The Proceedings of the Old Bailey

 

343. (M.)   Edward Vaughan was indicted, for that he not being employed in, or for, the Mint, in the Tower of London, or elsewhere, nor being lawfully authorised by the Lords of the Treasury, knowingly, feloniously, and traiterously had in his custody and possession, one mould made of sand and earth, which had the stamp, resemblance, and similitude of a shilling .

Second Count, for having one other mould in his possession.

Third Count, for having one other mould in his possession, without any lawful authority, or sufficient excuse, April 30th . ++

  Hannah Berry . I live in Brownlow-street, in the same house with the prisoner; I lodged with Adley; the person lodged with Mackmannon; the house was between two people; but there was only one stair case in the house.

Q. Had you any reason to suspect the prisoner at the bar of doing any thing improper?

Berry. From something I had heard pass between him and his wife, I suspected they coined money; I told my suspicion to my landlord: they seemed jealous, and used to slop the key hole of the door; so I made a hole in the partition in order to watch them. On Friday, the twelfth of April, I got up at six o'clock; I heard the prisoner and his wife at work before I got up; when she went down stairs I made a hole in the wall; I saw the prisoner with his cloaths open to his shirt, and a night cap on, walking about the room; I saw the new coin on a mould that lay open; the mould was near the middle of the room; soon after he took the coin up and turned it round; there were several pieces of coin joined together; I saw holes through it; he went with it towards the fire, and then he was out of my sight.

Q. What coin was it?

Berry. Silver coin.

Q. What size?

Berry. A shilling every one of them; there were a number of them fast together. (the mould produced for coining seven shillings and eight sixpences.)

Q. Was it a mould of this sort?

Berry. Yes.

Cross Examination.

Q. How long have you lodged at this place?

Berry. From the beginning of this quarter.

Q. What way of life are you in?

Berry. I have a child, and I take in a little washing.

Q. Are you married?

Berry. Yes, and have been these three years.

Q. How long did you continue to look through this hole?

Berry. About a quarter of an hour; he did not take the money out of the mould directly; but walked about some time.

Q. Which room is towards the street, yours or his?

Berry. Mine.

Q. How high from the floor is the hole you made?

Berry. About two yards; I stood upon a chair to see through it.

Q. How did you stand, upright or stooping?

Berry. As upright as I am now.

Q. Do you call that two yards from the floor?

Berry. I did not measure the place; it was thereabouts.

Q. How big was the hole?

Berry. Just big enough to put my finger in.

Q. You say they were very jealous, and used to stop the key hole of the door; what time did you make the hole?

Berry. About two o'clock; when she went down.

Q. Did they work in a different room from where they lived?

Berry. They have a room on the first floor, and a bed room on the second floor; it was the bed room I saw him in.

Q. You was at home on Friday night?

Berry. Yes.

Q. And had a candle?

Berry. I did not look into the room.

Q. What time did you go to bed that night?

Berry. I usually go to bed at ten o'clock.

Q. Did you hear them go to bed that night?

Berry. No.

Council. The reason of my asking the question is, they would see the light.

Berry. I stopped the hole when I made it.

Q. How thick is this wall?

Berry. It is only lath and plaister.

Q. A double lath and plaister?

Berry. No, a single one.

Q. Are you sure it is not a double lath and plaister?

Berry. The place that I made the hole through was single.

Q. What did you make the whole with?

Berry. A narrow pointed knife.

Q. You can tell how many inches the knife went in when you made the hole?

Berry. Not any inches.

Q. Was it a Penknife?

Berry. No; a case knife pointed.

Q. Then you can give us no notion of the thickness of the wall?

Berry. No.

Q. Was this coin you saw, all of the same size?

Berry. Yes; as near as I could guess.

Q. It might be shillings or six-pences for what you know?

Berry. I am sure they were shillings.

Q. Did you ever mention this hole to any body?

Berry. Yes; to my landlord,   William Adley . I called him to look through it.

Q. When did you let Adley know of it?

Berry. In the morning when he was at breakfast, on Saturday.

Council for the Crown. What did you see yourself?

Berry. They went down stairs to breakfast directly after he had carried the coin to the fire; when she came up again, I went to tell Adley; he did not come up again, she came up about eight o'clock. I looked through the hole again, and saw her a going to make a pair of moulds.

  William Adley . I live in Brownlow-street, the prisoner lived in Mr. Mackmannon's house.

Q. Situate near your house?

Adley. Close together; there is but one pair of stairs to the two houses.

Q. Do you know the last witness?

Adley. Yes; she took a room in my house, next to the prisoners room.

Q. Do you know what partition is between the rooms?

Adley. There is a broken wainscot and a thin plaister wall;   Hannah Berry came down to me when I was at breakfast. I went up with her; I stood up in a chair in her room, and put up my head close to the wall and peeped through a smallish hole.

Q. How large?

Adley. About the size of a small finger.

Q. Did this hole command the room so that you could see any thing in it?

Adley. I could see only right forward, facing the hole.

Q. Look at that mould, did you ever see it before?

Adley. What I saw was partly about the size of this.

Q. Did you see any thing else about the room?

Adley. Nothing particular.

Q. I think you say you came into the room by request of Berry; had she had any talk with you before about the coining?

Adley. Not particular before that day; we had suspicion; the prisoner's wife said she made rich cordials, and in pouring it out she scalded her hand.

Q. Where is your room?

Adley. My bed chamber is over theirs.

Cross Examination.

Q. What o'clock was it when you went up stairs with Berry?

Adley. About nine o'clock.

Q. Did she or you get up to peep first?

Adley. I can't justly recollect.

Q. Did she take any thing out of the hole before she peeped through it?

Adley. Yes; a bit of paper, that she stopt it with.

Q. Berry had been your lodger sometime, I believe?

Adley. Not a quarter.

Q. The prisoner's wife and Mrs. Berry used to quarrel a little sometimes?

Adley. I never heard them.

  Nicholas Bond . I am clerk to Sir   John Fielding . On Monday the 15th of April, I received a letter from Mr. Chamberlavne, the woman waited whilst I read it; Sir John made out a warrant against Vaughan and his wife; I got an officer. I went with him directly along with the woman; when we came to the corner of Brownlow street, Mrs. Berry said, that they were blowing when she came out, she told us she would go up stairs first; and if they were blowing she would come down and let us know; she came down and said they were blowing. I went up stairs, and I listened in the passage. I heard a blowing; Mrs. Berry had told me that they kept the door locked. I went all of a sudden to the other side of the passage, and bursted the door open. The prisoner's wife was blowing the fire; she turned round from the fire and made a prodigious outcry. I put her into the hands of the constable and went forward to the fire; there was this crucible in the fire red hot ( producing it) with metal in it; the prisoner was not there.

Q. What did you see when you went in?

Bond. I saw that mould lying on the floor, between the bed and the fire place, the screws were edge-ways, the mould lay ready for the metal to be poured into it.

Q. Was any body with you?

Bond. Yes; Halliburton and my brother. I called in Berry before I left the room.

Q. to Berry. Did you see that mould?

Berry. I saw a mould like that.

Bond. I have kept it in my possession. I locked the room and took the wife with me.

  William Halliburton . I took the prisoner at a public house. I went with Mr. Bond; we found that mould in the room by the bed side; the counterfeit money (producing it) was found in a basket and in a little box by the bed side. The prisoner is a porter and plies at Gray's Inn Gate. I took him in Holborn, at the corner of Gray's Inn Gate. I told him I wanted to go to his house; he said, what can you want at my house? I asked him where he lived; he told me some place, I forgot where; but it was not the place where he lived. Clark said, I have got an information that you are a smuggler, and we want to search your house for smuggled goods; then said he, if that is the case, I will go along with you, and shew you every part of the house; he took us to the one pair of stairs room; he did not know at that time that his wife was taken. I searched

his pocket and found three six-pences, that appeared to be bad; and there was a sort of receipt in his pocket, for making money. I asked him if he had any other apartments in the house belonging to him; he said no, that was his only apartment. I said that was not true, and desired him to go and shew us the other place; we had the key; he then went up stairs, his wife and the things were taken away before he came to the house. One of us opened the door; we searched again but f ound nothing more.

  John Clark . I went with Mr. Halliburton to apprehend the prisoner; we found him at the Elephant and Castle in Holborn; he said he lived a mile from that place: I told him at last, we had an information of smuggled goods; then he took us very readily to his apartments in Holborn.

Q. Did he shew you his own apartments?

Clark. I went up into his one pair of stairs room, and there searched him. I found this receipt upon him, in his pocket-book, in his left-hand pocket (producing it) It is read, giving directions how to cast money. We found these three sixpences in his pocket. I was not in the room when he was first searched.

Cross Examination.

Q. You say, when he talked about smuggled goods, he went very willingly?

Clark. Yes.

Q. But you know a search is a search; when you search'd for smuggled goods, you would find what was there - Can you tell us whether that mould has been used since the impressions were made?

Clark. No, it has not; that blackness is occasioned by being smoaked, which hides the impression till the metal is run in, and then it brings the black upon the coin. They smoke it in order to preserve the impression.

Q. Are you a moneyer in the mint?

Clark. No; I have made buttons.

Prisoner's Defence.

I will relate all I know about the matter: some time between Christmas and Candlemas last, I met one Bachanan in Red Lyon-square. I had not seen him some time before. He had these moulds with him; he said, I am going into the city; I wish you would let me leave this till I come back. I readily consented that he should; he left them; and I never saw him from that time to this. I know nothing of the matter no more than the child unborn. I always worked hard to maintain my family. I found that receipt in Bow Church-yard.

To his Character.

  Michael Babbs , I am a stationer; I have known the prisoner about eight years; he is a ticket porter to the society of Gray's Inn; I became acquainted with him at Mr. Hanson's, where he lived seven years; he was intrusted with large sums of money, and behaved well: and what is remarkable in the present case is, that he was very early and regular in his business.

  John Hanson . I am a tea dealer in Holborn. I have known him seven years; he lived with my uncle, and has been entrusted with thousands of pounds: if he was at liberty, I would trust him myself.

  Edmond Williams . I keep a chandler's shop in King's-street; the prisoner lodged with me two years, he has left me about a month; he was a very industrious man; is a porter, and went out regularly to his business.

  Richard Hamlet . I live in Holborn. I have known the prisoner two years; he is a very honest industrious man; he worked for me.

  Richard Hughes . I have known him above six years; I have employed him; and if he was at liberty I would employ him again.

- Mackmannon. I have known him from the fourteenth of March last; he behaved well, and bore a good character whilst he lodged with me.

Q. What room had he of you?

Mackmannon. Two; one on the first, the other on the second floor.

  Benjamin Marshall . I have known him six years; he is an honest man, always diligent in his business.

Guilty , Death .