The Times
Wed. Aug 12 1846
Northern Circuit
Appleby August 10
The assizes for the county of Westmoreland commenced here today; Mr Justice Wightman presiding on the civil side, and Mr Justice Cresswell in the Crown Court. Five causes are entered for trial. The calender contain the names of 13 prisoners, the greater number of whom are charged with petty thefts. The charge of rape against four men engaged on the Lancaster and Carlisle Railway has caused a great deal of excitement in the county, as well an account of the respectability of the persons who suffered from the outrage, as of the peculiarly brutal circumstances by which it was accompanied.
(Before Mr Justice CRESSWELL)
Thomas Burrows, aged 18, George Lees, aged 18, John Smith, aged 21, and William Smith, aged 19, were indicted for a rape on the person of Jane Dover, at Shap, on the 19th of April last.
Mr. Matthews and Mr James conducted the prosecution. The prisoners were defended by Mr Ramshay.
The prisoners were striking specimens of the class to which they belong, strong robust youths, but evidently utterly ignorant, and who conducted themselves throughout with apparently a total indifference to their position.
Mr MATTHEWS opened the case, and called the following witnesses:- Jane Dover, a delicate-looking girl about 17 years of age, stated that she was the daughter of a farmer at Scarside, near Shap. He is now dead, but the farm is still kept by her mother. Her brother Matthew and her sister Elizabeth lived in the house. Her sister Mary lived at Hackinthorpe Hall, and on Sunday the 19th of April last, had come over on a visit to her mother. The witness and her sister Elizabeth accompanied her part of the way home, along a footpath leading from a place called Bampton Grange, past Scarside, towards the high road leading from Shap to Penrith. On reaching the high road they parted, the witness and her sister Elizabeth returning home by the footpath. From Thrimby Grange where they left Mary there was no house in the neighbourhood of the path except their own home, which was about a mile distant. When within about a quarter of a mile from home they met four men, whom they identified as the prisoners. In consequence of an elevation in the ground, the witness and her sister did not see them until they were within 30 yards, and on their coming up the young women went off the footpath to let them pass. Two of the men, the two Smiths, siezed hold of Elizabeth. Jane attempted to run away, but was caught by Burrows and Lees. She was thrown down upon the ground, and Burrows attempted to perpetrate the offence with which he now stood charged. He called to Lees to hold her feet, and succeeded, not withstanding her screams and struggles, in accomplishing his object. Lees then committed the same offence, being in a similar way assisted by Burrows. During this time she was aware that her sister was struggling with the other two men, but one of them now left her and came to the witness. He also perpetrated the crime. Both the young women were detained in this struggle for upwards of an hour and a half; and before the witness finally succeeded in getting away from her assailants, one of them, she could not tell which, repeated the offence. Another of them then took her up and carried her towards a plantation, at some distance from the path, where he again attempted to violate her person. While he was struggling with her her sister who had finally got away from those by whom she had been attacked, came up to her on her hands and knees, on which the man left the witness Jane and went to her sister. Jane then got to her feet, and ran home, where she gave the alarm to her brother. He immediately mounted a horse and rode off to the spot, where he found Elizabeth lying insensible; she also having been repeatedly outraged in the same way as her sister. Both were in a dreadful state when they reached home. their clothes torn to pieces, their faces bleeding from blows inflicted upon them by the hands of their assailants, and their persons severely bruised in the long and desperate struggle which they had maintained. Early the next morning the police went in search of the prisoners, who had all been together drinking at a public-house at Bampton on the evening in question, and had been seen very shortly before the time when this outrage must have taken place, proceedifng from Bampton along a path leading to the spot, and it its immediate neighbourhood. It was found that at a very early hour on the Monday morning they had left the "barrack," a cluster of temporary huts in which they lived, and they were traed step by step across the county of Westmaorland, and finally into Durham, where they were taken into custody near Hartlepool. On examing their persons it was found that Burrows had but one of his braces on. It was of a rather remarkable pattern, and corresponding precisely with one which eas found in the field the morning after the outrage. The spot, it was stated by the witnesses, was so trodden in the struggle that it was some weeks before it was again covered with grass as before, and it was strewed with portions of the dress of the young women, crushed fragments of their bonnets, torn gloves, and broken combs.
According to the testimony of the medical men, Jane Dover had suffered extreme violence from the persons by whom she had been assailed. The particulars of the injuries sustained by her sister Elizabeth (whose case was the subject of another indictment) did not transpire on this trial, but they were understood to be of a most serious kind.
The prisoners were convicted.
His LORDSHIP, in passing sentence, said they had been conviced of a most aggravated offence, under circumstances of such atrocity as reflected the greatest disgrace on the country in which they were born. When men at their early age were so brutified, any observation would, as to them, be thrown away. There was no possibility of exciting in such minds either regret or shame, and he (the learned Judge) had never seen four men apparently more lost, more shameless, more dead to every manly feeling. As an example to others, however, it was necessary to refer to the fate which awaited them. They were about to leave a free country for a state of perpetual servitude, without intermission of their toil, without wages, without any reward but that daily bread which would enable them to continue their daily labour, to spend the remainder of their lives in suffering and degradation. The learned Judge concluded by sentencing the prisoners to transportation for life.
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The Leeds Mercury Sept 5 1846
Local News
THE WESTMORELAND RAPE CASE-
The four young men convicted at the recent Westmoreland assizes for the atrocious rape committed upon the two unfortunate women at Knife Scar near Shap, were removed on Tuesday week from Appleby, to the Penitentiary, near Milbank. Intelligence of their approach having reached Barnard Castle, Darlington, and the intervening villages, numbers of men, women, and children, who had collected together to show their disgust at the heinous conduct of the prisoners met them at each place, and it was feared from the strong feeling evinced against them, that an attempt would be made to do them some personal injury. At Bernard Castle the yells, hisses, groans and execrations of the assembled crowd were so violent, as to render it necessary to obtain the assistance of the police to protect the men during the stay of the coach. Another large mob had assembled about a mile north of Darlington, and it was evident from the ferocity displayed there on the coach coming up that an attack upon the prisoners had been meditated. The governor of the gaol, however, and his assistants were fortunately successful in resisting their efforts until they reached Darlington, when the police were immediately called to their aid. The prisoners were taken to an inn for a short time to enable the police to disperse the mob, and they were afterwards conveyed privately in a coach to the railway trains, happiily without any fresh outbreak. No doubt whatever was entertained but that some personal violence would have been used towards the prisoners had not effective protection been afforded them.
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1841 Bampton
Matthew Dover 60 Farmer
Margaret 55
Joseph 45
Elizabeth 25
Matthew 20
Mary 15
Jane 12
possibly (M004851 Croglin Cumberland Matthew Dover married Margaret Dixon 12 June 1813.
C003172 Newbigging following baptisms for Matthew and Margaret - Ann Dover 1 Feb 1818, Matthew Dover 12 Oct 1820 and Mary Dover 10 Jun 1824)
1851 Bampton
Margaret Dover 65 Farmer b. Kirkoswald
Elizabeth 37 b. Newbiggin
Matthew 30 b. Newbiggin
Jane Dover 21 sevant in Knaresborough
1861 Bampton
Matthew Dover 40 Farmer
Margaret 76
Elizabeth 47
Jane Dover 31 sevant in Wardleworth
1871 Bampton
Matthew Dover 50 farmer
Margaret 86
Elizabeth 57 dairymaid
Jane Dover 41 servant in Walmersley with Suttleworth
1881
Matthew Dover 60 farmer
Elizabeth 67
Jane Dover 50 Head unmarried laundress in Spotland
1891
cannot find any of them
1901
Matthew Dover 81 inmate at Shap Workhouse.
So it would seem this family died out. But what happened to Mary the other sister? and maybe another sister Ann?
What were the fate of the four convicts sent to Australia? Unfortunately they have common names. (I think I found three arrivals in Australia but cannot find the notes I made. Did they serve for life? or did they go on to have families. )
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