DESCRIBED in the press report as an impudent fellow, John James stood nonchalantly in the dock, laughing and jesting with all those around him. He had been arrested outside Terminus Station, Southampton, after persistently begging a shilling from passers by and abusing those who would not comply.

"He was using offensive language, certainly not the kind to be uttered in front of ladies and gentlemen who were alighting their carriages," said the curiously unnamed PC 22 who had detained him.

"Nonsense," huffed the defendant who claimed to be English-born but lived in the Channel Islands and was a sailor on his way to Poole.

Mr Bernard, the mayor and chairman of the magistrates, asked where he had come from.

"The station house," he replied.

Bernard rebuked him. "You know you have no business annoying people by begging."

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James however retorted: "I know that the law is this. I may go any churchwarden in any parish who is obliged to give me a shilling, and then me to another who is obliged to do the same." 

Bernard was having none of it from the backseat lawyer. "This may be Jersey law but it will not do here. Now where are you going?"

James replied: "I want a pass to go to Poole."

The magistrates rebuffed him. "This is not the way to Poole. You should walk from here to there."

James looked aghast at such a prospect in the middle of winter. "But, sir, I don't want to walk. My feet are sore and my blood runs from one side to the other. No, no, I want a pass."

Questions and answers went on for several minutes with James looking at ease with himself and the Bench. 

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Eventually, they reached a compromise with him promising to leave town within 24 hours and not beg in the meantime. And with that, he would escape a prison sentence.

Readers of the Hampshire Independent on January 5, 1849, were told the number of beggars thronging the streets was very much on the increase at the time, and James was followed into the dock by one of the most seasoned.

Roland Smith, described as being tall, with greying hair and delicate hands, said he was an agricultural worker from Wallop with a wife and three children to feed.

"I came out of the Union to work," he said. "No man likes to stay in the Union if he can find work, but I cannot find any."

Bernard retorted: "Mr Smith, you could not find work because you did not look for it."

His case was also dismissed after he had given his word that he would immediately leave town.