William Ogborne fined £5 for murder – Gloucester UK 1850

Mr William Ogborne, aged 68, a respectable commission agent was indicted for having feloniously killed one George Millett, at Almondsbury, in this county.

It appeared that on the 21st of September the prosecutor, who was a cattle-drover, was marking some cattle with blue stone, when, as a practical joke, he marked Mr. Ogborne, who was standing by, on the back of his coat, and burst into a loud laugh. Mr. Ogborne turned to a farmer nearby and asked what the man had done, upon which Milett laughed again, and cried out “Ha! Ha ! old fellow I’ve marked you, and now I’m off.”‘ He then ran a few yards, and Mr. 0gborne followed and came up to him. They both stopped, and Millett continued still to laugh and jeer at Mr. Ogborne by grimacing at him with his mouth wide open, when Mr. Ogborne, being very much incensed, said, ” You scoundrel, you’ve marked me, and I’ll mark you,” and thereupon he raised a walking-stick he carried in his band, and “jobbed ” the end of it towards the open mouth of Millet, but by accident struck him in the left eye, and made a wound an inch deep, which so seriously injured him that be died a few days afterwards.

The prisoner being found guilty by the jury, with a strong recommendation to mercy, his lordship, in consideration of this recommendation, of the high character given to the prisoner, and of his having been seven weeks in prison, sentenced him to pay a fine of £5, and to be imprisoned until the fine was paid.