Part 67

The prisoner, it appears, had been brought up to the trade of a sweep; but naturally disinclined to follow a steady and honest course of life, he quitted the business to which he had been educated, but made his aptitude for it subservient to a new avocation. He joined with a gang of fellows of bad character, who pursued a system of plunder to gain a livelihood, and with them he adopted a means of effecting robberies, as remarkable as it was novel. Procuring access to the roof of an empty house, they would fix upon any other house in the row, from which they might hope to obtain a good booty, and one of them descending the chimney, he would generally succeed in carrying off such a prize as well re-paid his daring. The burglary for which Williams was committed, however, was one of an ordinary character; but while in jail he still found his powers of climbing of use to him. It appears that he was confined in the condemned yard, with two other prisoners, and on the 26th of July, the day of his escape, while his companions were reading in the room appropriated to their use, he managed to work his way to the roof of the jail by means of his hands, back, and knees, sweep-like, up the angular corner of the building. The ascent, to a person of his accomplishment in this particular line, was comparatively easy, by reason of the roughness of the face of the wall, and he had soon gained the top of the building, in spite of all the obstacles, in the shape of chevaux-de-frise, and iron spikes, which presented themselves. To traverse the roof of the prison and gain the houses in Warwick-lane was the work of a very few minutes, and availing himself of an open skylight, he dropped through it. To his astonishment, he found himself confronted with a woman who was at work in the room into which he had fallen; but speedily taking advantage of her alarm, he slipped past her, and had reached the open street before she had time to recover her scattered senses, or to give any intimation of her fright to the other occupants of the house.

Williams knew too well the value of his liberty to afford an opportunity for his re-capture, and he had soon quitted the vicinity of his late residence.

His want of means of support, or his unfortunate disinclination for an honest life, however, soon again placed him in the custody of his late keeper, Mr. Cope, the governor of Newgate. Within a fortnight after his escape, Mr. Cope received an intimation that he was in Winchester jail, upon a new charge of burglary, committed since he had gained his liberty in the extraordinary manner which we have described. He, in consequence, proceeded to that place to receive his prisoner back into his custody, and in a few days Williams was once again lodged in his old quarters.

A humane consideration of his case, subsequently procured for him a commutation of his punishment to transportation for life.

GEORGE EDWARD PEACOCK.

TRANSPORTED FOR FORGERY.

This unfortunate young man, at the time of his conviction, was only thirty years of age, and he had, for a considerable period, carried on business in his profession as an attorney, in Chancery-lane. He was of a highly respectable family, residing in Yorkshire; and the forgery of which he was convicted, was that of a power-of-attorney for the transfer of stock, which formed the subject matter of the settlement of his brother, the Rev. Mr. Peacock, on his marriage with Miss Selina Willmar.

On Wednesday the 21st of September, 1836, the prisoner was placed upon his trial at the Central Criminal Court, upon this charge.

The evidence adduced against him consisted of proof of the execution of the deed of settlement, by which the Rev. W. A. Fountain, Mr. W. Watkins, and the prisoner, were made trustees for Mrs. Peacock, for an amount of 7,814_l._, in the three per Cent. Consols; and it was further shown that on the 7th of December, 1835, the stock was sold out by the prisoner, through the medium of Mr. Clark, a broker, a power-of-attorney being produced, signed with the names of Mr. Watkins, the Rev. Mr. Fountain, and the prisoner. The two former names subsequently proved to be forgeries; and it was ascertained that there were no such persons in existence as those who purported to have affixed their signatures as attesting witnesses to the execution of the power.

The case for the prosecution being closed,

The prisoner proceeded to address the court and jury from a written paper. He began by declaring that he was fully aware of his offence, and had never attempted to deny it; and the feeling by which he was influenced in avowing his guilt thus early was to save his relatives and friends from the pain which a full exposure of all the circumstances of the case must have caused them. He could, however, assure the jury, that necessity, not inclination, had led him to the commission of the act. He found himself surrounded by pecuniary difficulties, and the ruin with which he was threatened would not only have destroyed his professional prospects, but his wife and child, his aged and venerable parents, and respectable family, would have been involved in his misfortune. To save them and himself, he was induced to adopt the desperate expedient by which he was placed in his present situation. He considered, however, that he was only making a temporary use of the money, and that fact, he thought, must be apparent to every one, because, had he contemplated a felony, he might have at once absconded, instead of which he kept his ground for several days before and after the discovery took place. He should not trouble his lordship and the jury with a detail of his complicated troubles; but he was desirous to advert to a few circumstances connected with his life, in order to show the difficulties in which he had been placed. The prisoner then went on to state, that he was admitted an attorney in the year 1830, and commenced business in London under the most cheering auspices, but he had not been long in practice when he lost 1500_l._ and was further compelled to pay 600_l._ in consequence of his having become security for a friend. He was then obliged to accept bills, in the hope of being thus enabled to extricate himself from his difficulties; but, unfortunately, this course only added to them, for when the bills became due, being unable to answer them, he was compelled to borrow large sums of money to meet his liabilities, and last year he found that he had incurred debts and suffered losses to the extent of 5000_l._ A great proportion, however, of the money he had borrowed was expended in the maintenance of his family and the support of his professional respectability. In order to redeem his losses, he conceived the plan of appropriating his brother's property to his temporary use; and such was his misplaced confidence in his own abilities, that he anticipated he should have been enabled, in a very short time, to emerge from his difficulties, and replace the money in the bank. He felt assured that, if he could prove to his brother his ability to do so, he would be perfectly satisfied, and he had not the most remote idea that the Bank of England would suffer any loss by the transaction. All his speculations, however, proved abortive. Loss succeeded loss, and at the time he was taken into custody, he was almost without a pound. Fallen, however, as he was from a situation of respectability to his present degradation, and sunk as he must appear in his own eyes and those of the jury, he nevertheless threw himself on their merciful consideration. His brother was now quite aware that it was his intention to have replaced the stock, and he most solemnly assured the jury that he had firmly resolved to do so. He begged leave to thank the Governor and Company of the Bank of England for granting him time to prepare for his trial, and he begged to repeat that he never contemplated a fraud on that establishment, and that, in fact, he had no intention to wrong any party. He did not, however, attempt to justify his motives, because, whatever might be the intention, it was neither an excuse nor a defence for an offence committed against the laws of God and man: that he had deeply suffered for his crime, the days and nights of remorse and mental agony he had endured might testify, and perhaps it might yet be his fate to suffer the still greater misery of being cut off from the world by a sudden and degrading death, to appear before his offended Maker with all his imperfections on his head, and all his sins to atone for. [Here the prisoner, who appeared deeply affected, was unable for some moments to proceed.] He trusted that the jury would humanely consider the awful situation in which he was placed, and the consequent disadvantages under which he unfortunately laboured. He implored them most earnestly to accompany their verdict with a recommendation of mercy, and that they would weigh and consider well before they decided on consigning a fellow-creature to a premature grave. He trusted that they would not forget he had a wife and child. (Here the unfortunate man dropped his head, and burying his face in his handkerchief, sobbed bitterly.) He hoped the jury would bear in mind, also, his two respectable and venerable parents, one of whom, bowed down by age and affliction, was tottering on the verge of the grave: and it was much to be feared that the grey hairs of his other parent would be brought with sorrow to the tomb. Besides these ties, he had a large circle of friends, to whom his disgraceful end would afford a lasting pang. Let the jury, then, consider all this. Let them weigh well the consequences of their decision, and he hoped that they would be influenced by that humane and merciful feeling which they would wish to see exercised in their own cases. In conclusion, he prayed that the great and merciful Father, who read the secrets of all hearts, would influence their decision in favour of the humble, wretched, and repentant individual who pleaded for mercy before them.

Several most respectable individuals, including clergymen, barristers, merchants, and solicitors, came forward and gave the prisoner an excellent character for strict honesty, honourable and upright dealing in his profession, and the highest respectability of conduct in every relation of life.

The Lord Chief Justice summed up the evidence.

The jury having retired for about ten minutes, returned into court and delivered the following verdict:--"We find the prisoner Guilty; but the jury are unanimous in their wish to recommend him strongly to mercy, on account of his previous good character."

On Monday, the 26th of September, the prisoner received sentence of death; but a subsequent consideration of all the circumstances of the case procured for him a merciful mitigation of his punishment to transportation.

JOHN MINTER HART.

TRANSPORTED FOR FORGERY.

The name of this person was long notorious in London, antecedent to the period of his conviction. He was well known as an advertising moneylender; and the schemes to which he resorted for the purpose of preying upon the unwary were as ingenious as they were iniquitous.

The offence of which Minter Hart was convicted was that of forgery. He was indicted at the Central Criminal Court on Thursday, the 16th of December, 1836, for feloniously forging and counterfeiting a bill of exchange for 500_l._, with intent to defraud the Rev. Charles Herbert Jenner.

It appeared that, in the previous month of July, the Rev. Charles Herbert Jenner, of Wenvoe, near Cardiff, Glamorganshire, saw an advertisement in the "Morning Post," offering to lend money, with a reference to Mr. Blake, 44, Haymarket. Wanting money, he directed a letter to Mr. Blake, and had an interview with the prisoner, who met him at Chislehurst, in Kent, where he was residing. He told him he wanted 200_l._, on personal security, for twelve months. The prisoner agreed to let him have it at five per cent. on his bill. He met him the next day at the house of his father (Sir Herbert Jenner), in Chesterfield-street, when the prisoner produced a stamp, at the same time showing what appeared to him to be a Bank-of-England check. The prisoner asked Mr. Jenner to write across the stamp, "Accepted--Charles Jenner;" but before he signed it, he saw the prisoner write something at the left-hand corner; he did not notice what, but subsequently saw it was figures denoting 200_l._ The prisoner then took away the stamp, and said he would return with the money in half an hour. By desire of the prisoner, he made the bill payable at the Bank of England. On the bill being now produced, the figures 500_l._ appeared to have been substituted for those of 200_l._ He did not again see the prisoner, nor get any money, although he received several letters.--A Mr. John William Edwards proved that he had received the bill in question from the prisoner, having agreed to purchase it at 5_s._ in the pound. It was then only a blank acceptance, but there was a stain at the corner. The prisoner said it was as he had received it. He said it had been obtained from Mr. Jenner by a person named Elliott, and that he had offered it for sale to a Mr. Pook, who would only give 100L. for it. If the bill was paid, he, Edwards, was to give 50_l._ additional. The bargain was finally settled at a public-house at the corner of a court in Jermyn-street, and witness received the blank acceptance, and kept it in his possession for a week, when it was given to the prisoner to be drawn and endorsed. He returned it regularly drawn and endorsed with the name of "C. Taylor."

Other witnesses proved a fact which exhibited the boldness and ingenuity with which the prisoner had effected his object. It appeared, upon a chemical examination of the paper on which the bill was drawn, that that part of it on which, according to Mr. Jenner's statement, the figures "200_l._" had been written, had been subjected to the action of a strong acid, the effect of which had been to remove all trace of the ink. The new figures, "500_l._," had then been written in their stead, and the bill had been put in circulation as a security for that amount.

An objection was taken to the indictment on the ground that the facts proved did not show that any forgery had been committed, although it was admitted that there had been a fraud; but the learned judge gave it as his opinion, that the indictment was sustained, and the prisoner was found "Guilty."

His case subsequently formed the subject of discussion before the fifteen judges in the Court of Exchequer Chamber, when the conviction was declared to be good, and on Tuesday, the 7th of February, 1837, Hart was sentenced to be transported for life.

The prisoner, as we have already stated, had been long known in London as a successful cheat. The instance above referred to is not the only one in which, by his acts, he got himself into a situation of difficulty.

On the 14th of October, 1833, a coadjutor and agent of his, named Henry Palmer, was indicted at the Middlesex Sessions, charged with receiving ten bills of exchange for 500_l._ each, accepted by D. Astley, Esq., well knowing them to have been stolen. Mr. Adolphus stated the circumstances as follows:--

Mr. Dugdale Astley was the prosecutor; he was the eldest son of Sir J. Astley, M.P. for Wiltshire, and married the daughter of Sir T. Lethbridge, by whom he would be entitled, at some future day, to a large fortune; he was also the heir to an extensive property in his own person. Mr. Astley, the previous July, saw an advertisement in the "Morning Post," stating that a gentleman retiring from business had a sum of 20,000_l._ to lend at four-and-a-half per cent. interest to gentlemen of known property, or on bills of exchange at a short date. Application to be made to Mr. T. Morton, 35, University-street, St. Pancras. He (Mr. Adolphus) should have thought that this was almost too vulgar to attract notice, but it caught the attention of Mr. Astley; and he being in want of a temporary advance of money, applied for the loan of 5000_l._, at the same time describing his own and his wife's family connexions. Mr. Astley, at the time of making this application, was at his country house, Basing Park, Wiltshire, and shortly afterwards he received a letter, signed "J. Morton," but by a person whose real name would turn out to be Minter Hart, stating that he (Morton) would visit Mr. A. in the country, which he had accordingly done. A great deal of discussion ensued between them as to the terms on which the money was to be advanced; it was ultimately arranged that Mr. Astley should give his acceptance at short dates, which were to be renewed from time to time on the payment of six per cent interest. Hart, calculating on the success of the plot, had provided himself with ten six-shilling stamps, which he requested Mr. Astley to accept for 500_l._ each. This he simply and foolishly acceded to, and wrote across them--"Accepted; payable at Messrs. Praed and Co., bankers, 195, Fleet-street." Hart, overjoyed at his success, put the bills into his pocket, and immediately started, assuring the prosecutor that the money would be forthcoming in a few days. When he (Hart) had got home, he found that the prosecutor had not signed his name to the bills. He accordingly wrote him a letter, requesting a second interview, as there was an irregularity. This was granted, and day after day passed away, but no money was forthcoming. Nothing was heard of Mr. Hart or the bills. At length a letter was received, stating that the business could not be completed for a short time. Some days after this a letter was received from the prisoner (which first introduced him into the transaction), dated Hertford-street, May Fair, Aug. 16, and was to the following effect:--

"SIR,--I have received in payment your acceptance for 500_l._, and have also been requested to discount another for the same amount, which, from the respectability of your family, I am inclined to do. Perhaps, therefore, you will have the goodness to inform me if the bills are all regular and right.

"I am, &c., "HENRY PALMER.

"D. Astley, Esq."

This letter Mr. Astley fortunately did not answer, but it raised his suspicions that all was not right; he accordingly made inquiries, and it was discovered that Hart and the prisoner were old friends--labourers in the same vineyard. This trick having failed, the prisoner then resorted to another; he thought that Mr. Astley would naturally wish to conceal the transaction from his own and his wife's family; he therefore sent him a copy of a letter which he (Palmer) said he intended to send to his (Mr. Astley's) father, and Sir Thomas Lethbridge, his father-in-law. The letter was to the following effect:--

"SIR,--Your son, Mr. Dugdale Astley, has, to my own knowledge, accepted bills to the amount of 5,000_l._, without receiving one penny value for them; part of them are in circulation, and the others shortly will be; but, from the circumstances that have come to my knowledge, they might be all bought up for a small sum, and thereby prevent an exposure of the transaction in a court of justice. If you think this proposal worthy your notice, and will put an advertisement in 'The Morning Chronicle,' addressed to O. P. Q., you shall hear from me.

"Yours, &c. "HENRY PALMER."

This not being noticed immediately, the letters were addressed to Sir J. Astley and Sir T. Lethbridge. These letters, it would be proved were in the handwriting of the prisoner. An advertisement was subsequently put into "The Morning Chronicle," requesting O. P. Q,. to meet the parties at the office of their solicitors, Messrs. Henson and Co., which he accordingly did, and had an interview. Mr. Henson asked the prisoner what he expected to receive by giving up the bills?--Palmer replied, with the greatest effrontery, "Twenty shillings in the pound; they are worth every farthing of it." This, of course, was indignantly refused, and he went away. The following day the solicitor of the prisoner called upon Mr. Henson, and asked if Mr. Astley would give 10_s._ in the pound for the bills? This was refused. He then offered to take 5_s._, but this offer was also refused, and the negotiation dropped.

To support this case, a clear and connected chain of evidence was produced, showing the connexion of the prisoner with Hart, and leaving no doubt as to the conspiracy which had been formed to rob the prosecutor. The prisoner conducted his own defence, and cross-examined both the prosecutor and the other witnesses; and from the answers of the former it appeared that he had become acquainted with Mr. Smart, of Bridges-street, Covent Garden, and other persons not strictly creditable. The main facts of the charge were, however, not shaken, and the prisoner was found guilty, and sentenced to be transported for fourteen years--a sentence which so shook his nerves, that he fell in a fit, and was removed from the bar in a state of insensibility.

Hart, it will be perceived, was intimately connected with the case to which we have referred, and he too was shortly afterwards apprehended upon the charge of his participation in the offence, of which his agent had been found guilty. Having undergone several examinations before the magistrates, he was committed for trial; but upon application to the Court of King's Bench, the indictment was removed by _certiorari_ from the Middlesex Sessions to the Old Bailey. On Monday, the 2nd of December, 1833, Hart was put upon his trial; but an objection being taken to the indictment, upon the ground that there was no felony proved, by reason of there having been nothing stolen which was the property of Mr. Astley, a verdict of "Not guilty" was returned upon the direction of the learned judge. Hart was then discharged; and Palmer, whose conviction, it followed, had been illegal, was also subsequently liberated.

Having detailed the circumstances of these two cases, it is unnecessary that we should go into any further description of the habits and practices of Hart and his associates, because their proceedings were always so much of the same character, that their statement would be a mere repetition of the facts which we have related. Hart was, in pursuance of his sentence, carried to Van Diemen's Land; but a short residence in that colony, aided, doubtless, by change of habit and situation, brought him to the grave.