The Murder of Thomas Davidson 2

CRIME

The Murder of Thomas Davidson

Poaching was a way of life in the Longtown district: although the Netherby Estate employed gamewatchers and river watchers, some men made a living by poaching. The Hogg family, originally from Canonbie, were one family who appeared regularly in the crime reports, accused, and usually found guilty of poaching. Thomas Davidson, a former poacher himself, was employed as gamewatcher by the Netherby Estate: in November 1849, he was found murdered on a moor in a remote part of Bewcastle. Two of the notorious Hogg family were arrested for the murder, along with another man, Andrew Turnbull. . .

December 1st 1849 Carlisle JournalAdjourned inquest.On Monday last the adjourned inquest on the body of Thomas Davidson, gamewatcher for Sir James Graham on the Bewcastle moors, was held at the Lyne House Inn, in Bewcastle before W Carrick Esq the county coroner. The inn is not easily accessible to citizens of the capital of the county ? the journey being one of some twenty miles over a network of tortuous rough and hilly roads rather puzzling to any one who is a stranger to them.Lyne House is some seven or eight miles from the scene of the murder, which is an open moor on a farm the property of Mr Charlton of Hesleyside who lets the right of game to Sir James Graham Bart. It was almost filled, long before the proceedings commenced with persons who had travelled from the remotest corners of the district to learn the result of the inquiry. The small room in which the coroner sat of course afforded accommodation for very few of them besides the jury.It is necessary in order to make the days proceedings intelligible, that we should in the first place recapitulate some of the facts which were published a fortnight ago.The deceased Thomas Davidson is stated to have been in his younger days a noted poacher but for the last twenty years he has held the situation of gamewatcher to Sir James Graham, and by his unflinching, fearless and uncompromising discharge of his duties has made himself the terror of those whose practices he formerly engaged in and whose habits he so well understood. He was a married man with eight or nine children, mostly grown up, and left his home on Thursday morning the 8th instant to make his usual rounds. He told his wife before starting, the direction he intended to take, lest Armstrong the gamekeeper under whose orders he acted, should wish to meet him on the fells; and he set off toward Christenbury Crags. He was not seen again alive ? except by his murderers. As he did not return home on Thursday evening his wife and family became alarmed for his safety; and as he was still missing on Friday morning, they communicated their fears to Armstrong who resides at the Flatt, a shooting box of Sir James Graham?s, and who, summoning the farmers and others of the neighbourhood, set out and made a diligent search for the missing watcher ? but without success that day. The search was resumed on Saturday morning and about ten o?clock the body of Davidson was found on some brown benty land by his brother John and some other persons who were in company with him, on the farm called Kershope, and near the Wysefield sheepfold, on the heights on the north west side of the Black Lyne.He was lying on his face; his arms were folded under his body, and his legs were crossed one over the other; his stick was below him, between his thighs, and his hat was at a short distance from him. His plaid was wrapped round his shoulders, and with the exception of his waistcoat, of which two buttons were loose, his outer dress was undisturbed. But the corner of his shirt neck was torn, and whilst the outer fold of his neckerchief was loose and hanging down his breast, the under fold was drawn so tight as to be considerable buried in his neck, causing a broad discoloured indentation. On the body being turned up a pool of blood was found on the spot where his mouth had rested, and there were two marks on his cheek indicating the course in which a copious stream of blood had flowed from his nose. There was a wound above the right eye, and a severe bruise in the same direction upon the nose, the cartilage or soft portion of which had been apparently beaten aside. The post mortem examination left no doubt whatever that Thomas Davidson had died from violent strangulation.There was a mark upon the abdomen which might have been produced by the knee or foot of the murderer while strangling the deceased, and several marks apparently produced by finger nails, upon the throat. Footprints, evidently of three or more different persons, were traced near the spot, but the rain had rendered them somewhat indistinct. The corpse was immediately removed to Davidson?s own house. The facts and circumstances of its discover were communicated on the same day to Sir James Graham, to Mr Carrick, the coroner, and to the police at Carlisle; and on Sunday morning the 11th inst, Mr Sabbage, the superintendent, accompanied by two officers, (Snowden and Cowen) and Sir James?s gamekeeper, proceeded to the scene of the murder to summon a jury and collect information for the inquest to be held on the following day.The three persons against whom the finger of suspicion pointed, as soon as the fact of the murder became known, were Joseph Hogg, who was recently fined by the magistrates of Carlisle upon the evidence of Davidson, for shooting without a game certificate, and who after his conviction was heard to utter a threat against him ? Nichol Hogg, alias John Nichol, Joseph Hogg?s cousin ? and Andrew Turnbull. The two Hoggs are cousins ? Joseph is 24 years of age and unmarried; Nichol who is about 35 years old, is married but is separated from his wife. Turnbull, who is 24 years of age, is also a married man. In the course of Sunday afternoon the police summoned Joseph Hogg and Turnbull to attend the inquest to be held on the following day at the Flatt, a shooting box of Sir James Graham?s, and they attended accordingly. Nichol Hogg was not forthcoming till Monday when he was apprehended at an inn in Rickergate, Carlisle, where he had been since the previous Friday, and he appeared at the adjourned inquest on Tuesday the 13th. The jury, which assembled on Monday the 12th, and on Tuesday the 13th of November, consisted of some of the most respectable inhabitants of the parish ? Mr A Ewart of Holme Head was foreman.They proceeded to the place where the body was lying, a distance of between two and three miles, and after viewing and identifying it, returned to the Flatt. The enquiry was then entered upon. The most important evidence adduced was that of the suspected parties, and it was most contradictory in many material points.Joseph Hogg resides at Two-Darg near Graham?s Onset, and is a notorious poacher. When examined he was duly cautioned by the coroner that he was a suspected party and that he was not required to answer any questions that might criminate himself. He stated upon oath that on the Wednesday before the murder he had been shooting all day alone, that he saw Andrew Turnbull once that day at a shop called the Hardmanor, but not since that day; that he had called at his house on the Sunday afternoon and found he was from home. He also stated that he slept at his father?s house on the Wednesday night, that Nichol Hogg slept with him, and that they remained in the house during the whole of the Thursday, in company with his sister and mother, dressing fish hooks. He denied that he had seen the deceased since Saturday, when he was convicted at Carlisle on his evidence, of shooting without a licence and he accounted for a deep scratch extending down his upper and part of his lower lip by saying that he got it while shooting in a wood. A mark of blood was found on one of the knees of his trowsers.Andrew Turnbull, a married man, lives at Shank End in the Bailie, about half a mile from Joseph Hogg, and is a husbandman. He stated that he went with Hogg on the Wednesday in search of woodcocks ? each having a gun. They met about nine in the morning, were three hours together, and were joined at Martin?s Bank by Nichol Hogg, who also had a gun. They parted about three o?clock in the afternoon and he did not see them again. He said he had not been out of his house on Wednesday evening, nor during the whole of Thursday. He added that Joseph Hogg called at his house on Sunday afternoon, and had sat with him for an hour ? after the police officer had been there.Joseph Davidson, son of the deceased, was at Joseph Hogg?s house on Thursday evening. There is only one room, and Hogg was not there, but his sister, who is 14 years of age, and the witnesses?s daughter, who is about six, were.Ann Hogg, Joseph Hogg?s sister, swore that her brother was only absent from the house about a quarter of an hour on Thursday. She at first denied that Nichol Hogg had been at the house during the whole of the week, but after much pressing admitted that he had slept there on the Wednesday night ? that Andrew Turnbull had also called upon her brother at the house, and that Nichol Hogg had left the house about nine o?clock on Thursday morning, and returned between twelve and one in the afternoon.Ellen Hogg, Joseph?s mother, in the former part of her examination denied that Nichol Hogg had been in the house at all except once, but after much pressing and equivocation she admitted that he had slept there several nights, and particularly on the Wednesday and Thursday nights, that Turnbull was there on the Wednesday night, and that Nichol Hogg left the house with his gun on the Thursday afternoon, and had not returned at three o?clock in the afternoon when she went to tea at Davidson?s, the son of the deceased.Nichol Hogg stated that after sleeping with Joseph Hogg on Wednesday night they went out together on Thursday morning, and called upon Turnbull, who joined them. They all had guns, and went down the Lineside and into the Cumcrook wood- returning between six and seven in the evening. He said they did not meet or see any person. They shot two woodcocks and two snipes and took them to Carlisle on Saturday.Another witness admitted that he had taken two brace of grouse and a blackcock to Carlisle on Saturday for Joseph Hogg.Before the proceedings were concluded on Tuesday we understand Turnbull confessed to Mr Sabbage circumstances which, if true, may bring home the charges against the suspected parties. They were afterwards, at the request of Turnbull, taken down in writing, but we are not at present at liberty to publish them. The inquest was adjourned till Monday the 26th inst, the two Hoggs and Turnbull being in the meantime taken into custody and sent to prison to abide the result of the inquiry. The murder had excited great interest throughout the district in which it was committed, and in this neighbourhood ? the deceased and his suspected murderers being well known over a wide district.