Poachers kill gamekeeper at Roydon Hall (1862)

Post date: Feb 18, 2013 8:33:15 PM

Extract from Lloyd's Weekly Newspaper - Sunday 14 December 1862 which summarises the outcome of a case which went on for a year and for which a Wateringbury man was initially included amongst the accused.

THE POACHING STRUGGLE AT ROYDON HALL

Wednesday had been specially appointed for the trial, at the Maidstone assizes of the poachers for the manslaughter of the gamekeeper in the terrible struggle between gamekeepers, and poachers at Roydon Hall in January last. The case has excited great interest, and illustrates forcibly the real nature and results of the offence called poaching and the true character of the men who engage in it.

The history of the case is as follows :-Early in the morning or just after morning, or just after midnight, on the 22nd of January last, on a fine moonlight night, an under-gamekeeper of Major Cook, of Roydon Hall, East Peckham, in the parish of Nettlested, and an assistant were out watching, and, hearing guns fired in a wood, they went and called up. Gray, the head gamekeeper, with four others, making seven in all, went through the wood towards where the report of the guns was heard. After passing through the wood they entered a meadow, and there saw a party of from ten to thirteen men walking towards another part of the wood on the opposite side of the meadow. When the men saw the gamekeepers after them they turned round and faced them, being, it will be seen, nearly twice their number, and armed, whereas it did not appear that the gamekeepers had weapons (except poor Gray, who had a flail), and drew up in a line. Gray, the deceased gamekeeper, and five of the assistants went forward towards the men, and on coming near them one of the prisoners cried out, "Halloa ! where are you coming to?" This man seemed to have a stick or a gun in his hand, and the man next to him had a gun, and said "If you come another step I'll shoot." The other said "Yes, shoot, shoot." The gamekeeper, Gray, said "You'll not be so cowardly as to shoot," and one of the poachers, with an oath, cried out that he would. What took place after this was, of course, involved in some doubt, as it appears that the men rushed on each other, and the poor gamekeeper was shot through the thigh and fell. A short but terrible struggle took place, which resulted in the flight of the poachers, and in consequence of their great preponderance in number none of them were apprehended on the spot. They all made off towards Wateringbury, which is in the direction of East Malling, where two of the prisoners (Luck and Eversfield) resided. Poor Gray earnestly begged to be taken home. "Take me home," he said, "as, quickly as you can, for I am dying. Let me see my dear wife and family once more before I die." He lingered a few hours in agony, and died. At the spot where the affray occurred gun-caps, etc., were found; and on the route home a gun; and these, on the trial, were traced as the property of one of the prisoners.

The great difficulty in the case, it will be readily perceived, was as to identity. Luck and Eversfield were indicted at the last assizes for manslaughter. In consequence, however, of the arrest of seven other of the men, and the discovery of fresh evidence, the case was postponed, and bills for murder were at this assize preferred against the two men first named, who were supposed to have been the two men mentioned as having threatened to shoot. The learned judge charged the grand jury on the case with special reference to the evidence upon the depositions of an affray with Gray before the firing of the fatal shot, and the use by him of the flail; and he told the grand jury that, as the poachers were not engaged in a felony, the use of the flail with violence might reduce the offence to manslaughter, the men having the guns in their hands ready loaded. In consequence of this the grand jury threw out the bills for murder, and found true bills against all the prisoners for manslaughter. Nine men altogether had been apprehended, but in the course of the assize, the prosecution asked to have one of them (Hawks) admitted as a witness for the prosecution, and the learned judge, having the assurance of the learned counsel that it was necessary for justice, allowed this to be done. The other eight men. were accordingly now arraigned at the bar charged with manslaughter, and also with night poaching. After a long trial, and the reception of a great mass of evidence, the jury acquitted the whole of the prisoners. They, however, severally pleaded guilty to the minor charge of, in their own words, "having been there." The judge sentenced Lusk and Burgess, who, he said appeared to have been the original projectors of the expedition, to be imprisoned and kept to hard labour for twelve, and the others for four months each.