The break in at the Norman's house was obviously given high priority by the police for it was none less than Mr Fox, the Chief Constable himself who took charge of the case which had been referred to him by Superintendent Shaw.

  A detective inspector, Henry Hilton received word of the whereabouts of one of his suspects.  On the 21st November he went over to Macclesfield to a house  in Windmill Row where he found Matthew Depledge.  He asked Depledge when he was last in Whaley. He replied "I have not been to Whaley since a week last Sunday".  The Inspector then told him that he must consider himself his prisoner as he fitted the description of one of the three men who broke into the Norman's house. He replied that he didn't know a Mr. Norman. Inspector Hilton then searched the house and found a jemmy with a ring at the end.  The following morning he took his prisoner to the Macclesfield lock up.  He next took his prisoner to Whaley Bridge and during the journey Depledge said "Me and Jem Stanny and Bill Cope slept in Whaley on Sunday night and the following morning we left for Macclesfield".  The same day we all three went to Allmock moors for heath for making brooms and we stayed there until the following Thursday, when Cope left us to go to Manchester, and we went to Macclesfield".   He told the detective that he would find Cope at Manchester selling brooms.  He did not know where Stanny was as there was a warrant out for his arrest for poaching. At the lock up, Depledge told Superintendent Shaw that he had been in Whaley on the Monday and Thursday nights but not on Tuesday or Wednesday, the time of the burglary.  On the 26th November, Superintendent Shaw apprehended William Cope while he was still in bed. Cope denied being in Whaley on the Tuesday night.

The story reached Punch magazine:

A health to Mrs Norman

  In a capacious measure,

Happier than any Mormon

  He that owns that one treasure!

In bed her babe she tended,

  When crush, lo, glass went breaking,

Down-stairs, and she descended,

  A charged revolver taking.

There loomed a ruffian figure

  At whom the brave beholder

Snapped - drew again the trigger,

  And shot him through the shoulder.

Oh! well her liege lord may be

  Right proud of such a jewel,

Its milk who first gave baby,

  And then the thief his gruel.

What burglar now dares wake her?

  Heroic wife and mother!

Would every brute housebreaker

  Meet with such another

Next we'll start hearing the evidence and a little more about Mrs Norman's armaments.

Edited by user 24 March 2011 22:34:46(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Monday 1st December 1862, the Court Room, Chapel-en-le-Frith. Matthew Depledge had already been remanded. James Stanney and William Cope had since been arrested and now all three were charged with the burglary at Horwich End on Wednesday 12th November.

 Mrs Norman was first to give evidence and she repeated much of the information that she had given to the police. She was asked if any of the men before her resembled those she had seen at her house. She replied that Depledge in build and in clothing was like the man whom she had shot.  Stanney was like the taller man who had helped Depledge through the window but Cope, she could not identify.

Stanney said "I have only had this coat since last Saturday and wore a dark blue one before". Inspector Hilton said that on asking Depledge where the jemmy had come from that he had found in his house, he made no reply.  The jemmy compared exactly with indentations made on the door of the sitting room cupboard.

Adam Hill, a shopkeeper, gave evidence that on the evening of 11th November, the three prisoners came to his shop in Whaley Bridge, to purchase a loaf of bread.  John Etchells, a shoemaker, had seen all three coming on the Macclesfield Road towards Whaley Bridge and only half a mile from the Norman's home.

Superintendent Shaw said that on his arrest Cope had denied being in Whaley on the Tuesday night. On mention of Stanney, Cope said that Jim had a coat on which he had purchased from Depledge on the 13th or 14th November for 4s.  On being pressed further, Cope answered "Ask me no questions, and I will tell you no lies".

Mr Norman next gave evidence and said that on the evening of the 11th, his wife pointed out a man at the window.  The man was in a stooping position but soon walked away without turning. Mr Norman took little notice, thinking that he was a beggar.  At about 3.30am he had been woken by his wife who told him of the break in and that she had shot a man. He went down into the parlour but saw no-one.  The bottom sash was raised and a pane of glass broken.

After hearing some further evidence, the magistrates committed the prisoners for trial at Derby Assizes; Cope being granted bail.

March 18th 1863 and the Assize Court was about to sit.  The Derby Mercury described the pomp surrounding the occassion.

DERBYSHIRE LENT ASSIZES

We are informed that as far as is at present known, Her Majesty's Judge of Assize, for this county, will arrive in Derby from Lincoln this morning (Wednesday) at 12.20pm.  The friends of the High Sheriff are invited to breakfast with him at nine o'clock, and at half past ten o'clock the High Sheriff, accompanied by his tenantry and friends, will proceed by road from Egginton to Derby, where he is expected to arrive at the King's Head Hotel at about 11.30, and from thence to the Railway Station to await the arrival of the Judges and escort them into the town to open the commission.  The High Sheriff will be met on the Burton Road by the javelin men.  

There are at present 61 prisoners for trial, and the Nisi Prius business appears to be rather heavy, there being three special and twelve common jury causes.The cause possessing most interest is the action of Mr Rose............; whilst on the Crown side interest is centred in the trial of the prisoners charged with the burglary at Whaley Bridge, in which case Mrs Norman who shot one of the burglars, will be examined.

The tenantry and javelin men will dine at the County Hotel.

18 MONTHS FOR TWO PIPES AND A CIGARETTE HOLDER.

Breucipher Holmes alias William Johnson, a labourer aged 21 was charged with the theft of two meerschaum pipes and a meerschaum cigarette holder.  Holmes had previously been employed by Brian Bates and Joseph Henry Lawson, wine and spirit merchants of Buxton as an errand boy.  On the 19th November 1875, a young man called Watson went to open up the premises and found a glass case had been broken open and the contents removed.  He had seen the accused loitering in front of the shop the previous evening. That same evening one of the pipes was seen in the smoke room of the Shakespear Hotel in Buxton having been purchased by the "Boots" for 9s 6d.  "Boots" then sold it on to Mr Bradley for 15s.  Holmes was a member of the Whaley Bridge Volunteers and offered the cigarette holder to a colleague.  The prisoner was found guilty.

"Boots" seems to have profitted well from this crime

In the nineteenth and early twentieth century, Whaley Bridge was a popular day trip destination, particularly at weekends and bank holidays.   There were often railway excursions from Manchester.

In 1890 a group of 300 "pleasure seekers" arrived from Manchester.  Outside the Wesleyan Chapel a fight began. The fight was so savage that the combatants were badly cut and bruised and the road was quite a pool of blood.

That evening a party of 17 of the day trippers was passing through Levenshulme aboard a wagonette on their way back to Broughton. A quarrel started and the vehicle was stopped in order that they might fight. Inspector Smith and Constable Sidebottom intervened but were set upon and violently beaten and kicked. The Inspector was thrown to the ground several times. A tram guard and two drivers came to assist and eventually calm was restored and arrests made.  Three men were brought before Manchester Police Court and fined £2 each.

Good Heavens R.S-S. Where do you find information of these terrible deeds?

One question; what makes them so sure there was a third party involved "judging for the size of the child"? The unfortunate babe was only two days old, if that, so hardly able to fight off one person, never mind three!

Hope we hear the outcome of this awful murder.

(I must be toughening up)         

Edited by user 11 April 2011 16:22:23(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

EMBEZZLEMENT

Thomas Jackson was postmaster and assistant overseer at Whaley Bridge.  He was also a sidesman in the Parish Church, was married and had a young family.  In July 1889 Jackson was arrested in Manchester where he was found furnishing a house, was conveyed to Whaley Bridge and handed over to Constable Hunt.  He was charged with embezzling £150 from the Post Office Savings Bank of which £76 belonged to a local provident institution and the remainder to Whaley Bridge charities.  There was a deficiency of £260 in the poor rates.  Jackson was later taken to Stockport and remanded.

More about Mr Jackson tomorrow

In the inter-war years we never let our milk down but if it rained and the churns were open then this was a bonus for us. We did however, during the summer months, put a cupful of bleach in each churn to stop the milk from going off. None of our customers ever complained or even knew about this.

On 7th December 1889 The Cheshire Observer reported on the Chester Winter Assizes.

Mr Justice Hawkins, the judge appointed to take the Chester and North Wales Circuit, arrived at Chester at 3.30 on Monday afternoon, and was met at the General Railway Station by the High Sheriff (Mr James Jardine of Alderley Edge), the Under Sheriff (Mr Walter Greg), the Acting Under Sheriff (Mr John Tatlock) and Sheriff's Chaplain (Rev-Bell of Nether Alderley.  His Lordship at once proceeded to the Castle and opened the Commission. On Tuesday morning the business proper of the Assizes commenced at eleven o'clock when the Grand Jury, 23 strong was sworn upon.

In charging the Grand Jury, his Lordship said the calendar contained the names of three or four and twenty prisoners, most of them charged with offences of no very great magnitude.

One case calling for comment was that of Robert Jackson, sub-postmaster at Whaley Bridge, who was charged with embezzling certain monets, amounting to £20, delivered into his hands by the overseers of Yeardsley to be deposited in the savings bank of the Post Office.  It was the prisoner's duty to account for the money which he had received, but he never did so, and now said he had received the money in his private capacity, and not as postmaster, and therefore he was not bound to account to the Post Office for it at all.  Well, if that case was made out technically it might be an answer to the charge, but there was an abundance of prima facie evidence that the money was deposited with him and received by him  as postmaster to be invested in the Post Office Savings Bank, and therefore the case was clearly one for investigation.

Robert Jackson(50) an inoffensive looking man, was brought up on two indictments charging him with embezzling altogether the sum of £74, which had been entrusted to his hands as sub-postmaster at Whaley Bridge for investment in the Post Office Savings Bank.  Prisoner admitted all the charges.  Mr Trevor Parkins, who prosecuted, explained that the first sum of £20 was entrusted to him as assistant overseer of the parish and the remainder was the money of a local provident club, the managers of which, several benevolent ladies, had handed over the deposits to the prisoner to be invested in the Post Office Savings Bank.  In July last the treasurer of the club for some reason communicated with the central postal authorities in London, with the result that it was discovered prisoner had deposited only a very small sum.  When taxed with the offence the prisoner acknowledged that he had not transmitted the money in former years to the full extent.  Mr Marshall, appearing on the prisoner's behalf, stated that  undoubtedly the money had not been invested in the Savings Bank as represented, but in neither case had the trustees or owners of the money demanded repayment, else it would have been given them in full, for the prisoner and his wife also conducted a stationers business and the shop and stock were still there for the owners of the money to realise.  The ladies who managed the Provident Club were unaquainted with the customs of the Postal Savings Bank, they never required receipts from the prisoner, but gave him the money for investment and placed full reliance on the prisoner's honesty.  It would therefore be seen that there was a certain degree of laxity in the manner the deposits of the Provident Club were made. As to his character he would produce abundant testimony of the respect in which the prisoner was held locally and of the responsible position he had occupied. He had acted as collector of tithes for the Rev. Samuel Evans, rector of Taxal and been secretary and treasurer of the restoration fund of that church, and all the accounts were correct.  The rev. gentleman testified to this effect, and cross examined by Mr.Parkinson as to whether there was a deficiency of £290 upon the rates collected by the prisoner, he said he did not know anything about the rates.  Mrs Johnson and Mrs Ann Shalcross, two of the managers of the Provident Club, were also called to speak to the prisoner's excellent character.  Sentence was deferred.

From The Sheffield And Rotherham Independent 27th March 1890

An Assistant Overseers Defalcations

At the annual meeting of the ratepayers of Whaley Bridge, held on Tuesday Evening, Mr Jas Kirk, J.P. who presided as guardian of the poor for the township, made an important statement as to the position of affairs with respect to the misappropriation of public money by the late assistant overseer and postmaster, Robert Jackson, who is now undergoing 12 months imprisonment.  Mr Kirk said that Jackson's defalcations amounted to £275. 6s 5d, but the auditor had decided that £200 could be recovered from his bondsmen and the Board of Guardians were taking the necessary steps to recover that sum.  The Post Office authorities had refunded £20 and as they could recover £10 from Jackson, it would leave only £45 of a deficiency, which was very satisfactory.  The township did not owe anything to the Board Of Guardians nor to the School Board and they had paid their calls when due, a thing that had not been done before since he had been Guardian