ARSON

Gilpin Reynolds, aged 24, stood charged with setting fire to a straw stack, the property of Mr Thomas Hase, of Corpustye.

Mr Austin opened the case to the jury, and Mr Gurdon called Thomas Hase, who, being sworn, said he lived at Corpustye, 
and had a fire on his premises on the night of Monday, the 4th of November, which consumed a straw stack, containing 
about seven loads; the straw stack was on the side of the barn which looked the contrary way to Eke's corner; the barn 
was 27 feet high, and a hill and houses intervened between that and Eke's corner; the road too was not straight, so 
that it was impossible to see the fire from Eke's corner; the prisoner had that day been paid his wages by the surveyor 
of the high ways; witness was overseer, and was present when he was paid 6s.  The prisoner said nothing.

In his cross-examination by Mr Cooper, he said Eke's corner was from three to five hundred yards from the premises; 
there was a river behind the prisoner's house, and this frequently caused a fog in the meadows; he did not know if 
the moon was at the full; he had three different fires on his premises since March 1832; it was a shorter way from 
the prisoner's house to his stack-yard across the meadows than it was by the road; he heard that the prisoner on 
the night of the fire was in the run of water assisting in handing the water to the persons present, and he had 
worked very hard; he understood the prisoner drove the stock out of the yard, and he exerted himself a good deal.

J.M Bacon said he lived at the Castle Inn, at Saxthorpe; on the night of the fire at Mr Hase's, the prisoner was 
at his house from half-after 7 o'clock, with a man by the name of Mitchell; Reynolds stayed until half-after 10 
o'clock, but Mitchell went away before eight; Reynolds went away with Jarvis, Bacon of Oulton and Southgate; the 
prisoner must go by Eke's corner to go directly home.  In his cross-examination by Mr Cooper, he said that the 
prisoner had two pints of beer.

William Eke said he lived at Corpustye, and on the night of Mr Hase's fire he was against his door about half-past 
ten o'clock; he had been out watching that night with Jennings, the gamekeeper of Mr Bulwer, of Heydon, and they were 
in a field past Ireland's Hill; he could see Holly Heath House from Ireland's hill, but he thought not Mr Hase's; he 
came to his house round Eke's corner; when he got to his door he heard the footsteps of a man coming towards his house 
and Mr Hase's; it was bright moonlight and he saw it was the prisoner, but he believed the prisoner did not see him; 
he afterwards went upstairs and looked out of the window, thinking he might be after poaching, and then went to bed, 
and in about half an hour was alarmed by a cry of fire; he got up, and looking out of the window saw the prisoner and 
Mr Blomfield; one of them, but he did not know which, spoke to him, and said "here is a fire;" Reynolds said he did 
not like to call fire lest it should be laid to him; but witness told him to go and call fire, and he would bear him 
harmless from that time; he got up and came down, but could not see the fire until he went to the middle of the road; 
he went immediately to the fire, and saw the prisoner there and many other people; after the fire he was at the Wheat 
Sheaf public-house, and Reynolds was there and others; Reynolds began to talk to him, and said that he (Reynolds) was 
below Ireland's Hill when he first saw the fire; he said this, although nobody asked the prisoner where he was when 
the fire broke out; the prisoner afterwards said he was dragging for partridges in a field where witness had been 
watching, when the fire broke out; he again said he saw it first at Ireland's Hill; witness told him that was impossible, 
for he had been watching in that field; witness told him there were 12 or 13 persons watching in the field, but he said 
he knew there were not so many, for he saw them against the stacks, and there were only five.

Judge.  You said, when before the Magistrates, that you told him there were nine.

Witness.  I do not recollect that; Reynolds told me he had taken eight brace of birds; I told him I saw him going 
past my house at the time mentioned; I do not know what he said; he made no answer.

Judge.  Did not you say when before the Magistrates, that the prisoner denied passing your house at the time you mentioned?

Witness.  He did deny it in the public-house.

Judge.  Just now you said he gave you no answer, either one way or the other.

Witness.  Yes, in the public-house.  He said he had been dragging for partridges; the prisoner could get two ways home 
from Ireland's Hill; one way was by a back lane, and the other by Eke's corner; if he wanted to alarm Mr Hase he would 
go by the back lane; I knew he could not go to Ireland's Hill and get eight brace of partridges from the time I first 
saw him to the time he called me up.

In his cross-examination by Mr Cooper he said it was a calm moonlight night, and he saw no mist; Reynolds took a glass 
of brandy at the Wheat Sheaf, and he and witness had a quarrel; probably he might call witness a liar; they were there 
about two hours; Mr Hase gave them a pot of beer each; he could not speak positively to time, for he had neither clock 
nor watch.

Matthew Fox spoke to the prisoner coming to his door twice; once witness did not answer, and the next time, on the night 
in question, Reynolds on his answering, said, Fox, here's a fire, but his wife would not let him get up; Reynolds said 
he thought it was at Holly Heath; prisoner said he would not give the alarm, lest the people should say that he did it; 
he requested him however to do so, and he went down towards Mr Blomfield's bellowing "fire;" Reynolds had on a cap and 
coat such as he always wore.

William Blomfield said he lived near the prisoner Reynolds, and the witness Eke lived between them; on the night of the 
fire, he was alarmed by the prisoner from his bed, who stated that there was a fire, as he thought at Holly Heath, and 
witness got up; from the window, witness said - "Wait a few minutes, and I'll come down and see where it is," and asked 
if he had alarmed any one, and he said he had not, and witness wished him to do so; as he could not see the fire till 
he went down as far as Eke's, and then he saw it was at Thomas Hase's - told the prisoner to run and call them up, and 
said I'll bear you harmless from this time; when he got to the fire, he found Reynolds working very hard in getting the 
water out of the run of water; witness afterwards went to the Wheat Sheaf, and saw Reynolds and many other persons 
there; witness said to Reynolds, "I'm surprised you could give no better account of the fire than of its being at 
Ireland's farm, Holly Heath;"  Eke said the prisoner could not be at Ireland's Hill at all, for he saw Reynolds pass 
his house about half an hour before the fire broke out; Reynolds put himself into a fury, and used very foul words to 
Eke, and also said he could have alarmed witness twenty minutes before he did, if he had thought proper, for he saw 
the fire when it was no bigger than the fire in the coal range; witness showed also how impossible it was for the fire 
to be seen, either at Eke's corner or the bottom of Ireland's Hill.

Cross-examined, - Reynolds did not appear tipsy when he called me up, but he was when I left the public-house; did not 
see Reynolds turn the stock out of the yard; the fire lasted about two hours.

J. Utting said, he kept the Wheat Sheaf at Corpustye; his house is about twenty yards from Mr Hase's; on the night of 
the fire, he heard Gilpin Reynolds calling "fire" about 20 minutes before twelve o'clock by his time, which was a quarter 
of an hour too fast; he looked out at the window, and asked him if he had alarmed Mr Hase; Reynolds said no, and he 
requested Reynolds to alarm Mr Hase immediately; when he looked out at the window again, he saw him turning the stock 
out of the yard, and he asked him to turn the horses out; when witness got to the stack he found it in fire, nobody 
there but Reynolds, and the barn doors likewise; he did not know how long it had been burning, but straw burns very fast.

In his cross-examination he said, he did not know if it was a misty night; thee had been rain on the straw different 
times; he could not sat how long it would take in burning to the state in which it was when he saw it; it had been 
piled up some time.

Mr Richardson, the agent for Mr Bulwer, of Heydon Hall, whose tenant Mr Hase was, deposed that he recollected the night 
of the fire, and from what he heard he suspected Reynolds and caused him to be apprehended.  Mr R was led by circumstances 
to go on the following morning to Platten's meadow, adjoining the high road leading from the prisoner's house towards 
Mr Hase's, and at the division ditch between Platten's and Flogdale's meadow, which was next towards Mr Hase's, he saw 
the impression of a man's right foot shoe, recently made, which had no appearance of heel, and a left foot-mark 
indistinctly made upon the top of the bank; going on in a direct line for the fire; at a water-course which divides 
Flogdale's from Hase's meadow he saw two foot-marks, as of right and left shoes, deep in as if the person had leaped 
from Flogdale's bank into Hase's meadow; still going in the direction of the stack yard, he saw on the bank which 
had been broken down by some animal, a left foot-mark, which appeared as if the person had slipped down the bank a 
little way, into a soft part of the bank where the grass had been broken away by the tread of the cattle, the toe of 
the foot-step pointing towards the stack yard and within fifteen yards of the gate; there was a faint impression at 
the inner part of the heel; on going to the gate, which is between the meadow and the stack yard; he saw the impression 
of two right and left foot-marks coming out of the stack yard; they were five feet apart, as if a person had been 
running; they were pointing back again in the direction in the direction of the prisoner's house; these had sunk very 
deep into the mud; across the same meadow back again, similar footsteps were traced as if the person was coming from 
Hase's, and in a direction for the prisoner's house; witness measured the length and breadth of the different foot-marks 
very minutely with compasses and a scale; an examination of the prisoner took place, and he had the shoes then taken 
from the prisoner's feet, and went with other persons to Mr Hase's;  he examined the shoes as to the dimensions, and 
found them to correspond exactly; the impression of the left foot, coming out of the stack yard into the meadow, was 
very deep, not only leaving the mark of the sole and heel, but of the form of the foot and upper leather; on this shoe 
there was an iron clate which appeared; on the fight shoe there was no clate or heel, and the impression of the right 
foot corresponded with the right shoe of the prisoner; on examining the left foot mark, where the person had appeared
 to slip down, there was the exact impression of the sole and clate; the clate on this side being without a nail, 
the appearance of the groove was perfect up to the back of the heel, where there was a nail; there was a remarkable 
depth between the sole and the heel in the shoe, which corresponded with a similar appearance in the foot mark; this 
foot mark was taken up with a large piece of earth around it, and exhibited in Court with the prisoner's shoes; the 
other footsteps corresponded.

Mr Richardson was then examined at length upon the impossibility of seeing Hase's and Holly Heath from the bottom of
Ireland's Hill at the same time, because Holly Heath was situated on a hill to the left, and Hase's on the other 
side of another hill rather to the left.  Mr R. then explained how the fire could not be seen from Eke's Corner.  
The Judge also asked many very strict questions relative to the shoes and the impressions.

Mr Cooper cross-examined Mr Richardson at great length upon the reflections and effects of the light of a fire upon 
the sky, but could not shake his testimony.

Mr Sande, a landsurveyor, at Reepham, proved the correctness of the plans of the premises, and corroborated Mr 
Richardson's account of the foot marks, the taking up of the impression produced in court, and that it was in the 
same state as when taken up.

Mr Hase stated, in answer to questions from the Judge; that he had two small wheat stacks as well as a hay stack in 
his yard at the time of the fire, but the fire proceeded in the direction of the barn, and the doors, which were quite 
new, were burnt; Mr H. also confirmed Mr Richardson's account of the foot marks.

Henry Pike produced the deposition of the prisoner taken before the Magistrates, which was put in and read, and in 
which he said he was at the Castle Inn from eight or nine o'clock to ten or eleven, when on leaving to go home with 
Noah Jarvis and John Bacon, he first saw the fire at Eke's Corner, and gave an alarm to Blomfield.

This was the case for the prosecution.

The prisoner being called on for his defence, said he was innocent; he did all he could to extinguish the fire, and 
that was all he knew about it.

Mr Cooper then called Noah Jarvis, who said he was at the Castle Inn with the prisoner on the night in question; they 
went away about ten or eleven o'clock, but he could not say whether the prisoner was before or behind; witness was 
drunk when he left the Castle; he was not at the fire; he knew nothing about it till next morning.

The Jury in a few minutes found the prisoner guilty.  

The Judge having put on his black cap, proceeded to pass sentence of death in nearly the following words:

Gilpin Reynolds, you now stand convicted in the presence of God and in the face of your country of the atrocious 
crime of arson, of setting fire to a stack of straw, the property of Mr Thomas Hase, of Corpustye.  The Legislature 
of this country has thought it necessary, and I think very properly, that for this crime the capital punishment 
should be inflicted - and although I trust I am not wanting in proper disposition in recommending to mercy where 
mercy should be shown, yet I must tell you that against you the gates of mercy are for ever shut on this side of the 
grave.  You have not many days to live, but will in a short time expiate your guilt by the sacrifice of your life.  
The crime of which you have been convicted has been going on for so many years, and the offenders have carried on 
their evil practices in the dead of night, so as to make it exceedingly difficult to detect them; but happily for 
society, in this case there was a want of prudence on your part, and the caution which is too generally observed 
was neglected, so that under all the circumstances no doubt is left on my mind but that the verdict of the Jury 
is a very proper one.  I have looked through your case for the purpose of finding something in your favour, but 
have not been able to find a single circumstance that might be so understood.  I am quite satisfied of your guilt, 
and being so satisfied, I am not the person to step in to stop the due execution of the law.  You must now take 
leave of your friends and connections, and I would earnestly implore you to avail yourself of that spiritual 
assistance that will be offered you.  Remember that you shall soon appear before that bar where we all shall soon 
stand; and let me entreat you on your bended knees, and with a penitent and contrite heart to implore the mercy 
of that Great Judge, before whom all hearts are open and all secrets made known.  I have nothing to add, but 
that you be taken to the place from whence you came, and from thence to the place of execution, and that you 
be hanged by the neck until you are dead, and may the lord have mercy on your soul.