Richard Stanley and James Stanley, gipsies, were summoned by Mr. Jabez H. Mugford, timber merchant and farmer, of Bovey Tracey, for committing wilful damage to the extend of £1 by cutting out "moots", weighing 80lb., from the hedge of a field belonging to him near the level crossing on the Teign Valley Railway, on the 10th instant. Defendants were seen committing the damage with an axe by P.C.'s Slee and Manning, who were some distance off; and when the constables accused the gipsies of the offence they denied it, going on their knees and calling upon God to strike them dead if they were not telling the truth. - It appears that the defendants have been encamped on Knighton Heath for the last three weeks, and that there have been many complaints about their depredations. - The Bench fined them £1 10s. each, and as they paid the money the defendants caused some commotion in Court by their uncomplimentary expressions to the police and their queer behaviours in other ways.
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Extracted From:
South Devon Gazette - Thursday, 22nd March 1883
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