30. JOHN WRIGHT proceedingsdefend was indicted for feloniously stealing, on the 23d of November last, one black gelding, value 15 s. the property of Mary Shepherd proceedingsvictim .

MARY SHEPHERD < no role > sworn.

I live at Acton ; I missed a horse out of the field, on the 27th of November; I did not see it after it was put in, which was the 25th, towards the afternoon, till the 28th when it was brought to me by John Kitcher < no role > ; the horse was my property; I am sure of it; it was a very remarkable horse, and well known to be mine, it had a sore on the back, a short mane and tail; it was black all over, as near as I can recollect; it was old and almost past his labour; I cannot be certain whether it was taken out of the field, or whether it strayed out of the field; we cannot recollect who took it into the field, nor whether the field gate was locked or not.

GEORGE CHANDLER < no role > sworn.

I know the horse to be Mrs. Shepherd's property; she serves me with meat; and the boy used to come on it; I have seen it four or five years past; I was summoned to the office; Mrs. Shepherd was not willing to have the trouble of proving it; I saw the horse at the office; I knew him by the sore place on his back.

JOHN KITCHER < no role > sworn.

I took the man with the horse bringing him to town on the road at Halsdon-green, near Wilsdon; I am one of the patrols; it was about three in the morning, the 28th of November; it was a mile and half off this side Acton; he was leading the horse in a halter; I asked him whose horse he had there; he said, it is mine; I asked him where he came from with it; he refused to tell me; we took him into a farm yard, and some carters that saw it, said, it was Mrs. Shepherd's horse; he had nothing to say; if we asked him a question, he did not chuse to resolve us; we took the horse to Acton, and brought the prisoner to London; he said before the Justice that a man gave him sixpence to bring the horse on the road.

Court. What did Mrs. Shepherd say when you took the horse there? - She said it was her's, and she would swear to it at first, but afterwards she did not chuse to have any trouble about it; the horse Chandler saw at the office was the same I shewed to Mrs. Shepherd, and took from the prisoner.

WILLIAM KITCHER < no role > sworn.

I am another of the patrols; I helped to take the prisoner.

Court to Mrs. Shepherd. How came you to be shy of owning the horse at first? - As it was of so little value, I was rather afraid of the man's life.

Had you any doubt of it at first? - Not in the least.

PRISONER's DEFENCE.

She denied the horse ten times or more, and said, it was none of her property till the Justice made her own it.

Court to Prisoner. Can you give any account now, how you came by the horse? or whose the horse was?

Prisoner. I cannot hear well; a man gave me sixpence to take the horse two hundred yards; I have no witnesses within forty miles of the place.

GUILTY, Death .

He was humbly recommended to mercy by the Jury .

Tried by the first Middlesex Jury before Mr. RECORDER.