James Bulkley was one of forty people convicted of disturbing the peace by unlawfully assembling on Golden-Lane street, with the intent to destroy and loot the home of a seemingly innocent civilian, Cornelius Murphy. While James Bulkley was accused of being a part of the mob itself, he was specifically prosecuted for attempting to destroy Mr. Murphy’s house. The crime occurred at Mr. Murphy’s place of residence: Golden-Lane street, on Wednesday 7th of June 1780. Strangely enough, this crime seems uncharacteristic of Mr. Bulkley who was, as we can gather from testimonies of witnesses who knew him, “a very honest hard-working man, a good husband, and a good father” (t17800628-24). These characteristics seem to be true, as further research into…show more content… The trial began with a neighbor, Thomas Smith, claiming to have seen Mr. Bulkley climbing up to Mr. Murphy’s house’s roof and throwing tiles onto the street below. Surprisingly, none of the other witnesses claimed to have seen Mr. Bulkley on Mr. Murphy’s roof, instead agreeing that he was just part of the drunken mob. Edward Beaven, who was the one who reported the crime stated that other members of the mob were threatening to tear down his house next, however he reported only seeing Mr. Bulkley when he offered his wife a cap soaked in gin. Another witness, John Lynch, who also lives on Golden-Lane, had his house destroyed the night before. However, he claimed that Mr. Bulkley actually helped him safeguard his possessions by bringing them to his own house and keeping them safe there until Mr. Lynch’s return. Curiously, it seems that the Mr. Bulkley himself was not present at his trial to offer a defense, although many other witnesses vouched for him and declared him to be an honest, hard-working man. While there was not much evidence to pronounce the defendant guilty of destroying Mr. Murphy’s house, most of the witnesses stated that he was both amongst those in the mob and that he was uncontrollably drunk, all of which lead the court to pronounce Mr. Bulkley guilty of disturbing the
