Sheffield Independent – Monday 26 August 1889
A Family Squabble at Conisbro’.
On Saturday at Doncaster, Leonard Lawcock, newsagent, Conisbro’, was charged with having assaulted Annie Elizabeth Button, married woman, Conisbro’.
The parties are brother and sister.
It appeared that on the 19th inst. the defendant went to the complainant’s house and asked for his daughter, who was hiding there. The sister, he says, laughed at him, and provoked him so much that he slapped her face. The version of the sister, however, was that the daughter was afraid to go home, and threatened to commit suicide if she was forced to go, because of the way she was treated there.
The father was like a ” madman,” said the grandfather, and his sister was so badly assaulted that she fainted away and had fits, and required medical attention.
The defendant said he wanted the custody of his daughter, who was a very disobedient girl.
Mr. Yarborough (the chairman) said it was a sad family history, but it was a cowardly assault.
The defendant was fined £1. 7s. 6d., including costs.