Robert DUNSHEE

My Great Great Great Great Uncle.

Robert Dunshee, aged 35, was indicted for a rape on Mary Dunshee, on the 29th of January, at the parish of Harborne. The case had this painful peculiarity, that the prosecutrix, a girl between 14 and 15, was the daughter of the prisoner. After her cross-examination by Mr Woolrych, who defended the prisoner, his Lordship put it to the jury whether they could safely proceed in the case on the girl’s statement, as to the perpetration of the offence. The jury immediately returned a verdict of ‘not guilty’. His Lordship told the prisoner that he had been acquitted of a very serious crime, but no one who had heard the case could for a moment doubt the disgusting impropriety of his conduct.

Staffordshire Advertiser 17 March 1849, report on March Quarter Sessions in Stafford