The Proceedings of the Old Bailey

 

877.   JOSEPH HICKEY GROSE was indicted for feloniously stealing, on the 8th of July , twelve bank notes, for the payment of five pound each, value 60 l. and eleven shillings in monies numbered , the property of   Thomas Thornton , Senior,   George Mantell Hoare ,   David Walter ,   Thomas Wildman

Goodwin ,   Thomas Thornton , Junior, and   William Everett .

SECOND COUNT, for stealing like bank notes, the property of   John Pooley Kensington ,   Edward Kensington , and   Daniel Adams .

  WILLIAM TAYLOR . Q. Were you clerk to the late firm of Kensington and Company, bankers - A. Yes; the names of the partner s were   John Pooley Kensington , Henry Kensington, and Daniel Adams.

Q. On the 8th of July, last year, did you pay a check for Messrs. Goodwin and Company, for sixty pounds eleven shillings - A. I did, that is the check.

(The check read.)

"London, July, 8th, 1812.

Pay to Messrs. Boller and Co. or bearer, sixty pounds eleven shillings, for Goodwyn and Company.

60 l. 11 s. 0 d.   THOMAS THORNTON , JUN."

Q. to Mr. Taylor. I take it for granted that you have no recollection of the person to whom you paid it - A. No; that is impossible. I paid it in twelve five-pound notes, from 5,189, to 5,200, both inclusive, dated 4th of June, 1812, all of them; they were successive numbers; I had received them all at the Bank that day, and eleven shillings in change.

MR. THOMAS THORNTON, JUN. Q. Are you a partner in the house of Messrs. Goodwin and Company, brewer s - A. Yes. The names of the partners are   Thomas Thornton , senior, George Mantell Hoare,   David Walter ,   Thomas Wildman Goodwin , Thomas Thornton, junior, and   William Everett ; we are brewers, in  Lower East Smithfield .

Q. Was the prisoner at the bar in your service as clerk - A. Yes; he quitted the service about a twelvemonth ago; he had been in our service about a year.

Q. Did you serve a public-house in Grub-street with beer - A. Yes; the Weavers Arms.

Q. Was it the custom for the benefit society that was held at that house to deposit money in your hands - A. Yes, it was.

Q. At that time who were the trustees of that benefit, society -  A. John Rickards , and   Thomas Boller .

Q. At that time had they money in your hands - A. They had considerably above sixty pounds.

Q. Is that check your signature - A. Yes, it is.

Q. Whose hand writing is the body of that check - A. Mr. Grose's, the prisoner; the filling up is in the hand writing of the prisoner.

Q. Do you hold in your hand the check-book, with the counterpart of the check - A. Yes.

Q. Read the counterpart - A. 8th of July, Rickards and Boller, sixty pounds, interest eleven shillings, and by the side of it is casting up the interest, which is usual sixty-six days interest, from May the 3rd; that is the prisoner's hand writing. I rather think I was engaged at the time that I signed it. The accompting house that I sit in is remote from the accompting-house to which persons come.

Q. By the number of the checks signed that day, does it appear to be late or early in that day - A. There are but three checks signed that day. I cannot exactly tell by that.

Q. Now, sir, refer to your books for the entry I have already alluded to; how lately before had you made your annual rest - A. I cannot exactly say; the time we finish is the nearest Saturday to Michaelmas day. June the 27th was he rest day in this instance.

Q. Do you find any entry in the prisoner's hand writing which applies to this transaction - A. Yes; there is one through three of the books of his hand writing; this is the Trade Ledger; the entry that I fix upon there is Bollam and Company, on the debtor side, to cash sixty pound eleven shillings; that is the hand writing of the prisoner; on the credit side, 27th June, by stock sixty pound, and July 10th, profit and loss, interest, sixty pounds eleven shillings; these entries are in the prisoner's hand writing. The next book in which you find it is the Trade Journal; on the 10th of July, Bollen and Company, to cash paid them, sixty pounds eleven shillings. The Cash Journal, 10th July, Boller and Company, notes and interest, sixty pounds eleven shillings; I believe it is note and interest.

Q. Had you any concern with any such person as Bollam and Company - A. No, sir; nor Ballon.

Q. Had you any concern with Boller, excepting Rickards and Boller - A. No.

Q. Are these entries ticked off, as if they had been examined - A. Yes, in the New Ledger; I cannot say by whom the ticking is, the writing; except in the Cash Journal, the note and interest, one part is Mr. Howson's, and other part Mr. Thorton senior; that is a superscription from the back of the counter check.

Q. Do these entries in the book, copied as they are from the counter part of the check, did they serve to prevent any detection until they made their next annual rest - A. They did.

Q. That next next annual rest you made last Midsummer - A. As near to it as we could, and when we came to that we found a deficiency of sixty pounds eleven shillings; that caused a great deal of examination, and ended in this discovery.

COURT. Then you had no connection with Bollam and Company, or Bollen and Company - A. No, our only connection was with Rickards and Boller.

  JOHN RICKARDS . Q. Are you and Mr. Boller stewards of the benefit society, which lodge their money in Messrs. Goodwin and Thorntons hands - A We did; I am a steward with   Thomas Boller ; he and I had money in Messrs Goodwin and Company's hands; we received their note for the money; the promissory note paid is May 5th, 1812.

"I promise to pay on demand to John Rickards and   Thomas Boller , the sum of eighty-five pounds, valued received." Our society held that note for the money, signed Goodwin and Co. Weavers Arms.

Q. Now, on the 8th of July last, or at any time, had you applied to the prisoner, as a clerk of Goodwin and Company, for sixty pounds eleven shillings - A. I did not; nor did I receive any check for it; I had no power to receive the money.

  THOMAS BOLLER . Q. You are the other steward with Mr. Rickards - A. Yes.

Q. On the 8th of July, had you made any application to the prisoner - A. No, I had not; nor did I receive any money of him.

  CHARLES DARWIN . Q. Are you clerk to this benefit society - A. Yes.

Q. In July last, and before that, was this note in your hands, as the clerk of that society - A. Yes, in my hand, and then I deposit it in the box.

Q. Had you or any of the members made any application to Messrs. Goodwin and Co. for sixty pounds eleven shillings - A. No, nobody can go without my going with them, and I never went.

  WILLIAM JETTS . I am a clerk in the Bank of England; I bring from the office twelve bank notes for five-pound each, they have come from the Bank, and have been cancelled; they are 5,189, to 5,200, inclusive, all dated 4th June, 1812.

Q. to Mr. Thornton. Take these notes into your hand, and tell me whether you find the prisoner's hand writing upon any of them; look at the 5,200 - A. I. H. Grose, the prisoner's name, and East Smithfield, and Goodwin and Company.

Q. Who kept the Ledger - A. The prisoner.

Q. to Mr. Howson. Look at these notes, do you find any entry upon the back of them - A. Yes, I do; 5,193, and 93, here is Mr. Grose's name, written by himself; I suppose I received them of the prisoner. I know no other person of that name.

Prisoner. Q. I wish to ask the present witness whether he was in the habit of paying money for Messrs. Goodwin and Co. - A. I was; the prisoner and other clerks likewise did, I believe.

Q. Whose business was it to make the entries in the Cash Journal - A. I have generally done it; it appears I was absent that day, and I suppose the prisoner put it in; there are three or four entries of mine before that, and I believe the prisoner asked me to put it in.

Q. Can you swear that I asked you to put it in - A. No. I cannot; I suppose so. I should have entered it without. There was a counter part in the Check book.

Q. There is no money paid but what goes through your hands - A. Yes, there is; I have been in the habit of paying cash, but not checks.

Q. Have you put any date to the note that you received of me, or had it been endorsed before - A. That I cannot say; if it had I should have put the name of the person upon it that I received it of.

Q. You received it as a private note, and not in the way of business - A. I can say I received it of you.

Prisoner's Defence. I am not prepared to make any defence for myself; the gentlemen of the jury as well as your lordship, have heard the crime that I am charged with; the last witness has summed up the whole of it; he does not know when he received it of me, or whether it was in his possession before, and to the last question I put to him he gave a very evasive answer. I am perfectly innocent of it. I trust you have seen enough of the case.

GUILTY , aged 24.

Transported for Seven Years .

London jury, before Mr. Recorder.