THE Southampton Michaelmas Quarter Sessions of 1843 began on a unique note with a juror refusing to be empanelled because of his conscience.

The potential panel had gathered in the confined space of the Bargate court, and as their names were called, stepped into the box. However, when Thomas Barnes was asked to take the oath in the case of a woman charged with shoplifting, he refused to do so.

"I feel totally unfit to be in this situation," he told the astonished judge, Recorder A E Cockburn.

"How so?" he asked.

"I cannot convict," he explained. "I believe society accountable for the crimes of the poor creatures brought to this tribunal. They are forced into commission of crimes either through poverty, ignorance or avarice. This is my conviction and I cannot convict."

The judge responded: "Well, there may be a good reason why the prosecutor should challenge you but I cannot admit the excuse. For any persons might advance similar notions until we have no jurymen at all."

Fanny Covey, described as a woman of respectable appearance, had been indicted for stealing a pair of gloves from a linen draper, and one by one the other jurors readily took the oath until the Bible was passed to Barnes who once more asked to be excused. "It is a punishment in my mind to be forced to remain here as I believe the defendants are prisoners of the vices of society."

He was then abruptly cut short by the judge who told him: "You are not here to make speeches. You must remain and be sworn."

Realising Barnes was so entrenched in his stubborn stance, the prosecutor Mr Sewell wisely objected to his presence and raised fears that he might influence the other jurors but recommended he should remain in court in case his services were later needed.

The judge agreed and ordered Barnes to stay in the public gallery for the rest of the sessions.

Sewell then proceeded with the case, outlining how Covey had gone into the premises to buy some gloves but unable to find anything suitable, she promptly left. However, when the assistant put all the gloves back into a box, he found one pair missing. He chased after Covey and brought her back into the shop where she emphatically denied stealing them. 

She was searched but no gloves were found in her possession. The shop assistant then went outside and recovered them at the same spot in the street where he had challenged her. Refusing to accept her explanation, he found a police officer who took her to his adjacent station where she begged to be released.

Protesting her innocence, she declared: "I can only think they must have caught up in my shawl without my knowledge."

Mr Saunders, defending, urged jurors to believe her explanation and called several witnesses who testified to her excellent character. Following a short summing-up by the judge, jurors deliberated for just a few seconds and without leaving their seats, acquitted her.

The only other case of interest centred on William Barber who was accused of stealing two rabbits which were placed on the clerk of the court's table as exhibits. Throughout the proceedings, one stood cross-legged and had on its back a growth similar to a camel's hump.

Not surprisingly, the loser, police officer John Leigh, professed: "There's not another like it in England."

In both cases, the prosecution alleged Barber had crept into the back garden of both losers and removed the pair from their cages. In his defence, he claimed he had legitimately bought the rabbits and sold them on.

But the jury disbelieved him and he was to spend the next four months behind bars.