Ann Raybourn

• Place: Manchester
• Role: Spectator
• Occupation: Daughter of Lodging-House Keeper

Saw soldiers and constables attack her house, firing through the window, claiming they were looking for someone inside. Produced one of the bullets shot through the window as evidence. Lived at No. 1 Watson Street, and was at the meeting.

Account

Name: Ann Rayborn

Occupation: Daughter of Lodging house−keeper

Home: 1 Watson St. Manchester

Date: 9 October 1819

Source: Lees Inquest 524-6

Summary: Soldiers and constables attacked the house, firing through the window, claiming they were looking for someone inside. She produced the bullet that was fired in.

Done by: CW

ANN RAYBORN called in, sworn by the CORONER; examined by Mr. HARMER.

Q. Where do you live?
A. In Watson-street.
Q. With your mother?
A. Yes.
Q. You live with your mother, at No. 1, Watson-street?
A. Yes.
Q. Were you at home at the time of the Meeting in St. Peter's-field, on the 16th of August?
A. Yes, I was.
Q. Did any person from your house, a member of your own family, or any other, fire upon the soldiers that day, or upon any other person, or assault them with stones, or in any other way?
A. No; they did not.
The Coroner—Leading questions will do for cross-examination, but they ought not to be put in examination. If you ask her what did any person, and whom, do, that is a fair question. But she is not to be told by the question, what answer she is to give. These are leading questions in a manner.
Mr. Harmer—I wish you would examine her yourself, Sir.
Mr. Coroner—No; as you have begun, go on. I will examine her afterwards.

The examination of the WITNESS resumed by Mr. HARMER.

Q. Did, or did not, any person, or persons, attack your mother's house; and if they did, who were they?
A. Both soldiers and constables.
Q. Describe to the Coroner and the Jury in what way they attacked your mother's house? Tell it slowly, as the Coroner has to take it down.
A. The first time, they knocked at the door; afterwards they fired through the window; then they broke the panels of the door in, and a young man, of the name of Perry, opened the door for them; and then the constables, and soldiers likewise, came into the house, and went up stairs to search the house. When they came down, they asked me if there was any body at the top of the house?
The Coroner—On the top of the house, to throw any thing.
A. Yes; and I answered, “no," and they went up a second time to search. They fired twice through the window, and once on the landing of the stairs.

The examination of the WITNESS resumed by Mr. HARMER.

Q. Well, go on.
A. One of the constables then asked me again, if I had any road on to the top of the house, and I said we had not. Then, when he came down again, he said the stone had come from the top of the house, and I said it had not. He said, if I contradicted him, he would knock me down.
Q. In point of fact, was there any person, to your knowledge, on the top of your house; or can any person get to the top of your house from the inside?*
A.. No; and no person could get to the top of our house without a ladder placed on the outside of our house.
Q. You say they fired through the window. Was it through the chamber window, from the outside, that they first fired?
A. Yes.
Q. Was the window broken?
A. Yes.
Q. Was the sash of the window down?
A. Yes, it was.
Q. How long had you been from the window before the shot was fired.
A. Not above a moment. I had just got to the room door.
Q. Was there any bullet came into the room?
A. Yes.
Q. Have you that bullet with you?
A. Yes; I have.
Q. Produce it?

(The Witness here produced the bullet. It was somewhat flattened; and was handed to the Jury, who examined it.)

The WITNESS examined by the CORONER.

Q. How many stories high is your house?

* It is a fact worthy of remark, that all the houses surrounding St. Peter’s-field (except one near the Windmill Public House) have no parapets, and are so slated with a slope, that a person could with difficulty stand on them, and must be visible to all on the field. The house, No. 1, in Watson Street, is peculiarly so in its situation.

A. Two, from the ground.
Q. Tell me at what time in the day it was, that the people burst into your house?
A. Between two and three o'clock in the afternoon.
Q. How much after two o'clock? Tell me as exactly as you can?
A. About half past two o'clock, I think.
Q. When the soldiers and constables burst in?
A. Yes.
Q. How did they come into the house? Was the door opened for them?
A. It was opened for them after they knocked.
Q. Do I understand you to say, that the bullet came through the sash that was open, or through the glass?
A. No, the sash was open.
Q. Did it come through the sash then?
A. Yes, it came through the glass.
Q. What glass did it come through?
A. Through the window.
Q. Was it a low room, or a middle room, or a top room?
A. It was the chamber window.
Q. What became of it, after it came through the glass?
A. I found it on the room floor, after the constables and people had gone away from the house.
Q. How long after they had gone from the house?
A. About half an hour afterwards.
Mr. Harmer (to the Coroner)—Will you be good enough to ask the witness, Sir, whether the mark is now visible on the wall and the ceiling, where the bullet struck?
The Coroner—She ought to have said it, and then I would have asked her what she saw.
Mr Harmer—Then I should hope the Jury would ask her.
The Coroner—The other witness told it. But she did not satisfy me of it.
Mr. Harmer—I think you are extremely sceptical; but I wish even to convince you.
Mr. Radley—I propose now to call Jane Whittaker, Mr. Coroner.
Mr. Harmer—Mr. Radley now proposes, Sir, to call a witness, named Jane Whittaker. I have no objection to it, only one would wish to know in what situation he appears here.
[Mr Radley made no answer.]
Mr. Harmer—This person proposes to call a witness, Sir; I should wish to know in what capacity he appears here.
The Coroner—Mr: Chadwick, the Constable of Oldham, employed him, he told me; and I desired him to take notes for me.
Mr. Radley—If it is any satisfaction to you, Mr. Harmer, you may see my notes. I have not seen the notes that have been taken by others
Mr. Harmer—I don't accuse you of any thing unfair, Sir, or improper. I do not make such groundless accusations as are made by other persons.

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