

<!-- MAIN CONTENT -->
<div id="main" class="full"><div id="main2">

				<div style="font-family:serif;"><i>Old Bailey Proceedings Online</i> (www.oldbaileyonline.org, version 8.0, 28 May 2023), January 1804, trial of                      THOMAS                      SIMS                                                                                                    (t18040111-62).<hr/><h2>THOMAS SIMS, Theft &gt; grand larceny, 11th January 1804. </h2>                                                                                                   <p>122.                                                       THOMAS                      SIMS                                                                                                                               was indicted for                                                          feloniously stealing, on the 8th of December                     , a chaise, value 35 l.             the property of                                                       Thomas                      Harris                                                                                                                              .</p>               <p>(The case was opened by Mr. Knapp.)</p>               <p>                                                THOMAS                   HARRIS                                                                                        sworn. - The prisoner at the bar came to my house, in company with Mr. Menou, on the 27th of October last.</p>               <p>Q. Who is Mr. Menou? - A. He told me he was a gentleman in the army; I have been told he is now in Tothill-fields; the prisoner came in, and asked me if I had a chaise I could let him for a month; I told him I had one; I shewed it him, it was a two-wheeled chaise; he approved of it; he said, what will you charge me for a month? I said, four guineas; he agreed to pay it me. Now, says he, if I should buy this chaise within a month, you will not charge me for the hire of it? I told him, no; he looked about the shop, and saw another two-wheeled chaise; he asked me the price of it; I asked him sixty-five guineas; he said he thought he should purchase it of me; he told me he would send a Mr. Purvis the next day for the chaise that he had hired with a note from me; he said, Mr. Purvis was a stable-keeper, where his horses stood. Accordingly, the next day, Mr. Purvis came; I asked him for the note the prisoner was to send; he told me he had lost it out of his pocket.</p>               <p>Q. Where is Mr. Purvis now, do you know? - A. In Newgate, I believe; I was not inclinable to let him have it without a note from Sims, and he came again the next day with a note from Sims, and I sent the chaise by Purvis.</p>               <p>Q. Is that the note that Purvis brought you? (shewing him a paper) - A. Yes, it is; I let Purvis have the chaise, in consequence of Purvis's recommendation of Sims; I was to call upon Sims the next day, saying he should probably buy one chaise or the other; I went and found him at No. 40, Brompton-row, Knightsbridge, it was a very elegant house apparently; he wanted to purchase that chaise, for which I asked sixty-five guineas; I told him the very lowest was sixty guineas, ready money. Nothing more particular passed at that time; he told me he was an officer in the army, that he belonged to a German regiment that lay in Hampshire; we did not agree, and then he sent me another letter.</p>               <p>Q. How soon after this did you find out who he was, and where your chaise was? - A. I heard that Mr. Gibbons, in Tottenham Court-road, had my chaise; it was about six weeks after he had it.</p>               <p>Q. When did you go to Gibbons? - A. I applied for a warrant, and found the chaise at Gibbons's on the 8th of December.</p>               <p>- BARNETT sworn. - I am an auctioneer: I had the chaise sent to me, I think, about the beginning of December last, from the stable to my auction-room, to be sold; it was a two-wheeled chaise, with furniture; it was the same chaise that Mr. Harris afterwards saw. An advance upon it was required by a man of the name of Sowerby, but I refused it; I said I would advertise it, and put it up in the first sale I had; the prisoner came the next day, and claimed it as his property; he seemed to say he should not sell it, and wished to have it away.</p>               <p>Q. Was any thing said to you about fifteen pounds? - A. He said it would not bring money enough at the approaching sale, and wanted to have it away; Sowerby said he had advanced money upon it, and claimed it as his, and Sims claimed it as his; I believe fifteen pounds was mentioned as the price of it by Sims; the chaise was sent for away while I was away, and half-a-guinea paid for the standing.</p>               <p>Cross-examined by Mr. Alley. Q. The chaisewas brought to you by a person of the name of Sowerby, and when Sims came to you, he desired you not to sell it? - A. Yes.</p>               <p>Q. Did you ever put it in any catalogue, or offer it for sale? - A. No.</p>               <p>Q. The half-guinea was paid for the mere standing? - A. Yes.</p>               <p>                                                WILLIAM                   GIBBONS                                                                                        sworn. - I am a stable-keeper in Tottenham Court-road; the prisoner came to me, and told me he had a chaise, if I could find room for it to stand; that was somewhere about the 17th of November; he gave me directions where to go for it, to Mr. Barnett's, in King-street, an auctioneer, and I went to Mr. Barnett's; he was not at home, and I went the next day, and had the chaise; I paid ten shillings for the standing of it, I took it home about two days after; the prisoner asked me if I could lend him a little money upon the chaise; I lent him six pounds upon it; I took the chaise first to stand at eighteen-pence a week.</p>               <p>Q. Do you know Sims? - A. Yes, I know him by seeing him at different places, but I cannot tell what he is.</p>               <p>Q. Is he an officer in the army? - A. Not that I know of; I have known him these two years.</p>               <p>Q. And you have seen him backwards and forwards in town? - A. Yes.</p>               <p>Cross-examined by Mr. Knapp. Q. Did not Mr. Harris tell you he had sold the chaise to the prisoner for twenty-five guineas, and did you not reply to him that he had made a hard bargain with the prisoner? - A. No, I do not recollect that.</p>               <p>                                                JOHN                   VICKERY                                                                                        sworn. - I am an officer belonging to Worship-street; I apprehended the prisoner at a lock-up house in White Hart-court, at Mr. Wilson's, under the sheriff's process.</p>               <p>Q. (To Gibbons.) Are you sure as to the time you went to Barnett's to get this chaise? - A. I think it was somewhere about the 17th of November.</p>               <p>Court. Mr. Barnett says it was sent to him the beginning of December.</p>               <p>Q. (To Barnett.) Are you accurate as to the time of the chaise being brought to your house? - A. I have a paper which Sims wrote two days after it came, and left in my accompting-house, and if that is dated, it will tell, (refers to it); it is dated the 16th; then it must have come to me about the 14th.</p>               <p>Prisoner's defence. I bought the chaise of him a fortnight after it was delivered to me; it is very unfortunate that I cannot get my witnesses here; he would not take my bill at a short date, but would give me credit for three weeks; after the expiration of the month, I called upon Mr. Harris, a few days before the chaise was returned, and told him I had been under the necessity of borrowing some money upon it, but he should have it again in a few days; Purvis is unfortunately a debtor on the other side of Newgate.</p>               <p>                                                      GUILTY            , aged 36.</p>               <p>                                                                                                Confined one week in Newgate            , and                                                                               fined 1 s.                           </p>               <p>Second Middlesex Jury, before Mr. Justice Lawrence.</p>            </div>
				
</div></div><!-- #main -->