JOSEPH POCOCK.
11th January 1804
Reference Numbert18040111-77
VerdictGuilty > lesser offence
SentenceTransportation

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137. JOSEPH POCOCK was indicted for making an assault upon Edward Gedge , the younger , on the 7th of January , on the King's highway, putting him in fear, and feloniously taking from his person a pair of boots, value 10 s. the property of Edward Gedge , the elder .

EDWARD GEDGE , Sen. sworn. - I am a stationer , No. 775 Bethnal-green-road; I sent my little boy

for the boots, and know nothing of the robbery but what he told me; he is eight years old.

EDWARD GEDGE , the younger, called. - Q. Do you know the nature of an oath? - A. Telling lies.

Q. Suppose you should tell what is false, what would become of you? - A. No, Sir, I have not told a story.

Q. What would become of you if you did? - A. I should go to the naughty place. (Sworn.)

Q. Did your father send you last Saturday for a pair of boots? - A. Yes, to Paternoster-row; I saw the prisoner by the place where the porters rest in Finsbury-square .

Q. What did he say to you? - A. Nothing, but he took the basket away with the boots in it, and left the basket in Finsbury-square; a gentleman caught him with one of the boots.

Q. Did you try to keep the basket? - A. Yes, I carried it before me.

Q. Did you say any thing to him? - A. No, because I did not think he would snatch it.

Q. He did not threaten you, did he? - A. No; a gentleman called out stop thief.

Cross-examined. Q. Where did you first see the prisoner? - A. In Cheapside; there were two of them.

Q. What became of the other man? - A. I don't know, I did not see him run away.

Q. Are you sure the prisoner was the person who took the basket? - A. Yes, he is the man.

Q. Did he not ask you to let him carry it for you? - A. Yes, as he came by Cheapside.

Q. And you gave it him? - A. No, he snatched it from me, and run away.

PAUL GRIFFITHS sworn. - I was going through Finsbury-square, and passed the boy and two men together; I had not gone half a dozen yards before I heard the little boy call out he had lost his father's boots; I ran after the prisoner, and caught him; he attempted to throw one of the boots over the rail, but I caught it; the man with him ran the other way; I gave the boot and the prisoner into the hands of a constable.

(The boot produced, and identified.)

GUILTY, aged 25.

Of stealing, but not violently from the person .

Transported for seven years .

First Middlesex Jury, before Mr. Justice Rooke.


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