On the 9th January, James Haigh of Dalton, Jonathan Deane of Huddersfield, John Ogden, James Brook, Thomas Brook, John Walker of Longroyd Bridge, and John Hirst of Liversedge, were tried for attacking the mill of Mr. William Cartwright at Rawfolds. Mr. Cartwright being apprehensive of an attack being made upon his mill, procured the assistance of five soldiers, and retired to rest about twelve o’clock, but soon afterwards heard the barking of a dog. He arose; and while opening the door, heard a breaking of windows, and also a firing in the upper and lower windows, and a violent hammering at the door. He and his men flew to their arms; and a bell placed at the top of the mill, for the purpose of alarming the neighbours, being rung by one of his men, the persons inside the mill discharged their pieces from loop-holes. The fire was returned regularly on both sides. The mob called, “Bang up, lads! in with you! keep close! damn that bell! get to it! damn ’em, kill ’em all!” The numbers assembled were considerable. The attack continued about twenty minutes; but at length the fire slackened from without, and the cries of the wounded were heard. The men that were wounded were taken care of, but afterwards died. One of the accomplices, W. Hall, stated that he was one of those connected with Mellor and Thorp, and assembled with many other persons by the desire of Mellor, in a field belonging to sir George Armitage, Bart., on the night of the 11th of April. They called their numbers, remained there some time, and then marched off to the mill. Mellor commanded the musket company, another the pistol company, and another the hatchet company: they were formed in lines of ten each. Two of the men were to go last and drive up the rear.—Some had hatchets, some hammers, some sticks, and others had no arms.
The jury found James Haigh, J. Deane, J. Ogden, T. Brook, and J. Walker guilty, but acquitted the rest.
Several prisoners were on the two following days convicted of robberies, but many others were, through the lenity of the government, admitted to bail. On the Thursday, on the grand jury coming into court and declaring that they had disposed of all the bills of indictment preferred before them, Mr. Parke, who appeared as counsel for the crown, said that it was not intended to present any more indictments: he and those learned gentlemen who had assisted him had examined the various cases, which might have formed the subjects of prosecution; but in that discretion, with which they had been intrusted, they had determined to exercise a lenity, which he hoped would produce its proper effect with the prisoners and their associates.
The grand jury then retired, and sentence of death was passed upon fifteen prisoners by Mr. Baron Thompson.
On Saturday at eleven o’clock, John Hill, Joseph Crowther, Nathaniel Hayle, Jonathan Deane, John Ogden, Thomas Brook, and John Walker, were brought out on the scaffold to undergo the last sentence of the law. They appeared to be fully sensible of the awful situation in which they were placed; and having hung till twelve o’clock, they were cut down, in order to make way for those prisoners who were to be executed subsequently on the same day.
In about an hour and a half after they had been removed, John Swallow, John Batley, Joseph Fisher, William Hartley, James Haigh, James Hey, and Job Hay, were also executed. The crowd of persons assembled was immense.
HUFFEY WHITE AND RICHARD KENDALL.
EXECUTED FOR ROBBING THE LEEDS MAIL.
HUFFEY WHITE was a more expert and notorious housebreaker, and perpetrated more adroit burglaries and robberies, than any other malefactor of his time. His first conviction appears to have taken place in the year 1809, when he was found guilty of a burglary, and sentenced to be transported for life. Preparatory to his being sent abroad, he was conveyed on board the hulks at Woolwich; but disliking the treatment he experienced there, he contrived to make his escape, and once more visited the scenes of his former crimes in London. At this time he became acquainted with the notorious Jem Mackcoull; and as a means of replenishing his exchequer, he agreed to accompany him to Chester, for the purpose of robbing the bank there.
White, it appears, lodged in the house of a blacksmith, named Scottock, in London, who supplied him with the necessary implements; and the two villains having directed the smith to forward them the keys, &c. to Chester, set off for that place early in 1810; and having made their observations, called at the coach-office for the box of implements. Unfortunately for their project, the friction of the coach had broken one corner of the box, through which a skeleton key suspiciously obtruded; and an officer having been made acquainted with the fact, he was concealed when White and Mackcoull came to demand the box, and having secured them both, they were committed to the house of correction as rogues and vagabonds.