Old Bailey Proceedings:
Old Bailey Proceedings: Accounts of Criminal Trials

5th December 1744

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Currently Held: Harvard University Library

LL ref: t17441205-17




24, 25. + Edward * Hill proceedingsdefend , and John Hill proceedingsdefend , of St. Andrew's, Holborn , were indicted for assaulting Elizabeth the wife of Francis Quaite proceedingsvictim proceedingsvictim , on the King's highway, putting her in fear, and taking from her a linen pocket, value 6 d. and 18 d. in money , October the 17th .

* Edward Hill is the father of John Hill.

Elizabeth Quaite < no role > . I was going up the King's Road , at the bottom of Gray's-Inn-Lane , on the 17th of October last, and was robbed; one man stopped me first, and said, Hollo.

Q. Do you know who that man was?

Quaite. It might be this Edward Hill, I thought it was him, but I am not positive to him.

Q. What time was it?

Quaite. It might be before eight, or after, and John Hill, by name, came after me, and held a stick cross my and nose, but did not strike me: one of them took my pocket, in which was a shilling, and six-pence in half-pence, or rather more, and I took this stick from him in the action [the produced a pretty large bludgeon.] There were John Hill, Waters, and Gascoign came up to me. The first that came up, said, Stand and deliver, you bitch, or you are a dead woman. What's your will, said I; he said, What you have, and I said, If you take what I have, don't use me ill, and Gascoign clapped a pistol to my breast, then I went up the King's Road, and cried out, Murder, and my husband and some others came to my assistance.

Q. What were you going about?

Quaite. To buy a tin kettle, as I had been going to do several nights before.

Q. How came those men to be there?

Quaite. They had been after them several times before.

Q. How came your husband to be at the bottom of the street?

Quaite. He heard me cry out murder, and they came to my assistance, - there were George Quaite < no role > , Isaac Hawes < no role > , and William Tring < no role > .

Coun. Was not you directed to go into the King's Road in order to be robbed?

Quaite. No.

Coun. Did not you receive a shilling for that purpose ?

Quaite. No.

George Quaite < no role > . I am a labourer, and sometimes assist some of the Sheriffs officers.

Coun. to Francis Quaite < no role > . Did not you go out that night on purpose to go a thief-taking?

Francis Quaite < no role > . I did.

Coun. Did not you send your wife there to be robbed?

Quaite. No, I did not send her to be robbed.

Coun. How came you to go there then?

Quaite. I went with a design to take them, because I knew they had robbed in that road several times.

Joseph Waters < no role > . On the 17th of October, John Hill, Edward Hill, Gascoign, and myself went out together. John Hill took hold of Mrs. Quaite's pocket, and not getting it presently, old Hill came up, and said, what are you so long about? and John Hill was taken in the fact.

Coun. How do you know that old Hill was along with you?

Waters. I told it directly that he was.

Coun. How long had you been acquainted with him?

Waters. Only that night.

Coun. What! did not you know him before?

Waters. I knew him as John Hill's father, but no otherwise.

Coun. Did Edward Hill ever rob with you before?

Waters . Not before that night; he was in two or three robberies with me that night, - we robbed one man in Gray's-Inn-Lane by the alms-houses, and another man of a coat and a bottle of gin, and old Hill said he would have the bottle of gin for his own drinking; though he never went out with us before, he knew what his son did, we have told him what we went about, and he bid us take care of ourselves. - I was taken up the very night this robbery was committed.

Edward Hill the prisoner. George Quaite < no role > and his son, Isaac Hawes < no role > and Haines the Thief-takers, came and took me out of my bed; they did not come on purpose for me, they came to search my house for some of the lodgers, for 'tis full of lodgers, and when they could not find the persons they wanted, they said, D - n it, if they could not get the others, they would take the old man, and they would hang him for the sake of the reward.

Robert Miles < no role > . Mrs. Quaite came that night to my shop, and said she had paid my wife all the money she had, and yet she said she was going to buy a tin kettle, and she said, I hope to God I shall get a brass one. After these men were taken up, says she, pray shall I come in for any part of the reward? I said, how can you come in for any part of the reward, when you could not be robbed, because you had no money?

Daniel Dennis < no role > . I have known Edward Hill these eight years: I never heard but he was always an honest man, and worked hard for his bread; he is a Taylor, he has worked with me, and I with him.

Richard Hull < no role > . I have employ'd him in his business, a Taylor, five or six years, and never heard any thing amiss of him.

Thomas Plummer < no role > . I have known Edward Hill better than six years, and have employ'd him often; I never heard any ill of him till this affair.

Thomas Wilson < no role > . I am a Taylor: I have known him eleven or twelve years; he has the character of a very honest man.

A Painter, who had known him thirty years, and was a school-fellow with him, gave him the character of an honest pains-taking man. Edward Hill Acquitted , John Hill Guilty , Death .




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