| Reference Number | t17860719-29 |
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| Verdict | Not Guilty |
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| Actions | Cite this text Old Bailey Proceedings Online (www.oldbaileyonline.org, version 8.0, 09 December 2023), July 1786, trial of AMBROSE MAIN (t17860719-29). | Print-friendly version | Report an error |
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589. AMBROSE MAIN was indicted for feloniously stealing, on the 3d day of April last, four linen sheets, value 6 s. two linen pillows, value 1 s. a linen bed quilt, value 1 s. a blanket, value 6 d. four pillow cases, value 1 s. and one flat iron, value 3 d. the property of John Foresyth , being in a certain lodging room let to him by the said John, to be used with the said lodging .
I let the lodgings to the prisoner's wife ready furnished, the prisoner used to come there, I lost the things mentioned in the indictment to the value of five shillings.
I am a pawnbroker; I took the things in pawn from the prisoner; four of the articles have been a twelvemonth, and some of them eight or nine months; one is a sheet for two shillings, the 4th of July was a twelvemonth, the other a blanket, 6 d. the 11th of July, a sheet for eighteen pence the 19th of July, on the 31st of December a pillow for sixpence, the 2d of January a pillow for sixpence.
What is the value of these things? - They really are not worth more than was lent on them, had they been worn any where so long as we have had them, there would not have been a thread of them left.
You know nothing by whose direction the things were brought by the child. - We imagined by the mother of the child.
Did the mother of the child at any time intimate that she knew any thing of them? - I only imagine she did, I do not know any thing of my own knowledge of a certainty.
Prisoner. I was innocent of the whole story, but when I missed them I challenged my wife, and she told me she would call the landlord, and he would put me into the watch-house; I am a gardener, and went to work every day.
Brammel. The prisoner is a man that has lived in credit, and has been in very good circumstances.
Court to prosecutor. Did you live in the same house with the prisoner? - Yes.
Can you tell whether this time twelvemonth, and in the month of December, and January, and February, the prisoner used to lay constantly in the house? - Yes.
How long was it before you heard of these things being gone? - I do not know, above a fortnight.
I apprehended the prisoner; I never knew to the contrary but the man was a very honest man, he had lived in very good credit.
Court. A married woman cannot be guilty of felony when in the presence, or in company with her husband, because she is then supposed to be under his restraint; but he being absent, then it is her crime, not his; and though he does afterwards know of it, if she did not commit it under his concurrence and restraint, that will not affect him.
NOT GUILTY .
Tried by the second Middlesex Jury before Justice ASHURST.