DAVID HART proceedingsdefend This name instance is in set 3199. was feloniously stealing on the 5th last, fifty-nine yards of printed 3 l. forty-two printed linen handkerchief, value 50 s. thirty-six pair of worsted stockings, value 46 s. twelve pair of thread stockings, value 15 s. fifteen yards of muslin, value 4 l. and fifty yards of Irish cloth, value 38 s. the goods and chattles of John Hooper proceedingsvictim .

The witnesses examined apart at the request of the prisoner.

JOHN HOOPER < no role > sworn.

I am a broker , I had a sale on Tuesday the 4th of March, a person who lives near Union Stairs, Wapping, bought a parcel of goods, to the amount of near 20 l. I was to send them home the next afternoon: In the afternoon I sent a boy with them; he being a country lad, and never had been there before, I gave him a particular directions not to leave them without the lady who bought the things was there, and paid for them, the parcel contained the things mentioned in the indictment, and they were tied up in a sheet with a cord; the boy came home without them.

RICHARD NIGHTINGALE < no role > sworn.

How old are you? - Fourteen last November.

Court. Do you know you are bound by the oath you are to take to speak the truth? - Yes.

Did you receive a bundle of goods from Mr. Hooper to carry anywhere? - Yes.

Where were you to carry it? - To one Mrs. Fosgate's, at Union Stairs, Wapping, I carried it out.

Did you deliver it to Mrs. Fosgate? - No, I met the prisoner in Wapping , and he said are not you going to our house, and I asked him where his house was, and what was his name, and he said his name was Fosgate, and he said we have been waiting for you this hour for the goods, and he took them a little way down Wapping, and then he took water at the stairs, I saw him go down the stairs, and I heard him call a boat, he was not in the another parcel; he said he had another parcel at my master's, it was not at Union Stairs, it was at some other stairs, I do not know their name, so I came back, and I had got as far as Tower Hill, and it came in my head, I had delivered them wrong, and I went back to Mrs. Fosgate's, to see if any body had been there, and she had heard nothing of them, then I came home.

Court. Had you met any body before, who asked you where you was going? - No.

How could he know you were going to Mrs. Fosgate's? - He was go ing by at the same time as I went into a shop, and asked which was Mrs. Fosgate's.

How long after you lost the things was it, when you saw the prisoner again? - I cannot tell, it might be 3 or 4 days.

Where did you see him first? - I saw him at a publick house the sign of the Crown, the Justice sent to tell me to bring the prisoner up to the Justices, the house was full, and he was sitting down I did not mind him much, I did not think the prisoner was in that room, I was in the room at the public house about ten minutes; I did not know the prisoner, there he was set down.

Did any body ask you in the public house, whether he was the person that robbed you? - Yes, Sir, one gentleman did.

And you said, you did not know? - Yes.

Where did you see him afterwards? - I went to the Justices, and saw him there, I knew him the moment as he got up, and came out of the public house, I went up to the Justices with him.

Who was there? - There was three women.

Was there any other man prisoner but this? - No.

You knew then that a man had been taken up for robbing you? - Yes.

What time of night was it when he took these things from you? - A few minutes past five.

It was quite day-light? - Yes.

How long did he talk with you? - I carried the parcel with him down to the stairs, he did not take the parcel directly, he might be with me about five or six minutes.

Did you see his face plainly, so as to know him again? - Yes.

Now if you had met him by accident any where else, should you have known him? - Yes, Sir, I think I should, I took very particular notice of him.

How was he dressed? - In a snuff coloured coat, not as he is now, and he was in another dress at the public house.

What did you observe about him that you knew him by again? - I took particular notice of his eye brows.

What was there particular in his eye brows? - He had very little hair on his eye brows.

Had not he his hat on? - Yes.

How could you see his eye brows then? - Yes.

How so? - I could see his eye brows very plain.

So as to observe them particularly? - Yes.

Prisoner. What did you say to the waterman, when you was in the entry? - I did not say any thing to the waterman.

Court to Hooper. Did your boy give any description of the man, who had taken the bundle? - I did not wait to ask him any thing about it, because one of the watermen knew Hart, and had seen him and the boy together, so I went directly to the Justices.

ANDREW MARSH < no role > sworn.

I am a waterman, I saw the prisoner at the bar take the parcel from the boy, and he took my boat, and I carried him over the water to the opposite stairs afterwards, I saw him employ a man to carry the parcel for him.

Did you know the prisoner before? - No.

You did know who it was then? - Not till I saw him again, I saw him again at the Justice's.

Did you know him directly at the Justice's? - Yes.

Was it day-light when you carried him over? - Yes.

You knew nothing of him before? - No, I am sure it is the man.

Court to Hooper. Who had you the information from? - From the other waterman.

Prisoner. When I saw you at the public house, did not you hear me ask the boy if I was the man that robbed him? - No, I do not remember the lad's being at the public house.

THOMAS HUMPHRIES < no role > sworn.

I am a waterman, I was at Alderman Parson's stairs, where I ply, about half after five, I saw the prisoner standing, I asked him if he wanted a boat, this Mr. Marsh was rather to go before me, he steps up and says, do you want a boat, there is a general rule at the stairs, where there is two upright bars that are fixed, the prisoner gets through the bars, and the boy followed him, he was on one side of the gate, and the boy was on the other, and it would not go through, the prisoner says, go along you rogue he came round that way so let go the bundle, and the boy carried it through a public house, the waterman got him in the boat and rowed him over, I took a sailor over, and when I came back, this boy came up to me and said, Oh Lord! Oh Lord! I have lost my bundle, says Marsh, I have put him down at Horsley-down, and he asked me to get him a porter, to carry it to Long-lane.

Did you see him go in Marsh's boat? - Yes.

Did you know him before? - Yes, I did, I knew him by person, but not by name.

How did you find out his name? - I was at the Justice's one day with a neighbour that had been robbed, we was at the King's Arms, and the prisoner was there for stealing, as I understood, a watch from a man, he went in before Justice Clarke, he was ordered to go to serve his Majesty.

How did you know his name? - I knew nothing of his name no farther than when I described his person to the runners, they said it was David Hart < no role > This name instance is in set 3199. , I said, I did not know the man's name, and when they brought him down, I told them I could swear to the man.

Is the prisoner the man? - Yes, that is the man.

You are sure of that? - Yes, I am sure of it.

Court to Mr. Hooper. Were your things ever found again? - No, he was not taken till a week afterwards.

Prisoner. I have witnesses that will prove, what they heard the waterman say to the boy, and likewise the boy denying me at first.

WALTER SMITH < no role > sworn.

I attended at the Justice's, and I went that morning to the King's Arms about eleven, and I saw the prisoner brought in, in custody as I was sitting down there, and a little boy came in, and he looked all about for the man that robbed him, and he looked all round the place, and set down in the box, and at last he says, to the boy himself, my boy do you see any body here that robbed you, no says he, I do not see the man, for he was a man with grey eyes.

Court. What coloured eyes has the prisoner? - He has grey eyes.

How near was he to the prisoner then? - He was as near to the prisoner as I may be to this gentleman.

Was the waterman there? - I did not take notice of any body at all but this boy.

PRISONER's DEFENCE.

My Lord, there was a man came down to me, and said, he did not expect I should be tried till Monday, and upon that, I suppose my witnesses are gone, I am as innocent as the child unborn, I am sworn against wrongfully.

GUILTY .

Transported for seven years .

Tried by the first Middlesex Jury before Mr. RECORDER.