Person Page - 21

Marion Knight, a young woman of not more than 23 years of age, appeared before the Ararat Bench (Messrs. Crespigny, P. M., and Flattery, J.P.) this morning, on a charge of gross cruelty to her stepdaughter Jemima, an interesting but rather backward child, of two years and two months old. The defendant had only been married a few months to Joseph Knight, the father of the child before the Court, and of a baby whose young sufferings were mercifully ended on Monday last. Mr. Whyte defended the accused. Police-sergeant Watson conducted the prosecution, and called Charlotte Smart, wife of Richard Smart, living at Spring Lead, who deposed that the child Jemima Knight she now held in her arms was her granddaughter. Her mother was dead. The father's name was Joseph Knight. Knew the accused, who she believed was Joseph Knight's present wife. Was at accused's house last Wednesday. Saw the child in her father's arms. It was black and blue all over from bruises. Took the child to Dr. Smeal, and he examined it. Asked accused how it was the child was bruised so, and said accused must have beaten it, but she said she did not. Took the child from Joseph Knight who remarked that he wonld not trouble witness for it for 12 months.
Cross-examined.-Never saw the accused before last Wednesday. Witness's daughters never saw her before that day. There was no ill-feeling between them, Mr. and Mrs. Knight said something about a piece of wood having been thrown from one side of the fence to the other, and its having struck the child. The child, which was prattling and laughing in spite of its condition, was handed up to the Bench, when its arms and legs, as well as its face, were found to be covered with contusions. James Smeal, surgeon, residing at Ararat, deposed that on Wednesday last he examined the child, and found some 15 bruises on the face, arms, body, and legs. Some of these were of recent occurrence, and others were of a week's standing. Did not think that one blow could produce all those marks, but several blows, some of them of great force; those about the legs were produced by a stick probably, or by a kick of the foot.
Cross-examined.-The marks on the face were of the most recent occurrence. Did not think it likely these bruises were produced by pieces of wood thrown over the fence. Mary Ann Laithwaite, a married woman residing in the township, stated that she was at accused's place on Monday evening last, in company with Mrs. Poad. Went to see the baby, which was dying. Saw the child now in court Mrs. Poad asked what caused the marks on its face. Defendant replied, "I did it. I'll kill it soon if it isn't cleaner." She said nothing about a stack of wood. Harriet Poad, who accompanied the last witness to defendant's house on Monday last, deposed that she then saw the child sitting on the floor with its face in a sad state. Asked what on earth had happened to it. Defendant replied, " I did it ; I'll kill it yet if it isn't cleaner." The child appeared to be about two years old. Mary Jane Clues, a little girl of seven years of age, stated on examination that she had been living with defendant till the week before last. Was minding the child Jemima sometimes. Saw defendant beating Jemima with her hand. She beat her every time she did anything. Defendant told witness she struck Jemima with a piece of wood, while throwing it over the fence. This was just before witness left. Jemima had a mark on her face. Cross-examined.-Had never seen defendant do more than slap the child. Mr. Whyte cross-examined the several witnesses with a view to showing the possibility that the bruises might have been caused by pieces of wood having struck the child in the process of unloading, but he declined to address the Bench. The Police Magistrate said that of all the offences that had come before him this was the most cowardly. There was no doubt that the woman had brutally assaulted a poor little infant that could not take its own part, and had threatened to kill it. The Bench would take care that she should not be in a position to carry out her threat for some time to come. She was sentenced to three months' imprisonment in Ararat Gaol. At the request of Sergeant Watson, the grandmother took charge of the poor little victim, who left the court crowing with infantile glee at the crowd.³

Notwithstanding the adverse influences of the cattle plague, the Bruton Agricultural Society, the oldest local society in the county of Somerset, continues to hold its annual meeting.
...
The weather, however, was miserably wet, and the drenching showers induced the spectators to make their inspection as brief as they could.
...
[After the report of prizes for sheep and pigs was the following]
Rewards to Servants. [included]
To the Labourer of good character who has worked the greatest number of years in succession in the same service, 1st, £1 10s., Cornelius Francis, 28 years and 8 months' service to Messrs H and J Herrington, Bruton, and their predecessors; 2nd, Robert Foot, 26 years and 9 months' service to Mr William Cary, Redlynch, and his predecessors
[The report of the meeting continued for many more paragraphs].⁶

Hume or Home, Sir David, of Crossrig, Lord Crossrig (1643-1707), second son of Sir James Hume or Home of Blackadder, Berwickshire, created a baronet of Nova Scotia in 1674, by his wife Mary, daughter of Sir James Dundas of Arniston, was born 23 May 1643. He entered the university of Edinburgh in 1657, but having, in accordance with a custom kept up by the students in opposition to the regulations of the university, gone on 11 March of the following year to a football match on the Borough Muir, and having declined to submit to the consequent punishment of whipping in the class, he was expelled from the university. Through the interposition of his relative Sir David Dundas he was again admitted in November 1659, and graduated M.A. in 1662. After travelling in France in the autumn of 1664 he settled in Paris, where he studied law till the outbreak of hostilities with England compelled him to leave in April 1666. Abandoning his intention of adopting the legal profession, he entered into the wine trade in 1672, and was for a year (1673) also partner in a brewery. On 13 April 1681 he met with an accident which necessitated the amputation of one of his legs. His sympathies being with the presbyterian party, he was at the time of Argyll's expedition in 1685 arrested on suspicion, but soon after the collapse of the enterprise he was set at liberty.

On 3 June 1687 Hume was admitted advocate upon his petition without trial of his qualifications. He represented that he had studied law abroad in company with Lord Reidford, one of the lords of session, Sir Patrick Home, and Sir John Lauder, who were prepared `to give testimony regarding his diligence and proficiency in that study.' He ingenuously admits in his 'Domestic Details' that his reason for petitioning to be admitted in this fashion was that he considered himself `so rusted in the study of law' that he could not venture to undergo the ordinary examination (p. 43). Home was among the first judges nominated by King William after the revolution, and one of the four appointed by the privy council in October 1689 'to give his attendance for passing bills of suspension and all other bills according to the common form.' He took his seat on the bench by the title of Lord Crossrig, on 1 Nov. 1689; on 22 Jan. of the following year was appointed a lord of the justiciary, and was shortly afterwards knighted. On 5 Jan. 1700, when the great fire in the meat market, Edinburgh, broke out in the middle of the night in the lodging immediately below his house, he and his family barely escaped with their lives. Duncan Forbes of Culloden in a letter to his father mentions, `among many rueful sights' that were witnessed that night, `Corserig naked with a child under his oxter happing for his lyffe' (Culloden Papers, p. 27). In November following he presented to parliament a petition in reference to the loss of his papers in the fire. His petition was remitted to a comittee of three, and on their recommendation an act was passed, 31 Jan. 1761, entitled `An act for proving the tenor of some writs in favour of Sir David Home of Crossrig.' The writs had reference chiefly to the inheritance of his lands of Crossrig. Hume died 13 April 1707. In an elegy printed shortly after his death, and republished in Maidment's ‘Scottish Elegiac Verses,’ 1843, he is described a

Most zealous for the church, kind to the poor,
Upright in judgment, in decisions sure.
He was the author of a small posthumous volume entitled 'Advice to a Daughter,' Edinburgh, 1771, originally written by him as a letter to his daughter in April 1701. His 'Diary of the Proceedings in the Parliament and Privy Council of Scotland 21 May 1700–7 March 1707,' printed for the Bannatyne Club in 1828, is of considerable interest and value as a record of the deliberations connected with the passing of the Act of Union. The `Domestic Details of Sir David Hume of Crossrig, one of the Senators of the College of Justice, 20 April 1697–29 Jan. 1707,' published at Edinburgh in 1843, gives an account of the main circumstances of his life, with incidental references to the customs of bygone times. A portrait of Hume by young Medina, son of Sir John Medina, was at one time in the possession of C. Kirkpatrick Sharpe. Hume was twice married, first to Barbara Weir, relict of William Laurie of Reidcastle, and secondly to the widow of James Smith, merchant, and a grand-daughter, not a daughter as sometimes stated, of Sir Alexander Swinton of Swinton. By his first wife he had two daughters, and by his second two sons

Home of Crossrig, Mr David, advocate; wife; children, James, David, Francis, William, Alexander, Margaret, Marion, Katherine, Jean; lodgers, George and James, sons of the late James Suittie, merchant, worth £500 valued rent, Agnes, daughter of the late Patrick Cockburn of Borthwick, worth under £500 valued rent; men servants, David Nicolson, at £60 a year, Thomas Arnot, at £15 a year; women servants, Janet Allan, at £14 and 2 pairs of shoes, Alison Clerk, at £16 and 2 pairs of shoes a year. "As for my valued rent and the valued rent of Agnes Cockburn my niece we have no known valuation in Berwickshire, but when I come to know what course is taken by that shire, I shall accordingly give in what my proportion thereof and of my nieces amounts unto. As to George Suittie I have not gotten his valuation but shall enquire for it and how his brother James should be polled and give in the same that it may be subjoined to this. I still dwell in the lodging I payed hearth money for, I payed for eight hearths and there are no mor in my house. That I may not retard this pol I say my valued rent does not extend to a thousand pounds so I poll myself to twelve pounds. That my niece Agniss Cockburn her valued rent for the Mains of Ladykirk and water fishing on Tweed I think will not extend to five hundreth pounds of valued rent, so I poll her to nine pounds protesting if I come afterwards to understand that her valued rent exceeds the said sum, that I be admitted to add what is more.⁸

Here on the Cowgate was the Meal Market, where in 1707 a huge fire burst out. Now, besides the various burnings by the "auld enemy" already noted, Edinburgh was raked by some terrible conflagrations. One in 1824 did fearful havoc to the Parliament Close and all the buildings down to the Tron, so that Salamander Land (where now are the Police Buildings) was well nigh the sole survivor. The Tron steeple and bell alike were destroyed. The bell dated from 1673, and was the "wanchancy thing" cursed by Fergusson. Drinking. quaichs were made from the molten metal, a transformation that had vastly delighted the poet. I do not know whether the 1707 fire was a worse business, but according to Forbes of Culloden, in a letter to his brother preserved in the Culloden Papers, it was the most terrible he had ever witnessed, "notwithstanding that I saw London burne." And again "All the pryde of Edinbro is sunk; from the Cowgate to the High Street all is burnt and hardly one stone is left upon another." He notes that there were "many rueful spectacles," such as "Corserig, naked with a child under his oxter, happin’ for his life." How to beat that for word picture? ... The unfortunate referred to was Sir David Hume of Crossrig (1643-1707), from which place he took his title as one of the Senators of the College of Justice, and so was a Lord, albeit a paper one. He had a wooden leg, whence the "happin’." "Naked" means, no doubt, in his nightdress. An Edinburgh fire must now be a long way distant from the Cowgate before it renders such spectacle again possible.¹⁰

7 December 1688
Samuel Belchier of Daddington, Oxon, sick and weak in body but of good and sound memory

To eldest son Thomas, the house wherein he now inhabits and the part thereof occupied by Mrs Sarah Bignell widow in Daddington and a parcel of land called Rea-- in Daddington

To three younger sons Samuel, James and John, when 21, estate in tythes issuing out of the town f--- and pre---s of Great Barford, Oxon occupied by John T---s and Samuel T----s
Also freehold as by lease from Christ Church Colledge in Oxon now occupied by William Hollier of Barford

To eldest daughter Beata several houses in Banbury excepting what last purchased from Brother in Law Mr John Stokes, also one house in Daddington occupied by Thomas Vincent.

To youngest daughter Anne houses and lands occupied by Richard Blakesly and Anthony Ba?ly in Hampton and Daddington.

Daughters shall inherit when they turn 21 or marry. Their marriages to be approved by executors or their houses and land sold and receive £100 only with the surplus to be divided amongst her brothers and sisters

Goods, drugs, compounds and whatsoever in his two shops at Daddington and at Woodstock to eldest son Thomas.

Executors to pay off the remaining due on the houses he recently bought from Brother in Law Mr John Stokes, then they go to sons Samuel, James and John.

Call in debts by mortgage, bonds, shopbooks or otherwise

Household goods to six children equally except goods already disposed to daughter Beata.

Executors: brother James Belchier of Barford and respected kinsman Edward Cockson of Westcot Barton Clerk

Witnesses: Jeremiah Wheate, Willm Belchier, Bridget Stokes

Probate: 15 April 1689.¹

Mrs C G Bonnycastle and Miss Mary Bonnycastle returned on Friday from a visit at the Coast.¹⁶

Word has been received of the death on Wednesday of Mrs Charles G Bonnycastle at Chilliwack, BC. Her daughter, Mrs H E Rudd of Edmonton is at present at Chilliwack.²⁵

EMMA second daughter of
Thomas & Sarah who departed this life May 9th 1852 Aged 11

OLIVER Mary. The Will of Mary Oliver late of Dawlish in the County of Devon Spinster who died 6 March 1871 at Dawlish was proved at Exeter by James Pasmore of Cadeleigh in the said County Yeoman the Nephew the sole Executor. Effects under £100.⁸

PASMORE William. The Will of William Pasmore formerly of Thorverton but late of Cadeleigh both in the County of Devon Yeoman who died 28 February 1872 at Cadleigh was proved at Exeter by James Pasmore of Cadleigh Yeoman the Son one of the surviving Executors. Effects under £300.⁹

PASMORE William. Administration of the Personal Estate of William Pasmore late of Wantage in the County of Berks Farmer who died 27 December 1881 at Wantage was granted at Oxford to Lydia Pasmore of Wantage Widow the Relict. Personal Estate £930.⁸

COOKSLEY Sidney James of 2 Colin-road Paignton Devonshire died 15 January 1956 at Windermere Nursing Home Paignton. Probate Exeter 9 April to Jim Cooksley solicitor. Effects £40689 4s 6d.⁸

COOKSLEY John Stewart of 8 Atlantic-terrace Paignton Devonshire died 19 May 1921. Probate London 14 June to Sidney James Cooksley estate agent. Effects £443 18s 2d.⁶

HAARER Edward Rolph of Redlands Old Woods Hill Torquay died 6 June 1955 at Newton Abbot Hospital Devonshire. Probate Exeter 28 July to Ethel Kate Haarer widow. Effects £1834 18s 3d.⁶

MOTTS Florence Eliza of 1 Barn Road Three Beaches Paignton Devon widow died 4 February 1964 at Windermere Nursing Home Keysfield Road Paignton. Administration Exeter 20 April to Leslie Hubert Francis Motts auctioneer. £16595.⁷