Trewman's Exeter Flying Post or Plymouth and Cornish Advertiser (Exeter, England), Thursday, August 22, 1816 19th Century British Newspapers (Gale Databases)
LINCOLN ASSIZES-George MORGAN, aged 25, late of Wyberton, labourer, was indicted for highway robbery.
Mr. G. B. Colley of Wyberton, stated that on Friday evening the 3rd of May, being about a mile from Boston, on the Spalding road, the prisoner met him, presented a pistol on a level with his breast, and demanded money, which the prosecutor promised to give him, but begged he would not use him ill; prosecutor delivered two notes of £1, and some silver; prisoner was dissatisfied, and demanded more; prosecutor said he had no more, but that one of the £2 he had given him, was probably a £5; this was said to get rid of him. The moon was cloudy, so that he could not see the prisoner’s face, but he seemed very tall and straight, and his speech was remarkable for a very strong Irish brogue. The prosecutor had seen the prisoner once before, had heard him speak a good deal, and could swear to him. An hour afterwards he saw a watchman at Boston, and described the man; the watchman suspected the prisoner, who was called by the name of Irish George and was a known character.
John Rose, constable, at Boston, apprehended the prisoner on the Saturday night following in Boston market-place: he found a pistol loaded with ball. The pistol produced in court was indentified by the prosecutor, who said that the prisoner supported the pistol on his left arm, and his hands shook violently. The prisoner upon this evidence observed , that that was not the way to hold a pistol, and denied that his hand could have shaken, saying he had served his Majesty, had faced 30,000 Frenchmen, and was not likely to tremble at the prosecutor! When called upon for his defence, he said, that there were thousands who spoke like him, and that his mother-in-law could have proved him to be in bed at the time spoken of. He put several questions to the witnesses, with a view of proving that they had contradicted themselves before the Magistrates at Boston. The Jury retired for a few minutes, then found him Guilty-Death.
Tom
