard leading to Mrs Youngson’s. He went to the door, and called out,

“ Oh, Betty, Betty, open the door, What have I done ? ” He then went back to the barn. In the meantime an alarm was conveyed to the house of a person of the name of Collins, who lived in the neighbourhood. On Mr Collins and his son going to the house they found the prisoner out in the barn. Mr Collins said to him, “ Todd, what have you been doing ? ” The prisoner said, “ What have I been doing ? ” Mr Collins said, “ You’ve shot poor Jackson.” He then seized the prisoner, who resisted, but, with assistance of his son, Mr Collins tied his hands and feet, and he remained there until the constable came from Penrith. He told Collins when he was secured that the gun went off by accident, that something caught the trigger.

             The gun was found in the kitchen leaning against the wall. The right barrel had been lately discharged, and there was an exploded cap on the nipple. The left barrel was loaded with an ordinary charge of shot. The charge had passed nearly through the body of the deceased.

              It appeared in the course of the trial that the deceased was a most amiable man, and much liked by all who knew him. There never had been any quarrel between him and the prisoner.

              No explanation appeared in the course of the trial to account for the extreme irritation under which the prisoner was labouring at the time he returned to the house. Elizabeth Dobson had stated that Nicholson had not been paying her addresses, and that nothing had ever passed between her and the prisoner but the most ordinary civility. It was insinuated that Nicholson, who sometimes carried a gun, was a poacher, and had been on the ground the night before for poaching purposes, but no proof of this appeared.

               Mr Serjeant WILKINS addressed the jury for the defence, pointing out that there was no motive whatever to induce the prisoner to injure a hair of the head of the deceased, and that they could not on their consciences convict the prisoner, seeing that the gun might have gone off by accident, on the prisoner, in the state of agitation and anger in which he was against Elizabeth Dobson drawing it back to prevent deceased getting hold of it. If the hammer had caught in his dress and been partially raised it would be quite sufficient to cause the charge to explode.

              His LORDSHIP summed up.

              The jury, after some deliberation, returned a verdict of Not Guilty.