"CHARLES HART, a rather undersized lad of 17, but who had the appearance of being what his master described him, 'a sassy chap' was charged wiith a violent assault on his master, Mr Richd Down, of the firm of Down and Woodman, coach builders.
"Mr Down stated that on the previous afternoon, the defendant, who was his apprentice, was ordered to clean a carriage. He had absented himself without leave, and on his return he gave him a 'cuff' which was returned with a black eye.
"In his defence, he stated that he ran home with his tea can, was not absent a quarter of an hour, that his master began to knock him about, and not well knowing what he was doing, he and accidentally struck him in the face. The defendant smiled at his ingenious defence, but was told by the magistrates it was no laughing matter.
"Mr. Down being asked as to his general conduct, stated it was very bad, and he was ordered to be imprisoned two weeks hard labour as a disorderly apprentice, and fined 2s 6d for the assault, and in default of payment a further imprisonment for two weeks."
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A cuff: A blow with the open hand. The Times puts the word in inverted commas, perhaps thinking it to be slang, but it is a highly respectable word, to be found in Hamlet, deriving from the Anglo-Saxon word for a glove. I was not there but I am inclined to believe young Charles' version of events, i.e. his master began to knock him about.
A sassy chap; The lexicographers think sassy, a dialect version of saucy, originates in the United States (or else in Sierra Leone!) but perhaps, like loon for the Great Northern Diver, it is a Devon dialect form that crossed the Atlantic long since. 1845 is a bit early for Mr, Down to be reading Westerns.
We are not told if Charles Hart, seventeen, undersized and with a mighty punch, before the Bench but still smiling, found the half-crown, plus costs, to prevent his sentence being doubled, but I hope he did.
Source: The Western Times, 19th April, 1845.
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