Old news from Armidale and New England

Wednesday 14 January 1846, The Maitland Mercury & Hunter River General Advertiser

Maitland Quarter Sessions.

Monday, January 12, 1846.

(Before Dr. Raymond, Chairman, E. D. Day, Esq., Andrew Lang, Esq., Captain Smith, E. M. McKinlay, Esq., and C. L. Brown, Esq.)

The court was opened this morning in the usual form. The Chairman took his seat on the bench soon after ten o’clock. The members of the bar in attendance were Messrs. Purefoy, Dowling, and Holroyd. Mr. Callaghan was in his place as Crown Prosecutor, and Mr. Joseph Chambers as Clerk of Arraigns. Mr. N. D’E. Parker and Mr. Dunscombe, attorneys of Sydney, were also in court.

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ASSAULT WITH FIRE-ARMS.

Ralph George Martin, on bail, appeared when called upon, and was indicted for having, at Armidale, in New England, on the 31st August last, discharged a pistol loaded with ball at John Simon Mann, and thereby maimed the said Mann ; a second, a third, and a fourth count varied the offence charged, as being with intent to disfigure, to disable, or to do grievous bodily harm.

Mr. Purefoy appeared for the defence.

It appeared from the evidence of J. S. Mann, that on the 31st August (Sunday), he went to the house of the prisoner, who was an innkeeper, for the purpose of procuring a bottle of gin. He was a stranger there, and did not know one door from another. It happened that he went to the front door. The prisoner asked him what he wanted, and on being answered, told him to go to the kitchen and wait a little. He waited there accordingly, in company with a man named Abdy, who accompanied him, for about five minutes. He then returned to the house, and pushed gently with his toe against the door, upon which the prisoner suddenly opened it and discharged a pistol in his face, by which he was slightly wounded in the temple. He distinctly saw the pistol.

Cross-examined : Was senseless for about two minutes after the shot; had been drinking, and was not rightly sober when he got home; was at work next morning as usual ; was sure he did not kick the door violently enough to force it in ; it was a glass door, and if he had done so he would have broken the glass; was sure the prisoner did not tell him that he knew he did not serve at that hour; it was then about 8 o’clock ; might have said to the prisoner that he was a traveller, and must be served ; the kitchen was the place where travellers of witness’s class were usually entertained ; was sure he saw nobody after the shot but Abdy and the police ; he got drink from the prisoner at 4 o’clock the same afternoon, when he told the prisoner that he was Major Innes’s blacksmith ; the prisoner must have known him again.

Thomas Abdy corroborated the evidence of Mann ; he saw the prisoner step back into the house after the shot was fired, but witness did not see it fired, as he had gone to the end of the verandah, and turned his back at the moment. The prisoner said nothing in answer to witness’s exclamation of “Martin, you’ve shot the man.” Witness was quite sober.

Cross-examined : Did not hear the prisoner say that it was too late, and he would not serve him that night ; could not say whether it was past the usual hour for publicans serving on Sundays; thought they might do so till nine, and it was then eight o’clock ; he was sure the prisoner did not go up to Mann, and lifting up his hair, say, “Is that like a man that was shot ?” if he said so, witness did not hear it ; was not aware of there being any understanding between the police and Martin, that if any row should occur he was to fire a pistol ; he saw Dr. Smith dress the wound on Mann’s head.

Peter Rowan, house servant to the prisoner, deposed that Mann and Abdy were in the kitchen on the night in question. They came to the gate, and asked for a couple of bottles of grog, to which he replied that he could not get it for them at that time on Sunday night ; about half an hour after that he heard a shot fired in the verandah ; that was a short time after he heard Mann and Abdy asking for grog ; he could not say how much time had elapsed ; he did not stir from the kitchen until called by Mrs. Martin, when he saw Mann sitting against the verandah post; the prisoner came out and asked him where he was shot ; by the time this was all over it was nine o’clock ; the prisoner was not tipsy that night; he said nothing to witness about the pistol since.

Cross-examined : Abdy was not present when witness went out and saw Mann bleeding; from the appearance of the door it must have been kicked very violently ; the pistol was one which the prisoner usually kept in his bed-room.

By a juror: Had been twelve months in prisoner’s service, and never heard a shot fired before.

Mr. Purefoy submitted that there was no case for the jury, inasmuch as the indictment alleged the pistol to have been loaded with a leaden bullet, and there was no proof what- ever that such was the case.

The Chairman decided that the objection was not a question of law, but of fact, and therefore must be left to the decision of the jury, who were to judge whether or not the pistol contained a bullet.

Mr. Purefoy, with great respect, contended that the proof of there being a bullet was in this case an impossibility, and requested the Chairman to take a note of the objection. The learned counsel then addressed the jury on behalf of his client, telling them, in the first place, that he would prove by evidence that there was an understanding between the prisoner and the police that he should fire a pistol as a signal on the occasion of a disturbance. He should also prove, by medical evidence, that the wound of the prisoner was a slight abrasion of the skin, and had been caused neither by a bullet or by gunpowder, but by a blow from the projecting ramrod of a large pistol. He then called Dr. William Smith, who deposed that he attended Mann for a supposed wound on the head, but found it to be an abrasion of the skin, so slight as not to come under the denomination of a wound of any kind ; it could not possibly have been caused by a bullet, but it might have been caused by a blow from the muzzle of a pistol, or by the ramrod projecting beyond the muzzle.

Cross-examined : Witness never saw a bullet wound, but had obtained from reading such a knowledge of gun-shot wounds as enabled him to say that the wound in question had not been caused by a bullet ; a bullet would cause a contused wound, and shot would cause an incised wound, or a simple abrasion of the skin. Witness had studied in the College of Edinburgh, and had walked the hospital there four years. It was not till next morning, when he learned the distance at which the shot was fired, that he felt quite sure that the wound could not possibly have been caused by a bullet.

Re-examined: If the wound had been caused by gunpowder, the man’s face must have shown marks of it, which it did not.

Here the Chairman interposed, and informed the jury that in law they could not but acquit the prisoner, as the evidence went to show that the pistol had not contained a bullet, without which the indictment could not be sustained.

A verdict of not guilty was then recorded, and the prisoner was discharged.

Tuesday, January 13.

(Before Dr. Raymond, Chairman, E. D. Day, Esq., John Blaxland, Esq., C. L. Brown, Esq., and A. Glennie, Esq).

Tuesday 22 December 1863, The Maitland Mercury & Hunter River General Advertiser

HIGHWAY ROBBERIES ON THE GREAT NORTHERN ROAD.

No little degree of excitement was caused nn Maitland, yesterday morning, by rumours tortured into every shape relative to a number of highway robberies, which had early that morning been committed within a short distance of town. Residents of the Northern district who have read the accounts which so frequently of late have been given of the robberies committed in the less favoured West, could hardly credit them, or believe it possible that one individual could, with impunity, stick up from ten to twenty persons, in a day ; but they yesterday had a practical lesson in the way it is done. Of course, the stories relative to the affair varied considerably as they passed from one narrator to another, and lost nothing of their extravagance by that process. The particulars, so far as we could ascertain upon strict inquiry of the persons who had been submitted to the highwayman’s pleasure, and from others who had subsequently seen him escaping from the police, are as follows: About a quarter to five o’clock yesterday morning a man about five feet nine inches high, of light but strong build, dark complexion, slight beard and whiskers, presented himself at the doorway of the toll-keeper’s house, alongside the toll-bar between Maitland and Rutherford. The door had been opened a few minutes before, and William Delaney, who, with the lessee, Michael O’Brien, resides in the toll house, entered the room from the back. He saw the highwayman with a revolver In his hand pointed at him. Delaney was commanded to get into a corner near the dresser, and he obeyed. The highwayman then said “give me your money,” to which Delany answered that he had none. “Give me your money or l’ll blow your brains out.” Again the answer ” I have none” was made. The robber, who all this time was standing near the doorway, advanced a few steps, and with one hand opened cupboard that was near the door, whilst with the other he kept Delaney covered with the revolver. From the cupboard he took the cash box which, however, only contained about 4s. in copper. Without opening it he said good morning and crossed the road. Inside the fence he had a horse tied up to a tree ; he loosed the bridle, mounted, and rode on along the road in the direction of Anambah, giving tho toll-keeper the pleasing information that he was Captain Thunderbolt. Shortly after, a man named Moore was passing along the road, and he was told of the robbery, and desired to inform the police of the matter. Delany then went to the Spread Jingle Inn, opposite the Rutherford race-course, expecting to meet the robber, which he was fortunate enough to do. As they approached the house, the robber said ” Well, you are the chap I stuck-up this morning at the toll-bar. I suppose you have come after me ?” Delaney said he had not – that he was going to the public house. He then said, “I suppose your mate has gone for, the crushers.” Delaney said, “No, there’s no one to mind the toll bar.” The bushranger then put his hand in his pocket and gave back to Delaney the coppers he had taken from the box, remarking, “I am a bushranger, and you might meet a worse one than me; I was put on a lay to stick up your place ; I was told there were 200 sovereigns there. I thought it was Young, the flash fighting man, who kept the place ; if I met him, I’d take it out of him.” Delany then asked where was the box, and was told he would find it on the old road in (through) the bush. Delany says he then wished him “good bye.” The cash-box was searched for, and found where “Thunderbolt” said it would be.

It would appear that immediately after robbing the toll-bar the robber proceeded to the Spread Eagle Inn, as Mrs. Byrne found him at the door when she first opened it. He was, as she alleges, armed with a belt of revolvers, and had others in his pockets, He asked for something to eat, and bread and meat were given to him ; having eaten them he asked what he had to pay, and being told that there was no charge for a thing like that, said, “I came to rob you, but as you are so hospitable I won’t do so.” He then purchased a bottle of rum, drunk part of it, and fastened the rest, with some bread and cheese, to his saddle ; he remained nearly two hours at this place, and was going away when Delaney came up and met him.

From further enquiries it appears that after parting with the toll-bar-keeper the bushranger met a man named Godfrey Parsons about half a mile beyond the Spread Eagle Inn. Parsons was bringing his wife in a spring cart from Anvil Creek, where he resides, to Maitland for medical attendance, when the robber came riding across the green from the road which there leads off to Anambah. He pulled up when he came to the cart, bidding Parsons stop and give up his money, at the same time presenting his revolver to enforce the demand. Parsons (who had about £30 in his possession) answered that he had only two pounds, and was coming into Maitland for a doctor’s advice for his wife. Mrs. Parsons was much terrified, and began to cry. The robber then said, as the money was wanted for the doctor he wouldn’t take it ; he was an outlaw, and knew he would got fifteen years if he was caught. He then rode off along the road until he came to where some teamsters were camping; he entered into conversation with them, but did nothing more. He subsequently met Mrs. Friend, Mrs. Clarke, her two daughters, and a man named James Kavanagh,- the last named four together. He stopped them, but we have not heard whether he robbed them of anything. He then met a constable, who was on foot, and asked the constable if it was not he whom he was looking after, and challenged him to fight him. He then rode back to the Spread Eagle Inn, and again entered into conversation, patronised the publican, and talked contemptuously of constables; stating that they chased him near Armidale, and when they got to the Black Rock they got afraid and went back, saying their horses got bogged in the Green Swamp. He further said they took a saddle and bridle from him at Black Rock. When he the second time called at the Spread Eagle he did not dismount ; he drank some tea and ate some bread and meat which were supplied to him. He soon afterwards rode away, and four mounted policemen went out in pursuit. When the police enquired at the Spread Eagle Inn for the robber, they learnt that he had taken the road leading through Anambah ; one of them (mounted) overtook him speaking to a tenant of Mr. G. J. Cobb’s ; he rode up and asked if they had seen any bullocks about, to which the robber answered ” No.” The constable (who was in disguise) then drew out his revolver, pointed it at him, and said, ” You are my prisoner.” The fellow coolly turned round, looked at the constable, put spurs to his horse, and galloped away, the constable in pursuit. Several shots are alleged to have been fired by the trooper when within a few yards of his man, but without effect. Through Anambah the bushranger rode at the topmost speed of his horse. Near Mr. Cobb’s place the trooper was within fifty yards of him, but his horse was blown. He dismounted and took a horse belonging to Mr. Walter Sparkes which was saddled and bridled near a blacksmith’s forge. The bushranger in the mean time, had improved the distance between himself and his pursuer, the trooper kept him in view until the river was reached ; but crossing it he lost sight of him. Other troopers have been been despatched in search of the marauder and last evening were in pursuit. At eight o’clock last evening the four troopers had returned, without the slightest success.

In another column will be found a short notice of the robbery of the Merton mall. This, however, is not the only recent mail robbery in the Northern district. The mail that should have brought our Tamworth and Armidale letters and papers was stopped, as we are informed, on Sunday morning, at Doughboy Hollow, and the robbers after cutting open the bags, and extracting therefrom what they chose, made off. The scattered remains of the mail were gathered together by the mailman, and forwarded, yesterday, to the General Post Office, to be sorted afresh, and sent to their respective destinations. It is stated that Mr. P. Quinn was one of the parties robbed. These particulars, with the additional details contained in the Empire’s telegram which appears elsewhere constitute the whole of the information which has as yet reached us, nor have our inquiries at the Police Office elicited anything further.