In 1834, William Sutton was charged by George Banks, constable of the Parish (pre-official police force, often unpaid), of harbouring people of notoriously bad character. Banks claimed he found women of bad character, including a girl of thirteen, sitting on a man’s knee drinking ale. Sutton replied he had only been holding the license for two weeks. He was warned of his conduct.
Again, in March 1834, Thomas Cartwright and a man named Carpenter – who were in the employ of Moses Pegg, informer – deposed that they left the Magpie just after 10 pm, doing a round of the beer houses to see if any were breaking the law. They approached the Raven in Belgrave Gate and saw a women coming out with a jug of ale some time later. The pair then went up the side passage, knocked on the rear door and were let in. Carpenter’s evidence was word for word the same as Cartwright’s. William Sutton was duly charged with serving after hours.
When cross examined, Carpenter became agitated. He had formally been accused of entrapment of beerhouse keepers as he was out of work and needed money. Joseph Sutton, the landlord’s son, swore that, when he came home from work around 9:45 pm the house was shut up. The magistrates stopped the case and dismissed the evidence.
In October 1834, Moses Pegg once again made charges against the Raven but again, much to his annoyance, the case was dismissed.
These are the only yet known references.
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