My Lord & Gentlemen of the Jury.

In compassion to my youth, & ignorance of knowing how to
behave before so awfull a Court; Permit me to take this method, of
speaking the truth in indication of myself On the day & at the time
when the Prosecutor seized me, I was on an errand to fitch some necess-
aries for my mother in George steel< no role > Spittle fields , when two boys rushed
in a great hurry by me, which caused me to have a severe fall on my
face, in getting up from which, the Prosecutor laid hold of my collar,
& dragged me back to a shop, where, the Prosecutor laid hold of my collar,
silk stockings by his own confession my Lord, he lost sight of the per-
son he was in pursuit of; & when he Judged me to be that person, he
found no goods about me, that could justify his suspicion, neither is there
any one from the shop, whence the goods were supposed to be lost, that ever
rememberd my bring there, before I was forcibly led there so that I implicitly
& Humbly rely on your Lordships goodness & the impartiality of the Jury,
to determine the fate of a youth, who never knew what it was to be put to ye
bar in his life before: & who is determined to take such warning from the
present seene, as will prevent his ever bring introduced then again.