Posted by Brian J Lilley UK. Being unemployed and receiving benefit in the form of parish relief they were banned from keeping a dog or a gun by law, their homes would be visited by parish officials to make sure they conformed to the benefit regulations. Word would spread quickly when checks were being made and weapons were normally hidden up chimneys. Hope it makes more sense now Be in touch again soon Kind regards Brian
on 27/4/2001, 2:58 pm
Let me try and clarify your query of the "Brother's".
On that night in November, which I imagine was much the same each night, they set out on their poaching expedition, shooting pheasants in order to feed their family's and if they were lucky sell any surplus to Poultry Agents. They were disturbed by three gamekeepers, several fights broke out and Matthais fired his gun, "the accomplice" also had a gun but William was
unarmed. The gamekeeper, Thomas King was injured when gun shot grazed his head but soon recovered, all three escaped but Matthais and William were
caught by the gamekeepers assistants. Because a gun was fired they were charged with ATTEMPTED MURDER which was a capital offence, if they had left their gun up the chimney that night they
would have been charged with the lesser crime of poaching and received the statutory sentence of fourteen years transportation to Australia.
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