Alfred Perryman in court

My grandmother's grandfather, Zechariah (Zachary) Perryman, migrated to Australia in 1849. Zechariah and his siblings were all born in Dorney, Buckinghamshire, across the Thames River from Windsor Castle. This post is about one of his older brothers, Alfred Perryman. (According to Family Tree Maker Alfred is my '3rd great uncle'.)

In  July 1842, when Alfred was about 19, he was working as a fishmonger and his actions required a court attendance. It was reported in the local paper, the The Windsor and Eton Express on 9 Jul 1842:

Windsor Police - Monday [Before John Clode, Esq.,(Mayor) and Robert Blunt, Esq.] 

Alfred Perryman was charged with embezzling the value of some fish he had been entrusted to sell for John Fullilove [?]. The case appeared however not to amount to the charge, and the magistrates dismissed it, advising them to settle it between themselves.

In December of the same year Alfred was in court again, this time as a witness. Apparently he was a passenger in a cart being driven by his uncle, John Perryman, when he crashed into a cart being driven in the opposite direction. According to the report in The Windsor and Eton Express, on 10 Dec 1842, the driver of the other cart was thrown off but John Perryman failed to stop and render assistance. Uncle Alfred supported his uncle by stating that Charles Cannon appeared to be drunk and driving erratically but the magistrates weren't convinced. They were particularly unimpressed by John Perryman's failure to stop.

It's worth reading the final discussion between John Perryman and the magistrate just for entertainment value.

John Perryman, of Dorney, was charged with wilfully driving his cart against the cart of Charles Cannon, of High Wycombe, chairmaker, and damaging it, and also with causing severe injuries to the said Charles Cannon.

The complainant, an aged and infirm old man, stated that on the afternoon of the 19th of November, as he was driving his pony and cart (in which there were 17 chairs) along the road leading from Slough to Salthill, he saw at some little distance the defendant driving his cart in the opposite direction. Witness drew to his own side, close to the grass, leaving, as he said (for he had since measured the width of the road) full 14 feet of road for the defendant to pass him. The defendant, however, crossed the road, and drove against his cart, breaking one of the shafts off, and pitching him into the road on his head, his pony going on, one of the wheels passed over his leg, and he was dragged along for some yards until he let go his hold of the reins. His head and leg were much bruised by the occurrence.

The defendant, who was a perfect stranger to him, drove off without rendering him the least assistance. Witness returned to Eton directly, and went to the Rev. Mr. Cookesley.

Mr. Cookesley said when the complainant came to him he was certainly in a very bad state from his injuries, and he was covered with mud. The witness added, that the same evening, being unable to go home from the injuries to himself and the damage to his cart, he went to Mr. Harding's of Eton, where he saw the defendant, and told him he must recompense him, but he refused to pay anything. Witness had ever since, until yesterday, been confined to his bed. The damage done to his cart was about £1, but he did not know what amount his doctor's bill would be.

Mr. Nathaniel Bacon, of Eton, said he was going along the same road and met the defendant in his cart, directly after which he saw the complainant and his cart, damaged as described. Complainant asked the witness to take notice of his wheel tracks, which he did, and he found that there was plenty of room, for the defendant to have driven by, for the complainant's cart wheels tracks were within five or six inches of the grass on his proper side.

The defendant, in his defence, said the complainant was driving in a zigzag direction from one side of the road to the other, and that it was he who caused the collision. The complainant appeared, from his manner of driving, to be drunk, and his (defendant's) nephew, who was in the cart with him, noticed that before the carts met each other.

Mr. Cookesley said, the complainant came to him directly after the occurrence, and he was perfectly sober.

The defendant called his nephew, Alfred Perryman, who swore to the best of his belief that Mr. Cannon was drunk; he inferred so from his driving from one side of the road to the other, and he remarked it to his uncle at a distance of twenty or thirty yards.

Mr. Cookesley said the conduct of the defendant was most brutal in leaving the complainant in such a state without offering him the slightest assistance.

The magistrates inflicted a fine of £4 5s and 15s costs making £5.

Defendant - I can't pay it, and I won't pay it.
Mr. Tower - Then you will have six weeks hard labour in the House of Correction at Aylesbury.
Defendant - Very well, then I will go to prison.
He was then ordered to be committed, on which he asked if he might not be allowed some time to pay the money.
Mr.Tower - No, you said you would go to prison.
Defendant - I thought, sir, you meant you would give me six weeks to pay the money [a laugh]
Mr.Tower [laughing] - Oh!  No, after what you said, you must go to gaol.

He was then taken away in custody.

Alfred married Emma Ayres three years later, in 1845, and continued to work as a fishmonger. In the 1851 census they were living in Peascod Street in the parish of Crewer, a street that is a stone's throw from Windsor Castle, and had a son Edward aged nine. Alfred Perryman died at Windsor in 1854. He would have been only 33 years old. His son, Edward Perryman aged 19, was working as a butcher's man in Peascod Street in 1861. He was probably working with his stepfather Richard Cox, a master butcher, whom his mother had married in 1858.

Peascod Street, Windsor. The castle is in the background.

Trove Tuesday: George Smith attends court in Perth

Part six. The diary of George Smith continues. Great-grandfather George has left the work gang on the Great Southern Railway and travelled by train to Perth.

1 July 1889 On the train for Perth and very thankful to God for his Grace. Stopped at Pingelly Station road up from Broome Hill with witnesses on a murder case they all being drunk. At Pingelly worked one half day sinking trial holes for a dam.

2/7 Started for Beverley 8 A.M. arrived at 9 P.M.

3/7 Left Beverley for Perth 8 A.M. passed through York and Guildford arriving in Perth at 2 P.M. rode with farmers most of the way. nearly missed the train at Guildford. The country the Darling Ranges between York and Guildford very pretty. Perth also favorably  impressed me.

4/7 Called on Henry Wright. Attended the morning Perth Sessions. Afternoon went to Fremantle had a look around its jetty's and streets returning with the six o'clock to Perth.

5/7 Attended the Session. Jury returned a verdict of manslaughter.

Fremantle, 1898

I wondered why George would have gone to visit the Perth court sessions. He doesn't provide any names in his diary but a search through the newspapers on Trove gave me a few answers. It turns out that the drunk witnesses from Broom Hill George had met on his trip to Perth were involved in the case he went to see. It concerned an altercation (that ended in a death) among some members of a gang collecting sandlewood along the railway line near Albany. George had probably heard or read about the case before he met the witnesses and then decided to attend the court sessions.

Western Mail, 20 Apr 1889

Old Supreme Court, Perth (now the Burt Law Museum)

The Perth newspapers published the proceedings of the court case in great detail but I'm only posting the summary here. The sentence of 15 years for manslaughter seems a bit tough to me because the sandlewood cutters were all drunk at the time and gave conflicting witness accounts at the time. And, according to George, were still drunk three or four months later on their way to the trial!! I hope they had sobered up before they attended court. It would be interesting to know what happened to William Kelly after he got out of jail.

The Inquirer and Commercial News, 10 Jul 1889

The Argus, 8 July 1889

And for our George? He left Perth the next day to explore some other areas of Western Australia. 

To be continued.

Old Dalby cricket match

Sometimes you just have to laugh.

Several decades ago a cousin of my mother published a history of Ephraim and Elizabeth Smith who migrated to Victoria in 1852 and lived at Warrnambool and then Dunmunkle near Minyip. In that publication she wrote: Ephraim was a very keen follower of cricket. In those early days, with few means of communication, while the test matches were being played, he would sand out on the main road until someone came along who could tell him the score.
Ephraim and Elizabeth were successful farmers and brought up their family with strong Christian beliefs. They were respected in their community.

Ephraim Smith

Today I was exploring The British Newspapers Archive which is a wonderful (and growing) online resource. You can do a search for free and filter the search results by decade and locality, and usually there is enough detail in the search results to see whether it is worth seeing the original online (each view costs 5 credits). I don't have a subscription but when I saw the combination 'Old Dalby' and 'Ephraim Smith' come up in an 1851 paper I registered and claimed my free 15 credits so I could have a look. Here's the result.

Leicestershire Chronicle, 8 Nov 1851. Accessed via British Newspaper Archive

It appears that Ephraim and his older brother Ornan were involved in a drunken fight after winning a cricket match. The Crown Inn, mentioned in the article, still exists.

The Crown Inn, Old Dalby

Ephraim was a married man at the time, 26 years old with two young sons. I wonder what his wife, Elizabeth, said to him when she heard what he'd been up to. Maybe the Judge's caution worked because I think Ephraim led a sober life in Australia.