Clonmel Assizes Dec. 16th 1815 From The Times, Tipperary
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CLONMEL ASSIZES DEC. 16TH 1815 FROM THE TIMES, TIPPERARY


Clonmel Dec. 16th.
The Special Sessions of the peace, under the
Insurrection Act, was holden by adjournment in this
town, on Saturday last. If we are to form an estimate of
the state of the County, from the number of Magistrates
on the Bench, or of prisoners in the Dock, we should
hope that the peace of this of this immediate
neighbourhood is in rapid progress of improvement. The
former was not in any great multitude, though they were
sufficient to do the business, and the calendar was very
slender.

Peter Connell was charged with being an idle and
disorderly person, out of his dwelling at improper
hours, on the night of the 11th inst. Joseph Hannan, a
soldier of the North Cork Militia, swore that on the
above night, being sentry on the barracks at Clerihan,
he apprehended the prisoner there after 1 O'Clock at
night. The prisoner was sober, and on being asked where
he was going, he answered to his family, who lived
between Thurles and Templemore; and Clerihan, he
understood, was on the road between those two places.
After the witness was relieved, he heard the prisoner
say, that he had been a stable boy to one Carrol in
Clonmel, that a man who slept with him there charged him
with robbing him of a two pound note, and that he was
going home in dread of being taken up.

This latter part of his account was supported by James
Carrol, who keeps a Carman's Inn, and swore that the
prisoner, being in  his service, was charged by a man
who slept there, with robbing him, first of a five pound
note, then of  a two pound note, and lastly of a one
pound note and the remainder of change, This simpleton,
after hesitating and entertaining his suspicious of the
prisioner for 2 to 3 days, at length determined to
satisfy himself assuredly of the delinquent, resorted to
a card cutter, who secured his conviction at once, and
upon the strength of the card cutters revelation, he
swore an information against the stable boy, who seems
by his withdrawing to have been as credulous to the
infallibility of this juggler as the other. The
prisioner had a good character and was acquitted. Thomas
Mullowney's case occupied a great length of time, and
produced a long and tedious detail of evidence. The fact
of his offence (Of being out of his dwelling at improper
hours on the night of the 11th inst) was proved by
Robert Belville, a constable, who swore that, on that
night, he found the prisoner in bed in the house of one
Madden, about 4 miles from the prisoners residence, that
the prisoners account of himself, was, that he had been
married by a Protestant Clergyman, for which the Priest
had excommunicated him, and that he was living amongst
his friends, and that he had been 6 weeks at Maddens as
a servant.

The Rev. Charles Tuckey under whose orders Beville went
out on that night, swore, that he desired Beville to
search Maddens house for improper persons, that he had
married the prisoner about 6 months hence, that the
Priest had objected to marrying them, without making
them pay something by way of mulct?, for their
indiscretion, as they had gone off together, that he
(Mr. Tuckey) had them called by banns, and married them,
that he knows their Parish Priest, and does not believe
that he showed them any displeasure afterwards or that
he was the cause of Mullowney's absconding. It appeared
from a number of witnesses, that this evidence which the
prisoners family laboured hard to prove, was quite
fictitious, the real cause why he quitted his own house,
being, that a warrant had been issued against him at the
prosecution of his own mother, for robbing her of corn
(whereas the corn and farm were his property, not
her's), that he was arrested under the warrant, that he
was more active than the constables, and effected his
escape, and went to Maddens out of the way. The case was
perplexed by his own witnesses, the fabrication of whose
testimony seemed to be humanely thrown out of
consideration by the bench and he was acquitted.
Mullowneys trial was not finished on Saturday, but ran a
good deal into the business on Monday, to which day the
sessions were adjourned. On Monday, John Hennessy was
charged as an idle and disorderly person, with being
absent from his dwelling on the night of Saturday, the
9th inst. Samuel Middleton, a constable on duty that
night swore that about 10'30 he took up the prisoner,
whom he saw without his shoes or hat on, running from a
crowd, that was tumultous and noisy, outside the door of
one Quinlan's, a publican, who said that the prisoner
having no money to pay for drink, he (Quinlan) had taken
his shoes and hat in pledge. The prisoner was at that
time unable, from the effects of drink, to give any
account of himself, but on the next morning, he said,
that he had come from Mr. Clutterbuck's neighbourhood to
look for work, and that he had lived with his
father-this account of himself he gave in English. On
his defence, this man produced his brother, a man whose
correctness in his testimony was very credible, who
swore, that the prisoner was for some time back on and
off at his fathers, that on the 9th he came to Clonmel,
and told witness that his business was to buy a riding
coat, and to get the 5 shillings witness owed him,
together with some money owed to him by another, that
they parted between 3 and 4 O'Clock, and witness didn't
think the prisoner would stay that night. He admitted
that he heard his brother absented himself from his own
house, near MR. Clutterbuck's, in consequence of a
charge against him for attacking a house, and throwing
down the chimney of it, on the roadside near Knocklofty,
and there was informations against him for that offence.

Mr. Vowel, the gaoler, swore that, at the prisoners
request, he got an order from three magistrates to apply
to Mr. Clutterbuck, to whom the prisoner referred for a
character-that he (Mr. Vowel) wrote one letter by post
to that effect, and another by the prisoners father, and
this old man told him he was sure Mr. Clutterbuck could
do no good. The prisoner all through his trial denied
his ability to speak english. For the defence, Thomas
Murphy, farmer of Gormanstown, swore, that he knows the
prisoner since boyhood-that he never heard anything but
what was honest of him, except about throwing down the
chimney near Knocklofty, which he heard was done by
disturbers. Hennessy was convicted.

Serjeant Moore, in passing sentence of seven years to
Botany Bay upon him, remarked that besided the
accusation against him for attacking the house, and in
consequence of which the prisoner appeared a fugitive
from justice, there appears another felony laid to his
charge , under which he is to remain (still of course
liable to the present sentence) for trial at the ensuing
assizes.

John Griffin, who was convicted at the sessions in
Clonmel on Oct. 23rd of having concealed arms, was
brough up for judgement, the court having taken time for
consultation upon his case. It appeared on the trial
that one Dwyer, a constable, under the authority of two
warrants, directed to him only by Lord Cahir and Milo
Bourke, Esq went in search of arms, that he took one
Evans, another constable, and a party with him, that
within 200 yards of Griffins house. They seperated,
Evans going with a party yo Griffins, and Dwyer, the
special constabe named in the warrant going to another
house. The learned serjeant pronounced the judgement of
the law, that the demand by Evans was not so authorised
as to make denial to him a crime, and, therefore, upon
that point of law, although there could be no manner of
question as to Griffins intentional quilt, he was
entitled to be discharged, but he was ordered to give
security for his good behaviour, himself in 50s and two
surities of 25s each.

The sessions were then adjourned to Wed 27th of Dec.
to be holden in Clonmel.