Harrogate Advertiser - 4th January 1879

Knaresborough Petty Sessions

John Tilburn, labourer, Boroughbridge, Henry Mortimer, labourer, Roecliffe, and James Broadbelt, labourer, Boroughbridge, were charged with trespassing upon land in the occupation of William Winn, Roecliffe, in pursuit of conies, on the 26th December.
James Pearson, gamekeeper to Mr Lawson, of Aldborough, said about a quarter past ten in the morning of Christmas day he saw Mortimer put his fox terrier through Mr Winn's fence into the field in question. Tilburn said Broadbelt was with him at the time.
The dog raised a hare, but lost it in a garden. The defendants then proceeded on the road for 200 or 300 yards and then put the dog into another field. They them passed on to two other fields trying the hedges all the way. Heard one of them say they had run three rabbits into one hole, and they sent Broadbelt to Mr Winn's stack to get a spade.
Witness caught him but afterwards allowed him to join the others. Asked what kind of sport they had had, and defendants said they had not seen a rabbit. The dog was at the hole at this time. Tilburn was in the gutter and the other two were in the fields. Broadbelt did not appear.
They were each fined 10s and 12s 6d expenses.
Pearson whom admitted that he drank some of the defendant's whisky on the morning in question, received a rebuke for doing so from the Chairman.