31. (M.) Hannah Duckson proceedingsdefend , spinster , was indicted for stealing one silver spoon, value 5 s. the property of Thomas Thurkill proceedingsvictim , Dec. 3 . +

Thomas Thurkill < no role > . I keep Pons Coffee-house, Leicester Fields . Last Friday evening, my servant who takes care of the plate told me a spoon was missing, and on the Saturday Mr. Alison came and informed me he had got a spoon he supposed to be mine. He shewed it to me. I was certain it was my property. He told me he had stopped the person that brought it, and she was then in the Gatehouse. I went there, and saw her; it was the prisoner at the bar. She acknowledged before Sir John Fielding < no role > , that she had taken it.

Mr. Alison. I am a pawnbroker, and live near Cranbourn alley. [He produced a spoon deposed to by the prosecutor.] The prisoner brought this spoon to me, and said her name was Mary Jones < no role > ; and that she lived with a gentlewoman in Long Acre. She said her husband bought her this spoon two years ago, and he had left her. I stopped her and the spoon, and took her before the justice. Then she said she found it in Leicester Fields. The justice committed her; then she said her name was Duckson, and that she lived in Hedge lane. Last Wednesday she was re-examined; then she owned she took it out of the prosecutor's kitchen, and had scratched the name in part out with a file.

Prisoner's Defence.

I had broken victuals at several houses, and when I got home I found this spoon in my pan; and I, wanting money, went to pawn it, in hopes to get it out again, and let the people have it that owned it.

Guilty .

[Transportation. See summary.]