362. DANIEL JONES proceedingsdefend This name instance is in set 1382. This set is in the group(s): GarrowsClients . (a Black), was indicted for feloniously stealing, on the 12th day of February last, one promisory note, called a Bank note, dated No. 158, London, 9th of March, 1782, for the sum of 10 l. signed by Thomas Ormes < no role > , for the Governor and Company of the Bank of England, thereby promising to Mr. John Hunt < no role > or bearer on demand, the sum of 10 l. which said note was the property of Theophilus Walford proceedingsvictim , Esq ; and the said sum of 10 l. due and unsatisfied to the said Theophilus, against the form of the statute .

THEOPHILUS WALFORD < no role > , Esq; sworn.

I live in Red Lyon Square, the prisoner was my servant ; in February last, I lost a ten pound Bank bill, about the 12th of February, the note is in Court, the constable has it, the number of it I do not know.

Court. Can you be able to ascertain it when it is produced? - I cannot identify the note, it was one of ten, which I received on the 7th of February, in exchange for a check on Mr. Boldero, for the Banker, for one hundred pounds, and these ten notes were brought to me by Mr. Thomas Clarke < no role > , one of my clerks.

Court. Were they all in the same name? - They were in different names for ten pounds each, I did not remember the name that was in that note: I was dressing to go out to dinner, and being rather late, I did not change my breeches pocket, and in my breeches pocket was this ten pound Bank bill, (which I am speaking of,) there was also a guinea and some silver; the prisoner came to me about two hours afterwards, where I dined, and said, Sir, you have not changed your pockets, I brought your money; and he gave me a guinea, and I believe seven shillings; I had no money about me, which I discovered in three minutes after I went out: I told the prisoner when he came: to me, that there was a Bank bill in my pocket of ten pounds value; he said he did not see one, he had not found one; I then ordered him very peremptorily indeed not to meddle with my clothes, but to let them remain where they were, till I came home: but he acted opposite to that.

Mr. Garrow, Prisoner's Council. That you do not know. - Yes, I do, he acted opposite to this, as he told me afterwards, that he went home and searched my pockets.

Court. When did he tell you this? - He told me so that evening before he was taken up, and before I told him I suspected him.

What did he tell you that evening, do you recollect the words? - In coming home pretty late in the evening, he said to me, Sir, that Bank bill is not in your pocket, I replied with some degree of quickness, how do you know? did not I forbid you to touch my pockets, what have you searched them? he said he had, assigning for a reason, that as I had said it was there, he was willing to see whether it was there or not; when I came home I ordered my breeches to be brought and searched, and there was no Bank bill.

Court. Who did you order to bring them? - I think it was one of my servants or else my wife, it was not the prisoner; I ordered my servants up stairs.

Court. Before the servants were ordered up stairs, had you said any thing about the loss of this bill? - I cannot be sure.

Recollect. - I do not think I had, for I charged the prisoner instantly, when I had searched my breeches, says I, you have robbed me: now I recollect one of the servants was there, and I sent her to fetch the others, and she might probably tell the others.

Who was that servant? - Elizabeth Hester < no role > , she is not here: I ordered the other servants to turn out their pockets, but did not order him to turn out his, which was something extraordinary, but my wife suggested to me that I should, Oh! says I, he has parted with it before this time, for he had been out all the evening, he had asked his mistress leave to go out: he told me he was out part of that afternoon: on the Saturday afternoon following he was searched at the lodgings of a woman that he kept, that he cohabited with.

Court. How do you know that? - She owned so.

You know very well, you cannot tell me that? - He told me so himself, he called her his wife, but he afterwards said she was not: I was present at this lodging when Edward Lucas < no role > a constable searched him, and took this ten pounds Bank bill out of his pocket.

(The bill produced.)

Court. Can you recollect whether you had that identical Bank bill? - I cannot, I know that this was the bill that was taken out of his pocket, but I cannot tell that this was the bill that I lost.

Are you sure that all the other notes you received were ten pound notes? - Yes.

Are you sure that you had all the remaining notes at that time? - No, I had used two, but I took them from this parcel, they were not mixed with any other I am confident.

Can you ascertain at all what notes you had paid away? - No, I cannot; when the constable took the bill out of his pocket, and said, Oh! here is the Bank bill, says the prisoner (looking very impudently at me) why then Sir, you put it into my pocket.

Mr. Garrow. You have given your evidenceas you are naturally expected to do, very candidly, Sir; you are in some uncertainty how many Bank notes you had used, perhaps two, perhaps three? - I rather think two.

Consequently this may be one of those that you had paid away? - I do not conceive it is one of them.

Court. Had you that morning that you went out this Bank note in your breeches pocket? - I perfectly well remember having it in my hand, in my breeches pocket when I came in to dress; that note which I lost.

Mr. Garrow. You had taken two ten pound Bank notes from a parcel of notes, and you lost one, but whether this note now produced in evidence, is the one you lost out of your pocket, or one of those you paid away you cannot tell? - I cannot distinguish it from one of those I had paid away.

Did the prisoner attend you to the family where you dined? - No.

Where do you dress, in your study? - I dressed that day in my parlour, for I was in a great hurry.

To which parlour the other servants have access as well as the prisoner? - Yes, they might have been in, and were in, no doubt, while the clothes lay about.

You have likewise several clerks that may go in if they chuse it? - Yes.

When the prisoner came to you and brought your money, you apprized him there was a Bank note in your breeches pocket? - Yes.

He returned and searched your pockets? - Yes.

Therefore he could have returned it into the pocket if he had chose? - Yes.

Did he refuse that night to have his pocket searched? - Not at all.

I believe in consequence of your suspicions you dismissed him your service that very night? - Yes, I ordered him not to sleep in the house, but to come to me in the morning.

Did he come in the morning? - He did, I was busy, and could not talk with him then.

Then he had the whole afternoon of Thursday, the whole day of Friday, and of Saturday to dispose of the Bank note to his wife or any body he pleased? - Yes.

On the Saturday however this Bank note which is now produced in evidence, God knows where it came from, was found in his pocket? - Yes.

Was it found in that state of care that you and I would take of a Bank note? - It was so (in a careless manner.)

The prisoner can neither read nor write? - I believe not.

Now I will ask you a question, Sir, that is sometimes attended with risk; what was your opinion of the prisoner before this? - My opinion of him before was, I thought him a very honest man; I had the best character with him when I hired him that I ever had with a servant in my life.

I think it was not probable that Mrs. Walford should bring your clothes? - It was most probably a servant.

Do you know that when the man went home he carried the papers to a Mr. Brooks? - The prisoner told me he did go immediately from me at dinner, and took the papers out of my waistcoat pocket to Mr. Brooks, and said, Sir, are either of these a Bank bill?

Did he communicate to those clerks that he consulted on the subject, his reasons for asking the question? - I understood he did not.

Was not it known, from the prisoner's communication, before you came home, that there was a Bank note lost? - I understood not, that it was not known even to Brooks; I conceive that the Bank bill was put in his pocket that day, from what happened; I told him on the Saturday, when he was at my house, that I should search his lodgings, and I bid him wait in my kitchen till I had dined.

Did he wait? - Yes.

When you discharged this man, or at any time, did you pay this man his wages in any sum of money? - He has had his wages in little sums, one guinea, and two guineas for the funeral of a child.

Within what time may you have paid him this money? - I paid him ten guineas in three or four months; he has been with me eleven months.

THOMAS CLARKE < no role > sworn.

I am clerk to Mr. Walford, he is an attorney; on the 7th of February, he gave me a check on Boldero's, for one hundred pounds.

Mr. Garrow. Will your Lordship have the goodness to let the note be read, that may shorten this prosecution.

(The note read.)

"No. 158. I promise to pay to Mr.

" John Hunt < no role > , or bearer, on demand, the

"sum of ten pounds. London, 9th March,

"1782. For the Governor and Company

"of the Bank of England.

T. Ormes."

"Entered W. Mullins."

Mr. Garrow to Mr. Walford. Have you any body here that knows Mr. Ormes? - I believe the clerk does.

Mr. BOLDERO's CLERK sworn.

I know Mr. Ormes, he is a cashier in the Bank.

Mr. Garrow. Do you know Mr. Ormes's hand writing? - I have seen several Bank notes signed by him.

But did you ever see him write? - I cannot say I have.

Court. Then you cannot prove his hand writing.

Mr. Garrow to Mr. Walford. Have you any body else that knows his hand writing? - Mr. Ormes told me it was his hand writing.

Court. Have you ever seen him write? - I cannot say I have.

Court. Is there any other witness that can prove the hand writing of Mr. Ormes? - No.

Mr. Garrow. My Lord, then my objection is this; that the indictment sets this note out, and states it as a substantive fact, that this note is signed by Thomas Ormes < no role > , for the Governor and Company of the Bank of England; it does not say, that it purports to be signed by Thomas Ormes < no role > .

Court. I conceive, whatever you chuse to lay in an indictment as a fact, that you must prove that fact. I remember an indictment for the delivery of a challenge, and that challenge was stated to be in the hand writing of the party who delivered it; the delivery was certainly the offence, but we failed in proving the hand writing; and I remember it was fully the opinion of the Recorder, that if you state a fact, you must prove it: I therefore think, in this case, as they have not laid it in the indictment, purporting to be signed by Thomas Ormes < no role > , and as there is nobody that can prove the hand writing of Thomas Ormes < no role > , that the prisoner must be acquitted. If that was proved, I do think there is evidence to go to a Jury, under all the circumstances of this case.

NOT GUILTY .

Court to Prisoner. Prisoner at the bar; you have been acquitted on this occasion, I may say, by an accidental circumstance of a hand writing not having been proved; there certainly were circumstances of great suspicion in your case; you must know, in your own conscience, whether you are or are not guilty of the offence; it behaves you, as a servant, to be particularly cautious of your conduct, for if you are guilty of offences of this kind, you may very probably come to a very serious end.

Tried by the first Middlesex Jury before Mr. ROSE.