11th March 1831

Stamford Mercury

Crown Court. 

Before the Hon. Baron Vaughan. 

The Court opened at eleven o'clock on Monday

Baron Vaughan observed that he was much gratified to see so numerous an attendance the magistrates and gentlemen of the county, determined to support the laws of the land, and thus render the best homage to the government under which they lived. Although this was the first occasion on which he had been called upon to assist the Grand Jury in the administration of justice, still he flattered himself that he should not be received or regarded as altogether a stranger: he had been in the habit of attending the assizes at Lincoln for years as barrister, and had the satisfaction of perceiving during that long period how excellently the duties of jurymen were fulfilled in that court: and though the catalogue of crime that day presented to their notice was one of a most fearful and unprecedented nature, yet he was persuaded that it was not to be ascribed to the want of diligence on the part of the magistrates, of vigilance in the police, or want of attention to the wholesome restraints of prison discipline. It was subject for congratulation that in this county, notwithstanding the excitement and disturbances which had prevailed in other parts of England, (and to which, as many of the Grand Jury were doubtless aware, his attention had been lately directed,) the lower orders of the people had in general manifested a due reverence for the laws.

Rape at Langtoft. 

John Pickering, aged 57 was charged with having attempted to commit rape upon the person of Ann Roberts, a child 6 years of age living at Langtoft, on the 22nd of April last. This case was presented at the last assizes, on which occasion the learned Judge then presiding advised the trial to be postponed until the child had received more instruction of the principles of the Christian religion. The Judge, however, still found the child betray such infirmity of mind, that he thought the justice of the case would not be advanced by examining her as a witness. The principal features of the case were that the prisoner had asked the child to go to the baker's for a loaf of bread, and the mother thinking her absence long, went to Pickering's, who putting his head out of the chamber-window, told her that she had not returned ; she then went to the baker's, and upon her return home found the child there, who complained of the injury she had received from the prisoner. Two women who were present when the mother examined the child, deposed to the appearances.— The prisoner whilst he was in hold, wanted to have the matter made up, and offered to give Ellen Roberts, mother of the girl, 5s. for that purpose The counsel for the prisoner called two witnesses ; one of whom Elizabeth Ellis, stated that a conversation took place between the child and herself about 2 or 3 days after the prisoner had been charged with the offence, and the girl said her mother had told her to say what Pickering had done to her, as she should get some money of the old fellow, and she (the child) should have a plum-cake and a new white frock for saying so, but if she told any body of this she would flog her. Thomas Bingham, the other witness, said he saw the little girl go into the prisoner's house during his absence; when Pickering came in he heard him scold her because she had gone up stairs and dirted the room She did not stop in the house above two minutes witness was on the spot during the whole time, and did not see Mrs Roberts go into the house.—The statement of Elizabeth Ellis, was met by a counter-statement; Mrs. Roberts saying that she found that witness had offered to give the child 2d. if she would say that Mrs. R- had instructed her to say that Pickering had committed the offence, and if she refused Mr. Pickering would kill her when she got to Lincoln.—The Judge, in summing up, remarked that the evidence given by Bingham differed materially from the confession of the prisoner upon his examination, for he (the prisoner) said, "when Mrs. Roberts came to his house to enquire for her child," whereas the witness stated that she never came at all. The jury returned a verdict of guilty, and the prisoner was sentenced to one year's imprisonment to hard labour in Kirton house of correction.

4th March 1831

Stamford Mercury

The assizes for this county will open on Saturday, before Lord Lyndhurst, Chief Baron of the Exchequer, and Sir John Vaughan, Knt. 

John Pickering, aged 57, laborer, charged upon the oath of Ellen the wife of Thomas Roberts, of Langtoft, laborer, with having carnally known Ann Roberts her daughter, an infant the age of five years and eleven months, at Langtoft aforesaid, the 22d of April last.—Discharged on his recognizance to appear at these assizes to answer such charge as shall be then preferred against him.

30th July 1830

Stamford Mercury

Crown Court

 Before Mr. Justice Gastelee.

The Judge, after congratulating the Grand Jury on the smallness of the calendar, begged to solicit their attention to two or three cases which particularly demanded their consideration.—Two cases of alleged rape, one upon the person of an adult person, and the other upon a child years age, would demand a particular portion of attention, especially as it was very easy to make a charge in such cases, and very difficult matter to disprove it, especially as a very material alteration in the law had taken place during the last few years, by which the proof of the offence was rendered more easy, and the evidence against the prisoner of course became more open to suspicion. He begged them to discriminate between the places in which violence had been used; as there might be situations in which a prisoner, taking advantage the time and place, and notwithstanding the cries and resistance of the person, obtain his object,—and there might be others in which, notwithstanding the opportunities of escaping, the parties might, after consenting, have brought the charge from religious motives*

Rape at Langtoft. 

John Pickering, aged 56, laborer, of Langtoft, was charged with committing rape on the person of Ann Roberts, of the same place, a child about 6 years old, on the 22nd of April last. The Judge said he had read the depositions, and it did not appear to him that there was sufficient evidence to convict the prisoner of the capital offence. His Lordship then examined the mind of the child, and although she repeated the Lord's prayer by rote, it was evidently without any appearance of thinking about what she was saying; and it also seemed that she had never received any instruction in the principles of the christian religion. The clergyman of the parish in which she had resided, his Lordship observed, should be requested to attend to her, and to instruct her to distinguish between good and evil: the trial would therefore stand over till the next assizes, the prisoner being in the mean time liberated on bail.

23rd January 1824

Stamford Mercury

STAMFORD SESSIONS, 17th January. Kingsland, of Langtoft, cadger, convicted of receiving geese the property of Mr. John Mean, of Ufford, knowing them to have been stolen—one week's imprisonment. 

5th December 1823

Stamford Mercury

On Monday last, Charles Newborn, of Barnack, gardener,— Newborn Pask, of Ryhall, shoemaker,—and John Thompson, of Pilsgate, mason, were committed to Peterborough gaol, the two former as principals and the latter as accessary (and intended to be a witness for the prosecution) in the stealing of geese from the premises of Mr. Burbidge and Mr. Mean Ufford, the night of Wednesday the 26th ult.—Same day, Edward Kingsland, of Langtoft, poulterer, was committed to the gaol of this borough, on the charge of receiving the above stolen property, knowing it to be stolen.

24th January 1823

Stamford Mercury

Kesteven Sessions

Bourn.—At the General Quarter Sessions for the parts of Kesteven, held at Bourn on the 14th and 15th days of January instant, before William Augustus Johnson, Esq. chairman, the Right Hon. John Earl Brownlow, Thomas Birch Reynardson, Esq., the Rev. Brownlow Villiers Layard, Samuel Edmund Hopkinson, and William Waters, Clerks; 

Thomas Bingham, of Langtoft, labourer, was convicted of an assault on Mr. Charles Reading, an aged farmer there, and sentenced to three weeks' hard labour in Falkingham bouse of correction.

14th June 1822

Stamford Mercury

The TEMPEST MONDAY NIGHT. 

After a sultry day on Monday last, the neighbourhood of Stamford was at night visited by one of the most severe tempests of thunder and lightning ever experienced in this climate. It commenced between 8 and 9 o'clock, and was not over till nearly 11; during all which time the lightning was extremely vivid, and the thunder sometimes very awful. We regret to state that we have heard of much mischief occasioned by the storm. At North Luffenham, seven miles West of this place, a flash of lightning at a few minutes before 10 o'clock, by its intensity and continuance spread terror and dismay through the village beyond what the oldest person had ever experienced. The flash was accompanied by a whizzing noise and strong sulphureous smell, and the thunder ensued so instantaneously, that the inhabitants were not aware what mischief it was occasioning, though all persons in the neighbourhood of the church supposed their own houses to be falling. In the morning, it was discovered, however, that the spire of the church had been much injured, upwards of ten feet having been struck off from the top of it, and some of the stones carried to the wonderful distance of 170 yards. The iron spindle of the weather-cock had acted as a conductor to the lightning; and the electric fluid, after demolishing the top of the spire, had passed to one of the windows lower down, and forced out a large part of the wall of steeple on the north-east side. From this point the lightning descended into the church, which it filled, and where iv shattering effects are visible in nearly all the lower windows in the body of it. The solid walls have been in several situations pierced through by the subtile fluid, whose course is wonderfully traced. Under one of the arches of the south aisle it seems to have meandered without doing mischief, there is a burnt zigzag mark on the stones, —an irregular dotted line of smoke, —presenting one of the most singular evidences of the harmless presence of electric phenomena ever beheld. The marks, we understand, will be allowed to remain as a memorial of the visitation.— Several of the pews on the south side of the church are shivered to pieces, and the walls' are much damaged. In the chancel and body of the church, which has been handsomely new pewed within a few years, little damage is done. At a distance, the venerable edifice, from its elevated station, shorn of its top and picturesque fane which towered above the trees, looks dismally. The vane was picked up on Tuesday morning in a paddock 60 yards distant from the steeple, in west direction ; and the same ground was Covered with the stones, as if they had been discharged from artillery: had they been driven eastwardly, they must have greatly damaged the houses'of Lady Anne Noel and the Rev. Mr. Hardyman, which are within 30 yards of the church, and have not been injured even tbe least degree. The parish clock was stopped by the concussion, and the strong iron spindle of the weather-cock was bent and precipitated amongst the beluw—lt is remarkable that this visitation North Luffenham has happened exactly on that day twelvemonth (the 10th of June) which saw the similar dilapidation of Carlby church and steeple, five miles east of Stamford. The effects of the storm were severely felt on the premises of Capt. Orme, Edithweston. A large new building standing within 20 yards of his own house was rent from top to bottom, the electric matter cutting through the free stone sills of all the windows, and removing stones of great size to a considerable distance. Capt. Orme, who was standing at the door of neighbour opposite, was struck across the head at the same moment with great violence, and remains to this hour sensible of the shock. The building now presents a most frightful appearance. The lightning passed through the strong arch of a cellar under it, and exploded there, scattering desolation,—and proving the vanity human imagination, which has been known to impel people to seek safety in cellars and similar obscure retreats! An oak tree on the estate of S. Barker, Esq. Lyndon lordship, was split in two, and one part driven to a considerable distance.

The steeple of Belton church, near Uppingham, was struck and slightly damaged by the lightning. Mr. Fancourt, of Pilton, had four ewes and two lambs killed whilst lying under some trees.

Four young beasts the property of Mr. Rowel, of Langtoft, near Deeping, were killed in a close there. On that day twelvemonth a tree was shivered by the electric fluid the same close.