One man in particular was becoming a real nuisance, he was a mason’s labourer called Francis Laverty who lived on Ecclesfield Common. He appeared once again on the night of Saturday 28 September, having already become quite abusive. He demanded some more ale, but John refused to serve him, saying he had already had enough and asked him to leave. Instead, knowing that the landlord would not refuse if someone else bought him a drink, Francis sat down next to a friend called Charles Moxon. He asked Moxon to buy him a drink and his friend obliged. John had no option but to serve Moxon with four pints shared between the two men.

Nevertheless he watched Francis Laverty carefully in case he started to make any trouble. Around 8 pm Francis was told that his employer, Mr Dowson was holding a supper party in another upstairs room in the Inn. Insisting that his master would buy him some more beer, Francis tried to get inside the upstairs room, but John refused to allow him. Francis insisted and opening the door of the supper room, he shouted to Mr Dowson to invite him inside. Instead, seeing the state of his employee, Dowson took him by the shoulders and pushed him out of the room. Once out the door, he spent little time in telling Francis to go home and that he would deal with him on Monday.

Landlord John grabbed Francis Laverty roughly and tried to eject him out of the Golden Ball all together. But the drunken man just would not listen and instead kicked the landlord hard on his shins. At this point John Hawksworth had enough and taking the drunken man by the collar, he shook him roughly and literally pushed him out of the public house. Nevertheless he was alarmed to see Laverty fall flat on his face. In temper John also kicked him in the side, and threatened what he would do to him if he tried to return. Thirty minutes later, a man came in the Golden Ball and reported that there was a dead man outside lying on the pavement.

John and several of his customers rushed outside, to find Francis Laverty still lying face down on the floor. A doctor was summoned, but there was little he could do, as the man was clearly already dead. The police were called to the scene and John Hawksworth was taken into custody charged with causing the death of Francis Laverty. Accordingly, he was brought before the magistrates at the West Riding Court in Sheffield on Monday 30 September 1878. The Superintendent of Sheffield Police, Mr Gill gave an outline of the case for the bench, before the landlord was asked if he had used much violence in ejecting the man from his house the night before. John insisted that he had not used any excessive force.

Superintendent Gill informed the court that an inquest was due to be held on Tuesday 1 October, so he asked that the prisoner to be remanded and allowed bail, which was granted. At the inquest, surgeon Dr Spowart told the coroner that he had completed the post mortem on Francis Laverty’s body. He stated that although it was obvious that the man had some violence inflicted on him, his death was the result of internal injuries. He found that Francis Laverty had died from suffocation, which had been caused when his lungs had filled with blood. Accordingly, the coroner summed up for the jury who returned an open verdict.

However if John Hawksworth thought for a moment that he had managed to get away with the death of Francis Laverty, he was sadly mistaken. When he was brought back into court on the following Tuesday, he found that the magistrates were taking a much more serious attitude towards the death at the Golden Ball. He read out the prisoners statement when he was arrested by the police officer. In his statement the landlord John Hawksworth said:

‘This a very sad affair and it is a bad job. The man came into my house about seven o’clock last night very drunk. We had a supper party in one of the rooms, and he wanted to force himself amongst the company, and he kicked up a regular bother. His master tried to turn him out of the room upstairs, so then I tackled him. He then kicked me very badly on the legs, and kicked a piece of skin off. So when he kicked me, I kicked him back. I then forced him to the door and I must say I gave him a pretty stiff kick in the back, as I flung him out of the door. I then shut the door to keep him from coming back. I am very sorry it happened, but I did it all in self defence.’

After hearing all the evidence the magistrates committed John Hawksworth for trial at the next assizes charged with manslaughter. It would seem that John Hawksworth was considered to be a respectable man in the area and he was well liked by those who knew him. So much so that a public meeting was held at the Workman’s Hall at Thorncliffe to consider the possibility of forming a fund to help out with the landlords legal expenses in defending himself. There was a very large attendance and a resolution was passed that a committee be formed to organise a fund.

At the Assizes on Friday 7 February 1879, John Hawksworth was brought before Mr Justice Lopes and the prosecution, Mr Clegg opened the case. He stated from the start that he did not think that the facts of the case were very much in dispute. He described the disturbance as the deceased man tried repeatedly to get someone to buy him a drink and how Hawksworth had finally ejected him. He read out the prisoners statement and told the bench the results of the post mortem. He said that the medical evidence had shown that there had been some pressure on the deceased man’s windpipe.

Therefore it was evident that in the struggle, Hawksworth must have at some point, seized the deceased man around the throat. He claimed that he had been irate and violent subsequently as he tried to free himself the prisoner, would have inevitably have tightened his grasp. Evidence from the witnesses were heard and the doctor gave some vital evidence. He said that if a man was drunk and fell heavily on his face, he would not be surprised to find that death resulted from suffocation. The jury debated for a few minutes before giving a verdict that they found the prisoner guilty but they also thought that undue violence had been used.

The judge to clarify matter said that the question they had to answer was did they think that the prisoner was guilty of manslaughter. There then followed a short conversation between the foreman of the jury and his Lordship before they answered that they thought he was ‘not guilty.’ After some further discussion the judge agreed that was enough to show that the prisoner had not caused the death of the deceased. Accordingly John Hawksworth was told that he was discharged.

But if the prisoner was found not guilty of the death of Frances Laverty, it did him no good at all. The death preyed on his mind to such an extent that a year later, aged just 55 he died on Tuesday 23 September 1879. Afterwards it seems that the former landlord had been such a popular fellow that he was carried to his grave by a number of his personal friends and workmen. Most of them had known him from when he had worked at Thorncliffe. John Hawksworth had also been a member of the West Yorkshire Artillery Volunteers, and a detachment from the battery followed him to his grave side.