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

16th October 1776

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775. THOMAS GREEN, otherwise SMART proceedingsdefend This name instance is in set 3657. , was indicted for making and coining a false piece of forged and counterfeit money, to the likeness and similitude of the good and legal money and current silver coin of this realm called a half crown , against the statue, &c. October 7th .

2d Count. For coining a shilling.

3d Count. For coining a six-pence.

JOHN MAYLAND < no role > sworn.

Upon the 10th of October 1775, between twelve and one, I went to a house in Fair-street, Bethnal-green , which I understood was inhabited by the prisoner at the bar; I was in company with one Dorman; we had information against them for coining; Dorman looked through the key hole of the street door; there was but one room on a floor, so that the key hole commanded the room; he could look in and see to the end of it; Dorman called to me to look; I looked in, and saw one Clay and the prisoner and a woman at the further end of the room; they seemed to be founding of something upon the back dresser; I went to find the back door of the house, which was by an alley; and by the time I had got there Dorman had found means to get in at the fore door; he let me in at the back door; when I got into the house I saw this base money lying upon the dresser (producing it); I saw likewise a bag of faceing sand, a parcel of allum, some cream of tartar, and scouring-paper, they were all upon the dresser I saw the people standing at; then we went up to the two pair of stairs room; there we found a flask, a vice, a parcel of files and crucibles, and in the cellar we found a press and fly for making copper money.

CHARLES DORMAN < no role > sworn.

I was along with the last witness; I looked in and saw the people doing something at the dresser, I could not tell what; I called to Mayland to come and look, and then sent him round to find the back door; after he had been gone a few minutes I knocked at the fore door, and was let in by a woman; as soon as she let me in she rushed by me and ran away; I secured the prisoner and Clay; then I shut the fore door to prevent their getting off, and then let Mayland in at the back door; I bid him take care of the money while I secured the prisoner; there lay upon the dresser three parcels of six-pences, a parcel of bad shillings by themselves, and some bad half crowns.

JOHN CLAY < no role > sworn.

I was found in Green's house: I met Green in the month of August, he asked me how trade went, by which I understood the disposing of bad halfpence ; I gave him an answer to it; then he asked me if I could furnish him with any dies, and appointed to meet me; I was to bring some dies with me; I was disappointed in procuring them, I could not keep that appointment ; we met by accident then; the prisoner desired me to come to him in Eyre-street, and to ask for one Green a buckle-maker ; I went there, and there I found the prisoner, who took me into the two-pair of stairs room; he shewed me some base six-pences, and said he and the woman had made them; he shewed me all the utensils he had, and said they made a shift with them; he appointed to meet me at a house in Chick-lane ; he shewed me a six-pence which was made of silver of the value of 4 s. 8 d. an ounce; he said he had a machine for cutting them, and if I had a mind they would make some; I consented to make money with him, and gave him three guineas to buy silver; the money was laid out in silver, which had a proper alloy put to it, so as to be run down to the value of 4 s. 8 d. an ounce; this was scoured and prepared, and made into six-pences in Eyre-street by me, the prisoner, and the woman; it produced 25 s. for a guinea; after that I produced another guinea to buy more silver, and to try if we could cast it into shillings and six pences; we did try a whole day and could make out but 11 s. that were passable; then we agreed to make more shillings that were easier produced; we put some few half crowns into the mould and made some, I cannot say how many; this was some time before we were apprehended; for from the Saturday till the Wednesday that we were taken up, we had done no work; we had not been at work the day we were taken up: in preparing this money we boil it twice, once in aqua fortis and water, and another time in a preparation of and cream of tartar; the prisoner is by trade a buckle-maker; we struck the six-pences with a press, and made them all with one-pair of dies; but when we cast, we cast from moulds made of impressions of different pieces of money, because one flask would contain 14 s. or 15 s. or four or five half crowns and 8 s. and so on in proportion to the number of six-pences; so we did not make them all in the impression from one piece of coin as when we struck the die, but from many; as to half crowns there might be two or three, for any thing I know, that we made our moulds from; we cannot take off the letters upon the edges of the half crowns, so that the bad money in half crowns is that which has not the letters upon the edges of it.

JOHN CLARKE < no role > sworn.

All the tools and utensils that were found are implements for coining; the flasks are used for casting (describing the manner in which it is done); the faceing sand is a finer sort of sand, used after the impression is made upon the mould, to fill up all the interstices of the sand, in order that the cast may come out smooth and free from spot or blemish; the buff leather which was found, was for the purpose of giving the metal a polish before it received its colour: it appeared to me when I first saw these flasks before the magistrate, which was a long while ago, that the mould was at that time very damp, and from the circumstance of its being damp, I am of opinion that it must have been used for casting within a short time, perhaps a week, of the time when the prisoner was apprehended.

ROBERT ROVER < no role > sworn.

The prisoner had rented that house in which he was found of me, but he came to me about the Michaelmas quarter-day, to let me know that his sister was in future to pay the rent; that he was going to another house; this might be a week, or ten days before he was apprehended; I understand that the goods that were in the house at the time the prisoner was apprehended were not his, but his sister's; I don't know any thing with certainty with regard to that, only what the woman told me after the man was taken up.

JAMES COLLARD < no role > sworn.

I am a monier at the Mint; the shilling and sixpences, and two of the four half crowns that were found in this house are base money; I judge of them not by any assay I have made to try the quality of the metal, to see how near the standard it is, but from the manner of the coinage I know they are not regularly coined metal.

PRISONER's DEFENCE.

I am entirely innocent of the charge that is laid against me; the evidence given now is entirely different from the evidence given before the justice; Dorman, or the other man, swore before the justice, that the furnace was a-light at the time we were taken; the evidence cannot say any thing to my guilt; they have now consulted together to take my life away; I was in the house at the time; I was going down to Blackwall on board the Bute Indiaman to Mrs. Gordon's friend, who I lent a guinea to; she said she would go along with me if I waited till afternoon; I was sitting there waiting for her when the men charged me with coining; I had let the house to her, and had another house in Chick-lane ; I have been in the buckle-making business these two years.

FOR THE PRISONER.

JAMES WOOD < no role > sworn.

I am a watchmaker: I have known the prisoner twenty-five or twenty-six years; he was brought up to the business of a cutler.

Do you know where he lived in October last? - I cannot say; I saw him at his master's now and then; I never heard any thing amiss of him in my life; I have seen him very often at his master's, who keeps a public house near where I live.

WILLIAM BOOTH < no role > sworn.

I am a cutler: I have known the prisoner from the month of March last till he was taken up ; he worked with me the whole of that time.

DOROTHY BIGGLESTON < no role > sworn.

I lodged with the prisoner in Long-lane when he kept the Kentish Drover; I moved with him to Chick-lane; he is a very honest man, he never was above an hour or two at a time, out of his business ; I have seen him for hours together mending iron blades and such things, and very poor he was; I am a widow and a mantua maker.

- FLAXTON sworn.

I have known him twenty-four years; I never heard any thing amiss of him before this.

JOHN DANIEL < no role > sworn.

I have known him ever since I was born; he is a very honest young man.

HENRY GRIGSON < no role > sworn.

I have known him twenty years; I always heard he was a very honest industrious man.

'He likewise called William March < no role > , who had

'known him eight years, Ann Mosley < no role > fifteen

'years, and John Meanwell < no role > fifteen years; all

'gave him a good character.'

GUILTY . Death .

Tried by the First Middlesex Jury before Mr. Baron EYRE.




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