Outrage near Macclesfield

It is Friday again, when I share something that I have found whilst looking for records, that is interesting or adds information to our family tree.

Francis William Hooley shares a family name, but so far I have found no family connection. A record found shows that on 8 December 1890, Francis was sentenced to 8 years penal servitude for arson and 1 week's imprisonment for the unlawful wounding. He was sent to Stafford prison.

From: Congleton & Macclesfield Mercury, and Cheshire General Advertiser 30 August 1890, page 8

The transcription reads:

OUTRAGE NEAR MACCLESFIELD.- Macclesfield and the district has been thrown into a state of excitement by its becoming known on Tuesday that the daughter of a respectable farmer (Mr. Bonsall, Higher Sutton), had been brutally assaulted on Saturday night. It seems that about nine o'clock on Saturday night a boy was accosted by a young man on the highway, and robbed of 3d. The thief went in the direction of Mr. Bonsall's farm, and about half an hour afterwards while Miss Bonsall, aged 21, was going along a footpath which leads through her father's farm she was accosted by a man who asked her who she was and what she was doing there. He made a remark to the effect that she was trespassing, and she told him who she was, whereupon he suddenly seized her and threw her down, and behaved in a most violent manner. He seized her by the throat, and she struggled and shouted "murder" as loudly as she could, but the more she shouted the more firmly the ruffian grasped her throat, and kicked an otherwise ill-treated her. Fortunately, Mr. Bonsall was in the house, and on hearing cries of someone in distress he ran down the field, and it was only on getting close to the struggling couple that he recognised the cries of his child for help. On Mr. Bonsall's approach the villain decamped, Miss Bonsall was at once taken home, and information given to the police; she is still suffering from shock, and is badly bruised all over her body, her teeth having penetrated through her upper lip in the struggle. She states that the man, whom both she and her father recognised, was Francis William Hooley, a dyer, twenty two years of age, in the employ of Mr. Whiston, of Langley. Before making off he swore he would set fire to all the farms about the place; whether this was a mere idle threat or not it is impossible to say, but it is a notable coincidence that the same evening no fewer than four farm fires took place in the locality. In one case-that of Mr. Millward's farm-damage was done to the amount of £400.