Reference Number | t17820703-48 |
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Verdict | Guilty |
Sentence | Transportation |
Actions | Cite this text Old Bailey Proceedings Online (www.oldbaileyonline.org, version 8.0, 21 January 2021), July 1782, trial of WILLIAM BRADBURY (t17820703-48). | Print-friendly version | Report an error |
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467. WILLIAM BRADBURY was indicted for stealing a Bank post-bill, for 20 l. a bank-note for 10 l. another note for 5 l. 5 s. the said notes being the property of John Baring and Company; and the said several sums payable, and secured by the said notes, being due to the said John Baring and Company, the proprietors thereof, against the statute , January the 1st .
Second count. Laying them to be the pro perty of Robert Gosling , and Francis Gosling .
I am clerk in the Devonshire Bank, at Exeter . The firm of the house is John Baring , Gregory Jackson , and John Shaw . I remember Gregory Jackson inclosed some notes in a letter directed to Robert and Francis Gosling ; the letter was put into the post-office on the 29th of December last.
(The notes were produced to the witnesses.)
These are part of the notes inclosed in the letter.
I am clerk at the post-office at Exeter. The letters put into our office on the 29th of December, were forwarded to London.
I am clerk at the post-office in London. The Exeter bag arrived safe, as usual, on the 31st of December.
This letter that was directed to you, did you receive it on the 31st of December? - No, I never received it.
I live with my brother, who keeps a silver-smith's shop at Charing-cross. On Tuesday night, the 30th of January, the prisoner came to our house, and bought a pair of silver shoe-buckles, a gold shirt-button, and a pair of gilt buttons; he gave me a Bank post-bill of 20 l. and I gave him cash for it. I gave the bill to my brother that night.
I keep a silver-smith's shop at Charing-cross. On Tuesday evening, the 31st of December, I received a 20 l. Bank post-bill of my sister; I sent it to the Bank the next morning, for acceptance.
Was it paid? - No. On Saturday was three weeks, the prisoner came into my shop to buy a pair of silver buckles; I shewed him some: he did not approve of them. He asked for some second-hand ones, I shewed some, and he chose a pair. Then he wanted a gold shirt-buckle; I shewed him one, he said, he had no cash by him; if I would change him a five-guinea bill, he would be obliged to me. He gave it me; I saw it was the same indorsement as the 20 l. note my sister had received. I suspected him; I asked him, if he had any other note: he shewed me a 10 l. note, indorsed in the same manner. I took them both, and told him, I would get change for one or the other. I went to my other shop, which is opposite, and desired a person to go to the door, and see that he did not get off, while I got a constable. I went to the watch-house, and got one, and took him in custody. As we were going in a coach to Bow-street, I asked him, how he came by the notes; he said, he found them in a pocket-book, either
in Fleet-street, or the Strand, I am not certain which. We asked him what he did with the pocket-book; he said, he threw it away. He was searched at Bow-street, and he had five guineas, and some silver, in his pocket.I am solicitor to the Post-office. I attended the examination of the prisoner, at Bow-street, on the 17th of June. The three notes which have been produced here, were at that time produced: the prisoner was asked, where he got them; he said, he was coming along Cheapside, on a Friday or a Saturday evening, about six or seven o'clock, and he found a pocket-book, in which these three notes were contained; and also a 50 l. note, which he had put off at Windsor, a 100 l. note, which he had put off at Bath, and a 40 l. note, or bill, which he had put off at Mr. Tregent's, a watch-maker, in Leicester-fields. He said, he did not look at the pocket-book 'till the Sunday after he found it; and that in two or three days after his looking at the pocket-book, and its contents, he put off the 20 l. note at Mr. Noble's. He was also asked, if he told any body what he found; he said, No: he was asked if he had any acquaintance in the Post office; he said, he had an uncle who was a letter-carrier, who was dead. He was asked, if he had ever visited his uncle, in the letter-carrier's office; he said, he had.
To Collings. Did the letter that was sent from your house, contain a 100 l. a 50 l. and a 40 l. Bank-note? - A 100 l. two Bank post-bills, 50 l. each, a 20 l. Bank-note, and a 40 l. Bank-note.
I am a watchmaker, in Leicester-fields. On the 8th of January, in the evening, the prisoner came to my shop, to buy a gold watch: he asked for one of a low price; he said, he had had some prize-money; that all he had got, for a great many prizes they had taken, was a 40 l. Bank-note, which he would go home and fetch, in an hour. He came again, in about an hour, with the note; the watch came to fifteen guineas: I took the note, and gave him change. He said his name was Barnett. I never saw him before; I saw him afterwards at the Justices.
I am a letter-carrier to the Post-office. I have often seen the prisoner in the letter-carrier's office, at the post-office in Lombard-street; he used to come to his uncle, Solomon Barnett .
Do the letters that come from Exeter, and which are directed to Fleet-street, go into that office? - Yes, they do.
I am inspector of the letter-carriers. I knew Solomon Barnett very well; he was in the letter-carrier's office fourteen or fifteen years. He always bore an exceeding good character; he is now dead: he died about Lady-day last.
I am in the Bank post-bill-office, the office for issuing Bank post-bills.
Look at that bill: is that the proper clerk's hand-writing? - It is.
Is that bill paid? - It is a cancelled note; I apprehend it is paid; it was accepted the 2d of January, 1782. I issue out bills, and pay them; I have two partners who pay bills when I am not there. I cannot say whether this has been paid or no.
Was it, on the first of January, unpaid and unsatisfied? - I am certain it was.
PRISONER's DEFENCE.
I found a pocket-book on the last Saturday of the old year, in Cheapside; I put it into my pocket. I did not look at it 'till the Sunday after; then I found there were six notes in it: I put the notes into my pocket, and threw the pocket-book away. I went on Tuesday to Mr. Noble's, and bought a pair of shoe-buckles, a shirt-buckle, and a pair of buttons, and changed a 20 l. note.
GUILTY .
Tried by the First Middlesex Jury, before Mr. Justice HEATH.