Norfolk
Circuit, Cambridge
March 23rd 1847
Crown Court
Before Mr. Justice Coleridge
The Soham Fires
Josiah
Munson aged 24 was indicted for an attempt to set fire to a shed, the
property of John Owers of Soham on 31st of December last.
Mr. Prendergast and Mr. Tozer were counsel for the prosecution, Mr.
Naylor appeared for the prisoner.
It
may be recollected that the town of Soham, near Ely, has been for some
months past the victim of many incendiary fires, which have spread
great alarm among its inhabitants. Some of these have terminated in the
total destruction of considerable property and many houses, and the
present case, but for the fortunate frustration of the attempt, might
perhaps, have been one of the most destructive even in that notorious
spot.
The prosecutor is a builder, occupying a shed in the middle of
Soham, opposite to the house where the prisoner, who is a basket maker,
carries on his trade. On the evening of the 31st of December at 11
o'clock, the prosecutor happened to go into his shed, which was
connected with a long range of barns and other buildings, and there
discovered a bundle lying near a hole in the shed, which abutted on the
street.
On taking this bundle up, the prosecutor found that it
consisted of a ragged cotton handkerchief, in which was wrapped up a
box of lucifer matches, containing about 500 of those destructive
engines, many of which were half burnt, and a large piece of turf,
which had been partly reduced to ashes. It being evident that someone
had inserted this parcel into the shed with the intention of firing it,
an inquiry was made, which was thought to justify the committal of the
prisoner on this charge.
The evidence, however, adduced to-day in
support of the prosecution was, for the most part, very vague. It was
shown that he was observed lurking about the vicinity of the shed at
hours when he had no legitimate cause for being there, that he lodged
at one Mitchell's, where he had attempted to borrow a light at 6
o'clock on the evening preceding the discovery of the parcel, that he
purchased a box of lucifers resembling that enclosed in the
handkerchief, and had made some loose declarations that ''he would
never work at any more fires if the pay was not more than he had
received on one occasion; and asserted his belief that ''there would be
many more fires yet in Soham,'' which ''would never be prosperous till
his father,'' who seemed to have been involved in some trouble, ''had
returned to his home.''
The most important piece of evidence against
the prisoner was the fact, that not long before the fire he had
received a bundle of clean linen from his mother at Mildenhall, which
had been delivered at his lodgings and was wrapped up in the identical
handkerchief which was discovered in the shed by Mr. Owers.
Mr.
Justice Coleridge having summed up the case to the jury with the
greatest care and perspicuity, left it to them to say, whether they
were satisfied beyond a reasonable degree of doubt that the prisoner's
was the hand which had placed the bundle in the shed of the prosecutor
?. If they should think so, and that the turf and matches were alight
at the time, they would return a verdict of guilty, for the object of
such an act could not but be that of setting fire to the building in
question,
The jury consulted together for some little time, and then returned a
verdict of Not Guilty.
