THROUGH THE ARCHIVES: Lord Lieutenant issues reward for apprehension of villain

From the News Letter, November 1, 1796
Castle Street in Lisburn where the Rev Philip Johnson, clerk, one of his Majesty’s Justices of the Peace for the County of Antrim, was confronted by “some desperate villain discharged a pistol of fuzee, loaded with a ball” in November 1796 reported the News LetterCastle Street in Lisburn where the Rev Philip Johnson, clerk, one of his Majesty’s Justices of the Peace for the County of Antrim, was confronted by “some desperate villain discharged a pistol of fuzee, loaded with a ball” in November 1796 reported the News Letter
Castle Street in Lisburn where the Rev Philip Johnson, clerk, one of his Majesty’s Justices of the Peace for the County of Antrim, was confronted by “some desperate villain discharged a pistol of fuzee, loaded with a ball” in November 1796 reported the News Letter

The following proclamation which had been issued by the Lord Lieutenant, the Earl of Camden, John Jeffrey Pratt, was published this day in 1796 in the News Letter.

It read as follows: “Whereas we have received information on oath, that on the night of Saturday the 8th day of this instant October, about the hour of nine o’clock, as the Rev Philip Johnson, clerk, one of his Majesty’s Justices of the Peace for the County of Antrim, was about to mount his horse in Castle Street in the town of Lisburn in the said county, to return from thence to his house to Ballymacash in said county, some desperate villain discharged a pistol of fuzee, loaded with a ball, at the said Philip Johnson, with the intent to take away his life.”

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It continued: “Now we the Lord Lieutenant and Council of Ireland, in order to bring to justice the person guilty of the said felony, do hereby publish and declare, that if any person shall within six calendar months from the date hereof, discover the person who fired at said Philip Johnson as aforesaid, so that he may be apprehended and prosecuted to conviction for the said offence, that person shall receive as a reward the sum of THREE HUNDRED POUNDS sterling.”

The proclamation concluded: “And we hereby strictly charge and command all Justices of the Peace, Mayors, Sheriffs, Bailiffs, Constables, and all other of His Majesty’s loving subjects, to use their utmost diligence in the discovery of the said offender.”