265. EDD ADAMS proceedingsdefend was indicted for feloniously stealing on the 13th of December , six pieces of woollen cloth, containing 9 yards, value 9 l. the goods of the Honourable East India Company proceedingsvictim .

Indicted in a second COUNT for stealing the same goods, laying them to be the property of persons unknown.

The case was opened by Mr. Knapp.

THOMAS WEBB < no role > sworn.

I am a waterman; I am employed by the East India Company; I am the master of a hoy, called the Clockton, that hoy is in the service of the East India Company.

Q. Do you remember any cloth delivered to you on board the Clockton from the East India Company? - There was a number of bales (I cannot tell what they contained) delivered between the 11th and 13th of December; the hoy was then at Lion's Key at Billingsgate , they were marked with the Company's mark upon them; I know Adams very well, he was a journeyman of mine at that time.

Q. Do you know a person of the name of Turrell? - He was apprentice to a master of another hoy that belonged to the East India Company, the name of it was the Bearing.

Q. Do you know a person of the name of Taylor? - I know a lad that they call Taylor, his real name is Smith, he is an apprentice of mine.

Q. Was Adams by at the same time these goods were delivered on board the Clockton? - He lent me a hand to get them in.

Q. He was employed to take these goods? - Yes, under me, he was a constant servant with me.

Q. When these goods were taken in, in what part of the hoy were they put? - In all parts of the hoy under the Company's locks; they were locked up and keys given to the supercargo, Mr. Higgins, he is not here; I locked them up myself.

Q. About the time the indictment states did you lose any thing? - I don't know.

Q. Did Adams sleep there? - I expected him to sleep there.

Mr. Knowlys. You say that something was delivered to you from the East India Company, what they were you cannot tell? - I cannot tell the contents of the packets.

Mr. Knapp. Did you attend the magistrate? - Yes.

Q. Was you there at the time that Adams was examined? - I was at one time.

Q. Did you see him put his name to a paper? - I did.

Q. Look at that? - That is my hand writing, and Adams made the mark; I saw him make it.

Mr. Knowlys. For any thing you know there might not be a particle of cloth within these bales; you see nothing but the outside of these bales? - What bales?

Q. You say there were bales delivered? - There were two hundred delivered.

Q. It might be linen, woollen, or no cloth at all? - It might for what I know.

Q. You say Turrell was a person belonging to an hoy just by you, a very badfellow you know? - I don't know any thing about him.

Q. He has owned that he is a thief? - He certainly has.

Q. How many persons were there on board your vessel besides this man? - Only this Smith, myself and the prisoner.

Q. Smith is not here? - He is not.

Mr. Knapp. Did you see the Lord Mayor sign this paper? - I cannot positively say I did.

Mr. Knowlys. You was not present during the whole time he was under examination? - I heard that he had had some private examination, to which I was not present.

Q. Perhaps you was not present at the whole of the public examination? - Yes, I was, I believe, I think I was to the best of my knowledge; I don't wish to swear it.

Mr. Knapp. How long was you there? - I might be there an hour or more.

Q. All these things that were delivered had the East India Company's marks on them? - I did not examine the marks, but I took them as the East India Company's goods.

Mr. Knowlys. In point of fact you don't know they had the East India marks on them.

ANTHONY STEVENSON < no role > sworn.

I am a Custom House officer; my duty led me on board the Clockton hoy, I was on board her on the 13th of December, I have a minute of it that I made at the time.

Court to Webb. Do you mean to insist on it; it was the 13th of December? - It was, it was before Christmas.

Stevenson. I did not notice any thing particular, only as being an officer on board of her, until I got on the Keys on board at Billingsgate, where I perceived this piece of cloth concealed, sewed up in a bed in the cabbin; we came from Gravesend to come up to the Custom House Keys to deliver this cargo that she was leaded with.

Court to Webb. You say with regard to these bales of goods they were delivered on board the Hoy the 11th or the 13th of December, this man says when he came to the Keys in town, he found something in a bedding; had these bales been delivered at Gravesend? - They had been delivered. When I delivered my bales at Gravesend, I went immediately to Chatham River, and then we came back again to Gravesend and this revenue officer came a board of us.

Mr. Knapp. They were first of all delivered on board the Clockton at Lyon's Key? - Then they were to be delivered on board the East India ships at Gravesend; then the hoy returned and took this Custom House officer.

Court. Did he bring any goods back with the ship, or how did he come on board? - After I had been at Gravesend I got my receipt for the cargo, I went away from that ship to Chatham River for a load of cottons, and when I got at Gravesend they put this officer on board, and they came back with the cotton to the Custom House Key.

Mr. Knowlys. You delivered all the cargo as you believe, and the officer of the ship gave you a receipt for the full amount of that cargo? - He did.

Mr. Knapp. Who has the custody of the cloth now? - One of the warehouse-men.

JOHN SAWDEN < no role > sworn.

I belong to the King's warehouse; I am a Custom House officer; I have got a piece of cloth here; I got it from the King's warehouse, the 15th of January, I have had it ever since; it was produced before the Lord Mayor, by the headwarehouse keeper; I put a seal on it.

Mr. Knowlys. Do you mean to say that Stevenson brought that cloth to you, or that somebody brought it from Stevenson? - It was brought by Francis Richardson < no role > , from Stevenson.

Q. Whether he had it from Stevenson you don't know? - I do not

FRANCIS RICHARDSON < no role > sworn.

I am a Custom House officer; I remember seizing some cloth, Stevenson was with me; I took it out of a bed and he took it to the King's warehouse.

Q. When did you deliver it to Stevenson to take it to the warehouse? was you with Stevenson? - I was not, I was on board of the vessel.

Q. To whom was it delivered, and by whom? - I cannot tell, I was then on board of the lighter doing my duty.

Court to Stevenson. What did you do with it when you carried it to the Custom House? - I gave it to the warehouse keeper.

Q. Was there any seal on it? - There was not; I was obliged to put in a seizing note with it. The man that I delivered it to is not here.

FRANCIS HOLLAND < no role > sworn.

Q. Do you know my Lord Mayor's hand writing, Sir James Sanderson < no role > ; look at that? (The examination shown him.) - I have no doubt but it is his hand writing.

Mr. Knowlys. What past at the private examination you cannot say? - I cannot.

WILLIAM LEWIS NEWMAN < no role > sworn.

Q. Was you present at the examination of Adams? - I was, I believe that to be my Lord Mayor's hand writing.

Q. A witness has been talking of a private examination, was there any private examination between the Lord Mayor and the prisoner? - Not that I know of.

Mr. Knowlys. You don't know there was no private examination? - I should apprehend if there had been any I should have been present.

Court to Webb. What did you mean by a private examination? - I did not say that there positively was one, but I heard so.

Mr. Knowlys. Do you know in whose Company this man came in before the Lord Mayor? - He was brought by a constable.

Q. And therefore what influence they made on his mind in the way you cannot tell; is the constable here who took him before the Lord Mayor? - No.

Court. Have you recollection enough of the matter? because you first did not know what this business was. Can you change your memory compleatly that there was no promise nor threat? - I remember particularly that there was not; I verily believe there was no such thing took place. The examination of Edward Adams < no role > read, as taken before the Lord Mayor, January, 20, 1793, Which faith,

'That William Turrell < no role > desired this examinant to go with him into the Clockton, laying at Lyon's Key, Botolph wharf, between one and two months ago, and that Turrell opened the bales and took out the contents, being six pieces of woollen, two of which were taken care of by this examinant, on a promise that he would find a chap for them, and give Turrell the money they should produce; that Turrell put them on the examinant's bed, and that John Taylor < no role > afterwards put them into the bed where the examinant slept.'

WILLIAM TURRELL < no role > sworn.

I have been admitted an evidence for the crown.

Q. In what situation of life have you been in? - I have been in the service of the East India Company, in the vessel, the hoy, named the Bearing.

Q. Do you know the defendant Adams? - He was a person employed by the Company, likewise in the Clockton.

Q. Do you know a person of the name of Taylor? - Yes, he was likewise employed in the Clockton.

My Lord we two, I and Adams were on board the Clockton; and John Taylor < no role > was on board; we jointly agreed to take a bale of cloth out of the Clockton; I believe it to be the 13th of December, to the best of my recollection; Edward Adams < no role > went down the cabbin in the Clockton and fetched a piece of iron called a marling spike, and with that prized the board over the foremost hatch; he was then going down himself, but he afterwards recollected that if in case his master should come there would be no one to give an answer, and he would wonder to see him not on deck; he thought it was most fit for me to go down, and I went down and cut open a bale of cloth, the smallest I could find; one of the smallest, the contents of which was six pieces; I then handed it up to Edd Adams and John Taylor < no role > , and the pieces of rope, and the two pieces of board that were about the bale; the two pieces of board which is packed on each side of them, one at the top and another at the bottom of the bale, I handed up likewise.

Q. Had these boards any mark on them? - Not that I observed; there was the Company's mark on the canvas; I came out of the hold, and they were all then handed into the cabbin, and Edd Adams then took and cut the mark off the wrapper of the bale, and the boards with the mark of the wrapper he burnt, and the remaining part of the wrapper was hove over board; the bale contained six pieces of cloth, and each piece was wrapped in a sort of dark coloured canvas, and at one end of the canvas was painted flowers, with the Company's arms,

"super purple sixteen and half yards"; Edd Adams and I took the canvas off from one of the pieces of cloth and found it to be a very dark purple, the cloth at one end had a square piece cut out and a leaden seal at one corner, and I held the leaden seal while Edd Adams cut it off, which in so doing he cut my finger; then we considered what was to be done with the cloth, we were going to take two pieces away over the water, but we thought it was too late, and Adams said, he could put no more away, he could hide no more than two pieces; the Bearing, the vessel that I belonged to, lay close to the Clockton, and I agreed to put four pieces in her, which Edd Adams then assisted me in carrying over; I then put them, I hid them in the cabbin which I slept in; he then went on board of his craft, and I was gone to bed, he afterwards came over and told me that he had put his two pieces in his bed; the next day the Clockton went away with the goods, she had got in for Gravesend; the same morning a person of the name of William Tunnicliff < no role > came on board the Bearing, the vessel I belong to, and I told him I bad got this property and how I came by it, and I told him I would give him a piece of cloth provided he would assist me in taking the rest away, which he agreed to do; the same evening we took two pieces away over the water; I and William Tunnicliff < no role > ; one piece of it he took to his house.

Q. What became of the two pieces in the cabbin of the Clockton? - One piece of it Adams told me he carried to his brother's house, and the other piece was seized by two Custom House officers, he did not tell me their names.

Q. How long had you been in the situation you hold in the East India Company? - Three years and five months

Q. You know the marks of the East-India Company well? - Yes, I do.

Q. Where the marks you have described to be on the canvas, the marks belonging to the East-India Company? - They were.

Mr. Knowlys. This is a very pretty account you have been giving of yourself? - Yes, sir.

Q. I see you give it with just as much ease as if you had been at church last Sunday? - I wish to give it with ease.

Q.Pray, sir, be so good to shew that pretty face of your's, and stand up like as an honest man ought. How long have you been a thief? - That is not to the point in question.

Q. That is to the point in question; how long have you been a thief? - I cannot justly say.

Q. Now I hear very much to the misfortune of the East-India Company you have been three years and five months in their service; now of that three years and five months, what part have you employed in plundering them? you have been plundering them without remorse, and I want to know how long you have been in this practice? - That is not to the point in question.

Q. It is to the point in question, what kind of credit the Jury can give to your testimony? - I have told you before I could not justly say how long.

Q. How many years? - Not many, about nine or ten months.

Q. Nine or ten months is not a year; then nine or ten months you have had your full swing at the East-India Company's property? - No, it is not so, not always.

Q. No oftener than you had a good opportunity? - No.

Q. Then having given such a good account of yourself, I take it for granted you do it to save your neck? - Certainly.

Q. Now there was one thing I think you told us, that Adams told you, that he would not go down into the cabbin to get up these things, because there would be no one to give an answer to his master? - I did not say the cabbin, I said the hold.

Q. There was a lad on board besides Adams, so that that could not be the true reason, yet you have sworn it; with all that load of iniquity on your head, I take my leave of you, good by to you, you may stand down; I dare say the next time you give an account of a robbery, you will not do it so easy, you will do it at that bar.

Court. You have not explained to us after you had taken out this bale of cloth, what you did with it? - They were all in pieces of canvas, there was six pieces; the whole bale was completely taken away.

The prisoner called ten witnesses, who gave him a good character.

Not GUILTY .

Tried by the London Jury before Mr. RECORDER.