| Notes |
- AN ATROCIOUS CASE
At Durham Assizes, on Tuesday, Thomas Rainshaw (sic) aged 24, George Lewins, aged 22, and Miles Handy, aged 40, all pitmen, were indicted for a rape on Maria Page, an old woman of 64 years of age, at Washington, on the 15th of August last. The prosecutrix, who appeared in court to be a feeble old woman, on being sworn immediately fainted, and it was some time before she could give her evidence. It appeared from her statemant that she left Blanchard, a place near Newcastle, and on the morning of the 15th August at five o'clock, and walked to Washington, a distance of thirty-two miles, to see a son residing near there, at Penshur, and she arrived at Washington, at about ten o'clock at night, and, tired with her journey, called at the New Inn to get a glass of ale and a pipe. She asked the landlady to put her into a room where there were no men, but she was put into a room where the three prisoners were drinking, the landlady telling her that she knew them. She there got into a conversation with these men, and spoke of a relative named Palliner, who lived in Usworth, a neighbouring village. The prisoners told her they knew him very well, and were neighbours of his, and persuaded her to go there rather than to Penshur, as it was late, and they would see her safe there. She left with them at eleven o'clock, and at the door saw a policeman, whom she asked if she might trust the men. The policeman told her she might, as he knew the men. She went with them a short distance, when they came to a stile which led by a pathway across a barley field, and they told her that was the nearest way. She was assisted ove the style by the prisoner Rainshaw(sic), who shortly after put his arm round her neck. She said to him, "Don't lean on me, young man; I am an old woman, and am tired." He then threw her down in the field among the barley, and, according to her statement, Rainshaw (sic), followed by the prisoner Handy, each in succession committed the offence charges, Lewins holding her, and endeavouring with his hand over her mouth to prevent her crying out. Her cries brought a boy named Keegan to the place, who heard her from his father's house near, and he spoke to standing by and seeing both rainshaw(sic) and Handy commit the offence. He told them "to let the old woman be;" and she then got up and walked quickly away to the stile, followed by Rainshaw(sic), and he said something to her, and she promised not to tell if they would let her go. The boy went off with Handy. He saw no other men there, and Lewins was not there. The prosecutrix went back to the New Inn, where she arived about a quarter past twelve, and was unable to knock at the door, she was so exhausted; but she made a noise which induced the landlady to open the door, and she was found lying against the wall, her hair dishevelled, her bonnet crushed, her face bleeding, and one of her teeth broken. next day the surgeon who examined her found her suffering from great nervous shock, great tenderness of the body, and there were various bruised marks about her person; a finger of her left hand was broken, and she exhibited appearances which, without any statement, would have led him to conclude that the offence charged had been perpetrated upon her. For some time she was in considerable danger. The prisoners were taken into custody next day. The jury returned a verdict of guilty agianst all the prisoners. - His Lordship, in passing sentence, said the Jury, by a verdict in which he concurred, had convicted them of an offence which exceeded in brutality what he had ever heard during an experience of many years. A very few years ago the offence of which they had been convicted was a capital offence, and had it remained so they would most assuredly have been left for execution. He felt it to be his duty to pass on them a sentence scarcely less terrible, and that sentence was that they each of them be sent into penal servitude for the term of their natural lives. the men were then removed, their female relatives and friends outside, as soon as the sentence was learnt, setting up a most terrible wailing.
Birminghan Daily Post
10 December 1864
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1841 - 1915 (74 years) Has 2 ancestors and 53 descendants in this family tree.
1806 - Bef 1851 (< 44 years)
Luke RAMSHAW, b. 18 Aug 1811, Byker, Northumberland, England
Margaret LEWINS, b. Abt 1843, Durham, England 
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