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Source: Bell's Weekly Messenger, No.1815, Sunday, January 9, 1831

Desperate Assault.

At the Middlesex Sessions, on Friday, William King and James Morris were indicted for having committed a violent assault on John Young, one of the keepers in the Penitentiary. The prisoners were confined in the Penitentiary under sentence of transportation. Having created a great disturbance in the building, Mr. Young reported their conduct to the Governor. On the day in question, having got out of their cells by a false pretence, they attacked Mr. Young, Morris being armed with a tailor's sleeve-board, which he had concealed in the back of his dress, and the other with a metal pot. Having knocked Mr. Young down they beat him dreadfully about the head, and would undoubtedly have killed him, if his cries had not brought assistance. The injuries, as it was, which Mr. Young received, were so severe, that from a stout hearty man be had been reduced to a decrepit state, and it was probable, that, as long as he lived, he would never again be the man he was before. The prisoners were found Guilty, and sentenced each to one year's additional confinement.