Commonwealth v. Hopkins

This is a complaint for keeping a “common, ill-governed and disorderly house.” The defendant requested the judge to instruct the jury, that the offence complained of “must be such an inconvenience and troublesome offence as annoyed the whole community in general, and not merely some particular person.” If by this it was contemplated that actual annoyance must be proved to have been occasioned to more than one particular person, it was incorrect. It was sufficient if the acts of disorder, shown to have been committed or permitted by the defendant in the management of her house, were of such a…