Hunt, Henry, 1773-1835; Social reformers -- Great Britain -- Biography
I had returned and taken my breakfast by ten o'clock, and had just got the
old constable, Davis, and was about to proceed with him to apprehend the
said persons, when four of the gentlemen of the yeomanry cavalry of the
Everly troop, rode boldly into the yard, and up to the door, like _brave
troopers_, saying that they had heard of my having a warrant for
apprehending some of the rioters, and that they were sent by Capt. Astley
to aid and assist in the execution of the warrant, adding, that they were
provided with ball cartridges, &c., and some to spare for me, if I chose
to saddle my charger and take my holsters. I could not avoid asking the
heroes, with rather a sarcastic smile, where they had kept themselves over
night, and why Captain Astley had not either come or sent some of the
troop when there was some real danger, and not waited till all the parties
were separated, and when there was little difficulty in securing the most
desperate of the rioters? I added, that as I had not made any military
show, by dressing myself up in my regimentals, when there was a real riot,
I should at all events trust to the constable's staff now it was all
peaceable; and I begged them to return to their officers with that
message. I however requested one of them, Richard Pocock, of Enford farm,
who now lives near Warminster, and whom I knew to be a tything man, to
doff his regimentals, and then I would admit him to aid and assist in his
civil, but I would not accept of him in his military capacity. This he
immediately complied with, and we took the five persons before the
magistrate, Mr. Webb, of Milton, who insisted upon committing them all to
prison the same night for want of bail, though they begged very hard for
mercy, in which petition I most heartily joined; but the worthy magistrate
would not listen to any such thing, it wanting only a month to the Autumn
Assizes, and I was therefore bound over to prosecute them, very much
against my inclination, as I thereby lost at least three valuable servants
during the harvest; and, as they appeared sensible of their error, I, for
my own part, was contented to let them depart to their homes, but the
magistrate was inexorable, declaring it to be too serious an offence to be
pardoned, without the interposition of a jury.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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