On Saturday 19 December 1835, Mr David Miller was in his hardware shop in Fargate when he received a box which had arrived on Mr Bradleys coach that afternoon. The porter charged him a shilling for carriage and porterage, which Miller quickly paid. Although the box held a label with his address, and also had a second one with ‘Birm, Dec 18’ written on it. Miller did not, at that time recognise the handwriting, nor could imagine who had sent anything to him from Birmingham. Curiously inspecting the box before he opened it, Miller noted that one end of the box had been sealed down very securely with lots of tape. Slowly he began to feel somewhat suspicious of this parcel, so he took it into an outbuilding and laid it on the floor.
Above it, he rigged up a four stone weight attached to a rope which he hung from a hook in the ceiling. As Miller let the rope go, it dropped and caused a fracture in the wood of the box from which gunpowder appeared. Also among the gunpowder were eight or nine ‘crackers’ which were attached to the sides and the lid of the box. He assumed that these were intended to explode the gunpowder upon opening. Miller went immediately to Mr Bradley’s coach office and upon enquiring about the box, was told by one of the porters that two other similar boxes from Birmingham had also arrived.
They too had been delivered that morning. One addressed to Edward Hobson and the other to Benjamin Rose. Miller immediately rushed to warn his business acquaintances about not opening the boxes. Going first to Rose’s shop, which was near to his own premises on Fargate, Miller burst through the shop door and asked Rose if he had opened the box, warning him that it had been filled with gunpowder. Rose replied that he hadn’t, so Miller asked if he could see it. Rose said it was upstairs and that he would fetch it down. He went up the stairs, but although Miller could hear him moving about, he wondered what was taking him so long. Finally, Rose came back downstairs empty handed.
By this time, Miller’s curiosity was fully aroused, as Rose now pointed to an unopened box situated on the other side of the counter and said that was the one. To make things even more suspicious, Miller could not help but notice that the box was nothing like his own. Rose’s behaviour had been so strange that after considering it for some time, he went to the Town Hall to report the matter to the police. He spoke to Constable James Wild and told him how strangely Benjamin Rose had been acting. He also revealed his suspicions that he had been the one who had sent the three gunpowder parcels. Needless to say, that officer went immediately to Rose’s premises and demanded to see the box that had been delivered that morning.
However, he was told that after Miller had told him about the gunpowder, he had taken it to a nearby cooper called Jarvis to have him open it. After hearing this, PC Wild took Benjamin Rose into custody, charging him with sending David Miller and Edward Hobson, boxes loaded with gunpowder which had been constructed to explode upon opening. Consequently on Tuesday 22 December 1835 Rose was brought before the magistrates at the Sheffield Town Hall. However, even before the case could be heard, a conundrum was established. The prisoners defence solicitor, Mr Dixon told the court that the prisoner had only been apprehended the previous afternoon. He asked for a remand in order in order to prepare the defence for his client.
However the prosecution, Mr Palfreyman objected, stating that the bench could not remand the prisoner without some evidence being brought against him. However if they did so, it might defeat the ends of justice to detail any part of it at that time. The magistrates agreed, but said that they needed to hear sufficient grounds against the prisoner in order to remand him in the first place. Finally it was decided that Constable James Wild’s opinion would be sought, and he was called into the courtroom. Wild stated that he was aware that there were sufficient ground to charge the prisoner and agreed that it would be highly improper to relate any of the facts at that time. A remand in custody was ordered and Mr Dixon promptly asked for bail, which was refused.
Benjamin Rose was accordingly returned back into court on Saturday 26 December when the case was due to be heard in full. The prosecution, Mr Palfreyman stated the nature of the charge against Benjamin Rose. He informed the bench as to the law referring to anyone sending gunpowder through the post, in order to injure or murder the party to whom it was sent. Miller was the first witness and he gave evidence on the box being delivered to his premises and described the label with ‘Birm, Dec 18’ on it. He was asked by the prosecution if he recognised the handwriting on it. He told the court that he had seen Rose’s handwriting on many occasions and claimed that it was identical to the writing on the label.
The witness also produced a number of receipts, which also held the prisoners signature and they were shown to and compared by the magistrates. Miller claimed that they were all identical, nevertheless the bench was not so sure. There certainly was some legal dispute about whether the handwriting on the cards should even have been admitted at evidence and as to whether they should be brought into question at all. It was finally agreed that the identification of the handwriting was very unclear and therefore could not be used in a question of law. Cross examined by Mr Dixon, Miller stated that he had known the prisoner a long time and had no grudge against him as far as he knew.
Mr Palfreyman, in referring to the testing of the box in the outbuilding, then asked if there had been an explosion when the weight dropped onto the box. Miller said that there hadn’t. When asked about Edward Hobson to whom the second box had been addressed, Rose said he had dealt with him also through his business. At this point PC Wild produced the box which had been sent to Hobson and which had been handed over to a local cooper called James Jarvis for testing. The cooper was next to give evidence, and Jarvis told the court that he lived in Snig Hill, Sheffield and had known both Miller and Rose for many years. The witness said that when the box was tested, that he too had found gunpowder in it when opened.
He described how Miller had come into his shop in Lambert Croft on 19 December and had asked him to drill a hole in the box. He warned Jarvis to be careful as he suspected there was ‘something not quite right about it.’ Jarvis told the court that the two men ended up taking the box out into the yard and carefully prising the lid off. He had poured the powder out and found it weighed six pounds in total. Parkinson Webster was the next to give his evidence, and he told the court that he was a porter at Mr Bradleys Coach Office. He stated that on 19 December he had taken delivery of three boxes which had come from Birmingham. He reported that he had delivered one box to David Miller, the second box he had handed to Mrs Rose and the third to Mr Hobson.
PC James Wild told the court that on the previous Saturday around 5 pm, Miller had come to his house and reported that he had received a box full of gunpowder and that Rose and Hobson had also received boxes similarly packed. Edward Hobson told the court that he had been made aware that a box addressed to him was waiting at the coach office for delivery. The witness was asked if the card on the box were in Rose’s handwriting. Hobson stated that he thought it was Rose’s handwriting, although he could not swear to it for sure. He described how the coachman came to his workplace and informed him that a box had arrived at the coaching office for him and about 3.30 pm, so he went to fetch it.
Only at the coach office was he also informed about the other two similar boxes. A quarter of an hour later Miller came to warn him about opening the box. This was the case for the prosecution, although at this point there was again a dispute as to whether Benjamin Rose should be allowed bail. Mr Palfreyman stated that even if the case was proved against the prisoner, it could only be classed as a demeanour and he began to quote some legal authorities to prove it. One of the magistrates, Mr Hugh Parker suggested that the prisoner be remanded in custody until Tuesday 29 December and that meanwhile the third box should be opened carefully by PC Wild. He suggested that would give him time to seek some legal clarification on the matter before the court was finally cleared.
When the court reconvened on Tuesday 29 December 1835, the prisoners defence Mr Dixon opened his defence by citing a similar case which had taken place in Birmingham recently. He described how a man had also been sent a tin case charged with gunpowder, which had been constructed to explode upon opening. Upon hearing about this case, Mr Dixon said that he had sent a letter to the Law Courts, querying as to whether the crime would be categorised as a misdemeanour or a capital offence and he was still awaiting their response. Police Constable James Wild produced the third box which had now been opened. He showed the court how it had contained a quantity of gunpowder and a cracker, one side of which was attached to the lid.
The other cracker was attached to the side of the box, in the expectation that it would blow up when the box was opened. However a witness who had attended the opening with the constable, Mr V Corbett stated clearly that there had been no explosion when the box had been opened. The defence, Mr Palfreyman pointed out that the court must be satisfied that the device was really intended to explode, otherwise there was no case against his client. He stated that the crackers were made of silver nitrate which would not ignite gunpowder. He concluded that without that, the total charge against the prisoner had rested entirely on the identification of the handwriting.
Mr Dixon stated that although two witnesses (Miller and Hobson) had swore it was the prisoners writing, a third witness had denied it was Rose’s handwriting at all. Therefore the evidence against his client was shaky to say the least. Evidence was also given from a man called George Foster who told the court that he and the prisoner had married two sisters. On the night before the incident, Rose and his wife had been at the house of her sister from 9 pm to 11 pm. Therefore he could not have travelled to Birmingham in order to send the parcels. Other witnesses gave evidence of the prisoners character which was reported to be of an upright, kind and humane disposition.
However the most important witness, was a manufacturer of fireworks in Sheffield called Mr Bywater. He told the court that he had scientifically examined the box and stated inequivalently that the crackers would never have ignited the gunpowder. His evidence was backed up by a second firework manufacturer, Mr John Gascoigne of Leeds. After hearing all the witness statements, the magistrates consulted for some time between themselves. Mr Hugh Parker stated that the bench had considered all the evidence, but that they were still undecided and therefore they would prefer to have a judges decision on the matter. Accordingly Benjamin Rose was sent to take his trial at the next Assizes.
Thankfully by the time the prisoner was brought before the court at York on Thursday 10 March 1836, the case against him had been reduced to that of a simple misdemeanour. The evidence was heard by Mr Coltman in the Grand Jury Room, and due to the fact that the charge had been reduced, the jury put a stop to the defence. They immediately returned a verdict that the prisoner was clearly not guilty. Thankfully Benjamin Rose was able to leave the courtroom without a stain on his character.