He frankly owned, that it was 9 years ago since he first began to be a thief. He was detected, and taken up for some theft soon after began, but it was made up, and he escaped for that time. This, he says, was several times the case, before his apprenticeship was our, upon his repeated promise of being a good boy. which promise however, it is plain, he never intended to make good.

Various are the robberies he has been concerned in, and, he says, he always sought his way by violence if opposed; but he declared he never committed murder, which, had he committed, he should not have died without acknowledging it, nor thought it safe so to do.

He did not always escape, tho' generally he did, without discovery in his robberies; for in December sessions,1749, he was tried, with one William Smith< no role > , for stealing a handkerchief but of a person's pocket in, Cheapside ; Smith was transported for it, but Hutton, was acquitted. Again, in September sessions, 1750, Hutton was tried, with Thomas Rowland< no role > , and the famous Ben the Coalheaver, since executed, for a robbery on the highway, on William Harsel< no role > , and was also acquitted. But, at the November sessions, 1752, he was once more tried, with John Wright< no role > , for breaking and entering the dwelling-house of Edward Salmon< no role > , in Chancery-lane ; and being found guilty, received sentence of transportation for seven years.

He was accordingly transported, but did not stay away long before he returned to England . He acknowledges the justice of his suffering, and owns he had long deserved it. And he seemed to leave this world in a penitent and resigned manner, and said he hoped, that though he had been a most vile offender, the merits of Christ might save him from eternal misery, being sensible of the enormity of his ill-spent life.

10, 11. John Mason< no role > , aged 25, and John Welch< no role > , aged 35, were both Roman catholicks , and I having not proper admittance to them, can give no account of their birth, or education, or what they were bred to.

As to Mason, he was no stranger to Newgate , having not been long gone from thence, before he entered into the confederacy which committed the robbery he suffered for.

With regard to Welch, he seemed, by the evidence's account of him, to have been a long time used to the thieving trade. He was very active in this robbery, and was the man that struck the prosecutor first with a hanger, and then with a stick.

Mason, Welch, and two more, the evidence Kirby, and Welch, jun. met at the Blue Anchor, in Bunhill-row , it seems, in order to fix their rendezvous, and from thence set out with an intent to rob any one that came in their way. They met with the prosecutor, and used him very ill. Mason gave notice of his coming, and Welch received him, and betwixt them the man was robbed, and cruelly beaten; and but for the assistance of some people passing by, who