Mr. George Maunder was a woollen manufacturer on Exe Island . On the 17th July, 1843 'a piece of blanket, containing twelve pairs' of his manufacture was hung out on racks in Serge Grounds, St. Thomas. They were stretched on tenterhooks. The next morning two of the blankets were found to have been cut. The tightly stretched fabric must have been tempting to slash! Henry Colman a 'decent looking lad', sixteen years old and an assistant clerk to Mr.Thomas Moss, an Exeter linen draper, was charged with maliciously cutting and destroying the blanketing. The case came before the Devon and Exeter Assizes of August, 1843.
This was a serious charge, because a particular statute, passed long before, I imagine to protect the nation's vital woollen trade, meant that, if convicted, Henry would be liable to be transported for life, or at least for not less than seven years or to serve a lengthy term of imprisonment.
The only witness against him was another boy, Francis Braily, aged fifteen. Who gave evidence thus:
"I am porter to Mr. Rudall, a carrier. I was in company with the prisoner on the evening of the 17th of July, at a public house, in St, Thomas; two other boys were in company. We left at twelve o' clock We went into the Rack Field, and sung for about half an hour. Before we went away Henry Colman went up to the rack, took out his pen-knife, and cut one of the blankets right across. I called him a fool then, and he went to the next blanket, cut it across and cut a piece right out. I went out of the field, wished him good night, and went home.
Cross-examined - I told of it because it was not the right thing for the gentleman to have his property cut up. I'll swear that that's the reason. No one came to me.... I was took up to the Guildhall - not by force.... I have been in prison - in the county - on suspicion of a waistcoat - of stealing it. That was six months ago. I was tried at the Sessions, and staid in prison a month after the trial. I was in the service of Mr. Manley, the butcher, after that, I was not turned off for suspicion of stealing. I was in Mr. Lendon, the cheesemonger's employ. I was not turned off on a charge of robbing a little girl of three pence-ha'penny - (laughter).... There was a charge of that kind. I was turned off from Mr. Lendon on that charge....I am in no person's employ now. I was in John Rudall's employ; I left about a month ago.
At this point little Francis Braily was in tears but Judge and Jury found him hilarious and had clearly come to the conclusion that his evidence was worthless. Henry, moreover, had people ready to give him a good character and so the judge, Tom Pooley's judge, John Taylor Coleridge, discharged him with immediate effect.
Henry had been in prison for three weeks but no heed was given to that, nor to the fact that he had been three weeks on tenterhooks.
That these little lads were out drinking in a pub until midnight and then singing in a field for a half-hour before they went home gives a glimpse of teenage life in 1843. Well, it was perhaps not all that unlike some Exeter College teenagers in 2024!
Source: The Western Times, 6th August, 1843.
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