214. (M.) John Howard was indicted for stealing four ducks, value 6 s. the property of Thomas Hunt , April 19 .*
Thomas Hunt. The four ducks that the prisoner had when he was apprehended were my property; I know nothing of the taking them.
Q. Did he confess any thing?
Hunt. No, he did not; he said he bought them at Low-layton for five shillings.
Q. What sort of Ducks were they?
Hunt. Two of them were Muscovy, and two English, intirely white, except one, which had a little black on the tail.
Q. What time was it he was brought to you with them?
Hunt. I think it was on the 19th of April about nine in the evening.
Rachel Hunt . The four ducks were in the pond about seven o'clock in the evening on the 19th of April; I did not miss them till a gentleman sent word he had taken a man with some ducks, and they were brought to our house with the prisoner; the two Muscovite ducks were dead, their heads were cut off, the other two were alive.
Prisoner. They swore they were geese.
Q. Was you before the justice?
R. Hunt. I was.
Q. He appears here as disordered in his senses by his behaviour. How did he behave there?
R. Hunt. Much the same as here.
Prisoner. I did not speak a word there.
R. Hunt. He said he loved fowl dearly, and said, he hoped I would find him a good bed and a fowl.
John Clark . I met the prisoner in my grounds.
Prisoner. That honest fellow stopped me with the ducks.
Clark. He had the four ducks; I stopped him thinking they might be mine. I asked him where he got them? he made no answer, as I remember. I took him and them to my neighbour Mr. Hunt, and he owned them.
Prisoner. It is very true what he says.
Prisoner's defence.
I said I was going to Walthamstow, so and so. Did I not go to a public house with you?
Clark. Yes.
Prisoner. Enough said. I bought the ducks in Wood-street at Walthamstow; I have got no witnesses but myself, although I am a poor fellow I am an honest fellow, and a coachman too.
Q. Can any body give an account of this man's behaviour of late?
Mr. Akerman. About a fortnight ago I went up into the gaol in order to set some little affairs to right; I found the prisoner had been beat; the other prisoners, which we call the gate-men, told me that some of the boys, who are since transported, had been using him ill, and had got him to burn his cloaths. My turnkey can give a better account of his behaviour than I can, he sees the prisoners every day. I never saw any particular acts of lunacy by him any farther than hearing what the other prisoners would say of him.
Nathaniel Hillstrutton . I am a turnkey; I have seen the prisoner behave like one out of his senses, he had like to have set the gaol on fire twice; he has had some cloaths brought him by his friends, but he has made away with them all; he would be gathering rags together, and making fire of them in the night-time. We have been called up on his account sometimes at two or three o'clock in the morning, fearing he should set the gaol on fire.
Acquitted .