Glascoed Triumphant!
PONTYPOOL FREE PRESS
SATURDAY, APRIL 6, 1861
GLASCOED TRIUMPHANT.- As conquering heroes returned they to their homes on Saturday night- they, the glorious Four-and twenty! The magistrates, in Grand Jury assembled, reversed the decision of the Usk Justices, and ignored the bill alleging riot on the occasion of the late anti-annexation demonstration on Glascoed Common. The men charged were consequently enabled to leave Monmouth, freed from all reproach, on the same day that they arrived there. Having returned to Usk, they signalised their triumph by engaging the services of a band of music, and decorated with ribbons, they marched homewards, the band striking up with increased vigour as the procession passed the Hendre farm, and the cheering of the “Rioters” being there at its loudest. On Monday, the victory of the popular cause was further celebrated by the ringing of the Church bells at Usk, and the firing of guns at Glascoed. The failure of the prosecution appears to afford general satisfaction in the locality, inasmuch as it was an attempt, under the most trumpery pretence, to fasten a criminal charge upon men who performed what they believed to be a public duty. However, it may be hoped that what has taken place will have taught a salutary lesson to all interested, and that no further illegal appropriations on the one side will necessitate renewed antagonism on the other, and so perpetuate strife and bad feeling. The tale very clearly points one moral, namely, that Glascoed Common ought to be taken in hand by the Commissioners who are charged with the duty of allotting such waste lands, in order that by a legal and fair division of the Common among the freeholders of the hamlet, all illicit encroachments by inhabitants of adjoining parishes, or other persons, may be terminated, and a large tract of land, now to a great extent unproductive, may be brought into cultivation.
The Usk Observer
SATURDAY, APRIL 6, 1861.
MONMOUTHSHIRE ASSIZES
The opening of the commission took place on Thursday the 28th of March. The judges, the Hon. Sir Colin Blackburn, Knight, and the Hon. Sir James Plaisted Wilde, Knight, entered Monmouth privately on Thursday. The high-sheriff, James Proctor Carruthers, Esq., arrived about half past one o’clock, in a handsome carriage, drawn by four greys, and attended by a procession including 13 carriages and numerous horsemen. At five o’clock, their Lordships proceeded to the Crown Court, and opened the Commission in the usual form. In the evening, about 60 gentlemen sat down to a banquet, at the Beaufort Arms hotel, at which the high-sheriff presided, and W.E. Toye, Esq., under-sheriff, filled the vice-chair. On the following day (Good Friday) their Lordships attended divine service in St. Mary’s church, where an excellent sermon was preached by the Rev. C. Rankin Hall, vicar of Shirenewton, and Chaplain to the high-sheriff.
On Saturday morning business commenced at 10 o’clock, when the following gentlemen answered to their names, and were sworn on the
GRAND JURY:-
Colonel Poulett Somerset, M.P., Foreman
S.R. Bosanquet, Esq. Fenton Hort, Esq.
J.M. Herbert, Esq. G. Cave, Esq.
T. Falconer, Esq. M.P. Smith, Esq.
Captain Greenhow-Relph J.C. Hill, Esq.
Major McDonnell H.M. Kennard, Esq.
J.F. Brickdale, Esq. John E.W. Rolls, Esq.
H.C. Bird, Esq. G.G. Tyler, Esq.
James Davies, Esq. O.A. Wyatt, Esq.
R.Fisher, Esq. J.G. Wheeley, Esq.
Chas. Kemeys Tynte, Esq.
His Lordship in addressing the grand jury, remarked that it was the usual practice to have twenty-three gentlemen on the grand jury, but in this case there were only twenty who had answered to their names. He must remind them that although there were but twenty, twelve must agree before they could find a bill. The calendar at first-sight looked very formidable, but on closer examination, it would be found that most of the cases were of ordinary character, and there was one charge in which no less than 24 persons were indicted and he must explain to the jury the cause of this offence. On looking at the depositions, he found that the charge arose in reference to levelling a common, by parties who seemed to think they had a right to the land. They must be quite satisfied of a breach of the peace having been committed. The parties fired guns and lit fires, but it would be for them to judge whether by doing so, they excited terror to any persons. If the parties who thought they had a right to the land, had gone about the matter in an ordinary manner, and merely thrown down the fences and embankments, then case would simply have been a civil one, and civil proceedings should have been taken against them. The other cases were such, that their experience as magistrates, would know how to deal with . . .
USK
THE RIOT AT THE GLASCOED.- Thos. Edwards, farmer, Job Lewis, farmer; John Williams, farmer; Philip Williams, farmer; Wm. Williams, farmer; Henry Williams, farmer; John Morgan, the younger, farmer; Thomas Morgan, farmer; Arthur Morgan, farmer; Edward Morgan, farmer; Edward Morgan, the younger, farmer; Wm. Hercules Jenkins, labourer; Thomas Arthur, labourer; James Morgan, collier; Edward Williams, farmer; Wm. Price, labourer; Henry Crump, farmer; William Humphries, labourer; Wm. Morgan, farmer; Wm. Morgan, the younger, haulier; Wm. Forty, woodcutter; William Williams, gaffer; Walter Williams, labourer; and Thomas Williams, farmer; who had all been admitted to bail by the magistrates at Usk Petty Sessions, on the 22nd inst, were indicted for having at the hamlet of Glascoed, assembled together, with divers other persons, and unlawfully and riotously disturbed the public peace, whilst destroying the hedges and embankments of certain pieces of common land, which had been enclosed and appropriated by Daniel Roberts and James Meredith, farmers. Full particulars of the case were given in the OBSERVER last week. A plan shewing the position of the inclosed land and the distances at which the bonfires were made, as well as of the public way which had been stopped up by the prosecutor Meredith, had been prepared to elucidate the matter. The Grand Jury ignored the bill.
