Johnson Edgar for the Prosecution

Johnson Edgar, the third of that name, was born sometime around 1794 in Preston St Mary, Suffolk. He had two older sisters and one older brother, Thomas, and my guess is that this was the Thomas Edgar who was buried in Preston St Mary on September 1, 1802,[1] and that Johnson became the oldest son and heir. On October 20, 1816 he went to the next parish to marry Sarah Makin at Kettlebaston, where she was born on January 19, 1800.[2]

Johnson was obviously an upright man because in June 3, 1837 he took himself to the Lion Inn, Monks Eleigh, along with two other Preston men to attend the fiftieth annual meeting of the Monks Eleigh Association For Prosecuting Persons Guilty of Felony. He and the others agreed to stump up five shillings and sixpence to 'defray the expences (sic) of the past year'.[3] One of the Monks Eleigh contingent, Joseph Makin, might well have been a relative of his wife. The Makins were, in any case, a prominent local family.

What was this Association anyway? I found online the founding agreement of the West Bromwich Association, which goes back to 1773, so it was a well-established idea by the time Johnson joined up.[4] To put it in a nutshell: if  a member was the victim of a felony committed by a non-member the Association would pay the expenses of the prosecution, on condition that the member played his part in the judicial process and generally acted correctly. The rationale was that otherwise it could be so expensive to bring a villain to justice that crimes could be committed with impunity, so the Association's activities benefitted the public, and, much more particularly, its members, by making would-be criminals think twice before breaking the law.

It wasn't long before Johnson's 5s 6d. was to turn out to be money well spent. Later that month a presiding magistrate, the Reverend R. W. Hallward, charged Isaac Robinson[5] on Johnson's oath with 'receiving money and goods at various times in his name and on his (Johnson's) account whilst in his service, and fraudulently embezzling the same'.[6] Johnson turned up at a Crown Court session at Bury St Edmunds on Wednesday July 5 to give evidence against Robinson. The account of the trial confirms he was both a miller and farmer at this time - I'll describe his work, family and status at this time in the next post. He's referred to as 'prosecutor' as well as witness so it looks like he was acting with the support of the Association and that this was a public and private prosecution at the same time.

It seems that Johnson had an account with one Rampling, who kept a pub in Lavenham[7] and that Rampling had allowed Robinson to drink on Johnson's account, and Robinson, who presumably had no such authorisation, had settled his bill by marking Rampling's own debts to the mill for flour and bran as 'paid' when they hadn't been. This all came out after Johnson sacked Robinson in late May. Mr. O'Malley, Robinson's defender, made heroic attempts to get his client off on a technicality involving the exact definition of 'embezzlement' but to no avail. The Jury found him guilty, but recommended mercy - and Johnson concurred, as he felt Robinson had been led into it by Rampling. It was stated that Robinson faced another charge, and the  judge sentenced him to 9 months, the last week in solitary.[8]

As Johnson left court that day he was happily spared the knowledge that about 30 years later one of his own nephews would appear at Ipswich Crown Court on a charge of, yes, embezzlement. But that too is the subject of a future post.

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[1] http://search.findmypast.co.uk/record?id=gbpr%2fd%2fnbi06263796

[2] http://search.findmypast.co.uk/record?id=gbprs%2fm%2f215010620%2f1; http://www.threetrees.plus.com/Kettle/d10.htm

[3] The Ipswich Journal, (Ipswich) Saturday June 10, 1837.

[4]https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=jkJiAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA3&lpg=PA3&dq=Association+For+Prosecuting+Persons+Guilty+of+Felony&source=bl&ots=39mTcCaLp1&sig=sXVF63upCcyFik-uN6Ys05dOGRE&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CC4Q6AEwA2oVChMIhcXR8d2vxwIVBBvbCh3DlQTO#v=onepage&q=Association%20For%20Prosecuting%20Persons%20Guilty%20of%20Felony&f=false

[5] The only man of that name and of bout the right age I can find is documented to have been living at Wetherden, 11 miles from Preston, before and after the year in question (1837). He may or may not have moved to Preston in between.

[6] The Ipswich Journal, (Ipswich) Saturday June 17, 1837.

[7] The only male Rampling I can find in Lavenham in the 1841 Census is Peter, a silk weaver.

[8] The Ipswich Journal, Saturday July 8, 1837.