282. Bathia Whitfield proceedingsdefend , of St. John's the Evangelist , was indicted for stealing a silver spoon, val. 8 s. and a brass tobacco box, val. 1 s. the goods of Thomas Hawkins proceedingsvictim , May 2 d .

Hawkins. The Prisoner thought fit to borrow a spoon of me.

Q. How do you know the Prisoner took it?

Hawkins. I lost a spoon and a tobacco box; I was not at home when they were lost. I am informed the Prisoner was let into my house by a little girl; and that the spoon was conveyed into my house again last Saturday, by a woman who came for a pail of water.

Mary Painter < no role > . I catched the Prisoner at Mr. Hawkins's house, on Saturday was seven night.

Q. Does she keep a publick house?

Painter. No, a private house. A neighbour came and informed me, that there was a thief in Mr. Hawkins's house; I looked in all the rooms, and could not find any body; and when I came into the back garret, the Prisoner was behind the door; when she saw me, she run down directly: the next morning she was taken up, and she owned before the Justice, that she stole the spoon.

Mr. Hawkins's son. I heard there was a thief in my father's house, and that my daughter-in-law and she were shut into the house together; I said to her, if you will deliver the things back again, you shall go about your business: then she said, she had taken a spoon, and thrown it into the soil hole in Tuttle Fields; and that when the soil comes to be emptied, the spoon will be found; she said before the justice, she had taken nothing but a spoon and a tobacco box; but was so drunk then, that she could not tell who she sold it to. She pulled the tobacco box out of her pocket, and said, if I would, I should have that.

Jury. How came the spoon into the house again?

Mr. Hawkins's son. Her landlady came to beg a pail of water, and talked about being lame, and one thing and another; and afterwards, the spoon was found lying open, upon a chest of drawers in the room. She stole five shillings one time off a, mantle piece, and when she was charged with taking it, she said, she had thrown it into a ditch: and I have been told, that she has stole brass-weights, and any thing she could meet with, and has been a common pilfering thief. Guilty 10 d.

The Jury recommended her to the Court for corporal punishment.

[Whipping. See summary.]