Local newspapers can really help paint a picture of our ancestors, and life in general, whether or not it directly relates to our ancestors, that no amount of censuses, or BMDs will do.

In the wonderfully entitled “Potter’s Electric News” on 31 Jan 1866, the following article appeared about a member of my Gambold family in Pembrokeshire:

William Gambold, farm servant, was charged with deserting the service of James Phillips, of Wolfsdale.

In answer to the charge, defendant said that he left because his master told him to go. He hired on the 5th of October for twelve months at £3 10s. The tenant man grumbled about the cheese supplied to them, and he also grumbled, as it was too hot. The complainant came out and asked him if the horses had gone a-field, and he replied that they were. The complainant the said:- ‘Then go about your business.’ He asked him a second time if he wanted him, when the complainant said ‘No; you can go.’

The complainant said that there had been no complaint respecting the cheese. The defendant threw the cheese away because he wanted butter. The tenant man and defendant were in the habit of having butter on Sunday, but on this occasion there was a scarcity of butter and they had none. He asked him if the horses were gone a-field, and he said that they were. He asked him where he was going, and he replied that he was going to his father. Defendant asked him if he was free to go, and he (complainant) said that he was at liberty to go to his father, but he did not mean that he should leave his service.

In cross-examination, the complainant denied that he told defendant to go about his business. He did not tell defendant’s father that he would not take him back: he would like to have him back, as he was a good riser and a good worker.

Mr Starbuck: Will you go back if you have better cheese?

Defendant: I did not leave on account of the cheese: I went because I was sent away.

Margaret James deposed that she was sent up to her master for butter by defendant and another man. They said the cheese was too hot. She delivered the message to her master. She ate the cheese every day: it was not too hot.

The defendant, called his father, William Gambold, of Spittal, who deposed that he saw the complainant in Bridge-street, and asked him why he sent the defendant away. The complainant said: ‘I don’t know about sending him off: but I said you can be off if you like.’ He (witness) said that he ought to have given him a month’s notice.

The Bench dismissed the case. Ordering the complainant to pay the costs amounting to 8s 6d.