Old Bailey Proceedings Online (www.oldbaileyonline.org, version 8.0, 26 March 2023), December 1810, trial of MARY CAVILLON (t18101205-33).

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MARY CAVILLON, Theft > housebreaking, 5th December 1810.

33. MARY CAVILLON was indicted for breaking and entering the dwelling-house of William Dean , about the hour of three in the afternoon, on the 5th of December , Mary the wife of William Dean , and others of his family being therein, and feloniously stealing, two shirts, value 10 s. the property of William Dean , and two shirts, value 5 s. a neck handkerchief, value 1 s. a hat, value 3 s. a great coat, value 10 s. and a pair of half boots, value 2 s. the property of Joseph Dean .

MARY DEAN . My husband's name is William Dean , I live in St. Giles's . A person went up to the one pair of stairs door, and opened the door with a false key.

Q. Did you see the person go up stairs. - A. No, I saw her come down.

Q. What day was this. - A. On Wednesday last, between two and three o'clock in the afternoon.

Q. Did you see the prisoner come down stairs. - A. Yes, she wanted to rush through the passage, to get away from my son, and I called to an old man that lived in the two pair, to come and detain her while my son went for a constable, the old man came down, and then she ran into my parlour.

Q. What the prisoner. - A. Yes, I saw her put her right hand into her pocket, she pulled out three keys, and chucked them under the parlour grate. The officer tried one of these keys, it unlocked the room where the prisoner came from, she exclaimed when I took up the keys from under the grate, that she was guilty, and said,

"pray do not hurt me."

Q. You had not promised to forgive her, or any thing of that sort. - A. No, I told her I saw her take the keys out of her pocket. The officer brought down the clothes which she had put into the bag. They are here. There was a pair of sheets worth 10 s. three shirts, worth 5 s. three neck handkerchiefs, worth 1 s. a hat 3 s. a pair of boots, half a crown, and a great coat, 10 s.

Q. Do you know how she got in your house. - A. She came in at the street door, it stands open in day-light. The door up stairs was locked and I had the key.

Q. What did you find upon her. - A. Nothing, upon her, I found all these things put up in a canvas bag.

Q. The things in the canvas bag would not amount to forty shillings. - A. No, when the prisoner was taken to the watch-house, I found ten false keys upon the chair on which she had been sitting, and one of them keys opens the front garret door, out of which I was robbed about ten weeks ago.

Q. We must not hear that. You say your street door was open. - My street door was open, the one pair door was locked and the key in my parlour. She stripped the bed, and took some dirty things which were laying about the room.

Q. Was the room locked in which the goods were. A. Yes.

Mr. Arabin. You say the outer door was open. A. Yes.

Q. To whom did this room belong to, where the bag of goods where found. - A. The goods were foundin my son's room, and a young man's room. I keep the house.

Court. Do not you and your husband live there. - A. Yes, and my son sleeps in that room.

Court. What time of the day was this. - A. Between two and three o'clock in the afternoon. She came running down stairs. I went to the street door, I endeavoured to stop her.

Q. How near the street door did you see her. - A. About a yard from the stairs.

Q. This was a one pair of stairs room, and these goods in the bag were still in the room. - A. Yes.

Q. And when she came down she had no bag. - A. She was in the room with the bag. My son saw her in the room.

JOSEPH DEAN . You occupy this room in this house. - A. Yes.

Q. It was your father's house, and your father's room. - A. Yes.

Q. Now tell us whether any of the property taken was your's. - A. Yes, two of the shirts were mine that were taken.

Q. They were not carried away. - A. No, they were packed up in the bag.

Q. They were taken from the place where they had been left. - A. Yes, and the great coat was mine, it was worth 10 s. and the hat was mine. They were all removed from the place where they was left. I left the hat on the table by the foot of the bed, the sheets were taken off the bed. I went up stairs between 2 and 3 o'clock after dinner, to get my hat off the table to go out. I took the key off the nail in the parlour where it usually hangs. I went up stairs, put the key in the door, unlocked it. I could not get in, this woman resisted inside, and pushed inside. I saw her came out of my room, she ran part of the way up the second pair of stairs, she came down again directly, rushed into the passage, and appeared confused. She took nothing away.

Q. Then these different articles in your room were removed for some purpose or other. - A. Yes, into the bag. She wanted to go out of the passage away from my mother and me. We stopped her, she never got out of the house. I called the old man out of the two pair to help to secure her while I went for an officer. fetched the officer.

Mr. Arabin. What time of the day was it. - A. Between two and three o'clock last Wednesday.

Q. This room is occupied by you and another person. - A. Yes.

Q. The key of that room was kept hung up in the parlour. - A. Yes, and I took it when I went up to the room. I was up there about half an hour before I found the prisoner in that room.

Court. If I understand you right, this key you hang up in your mother's parlour. - A. Yes, the prisoner could not have opened the door with this key, but with a false key.

WILLIAM SALMON . I am an officer - I was sent for to the prosecutor's house on Wednesday the 5th of this month. I saw the prisoner in the parlour. The prosecutrix said, that was the person who had robbed her. I searched the prisoner, and found on her a pipe-key; after that, the prosecutrix gave me these three keys, the keys that the prisoner threw away. I took Mrs. Dean's son up with me. I tried this key is the son's room. I found this key exactly fitted the lock; it locked and unlocked it. I went in the room. I observed this bag, with the property stated in the indictment. In Joseph Dean 's room, by the side of the bag, I found these pattens very dirty. I took the bag and the pattens, and went down in the parlour where the prisoner was. When I went in the parlour, the prisoner said, these are my pattens, give them to me. I took her to the watch-house: the small keys I found in her lodgings.

The prisoner left her defence to her counsel; called two witnesses, who gave her a good character.

GUILTY DEATH , aged 35.

First Middlesex jury, before Mr. Justice Grose.