In the 1891 and 1903 licensing books the Maypole Inn is listed in the Bristol parish of Siston, a small village just south of Pucklechurch. Siston Common is about half a mile to the north of Warmley.
Occupier in 1891: Thomas Taylor
Owner in 1891: Thomas Taylor & Edward Wilmot
Description of License: Alehouse
Gross Estimated Value: £17.0s.0d.
Rateable Value: £14.9s.0d.
Six or Seven Days License: 7
Tied or Free, If tied to whom? – Free
Gloucestershire Chronicle, 6th April 1850 –
CHARGE OF MURDER AT BITTON Moses Gay, George Cole, Giles Shepherd, and Charles Lewis, were indicted for having, on the 29th March last, assaulted Joseph Jefferies, at Bitton, with another man named Peter Gay, and there stabbed and murdered him. Mr Skinner conducted the prosecution, and Mr Cooks defended the prisoners.
Mr Skinner, in opening the case, gave the jury a simple narrative of the shocking circumstances attending this case which happened on the evening of last Friday (Good Friday). The deceased, with several companions, among whom were the prisoners, had been spending the evening together at a beerhouse in Warmley, when Moses Gay gave the deceased a shilling to fetch some bread and cheese with. The deceased went upon the errand, but met Wm Brittan, with whom, for some unexplained reason, he had a fight and returned to the beerhouse without the bread and cheese. He did not return the shilling, and when the parties left the house soon after his return, a quarrel ensued between them about the shilling, and Jefferies was beaten by them all, and Gay stuck a knife in his throat, inflicting a wound 5 inches in depth, and causing his instantaneous death. A young man, named Bigwood, who went to the assistance of the deceased, was also assaulted by Moses Gay, and severely cut with the knife.
Mr Skinner said he should be in a position to prove these facts, and then it would be for the jury to infer from them whether the prisoner Gay, who he should show had waited for the deceased, with the knife ready prepared, had so lay in wait with the intention of using the knife, the others being with him; if so, it would prove such premeditation as would amount to the capital charge of murder.
The following witnesses were then examined: – James Humphreys, keeper of a beerhouse where the parties had been drinking, deposed that at 6 o’clock on Friday night, deceased and six other men came late into his house and had four quarts of ale, having drunk which, it was proposed by one of them that they should have some bread and cheese, to which they were to contribute 2d each; a shilling was given to deceased to fetch it; he went away, but after being out about ¼ of an hour, came back again, with his face bloody, and said he had been fighting in the lane with Wm Brittan; he washed himself. They all went away, and when they left they appeared to be on good terms.
William Brittan deposed that at about seven o’clock on Good Friday night, he heard a voice cry out three times “Willy Brittan” he caught up his hat and ran out of the house, and saw the deceased on the ground with two men; two other men were standing up; the deceased was struggling with the men on the ground, who were beating him. Witness asked what it was all about, and the men who were beating Jefferies said he (Jefferies) had had a shilling to buy some bread and cheese and would not give it up. Witness advised Jefferies to give up the shilling, but he did not. The parties then got up and walked on to a nook in the road called a “drunig” – a place for depositing manure – where the two men again beat Jefferies.
Edward Bigwood then came up. Witness had hold of Jefferies but he broke from his hands, and said he be d— if he would not go after them again; he came up with them, and witness heard his daughter cry out “murder, he is killed” and went up to him. He was then dying. The prisoners were standing by. Edward Bigwood said he was drinking, on Friday evening, at the Maypole, at Warmley, with the deceased, Peter Gay, Charles Lewis and a man called George Gay. They there met Moses Gay, Cole and Sheppard, and had five quarts of ale; all of them, except George Gay, went to Humphreys beerhouse. After being there a little time, Moses Gay gave the deceased a shilling to get some bread and cheese; he soon came back with his face bloody, and said William Brittan had been beating him. They then left the house; witness met in the lane a young woman and a man, with whom he remained about a quarter of an hour, they telling him of Brittan’s assault on the deceased. When he got into the road, he saw the deceased being held up by old Brittan and his daughter; as soon as witness came up, the deceased ran after the other men, and witness followed him. When witness came up with them, he saw the deceased standing up in the middle of them; they were all beating him, and when they came up Jefferies dropped the moment, he caught hold of him. Witness seized one the assailants, upon which Moses Gay stabbed him in the neck with a knife. Gay aimed a second blow at him, but witness seized the knife by the blade and stopped it; the other men then fell upon him; the knife was drawn through his hand, and they all then ran off. The blade of the knife was about six inches in length; when it was drawn through his hand, he fainted and saw nothing more of the men; they were all rather the worse for liquor.
Thomas Brittan, aged 15, said he was coming up the lane on Friday evening, when he saw the Gays and four other men together; one of the Gays had a stone, the other (Moses) had a knife; the men waited for the deceased to come up; when he reached them, he endeavoured to take the knife out of the hand of Moses Gay; one of the men, witness did not know which, then cried out “Stick the knife in the b—– b—–; “ Bigwood was then running up after “Sparrow” the nickname by which deceased was known; witness saw Moses Gay stick the knife twice into Jefferies while he was on the ground; he thrust the knife into the deceased [witness imitated the motion of Gay] Jefferies then got up, and the blood spurted out from his neck in a full stream; Jefferies then proceeded to strike one of his assailants; when Moses Gay hit at him again from behind, but whether he struck him or not witness could not tell; Bigwood then came up, and by that time Jefferies had fallen again to the ground; Bigwood ran at Moses Gay, and caught hold of him, when Gay stabbed him also.
In cross-examination the witness said that the deceased struck Gay previously and knocked him down. Ann Brittan, daughter of Mr Brittan, saw the prisoners in the “drunig” and leave it. They walked in the road, and witness saw Jefferies following them; they waited for him, and as he came up the four prisoners got together “in a bunch;” one of them had a stone, and said to the others “stick a knife in him; no sooner was the word said (continued the witness) then the knife was in his throat, and the blood showed itself. Did not see the knife thrust at the deceased – but it was done immediately; the deceased then endeavoured to walk towards the witness, and exclaimed “Oh, Ann, I shall die ; I shall die!” and fell down. When the men were in the drunig they were beating and kicking Jefferies; and when they left, Jefferies broke away from witness’s farther [sic], and followed them – Mr Cooke cross-examined this and the preceding witnesses, with the view of showing that the deceased and Bigwood were the original assailants.
Mr Biggs, M.R.C.B, deposed that he had made a post mortem examination of the deceased’s body by the direction of the coroner. He found the body healthy, and it presented, generally, appearances of rough usage; the principal contusion was on the forehead, but there was no fracture of the skull; the principal wound received by deceased lay under the collar bone on the right side of the neck, passing in an oblique direction to the centre of the throat. It had entered the windpipe and cut an artery; there was a slight wound on the left side of the chest; death must have been the nearly instantaneous effect of the first wound from hemorrhage. It must have been a clean cut wound, and must have been caused by a sharp instrument. Cross-examined by Mr Cooke – Either the wound must have been inflicted while the deceased was lying on the ground, or the person who inflicted it must have been taller than the deceased. This was the case for the prosecution, and upon it Mr Cooke inquired of his lordship whether it would be necessary to address the jury on the charge of murder. The judge – I think not; I think there is an end to the case as a case of murder. Mr Cooke then submitted that there was not evidence to support a charge of manslaughter.
His Lordship thought Mr Cooke had better go to the jury on that point. Mr Cooke, therefore, addressed the jury shortly, and said the simple question was, whether the deceased was not really the attacking party, and whether the wound was not inflicted in self-defence. Jefferies was a man of a pugnacious disposition, and hence he had been named “The Cock Sparrow” There could be no doubt, he argued, that the wound was inflicted while the parties were struggling on the ground, and that it was inflicted by Gay in self-defence, or by “chance medley” If the jury adopted either alternative, the prisoner was entitled to an acquittal.
The learned Judge summed up the evidence; and in the few brief remarks which he made at the close of his address to the jury, which were audible, was understood to say that if the jury thought the prisoner Gay had inflicted the wound in self-defence, he must be acquitted. If otherwise, they would find him guilty of manslaughter or of a common assault as they might decide. The jury at first expressed a wish to retire, but after a few words further from his lordship, they found the prisoner Gay guilty of a common assault.
The three other prisoners were discharged from custody. Moses Gay, was again indicted for stabbing and wounding Edw Bigwood at the same time and place. Mr Cooke again pressed hard for an acquittal; but the jury summed up less favourably than in the previous case, and the jury again found the prisoner guilty of a common assault. His Lordship then sentenced him to three months’ imprisonment for the first offence, and twelve months for the second.
The above research and information courtesy Dr Martyn Beaufort