The Proceedings of the Old Bailey

 

720.   MARY MACDONALD was indicted for feloniously stealing, on the 25th of October , six books, value 2 s. 6 d. one housewife, value 1 s. 6 d. and two packs of cards, value 1 s. the property of   Joseph Garbenetty .

  JOSEPH GARBENETTY sworn. - I live at No. 202, High-Holborn; the prisoner at the bar was a servant of mine.

Q. Did you lose six printed books, a housewife, and a pack of cards? - A. Yes.

Q. When was it you lost them? - A. I cannot exactly tell; she had only been with us two months and a few days; on the day my wife missed a great many things, we insisted upon looking into her box in the kitchen, where she slept; she fetched the box herself, and told my wife to look in it; we there found six books, a housewife, and two packs of children's cards; she said that she took the books to read; I know they are my books, they had been in the shop a long time; they are children's spelling-books, they are all alike.

- GARBENETTY sworn. - I am the wife of Joseph Garbenetty; I searched the prisoner's box about three weeks or a month ago; I told her I missed these things; she went and fetched the box herself, and I found the books, the housewife, and the cards; the books she said she had taken to read, the housewife she found in the shop as she was sweeping it up; she cleaned it, and as she cleaned it she said, she thought she had a right to it for her pains; the cards she could not give any account of.

Q. You knew them to be your's? - A. Yes, the moment I saw them.

Q. Is there any private mark on them? -  A. I knew the housewife by a mark on it.

Q. What mark is there on it? - A. The mark of the dirt where she had cleaned it; I had mentioned to my husband that we must sell it for less than its value on that account.

Prisoner's defence. I took the books to read with intention to put them back again in the same place; I put them into my box, having the children in the kitchen, I never offered to lock it; one

day I went out with the children, and when I came home, my mistress said, Mary, I have missed some books; there were these books in the box, I put the books in there to take care of from the children, as I was going out; it was far from my intention to take them out of the house.

 Q. (To prosecutrix.) Did she ever tell you that she had taken any books? - A. No; I asked her when she took them to read; she told me that she read them when she went to bed; they are all spelling-books, and mostly alike.

Court. One of them is a hymn-book; they are not all alike.

GUILTY , aged 32.

Confined six months in the House of Correction , and fined 1 s.

Second Middlesex Jury, before Mr. Common Serjeant.