A Duel Interrupted — Wandsworth Common and Clapham Common
Three men, who gave their names as James Wilkinson, Edward Jones, and William Smith, were charged at Union-hall with being concerned in a duel which was to have taken place on Wandsworth Common on the morning of 20 March 1839 but was prevented by the police. A police constable, seeing a cabriolet followed closely by a coach heading at speed towards Wandsworth Common, followed them. He saw the parties alight, proceed across the common, heard a report of fire-arms and saw smoke, but before he could reach them all persons fled to their vehicles and drove towards Clapham. The constable cut across the fields and arrived at Clapham Common just as the principals were about to take their ground; he rushed in and secured the three defendants, one of whom had a duelling pistol in his hand. The other two principals — one of them the second principal — made their escape into a cabriolet.