The Proceedings of the Old Bailey

 

523, 524. (M.)   Joseph Harvey and   Richard Bitters were indicted, for that they, on the 28th of August , about two in the night, the dwelling-house of   Jane Fisher , spinster , did break and enter, and stealing a linen apron, two handkerchiefs, a looking-glass, two pieces of gauze, five silk hats, a sattin hat, a chip hat, two sattin bonnets, a sattin cardinal, twenty-three pieces of blond-lace, two pieces of sattin, six yards of ribband, two yards and a half of muslin, three ruffles, four blond-lace caps, a laced handkerchief, a pair of laced ruffles, twenty-six china cups and saucers, two china basons, two china plates, a china punch bowl, three pair of cotton stockings, a linen shirt, a silk cloak, two other pieces of blond-lace, a linen napkin, and four yards of sarcenet, in the whole to the amount of 36 l. the property of the said Jane, in her dwelling-house . +

At the desire of the prisoners the witnesses were examined apart.

  Jane Fisher . I am a millener , and keep a house at Mile end; on Friday the 28th of August, when

I went to bed at twelve, I saw all the house fast; my servant got up, and returned to me immediately, which was about five, and told me the house was broke open; I got up, and found the kitchen window had a pane taken out, and the casement open; the back-door was open; I lost the things mentioned in the indictment (mentioning most of them;) I saw many of them again at the house of Mr. Brebrook in Whitechapel; about three weeks after a person came to my house, and desired I would attend at Sir   John Fielding 's; I went; there was Mr. Brebrook with some of them; there I heard Harvey say he was in my house, and I remember his mentioning stealing a looking-glass in particular.

Q. Did he say what time of the night it was?

J. Fisher. He said he could not rightly tell whether it was four o'clock, or after four; I heard Bitters say, that he was in my house; they both said they were in company there, and   Sarah Carr was with them.

Q. Did they say who broke the house?

J. Fisher. No, they did not.

  Sarah Carr . I met the two prisoners one Friday night in Bishopsgate-street, about eleven o'clock; they asked me to go with them to Mile-end; we went in at the Three Pigeons in Houndsditch, and staid there till about twelve; when we got to Mrs. Fisher's house, Bitters got over a wall, and Harvey after him; they opened a door, and asked me to come in; I went in, this was into the yard; Bitters went and opened the wash-house door, and found nothing there; then they went and got into the kitchen window; how they opened it I do not know; they were in the house a considerable time before they brought any thing out; the first thing they brought out was a great looking-glass, the next was a box of hats, the next a box of laces, caps, and aprons, and a black cloak; the next a large bundle and a child's coat, the next china cups and saucers and a punch bowl; then the clock struck four; they told me I was to carry the things to   Abraham Teracona ; I carried all the china in a basket; they got there before me; Teracona took the china of me.

Q. What time was it you left Mrs. Fisher's house?

S. Carr. Then it was light; Bitters asked three guineas for the whole of the things; at last Harvey said take them at two; then his wife went out with a man, and brought in the money; she took some things out of pawn for Harvey, and gave Bitters a guinea, and me a nine shilling piece.

Q. What are the prisoners?

S. Carr. Harvey is a painter, and Bitters is a glazier and painter.

Q. How long have you known them?

S. Carr. I have known them about three months.

Q. What is your business?

S. Carr. I wind silk; my mother lives in Red-lion-street, Spitalfields.

  Martha Teracona . My husband's name is Abraham *; I live in Northumberland-alley, Crutched-friars; a little after four in the morning, the 28th of August, the two prisoners came to our house; they had a hat-box, containing six hats, several pieces of sattin, two bonnets, a sattin cardinal, several white aprons, four gauze handkerchiefs, a looking-glass, a laced handkerchief and ruffles of the same, and three other ruffles; about half an hour after them came   Sarah Carr with a basket of china cups and saucers, and a china bowl; they asked me whether I would buy them; I having bought things of them several times before, I thought, as I had had my hand in the lion's mouth, I should come to no more harm if I bought them; Bitters asked two guineas for them; I left them at breakfast, and went out, and brought in the money; I paid Harvey half a guinea, and   Richard Bitters a guinea, and Carr a nine shilling piece; they came and brought more things last Saturday five weeks, which they took in a house they broke near me; I bought them of them; then there was a great stir and disturbance, and my conscience began to prick me; so I went, and had Bitters secured in Wapping, and delivered up as many goods as were taken in eleven robberies; then I went to all the prosecutors, and told them I had such and such things; the prisoners had told me where they took them; the people came and owned them.

* See him an evidence in the trial of Tinsey, Gibson, and Mackaway, No 407, in last Sessions Paper.

Q. How did they tell you they got these things?

M. Teracona. They said they got over backwards, and took out a pane of glass, and so entered the house.

  James Brebrook . Last sessions I was at Hickes's-hall, I was standing by the Swan and Two Necks; there this last evidence came and told me that one   Sarah Carr was taken, and she knew where a man was locked in a room in St. Catharine's, and there was another man concerned with him, and one of

them was concerned in seven robberies, and she had the best part of the goods in her house; I took two men with me and went there, and broke the door, and took Bitters and a young woman, and carried them to Whitechapel; then I went with the woman to her house in Northumberland alley; there she produced divers goods, (producing a box of caps, ruffles, blond-lace, &c. &c. and a large parcel of millenery goods.) The china I have in my house, I have an account of it here in writing; (he produced a hammer, a chissel, a saw, and a knife;) these   Sarah Teracona told me were the prisoners tools, which she had left at her house, which they worked with.

Q. to S. Teracona. What do you know of these tools?

S. Teracona. I have heard Bitters say he used these to get into houses; they were once going out, and Harvey said, d - n it, we will not take them now, we will leave them here, so they left them; this was after the robbery they committed, after that of Mrs. Fisher's.

Q. to prosecutrix. Look at these things produced here.

Prosecutrix. These were all taken from out of my house that night, they are my property.

  Dominick Rewer . I am a constable in Shoreditch parish. On my watch night, the 11th of September, in the morning, information was brought me, th at there was a reward of two guineas for taking Harvey and Bitters; I took some watchmen and searched many bad houses; at last the watchmen brought Harvey; I put him in the cage; then I went to   Sarah Carr , the person he lived with, there we found several things; I ordered her to be secured; I took them before Sir   John Fielding , who committed Harvey to Clerkenwell Bridewell. I desired Sir John to let me have the key of Carr's door, saying, I thought I could make a farther discovery; he ordered it me. I went and opened her door; there people came and owned a tub, a pail, a pan; in one of the tubs were seventeen clouts; there was one asked for her carpet; Carr said it was under her bed; there we found it; I told her I would do all I could to get her admitted an evidence; she gave an account of many robberies; the things that I found, and were owned, I delivered back to their owners, as they were not bound over to prosecute.

The prisoners in their defence, said they knew nothing of the matter.

Both Guilty . Death .

There were two other indictments for burglaries against them.