From the South Eastern Gazette, 6 July 1852.

RIOT BY SOLDIERS AT CHATHAM.

Arthur Drum, 24, James Hill, 18, and Joseph McNaught, 18, soldiers, belonging to the 12th regiment, were involved for unlawfully assembling with others, and creating a riot, assaulting William Ledger, and breaking and injuring his dwelling-house, at Chatham, on the 2nd June.

The case was full reported in the Gazette at the time , and the facts of the case are briefly these:-

The prosecutor, William Ledger, keeps a beer shop, the "Spotted Cow," at Chatham. At about a quarter past two on the morning of the 2nd June, he heard some one at his bed-room window, as if they were trying to lift it up. Some one said "Mr. Ledger, get up; I know you get up at a quarter or half after three to mike your cows." he heard something fall, and Drum whose voice he knew, said, "Mr. Ledger, get up, your ______ sign has come down." The party then pushed the side post of the door and ledger and his wife then went to the front room and opened the window, when some soldiers ran by, the prisoners Hill and Drum being two of them. Drum turned back and broke four panes of glass with a stick, upon which ledger called a man who works for him, and then Drum hit him with the stick and said he would knock his _____ head off. They all then ran towards the new church, knocking the doors and window shutters as they went. When Drum struck at Ledger, he (Ledger) said he knew him again, and Drum said he owed him a grudge and he would pay him for it. Ledger prosecuted Drum at the last sessions for stealing a broom, at which time he threatened vengeance against him, saying that when he got clear of that, he and some more would come and pull his _____ house down. previous to going to Ledger's they proceeded to a house on the Brook, Chatham, where a woman named Crane lived, and who was standing at her door, but on seeing some soldiers coming towards her, she went in and fastened the door. They knocked at the door, and McNaught told her to open it. She told them not to come interrupting her. Drum said, if you do not open the door we will burst it in." They then left, but came back, and McNaught said "Open the door, I've got half a crown." She told them to go somewhere else, when they broke the lock and shoved the door in. One got on top of the house and began pulling the tiles off. The party then proceeded to Harriet Newton's also on the Brook, and broke the fence and windows. Mrs. Crane knew Drum and McNaught by their voices. Several witnesses were called in support of the above statement.

The prisoner Hill called two witnesses to prove an alibi.

Drum, six months' hard labour, Hill and McNaught, four months' hard labour.