189. (L.) John Pearcy , otherwise Cooper proceedingsdefend , was indicted for stealing twenty bushels of malt, value 40 s. the property of certain persons unknown, and six hempen sacks, value 6 s. the goods of Charles Truss proceedingsvictim , being in a certain lighter lying on a navigable river called the river Thames , Mar. 17 . ++

Charles Truss < no role > . I live at Reading in Berkshire; about the 19th or 20th of March at night, there was a boat brought to Queenhithe , with six sacks of Malt in it; the sacks were mine; who the malt belongs to I don't know.

Q. Had you lent those sacks to any body?

Truss. No.

Q. Nor sold them?

Truss. No.

Q. What is the prisoner?

Truss. He was my servant, and had been for years; we have always spare sacks on board.

Q. Do you deal in malt?

Truss. No, I do not.

Q. What is your business?

Truss. I am a barge-master , and bring malt for people to town.

Q. Did you give the prisoner leave to take these sacks?

Truss. No, I never did.

Q. Did you order him to carry malt in them ?

Truss. No.

Q. What was the prisoner's business here in London?

Truss. He was along with my barge, he came to help navigate the barge to London.

Q. What was in your barge?

Truss. There was malt in it, and flower, and divers goods.

John Poett < no role > . I had occasion to land at Black-friars on Monday the 17th of March about eight at night, there lay a wherry and some sacks in it marked Truss; I knowing the sacks to be Mr. Truss's property, I suspected them to have been stolen; I made it my business to inquire who owned the boat, no body would own it; I found the sacks had malt in them, as full as commonly sacks are. I went to Queenhithe and found Mr. Truss, and had ordered the boat to be brought there, he came down with a lanthorn and looked at the sacks and owned them, but said he did not know any thing of the malt; I found the owner of the boat when I had got her to Queenhithe, the person that lets the boat out, told me the man who hired the boat of him, was standing amongst the other watermen at Black-friars, when I inquired whose boat it was, when none of them would own the boat, the malt was put into a warehouse till farther inquiry could be made. In a day or two after we found the man that worked the boat, who declared the prisoner at the bar was one of the men that hired him to take the malt out of Mr. Truss's barge to carry it to black-friars.

Q. Did you see the prisoner when you landed at Black-friars?

Poett. No, I did not.

Isaac Sherret < no role > . I am a waterman; I was in a public house drinking with a brother waterman.

Q. to Poett. Is this the man that stood by the boat and would not own it?

Poett. This is he.

Sherret. One George Sunderland < no role > called me out to do a jobb, and said he was to go along with me.

Q. When was this?

Sherret. I can't tell the day of the month, I think it was on a Monday in March I went down along with him, we put my boat on board a barge at Queenhithe.

Q. Was there any thing in your boat when you went there?

Sherret. There was not; the prisoner and two other men that belonged to the barge, pulled up the tar-cloth, and tumbled six sacks of malt out of the barge into my boat, the bargemen came into it (not the prisoner) I asked where I was to go with the malt? they said to 'Black-friars; Sunderland and I rowed her up there with that man in her, the prisoner and the other man proposed to meet us by land there. Sunderland and the bargeman went out of the boat at Black-friars and left me alone some time.

Q. Did you see the bargeman that went up into the boat after that?

Sherret. No.

Q. Did you see the prisoner afterwards ?

Sherret. No, not till I saw him before the alderman.

Q. What became of those sacks of malt?

Sherret. Mr. Poett came and ordered a waterman to row them back again to Queenhithe. Sunderland and I were carried before the alderman; I said the same there as now.

Q. What said the prisoner there?

Sherret. He said he never was on board the boat, and knew nothing of it, and said he had got a boat of his own at White-friars-dock.

George Sunderland < no role > . I lent the last witness a hand to row up to Black-friars with six sacks of malt, marked with Mr. Truss's mark on them; there were three men that helped us put them into the wherry, one of them, named Taylor, went up to Black-friars in her, the prisoner was one of the two that was to meet us at Black-friars; William Taylor < no role > came out of the boat at Black-friars, and said, I'll stay for Trimtram, that is a nick-name the prisoner went by, when this was mentioned at Guildhall the prisoner told his right name. When Mr. Poett came he took charge of the wherry, and ordered her to Queenhithe again.

Q. Did the prisoner assist in putting the malt into the wherry?

Sunderland. He did.

Q. What time of the night was this?

Sunderland. It was about eight o'clock.

Q. Was it moonshine or dark?

Sunderland. The moon did not shine.

Q. Was there ever a candle at Black-friars that you could see the prisoner ?

Sunderland. There is always a candle and a lamp.

Q. Did you know the prisoner before?

Sunderland. I have known him about twenty years.

Q. Who ordered you to bring the boat to Queen-hithe ?

Sunderland. William Taylor < no role > did, and bid me bring her to the barge-side.

Wagdon Powel. I was Mr. Poett's waterman that night, I landed him at Black-friars; there we saw a boat lying with six sacks of malt in her, we went up to see if any body belonged to her, we could not then find an owner, he knowing the sacks desired me to row her down to Queenhithe; when we came there Mr. Truss said they were his sacks.

Theophilus Revel Bragg < no role > . I belong to the wharf at Queenhithe; about the 17th or 18th of March Mr. Truss came to me and desired me to let him put six sacks of malt into the warehouse, ( he produced one of the sacks) marked with the letters T in the middle of a ring and a flower-de-luce on each side the T.

Q. to Truss. Do you know that sack ?

Truss. This is my sack.

Q. Did you give orders for these sacks to be removed from your barge to Black-friars?

Truss. No, I did not.

Q. Did the prisoner come along with that barge?

Truss. No, he did not, but he came up with another; I had two barges up.

Q. How much malt was in that barge?

Truss. Between five and six hundred quarters.

Q. Was any malt missing of that in the barge?

Truss. There were the number of all the sacks in the barge, none missing.

Prisoner's defence.

I know nothing of the matter; I never saw any thing of the wherry or malt either.

Q. to Truss. How long has the prisoner worked for you?

Truss. These twenty years by turns; I have no reason to suspect his honesty.

Guilty 4 s. 10 d.

[Transportation. See summary.]