11th November 1816: The Watch & Ward Act is extended to cover more places in Nottinghamshire

Nottinghamshire—At a Special Sessions of the Peace of our Sovereign Lord King holden by adjournment at the Shire Hall in Nottingham in and for the said County on the eleventh day of November in the fifty seventh year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord George the third And in the year of our Lord 1816 before William Sherbrooke Esquire The Right Honorable Sir John Borlase Warren Baronet Knight of the Bath the Reverend Charles Wylde and George Holcombe Doctors in Divinity Robert Padley Thomas Maltby William Fletcher Norton Norton Pendock Barry and Henry Crape Esquires The Reverend John Kirkby and Robert Lowe Clerks Justices of our said Lord the King assigned to keep the Peace in the said County and assembled in pursuance of an Act of Parliament Intitled "An Act for the more effectual preservation of the Peace by enforcing the Duties of Watching and Warding until the first day of March One thousand eight hundred and fourteen in places where disturbances prevail or are apprehended” (and which Act hath been revived and continued by subsequent Acts)—

Whereas it appears to this Court that disturbances are apprehended in the several Parishes Townships or Places herein after mentioned and that the Officers ordinarily appointed are insufficient for the preservation of the Peace and the protection of the Inhabitants and the security of the Property being or lying in such Parishes Townships or Places respectively It is adjudged and declared that the Officers ordinarily appointed are insufficient for the preservation of the Peace and for the protection of the Inhabitants and the security of the Property being or lying in such Parishes Townships or Places And that every Man residing within such Townships Parish or Place above the age of 17 years and charged or assessed to the rates for the relief of the Poor therein shall be subject and liable to the duties of Watching by Night by and Warding by Day according to the Provisions of the Act of Parliament before mentioned And it is Ordered that the Powers and Provisions of the said Act be carried into Execution within the several Parishes Townships or Places following (viz.) Broughton Sulney—Holmepierrepont—Hickling—Cropwell Bishop—Cropwell Butler—Colston Bassett—Gamston—Kinolton—Owthorpe—Tythby—Clipstone and Saxondale—

Ordered

That the Clerk of the Peace do give Notice of the above Adjudications the Chief Constable of the Hundred in which the above places are situate and also give notice thereof to His Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the Home Department and also publish the same in the Nottingham Journal—

Upon application be made to this Court by and on behalf of the Inhabitants of the several Parishes of Mansfield and Normanton upon Soare It is Ordered that the powers and provisions of the aforementioned Act of Parliament be suspended within those respective Parishes until the second day of December next—

An application was made to this Court by and on behalf of the Inhabitants of the several Parishes or Townships of Bradmore—Bunny—Keyworth—Selston—Stapleford—East Leake—Rempstone—Costock—Tollerton and Barton to suspend the Powers and Provisions of the said Act of Parliament in those several Parishes or Townships respectively but such applications were on due consideration severally refused—

Adjourned to the Shire Hall in Nottingham to Monday the 2d day of December next at 10 o'Clock in the forenoon

By the Court
Godfrey
Clerk of the Peace

17th July 1816: Four jailed for destroying a Threshing Machine at Hockham, Norfolk

At the Norfolk County Session on Wednesday 17th July 1816, 4 prisoners were jailed for destroying a Threshing Machine at Hockham on 19th May.

The Norfolk Chronicle of 20th July 1816 carried a report about the trial:

John Abery, Jas. Bailey, the elder, Peter Palmer, the elder, and Peter Palmer, the younger, were indicted for having, together with other persons to the number of 100, routously and riotously assembled in the parish of Hockham, on the 19th of May last, and then and there destroyed a certain threshing machine, the property of William Burlingham.—The two latter prisoners pleaded guilty. On the part of the prosecution, it appeared, that the prosecutor, Wm. Burlingham, being nearly blind, was rendered unable to work for his livelihood, but having a little money, he had purchased a threshing machine for the price of 76l. which he used to let out to the neighbouring farmers, at a small profit to himself. That in May last, it had been to let out to a Mr. Wells, in the aforesaid parish, and that on the 19th of that month, being on a Sunday morning, the prisoners together with other evil disposed persons had dragged the machine from off Mr. Wells's premises into the high road, where they completely effected its demolition. The prisoners were proved to have taken an active part in the riot. 

Mr. Cooper, for the prisoners, contended that they had not been proved to have committed an unlawful act, and that none of the witnesses had sworn to their dragging the Machine off, the private property of Mr. Wells, but had all found them in the act of destroying it in the public road. It might therefore be presumed that a number of persons passing that way, had found this clumsy machine very much in their way upon the road, and deeming it a nuisance had destroyed it and removed the materials, which the learned Counsel stated they had a legal right to do. An alibi was attempted in favour of the prisoner Bailey, by calling two witnesses who had seen him six yards distant from the spot where the machine was destroyed, but it was not denied that at the time, Bailey was thus far off, the greater part of the mischief had been effected. 

Mr. Alderson, as Counsel for the Prosecution, strongly rebutted the position of law asserted by the Counsel for the Prisoners, the dangerous and fallacious tendency of which was strongly laid down from the Bench in the Chairman's charge to the jury. 

The prisoners were found Guilty; Abery and Bailey, were sentenced each to imprisonment for one year, in Wymondham Bridewell, and find sureties for their good behaviour for two years further; and Peter Palmer the elder, and Peter Palmer, the younger, who had pleaded guilty, were sentenced each, to three months imprisonment in Norwich Castle, and enter into security for their good behaviour, for one year more.