Now! Then! 2024! - Yorkshire On This Day

Excerpt

Mr Denison: At the Kirkstall station Mr Tobin got into the carriage. He had formerly had a banking account with Messrs Beckett and Co., and I had been obliged to speak to him about it.When Mr Tobin got in he said, “Oh, you are here, are you, Mr Denison. I have been looking for an opportunity of catching you for some time.” I said, “Now, Mr Tobin, I wish to have no communication with you whatever, and I give you warning that if you use any offensive language towards me I shall apply for a warrant against you as soon as I get to Leeds.” Notwithstanding that warning, he continued from that moment incessantly, until I got out at the Midland station, using all sorts of opprobrious language towards me, calling me a liar, a dishonourable fellow, a low fellow, an ass; that he had only been restrained by his solicitor from coming to the bank and laying a horse-whip across my back, and all sorts of disgraceful, abominable, and untrue insinuations, this being kept up incessantly for a quarter of an hour.
Mr Tobin: When I got into the carriage at Kirkstall I sat before you, and said, “You are here, you contemptible ass.” This was the language I made use of. I called him further a dastardly liar.
Mr Luccock [magistrate]: If you admit that, there is no occasion to go further into the case.
Mr Tobin: When I sent Mr Eddison to pay an account of mine, I sent with him my pass-book containing over-charges, unwarrantable over-charges, and even fraudulent charges. I say it publicly.
Mr Luccock again interposed, and Mr Blackburn protested against these grave accusations.
Mr Tobin: I paid under protest.
Mr Luccock: We cannot go into that.
Mr Tobin: Mr Denison [a bank employee] told Mr Eddison I was not to be trusted on my word.
[Bound over for six months in the sum of £100 with two sureties of £50.]

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

Abbreviations:

• ER: East Riding
• GM: Greater Manchester
• NR: North Riding
• NY: North Yorkshire
• SY: South Yorkshire
• WR: West Riding
• WY: West Yorkshire

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Original

A LEEDS MERCHANT INSULTING A BANKER.
On Saturday Mr. Martin Tobin, merchant, Albion-street, appeared at the Leeds Town Hall, to answer a summons, charging him with having used abusive language towards Mr. W. B. Denison, banker. The magistrates on the Bench were Mr. Luccock and Mr. T. Tennant.
Mr. V. BLACKBURN said the defendant was charged with using towards Mr. Denison language calculated to provoke a breach of the peace. It was not for him to relate all the circumstances which had created an ill-feeling on the part of Mr. Tobin towards Mr. Denison, but he should put Mr. Dibb into the box, whose evidence, which he considered extremely material, would show Mr. Tobin’s intention in using the language he did. Mr. Dibb, as solicitor to Messrs. Beckett and Co., had had certain transactions with Mr. Tobin regarding his banking account, and during their interviews Mr. Tobin said that whenever he met Mr. Denison he intended to insult him. The conduct which was now complained of arose under the following circumstances:-Mr. Denison was in a railway carriage on the previous Wednesday, and at Kirkstall Mr. Tobin got in. Mr. Yewdall was also present, and as soon as he had taken his seat, Mr. Tobin, addressing himself to Mr. Denison, made a remark to the effect that he was glad he had found him, and then applied to him the opprobrious epithets which would best come from the witnesses. Mr. Denison behaved with the greatest moderation, but he considered that if, as a banker, he was obliged occasionally to call his customers to account, he ought not in his private capacity to be provoked by such language on the public highway. From what he (Mr. Blackburn) knew of Mr. Tobin, he should think he was exceedingly sorry for what he had done, and would perhaps say so; but what was now asked was that the defendant should be bound over to keep the peace.
Mr. Denison was then called, and deposed:-I am a banker in Leeds. On the 26th of October I was coming from Apperley Bridge to Leeds by railway. At the Kirkstall station Mr. Tobin got into the carriage. He had formerly had a banking account with Messrs. Beckett and Co., and I had been obliged to speak to him about it. Mr. Jno. Yewdall was in the same carriage. When Mr. Tobin got in he said, “Oh, you are here, are you, Mr. Denison. I have been looking for an opportunity of catching you for some time.” I said, “Now, Mr. Tobin, I wish to have no communication with you whatever, and I give you warning that if you use any offensive language towards me I shall apply for a warrant against you as soon as I get to Leeds.” Notwithstanding that warning, he continued from that moment incessantly, until I got out at the Midland Station, using all sorts of opprobrious language towards me, calling me a liar, a dishonourable fellow, a low fellow, an ass; that he had only been restrained by his solicitor from coming to the bank and laying a horse-whip across my back, and all sorts of disgraceful, abominable, and untrue insinuations, this being kept up incessantly for a quarter of an hour. Mr. Yewdall said to him, “Now, Mr. Tobin, I recommend you to be quiet; you have been in trouble once before, aud had much better calm yourself.” He took neither Mr. Yewdall’s advice nor my warning, and continued until the train stopped at Leeds. In consequence of this, I applied for the warrant,
Mr. TOBIN.-When you saw me at the Kirkstall Station, did you pull up the carriage window?
Mr. DENISON.-I did.
Mr. TOBIN.-What was your reason for doing so?
Mr. DENISON.-I looked out of the window at the Kirkstall station; I had ordered my servant to meet me there with a parcel. I let down the window, and seeing that he was not there I pulled it up again.
Mr. TOBIN.-When I got into the carriage at Kirkstall I sat before you, and said, “You are here, you contemptible ass.” This was the language I made use of. I acknowledge I made use of that language. I called him further a dastardly liar.
Mr. LUCCOCK.-Then, if you admit that, there is no occasion to go further into the case.
Mr. TOBIN.-Had I not a law suit with you (Mr. Denison) with regard to my account?
Mr. LUCCOCK.-We can’t go into that: you have admitted the offence with which you are charged, and we shall be happy to hear anything you have to say,in exculpation.
Mr. TOBIN.-The summons charges me with having used offensive and insulting language to Mr. Denison. That I have done so I admit, but I can prove, as I shall show immediately, that he has used equally insulting and even more insulting language to me, because mine was true, and I can prove his to have been false.
Mr. LUCCOCK.-We must stop you at once, for if Mr. Denison ever used insulting language to you tending to a breach of the peace, as you say he did, your duty was to have made application to this court, and you would have got protection. Therefore, we cannot go into any language Mr. Denison may have used to you on any previous occasion. That is no justification for the language you have admitted you used to him.
Mr. DENISON.-I deny having used any insulting language to him.
Mr. TOBIN.-I can call Mr. Eddison, whom I sent to the bank-
Mr. LUCCOCK.-We cannot go into that; we have nothing to do with it. If Mr. Denison at any time (which he now denies) had used such language, the proper course would be to take out a summons.
Mr. BLACKBURN said the statement that Mr. Denison had ever used offensive language was utterly unfounded.
Mr. TOBIN.-I am prepared to prove that this is a case arising out of a lawsuit.
Mr. BLACKBURN.-That would prove what I said respecting Mr. Tobin’s animus.
Mr. LUCCOCK.-What I recommend Mr. Tobin to do is this: He has made the charge so publicly that I think Mr. Denison has a right to demand from Mr. Tobin that he should take out a summons against him for the offensive language he says he has used, and let that case be heard on its own merits. We are now considering a distinct charge- that you (Mr. Tobin) used offensive language, intended to create a breach of the peace on a particular day. That you have admitted, and we are now ready to hear anything you have to say in exculpation.
Mr. TOBIN.-When I sent Mr. Eddison to pay an account of mine, I sent with him my pass-book containing over-charges, unwarrantable over-charges, and even fraudulent charges. I say it publicly.
Mr. LUCCOCK again interposed, and Mr. BLACKBURN protested against these grave accusations.
Mr. TOBIN continued.-I paid under protest.
Mr. LUCCOCK.-We cannot go into that.
Mr. TOBIN.-He (Mr. Denison) told Mr. Eddison I was not to be trusted on my word.
Mr. LUCCOCK once more stopped Mr. Tobin.
Mr. BLACKBURN asked that the defendant should be bound over to keep the peace.
Mr. LUCCOCK.-Our judgment is this:-We consider the language you have used is most unjustifiable, and particularly to a gentleman placed in the almost public position Mr. Denison occupies. We must protect Mr. Denison and all other of Her Majesty’s subjects from any violence or from any breach of the peace that might occur from such language being used. We shall require you to enter into your own recognizance of £100 to keep the peace towards Mr. Denison and all Her Majesty’s subjects for six months, and to find two sureties of £50 each.
The sureties were entered into, and the case terminated.

1356 words.

Tags

Tags are assigned inclusively on the basis of an entry’s original text and any comment. You may find this confusing if you only read an entry excerpt.

• Apperley Bridge (5) ·
• Beckett’s Bank (2) ·
• Breach of the peace (1) ·
• Court (1) ·
• Fraud (21) ·
• Headingley railway station (1) ·
• Leeds Town Hall (15) ·
• 📌Leeds (235) ·
• Luccock, John Darnton (1808-84) (5), Leeds cloth merchant and politician (mayor 1845 and 1864) ·
• Magistrates’ court (England and Wales) (4) ·
• Private banking (1) ·
• Rail transport (22) ·
• Thomas Tennant (2) ·
• Tobin, Martin (ca. 1815-87?) (2), Leeds entrepreneur ·
• William Beckett-Denison (1) ·
• Yewdall, John (2), Wesleyan tea dealer on Briggate and Liberal politician ·

All tags.

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