The Proceedings of the Old Bailey

 

545, 546. (L.)   John White and   Ann Summerayse were indicted, the first for stealing 1 gold breast buckle set with garnets, value 10 s. 1 lb. of chocolate, value 3 s. 3-4 lb. of roasted coffee, value 2 s. 3-4 lb. of nutmegs, value 5 s. 6 lb. lump sugar, value 3 s. 3-4 lb. of brown sugar-candy, value 5 d. 20. oz. of green value 13 s. 24 oz. of bohea tea, value 10 s. 6 d. 2 tea cannisters, value 2 s. and 2 linen cloths the property of   John Saunders , Aug. 26 , and the last for receiving all the goods, excepting the breast buckle, well knowing them to have been stolen . ++.

  John Saunders . I am a grocer . I live in Leadenhall-street, the corner of Lime-street. The prisoner, as my porter , has lived with me 10 months. By an information I received on the 26th of August, I suspected him. I applied to my Lord Mayor and got a search warrant. I searched Mrs. Summerayse's house, and there I found the goods mentioned in the indictment, except the breast buckle. I believe the goods to be my property. I cannot swear to them. The woman said the chocolate was smuggled chocolate. It has a stamp and our-own private mark on it. I don't know who marked it.

Cross Examination.

Q. You sell a great many hundred lbs. of these, I suppose?

  John Saunders . Yes.

Q. You can't sware it is not chocolate sold out of your shop.

  John Saunders . I can't sware that.

  Thomas Saunders . I am son of the last witness. I was present at the search of Summerhayse's house; we found the cannisters in the cellar, the rest in the kitchen in some drawers. I can sware to the cannisters; they have been in the house these twenty years and upwards.

Q. Was the quantity more than is kept by most families?

  Thomas Saunders . Yes. He sent for his box after he was in custody. I got a constable and searched it before I delivered it. He sent the key; there I found this breast buckle, (Producing it.) it is my property; I can sware to the aprons; there is my name on them.

Cross Examination.

Q. What is there remarkable in the cannisters?

Saunders. We have more of them; they have been thrown by some time; there is a little bit of paper wrote on at the bottom by which I know it; besides, I know them by the make and fashion of them.

Q. How came you to go to Summerayse's house.

Saunders. He had a connection with her.

Q. She has a husband I believe.

Saunders. Yes; in prison.

  Esther Neale . I lived in Mrs. Summerayse's house in the Paved court, Leadenhall-market; I lived there half a year on Michaelmas day. I have seen the prisoner there often; I used to think he was he husband of Mrs. Summerayse. I had the first floor.

Q. Was he there at night?

  Esther Neale . Yes; he frequently went home about ten when he said the family was gone to bed, and would come again about three in the morning. I have frequently seen him bring nutmegs and figs. One night we had been out and he brought in a loaf of sugar in his lap; he swore the boy had watched him, and he was vexed at it. He went down into the apartments in the cellar, and she with him; he came up and said he would make the best of his way home; she asked him to drink some crank; he drank a little he went away and came back soon after. Mrs. Summerayse asked him what the boy wanted him for; he said, d - n his blood only to ask me where I was going? there was nothing more of it. There was fourteen or fifteen pounds of chocolate in the house the day before this was found out; and a week before the loaves of sugar were in the house. After White came away that afternoon he sent a little girl that lived with me, for a loaf of sugar he had left at a public house. He left his master three or four days before this was found out.

Q. Was he in his master's service when he was taken up?

  Esther Neale . Yes.

Cross Examination.

Q. How long did you lodge in that house?

E. Neale. I lodged there about half a year.

Q. Did she keep the house?

E. Neale. Yes.

Q. What apartment did she live in?

E. Neale. She had the ground floor.

Q. You lived on the first floor?

E. Neale. Yes.

Q. She and you had some quarrel lately?

E. Neale. Yes.

Q. When was that?

E. Neale. The Saturday night before White was taken; on Monday she called me a great many bad names. I said you have little right to speak in that manner, when you encouraged the man to rob his master.

Q. Was that all the quarrel?

E. Neale. There was a great many words.

Q. Nothing else?

E. Neale. Mrs. Summerayse struck me; I struck her again.

Q. Had not you sent to her to give you a character?

E. Neale. I never sent to her to give me any character.

Q. Did you never apply to her to give you any character?

E. Neale. Never in my life.

Q. Had you never been under any difficulty?

E. Neale. I had; but not at that time.

Q. Did not you send to her to give you a character?

E. Neale. No.

Q. Did she not give you a character before a magistrate?

E. Neale. No.

Q. Never?

E. Neale. She was there before the magistrate; but she did not speak a word.

Q. Have you not sent to her some short time before this matter happened in order to give you a character?

E. Neale. No.

Q. Did she refuse to give you a character?

E. Neale. No.

Q. Did you never send for her to appear for you?

E. Neale. No, only as I said before, she went with me one day.

Q. Did you say you would be revenged of her?

E. Neale. I never said I would be revenged of her. She called me a bad woman; I said she was a worse, to encourage a man to rob his master.

Q. Do you follow any way of business?

E. Neale. Yes; I am a mantua-maker.

  William Gardner . I am 13 years old. I live with Mr. Saunders. I followed the prisoner out one day; he had a lump of sugar in his lap, wrapped up in his apron; he bid me go

back; he went towards Mrs. Summerayse's; I don't remember when it was.

Cross Examination.

Q. Could you see it through his apron?

Gardner. No; only the shape of it.

  John Holmes . I am a constable. I was sent for to Mrs. Summerayse's on account of a quarrel between Mrs. Neale and Mrs. Summerhayse. When I came I found they had been fighting. Mrs. Neale said White had stolen goods from his master and brought them them there to Summerayse. She said this before White, that he had had 8 or 10 loaves of sugar there at a time in the cellar. White said she was a false woman. I put her in the Compter, and then went and told the story to Mr. Saunders; he got a search warrant and we searched the house and found the things before mentioned in the house. The cannisters were found in the cellar, the rest on the ground floor.

- Rothwell. I found these cannisters in a box corded in the cellar.

Prostine Snow I lived with Mr. Saunders a twelve-mouth. The prisoner would go up when the rest of the family did; after they were, as he thought, asleep, he would go out. I went back one day into the warehouse; I saw a bag full of tea there. I took it up and saw it was bohea tea. He brought his great coat out with him. Soon after, when I sent him out, I suspected he had the bag of tea. I went back into the shop and looked for the bohea tea I had seen ten minutes before, and it was gone. This was the 24th of August, I think.

Q. What quantity of tea might be there?

Snow. I fancy about two pound.

Q. Had any body else been in the warehouse besides you and him?

Snow. I sent him out; and immediately as I came out I miss'd the tea; I spoke about it to my master.

White's Defence.

I never carried any thing there. I used to call in as I went along with parcels or so; but never wronged my master of a halfpenny. As to the breast buckle, they all denied it to be theirs, time after time.

Q. to Mr. Saunders. How is that?

Mr. Saunders. The breast buckle was lost some time before we suspected he had it. We sent to him for it. My boy said it was his; one of the stones was broke. I said it was better to be tender, so we returned it to him; two of my children said they could swear to it, before they returned it to him.

Q. How long was this before he was taken up?

Mr. Saunders. Three weeks or a month.

Summerayse's Defence.

I never received the worth of a penny in my house in my life, but what I justly bought and paid for. Two of my nephews that used my house have brought things in. The tea and coffee was mine. The cannisters were brought into my house last July was twelve-month, by my nephew   Robert Summerayse . Mr. Marks brought in the chocolate the week before.

They both had 5 or 6 witnesses who gave them a good character.

White, guilty , T .

Summerayse, guilty , T. 14.