116 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1812. 



quarrelsome. Being told by Day- 

 bell that he had no work for him, 

 he began to cut oft" the ears of the 

 wheat with his sickle, and throw 

 them about the field. Daybell ex- 

 postulated with him, and requested 

 him to desist and seek for work 

 elsewhere, which at length he con- 

 sented to do, and with his com- 

 panions went away. In passing 

 Kobert's house, however, which is 

 hard by, the Irishman wantonly 

 plunged his sickle into a pig which 

 belonged to Roberts, and which 

 was on the road at the time. The 

 children of Roberts, on seeing this, 

 called out for assistance, when their 

 father and Daybell, who had also 

 been witnesses of this outrage, ran 

 immediately to the spot, having 

 first called to their aid John Carnal, 

 a neighbouring farmer, who went 

 into his house and took down his 

 gun, which had been previously 

 loaded to shoot the birds among his 

 corn. These three pursued the 

 Irishmen, who were making ofl" as 

 fast as they could ; and coming up 

 with two of them, one of whom 

 was the fellow who stuck the pig, 

 Roberts demanded satisfaction for 

 the injury, which, after some alter- 

 cation, was agreed to be given, and 

 a piece of dirty paper was tendered 

 as a guinea note ; but it appearing to 

 be only a part of an old newspaper, 

 Roberts refused to accept it. In the 

 mean time two Irishmen who had 

 gone away, returned with five or six 

 more of their companions, armed 

 with sticks, sickles, &c. Alarmed 

 at their appearance, Roberts re- 

 quested of Carnal to let him have 

 his gun, which was complied with. 

 Roberts, however, did not think 

 proper at that time to use it, and 

 he, with Daybell and Carnal, re- 

 treated precipitately, and were in 



their turn closely pursued by the 

 Irishmen, brandishing their sticks 

 and sickles, andexclaiming, " We'll 

 give you satisfaction for the pig !'' 

 Roberts, who was the hindmost, 

 finding himself almost exhausted, 

 and perceiving that his pursuers 

 were nearly up with him, turned 

 suddenly round, and discharged 

 the gun at the man nearest him, 

 who was only a few yards distant. 

 The contents of the piece entered 

 the stomach of the unfortunate 

 person, and he expired on the spot. 

 This put an end to the pursuit, and 

 fortunately no further bloodshed 

 ensued. Roberts, who was greatly 

 affected at this dreadful catastrophe, 

 made no attempt to elude justice, 

 but readily yielded himself up to 

 the constable sent to apprehend 

 him, anxiously waiting the verdict 

 of the coroner's jury. On opening 

 the body of the deceased, whose 

 name was Terence Feagan, aged 

 20 years, it was found that seven 

 shot-drops had passed through the 

 heart. The jury, after some deli- 

 beration, retured a verdict of 

 " justifiable homicide," the wit- 

 nesses Daybell and Carnal having 

 sworn that they considered their 

 own lives and that of Roberts to 

 be in danger. 



15. Dumfries On the evening 



of Monday, the 7th instant, Mar- 

 garet Hamilton, the wife of W. M. 

 servant to a farmer in Crawford- 

 John, received a visit from her 

 husband, who brought her a small 

 quantity of oatmeal for her family, 

 and returned to his master's house. 

 Next morning the poor woman 

 made porridge from the contents of 

 the basin, and began to sup it with 

 milk ; but being struck with a pe- 

 culiarity in the flavour, she called 

 in her neighbour, Alice Watson, 



the 



