1866 at Durham Winter Assizes: three murders and a riot

Houghton-le-Spring murder

PITMAN Henry Brownless, 55, was found guilty of murdering Ann Maria Reed, two, at Houghton-le-Spring.

On October 18, an altercation had broken out between Brownless and his wife, Mary Ann. This was not an unusual occurrence, and the noise level caused neighbour Mrs Reed and her daughter, Ann Maria, to come rushing around.

As they arrived, Brownless, who was seriously intoxicated, ordered his wife to stand next to him by the fire. It was a strange request, but fearful of the consequences of refusing, she complied, but as she approached, Brownless used a hot poker to ignite a concealed 26lb cask of gunpowder that he had stolen from the mine.

From the Darlington & Stockton Times, December 15, 1866

The explosion blew the roof off the house and badly burned everyone inside. Poor little Ann Maria was killed outright; Brownless survived but had slashed his own throat by the time he was arrested, and his wife was so badly injured she struggled into the witness box two months later to give evidence.

Brownless was sentenced to death by Mr Justice Lush.

“The unhappy culprit made a slight bow and was then removed to the condemned cell,” said the D&S.

Gateshead murder

NEXT up was Cuthbert Carr, 18, of Gateshead, who was accused of murdering Sarah Melvyn. His features, said the D&S, had “vacuous and wild aspect” and he loudly insisted on pleading guilty, even though it would mean certain death.

He said he would only plead “not guilty” if his father apologised for forcing him to become an apprentice glassmaker.

Durham surgeon Dr Robert Smith told the court that Carr “is an imbecile...his imbecility is on the increase". The defendant was found unfit to plead due to unsoundness of the mind and he was sent to Sedgefield lunatic asylum.

Durham County Lunatic Asylum – also known as the Winterton hospital – at Sedgefield where Cuthbert Carr was sent in 1866

The judge was then asked to consider overnight whether Brownless was similarly afflicted.

Even though his own son had committed suicide while suffering delirium, Mr Justice Lush concluded that there were no "acts of eccentricity of conduct", only “depression of spirits and excitement under a quantity of alcohol” when the pitman exploded the gunpowder and tried to slash his own throat.

He therefore refused to lift the death sentence, but there is no record of Brownless ever being hanged.

Hurworth murder

MEMORIES on August 20 told of the arrest of Caroline Freeman, a single woman, for the allegedly drowning her three-week-old son, Leonard, near Hurworth.

It was said that Caroline had given birth in late July to the boy, which “had a sort of ginger cast” to him, in Alnwick workhouse. She claimed Leonard had died after two weeks because of “frog in the mouth” and had been buried in Northumberland. She had then returned to her native Darlington area to take up a domestic position at the Bloomfield Academy, near Cockerton.

Caroline Freeman was spotted acting strangely at the Comet pub at Hurworth Place and a dead baby with ginger hair was found in the Skerne nearby

However, it was alleged that she arrived at Bank Top station with numerous parcels, one of which was the infant which was still alive. She was then seen near the Comet pub at Hurworth Place – her home village – only without the infant, and then, minutes later a baby with gingery hair was found drowned in the overflowing Skerne near the Croft branchline.

There were no records of a baby having been buried in Alnwick, so the allegation was that because Leonard would prove an impediment to her taking up her new position, she had disposed of him.

A feeder bottle and blanket were found floating in the water near the naked body by puddler Henry Christer, from Albert Hill. When asked if it looked like a three-week-old, Mr Christer replied: “I am married. I have never had a child myself, but the wife has had nine (laughter). “It was a very large child. I took it to be two or three months old.”

The jury retired for 20 minutes and then returned a verdict of not guilty. “The announcement was received with loud applause and the prisoner was acquitted at once,” said the D&S Times.

Aycliffe murder

A BATTLE between English and Irish labourers in and around an unnamed pub at Aycliffe had resulted in the death of Henry Cooper.

Patrick Farrell, 20, an Irishman, was charged with murder and manslaughter. He had been seen, stripped to the waste, fighting Cooper amid a melee of onlookers. When the two were separated, Farrell was seen to throw a stone which struck Cooper on the head. He fell, dead.

The court decided this was “manslaughter nearly verging upon murder” and Farrell was sentenced to 15 years penal servitude (hard labour).

Witton Park rioters

IN Memories 304, we told how ironworkers in Witton Park had been on strike for most of the summer of 1866. As winter tightened its grip, the strike broke down and some men returned to work. The works owners, Bolckow and Vaughan, had evicted the remaining strikers from their company homes, thus provoking a drunken riot on Friday, November 6, in which the homeless strikers attacked the properties inhabited by the men they regarded as blacklegs.

William Thomas, 47, puddler, and John Thomas, 30, furnaceman, were found guilty of assaulting a policeman during the riot, and sentenced to six months hard labour. Mr Justice Lush said he wished to "mete out a severe punishment as a warning to other workmen on strike that while they had a perfect liberty to work or not as they pleased, they must not interfere with the liberty of others”.

The guilty men’s brother, David Thomas, 25, was acquitted.