This is a sworn statement given in 1814 before a Justice of the Peace by George Booth, constable of Audley, describing his attempt to confiscate a lurcher dog being kept by a farmer called Daniel Colclough for the unauthorised killing of game. On being approached, Colclough

“immediately got the dog in his arms and after asking a boy for a pikel said that he would stab the first man that offered to take the dog. The assistants to this examinant attempting to get at the dog were kept off by the said Daniel Colclough from taking the dog for near ten minutes by the pikel when Daniel Colclough’s brother Samuel Colclough coming over with another pikel joined his brother Daniel in a menacing way. A short time afterwards the examinant asked them whether it would not be better to go along with him to Betley when the two brothers consented but said they would not part with the dog.”

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