100. ELIZABETH SHIPLEY proceedingsdefend and SARAH PEARCE proceedingsdefend were indicted for feloniously stealing on the 22d of December last, one flock and feather bed, value 10 s. one bolster, value 2 s. one blanket, value 2 s. one rug, value 2 s. one tin boiler, value 1 s. one iron candlestick, value 6 d. one earthenware tea pot, value 6 d. and one earthen dish, value 4 d. the property of Martin Murphy proceedingsvictim .

ANN MURPHY < no role > sworn.

I am wife of Martin Murphy < no role > : A house that we rent in a court, was broke open the Monday before Christmas day, and we lost the things mentioned in the indictment; the house was shut up, nobody lived in it at the time that the things were taken: they were little tenements that we rent, and we let them out by the week, and the people were gone out of it: about six o'clock the watchman came and said I was robbed, and the prisoner Shipley was with him, and she said, if I would not be angry, she would tell me where the things were, so I went with her, and she shewed me; and the watchman took custody of the things. (The things deposed to.) I told Shipley I thought she used me very ill; she said she did not think any harm in it.

Court. Did you promise her not to be angry with her? - No.

ANN ANDREWS < no role > sworn.

My husband lives in East Smithfield, at the sign of the Phoenix; these two prisoners came into our house a little before five in the morning, with a bundle, and called for a pint of purl; they said they had no money, and they would leave that tin boiler; I told them I did not think it was worth a pint of purl; the old woman said it was worth 6 d. the young woman said, you foolish bitch it is worth 18 d. then I put the boiler by: the young one had a bolster in her lap, and a quilt, and a blanket; she looked at the bolster, and did not know whether it was flocks or feathers; they said they would tie them up, and go and fetch some more things; they put them under the bench, and went out and fetched a bed; while they were gone, I told the watchman I thought they had stole the things, and desired him to watch where they went to; he followed them, but could not find them; soon after the young woman brought the bed on her back: the watchman took the prisoners in custody.

THOMAS DALTON < no role > sworn.

I am a watchman; I took the prisoners to Andrews's house; I stopped them in the street, by East Smithfield, at half after four; I saw this young woman (Pearce) with a great bundle in her apron, I asked her where she was going, and the old woman replied, would I give her a pinch of snuff, I told her I never took any; but the young woman said, if you know a publick house open, we will have a pint of purl, and I told there was one about two doors off; I thought the things looked so very mean in her apron, they were not worth stopping, and I should see in the house what they were; I took them to the Phoenix; the young woman said she would see what she had in her apron, she did not know; she thought she had but one blanket, and when she came to look, there were two; she then swore she would go and fetch her things, and sell them, for she would have no more goods of her own, she would have ready furnished lodgings; says I, if you have no better goods than these, they are not worth selling; she went and fetched the bed; she said there was a very good wainscot table, and a nest of drawers, and she could not get them out of the window; and the old woman swore she would break the lock: I went in pursuit of them, and met them with the bed; she dropped the bed down at the door before she got into the house, I desired her to take the bed out of the way, that I might come in; I went in with my fellow watchman, she asked for a pint of purl; I asked her to go and fetch the table, she said she would go no more, she was seen by a man in the neighbourhood, who she thought would tell the landlord; she said they were her own goods, and another time she said they belonged to a young man that was cast last sessions, and she was evidence against him: then we took the prisoners, and the goods to the watch-house; we insisted on Pearce's going with us, to shew us where the things were taken from.

Court. Did you make her any promise to induce her to go? - No, none at all: she shewed us a wrong place; then the prisoner Shipley went voluntarily, and shewed us the place; then we went back to the watch-house, and the old woman asked Pearce where she had the things, and she said about five yards off where she met her first: the first things, the old woman said the young woman had by herself, and the next things the old woman said, she went into the house and put out the bed to the young one; she said she thought they were Pearce's own things, and Bane said they belonged to her.

DAVID BLACKBURN < no role > sworn.

I saw the prisoners bringing in the first things, and they opened them in the publick house, and looked them all over, and they said they had some more to fetch; in a little time they went and fetched some more, then we thought they had not come honestly by them, and we took them to the watch-house.

Court to Dalton. Did the old woman say, in the presence of the young one, that the young one had the first things at the time she met her? - She asked her where she had them from, and the young one said, she had them five yards off where she met her first.

And the old woman said, the young one had the things in her apron when she met her? - Yes, the young one did not deny it.

(The things deposed to by the Prosecutrix.)

Court. What is the value of the things? About 18 s.

PRISONER PEARCE's DEFENCE.

I live at home with my father; I was out all night in the watch-house, I came out about five o'clock, and I met this old woman in Rosemary-lane, with the bed, and she asked me if I would help her; I was rather in liquor: we had a pint of purl on the tea kettle, and I did not know but it was the old woman's; I knew her two or three years ago; the things were not mine, if they had, I would not have given them house room: the prosecutrix said, if I would give her a crown, she would make it up, I said, I had not a crown, but I would make it up.

PRISONER SHIPLEY's DEFENCE.

I was in Bishop's gate watch-house; I met the other prisoner, and she asked me if I would lend her a hand with these things, as she took the place of the woman: I have had a little relief since I have been confined.

ELIZABETH SHIPLEY < no role > , NOT GUILTY .

SARAH PEARCE < no role > , GUILTY .

To be fined 1 s. and imprisoned twelve months in the house of Correction .

Tried by the second Middlesex Jury before Mr. Justice ASHURST.