| Reference Number | t18040111-77 |
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| Verdict | Guilty > lesser offence |
| Sentence | Transportation |
| Related Material |  |
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| Actions | Cite this text Old Bailey Proceedings Online (www.oldbaileyonline.org, version 8.0, 22 March 2023), January 1804, trial of JOSEPH POCOCK (t18040111-77). | Print-friendly version | Report an error |
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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.