Cambridge Chronicle 26 Oct 1832: Stearn Winnel and Harradine acquitted of conspiring to raise the rate of wages
James Stearn, Thomas Winnel, and William Harradine, were charged with conspiring to raise the rate of wages in the parish of Trumpington, near Cambridge. It appeared that the prisoner Stearn, had openly declared his intention, with others, during last harvest to drive all the Irishmen from the village, and told a man that a quantity of hedge and fold stakes in his house were for that purpose. Late at night on the 30th of July, Stearn and many others went to the house of Colonel Pemberton’s overseer, and demanded of him to turn the Irishmen from his barn; this he refused to do, and after some altercation, they went away, telling him they would come again in the morning. No evidence, however, appearing that they had conspired for the purpose of raising wages, as charged in the indictment, the CHAIRMAN directed the jury to acquit the prisoners; and on dismissing them, said he hoped their narrow escape would act as a warning to them and to others, and begged them to remember that England and Ireland being now one country, Irish labourers had an undoubted right to seek employment in any part of the kingdom.