OCTOBER.
16.—A remarkable case of fraud was tried at the Norwich Quarter Sessions, before the Recorder (Mr. J. W. Metcalfe, Q.C.). The prisoner, one William Dowman, was charged with defrauding accident insurance companies. He insured under various names with different companies, and by a peculiar formation of his joints was enabled to assume the appearance of having been injured. By this means he obtained medical certificates, and made successful claims upon the offices. He was sentenced to fifteen calendar months’ imprisonment.
25.—The sale of the Taverham Hall herd of pure-bred shorthorns and whole-coloured Jerseys was conducted by Mr. John Thornton. The total amount realised was £3,041 1s. 6d.
NOVEMBER.
1.—The restored chancel and newly-erected organ of Diss church were opened. The instrument was built by Messrs. J. Rayson and Sons, of Ipswich, at the cost of £360.
—At Ipswich Assizes (where Norfolk prisoners were, on this occasion, tried), before Mr. Justice Hawkins, Henry March (59), blacksmith, was indicted for the wilful murder of Henry Bidewell, blacksmith, and Thomas Moys, shoeing-smith and farmer, at Wymondham, on October 20th. The prisoner was found guilty and sentenced to death. The execution took place at Norwich Castle on November 20th. Marwood was the executioner.
3.—Died at Camperdown Place, Great Yarmouth, Mr. William Thurtell, in his 83rd year. Mr. Thurtell, who was a staunch supporter of Conservative principles, was appointed a magistrate for the borough in 1846. His father was Mayor of Norwich in 1828.
6.—In the House of Lords, before the Lord Chancellor, Lord Penzance, Lord Blackburn, and Lord Gordon, the action, Read v. Bailey, was heard, on an appeal from a decision by the Lords Justices. On an inspection of the books of the Bank on the failure of the firm of Harveys and Hudsons, in 1870, it was discovered that Sir Robert Harvey had abstracted large sums of money from the coffers of the Bank, and had sought to cover the deficiency by the opening of fictitious accounts, and by crediting forged bills to his private account. In consequence, the trustee under the bankruptcy of the firm preferred a claim against the separate estate of Sir Robert Harvey, amounting to the sum of £600,000, for the moneys so abstracted by Sir Robert Harvey in his lifetime. This claim was, in 1876, supported by a great mass of evidence before the Master of the Rolls, who decided in favour of the claim, and gave the trustee of Harveys and Hudsons the right to rank as a creditor against the private or separate estate of Sir Robert Harvey, in competition with the stockbrokers and other private creditors. The importance of the decision of the Master of the Rolls, as affecting the interests of the stockbrokers, was great. But for this claim of £600,000 they would have received 20s. in the pound on their debts, whereas the allowance of the claim to rank in competition with their debts prevented Sir Robert Harvey’s private estate paying more than 6s. 8d. in the pound. The stockbrokers accordingly appealed to the Lords Justices against the decision of the Master of the Rolls, and their lordships upheld the claim of £600,000, and dismissed the stockbrokers’ appeal, with costs. The stockbrokers now appealed to the House of Lords, who confirmed the judgments of the Lords Justices and the Master of the Rolls, and dismissed the appeal, with costs; in other words, admitting the trustee’s claim for £600,000. (See December 3rd, 1880.)
9.—Mr. Joseph De Carle Smith was elected Mayor, and Mr. Harry Bullard appointed Sheriff of Norwich.
10.—It was announced that Mr. Francis Edmund Gladstone, Mus. Bac., Cantab., had been appointed organist of Norwich Cathedral, in the room of Dr. Buck, who resigned the appointment in the month of June. Regret was expressed that Dr. Bunnett’s claims for the post should have been “so strangely and perversely ignored.” Much adverse feeling was manifested, and on November 28th a complimentary concert was given to Dr. Bunnett, under the patronage of the leading inhabitants of the county and city.