676. PETER SAMPSON proceedingsdefend , CHARLES ALLEN proceedingsdefend , and JOSEPH COLLINS proceedingsdefend were indicted for burglariously breaking and entering the dwelling house of James Stratten proceedingsvictim , Esq ; about the hour of one in the night, on the 16th of June last, and burglariously stealing therein, one linen sheet, value 10 s. eight damask table cloths, value 40 s. one sheet, value 10 s. eight shirts, value 3 l. one counterpane, value 10 s. his property .

The witnesses examined apart.

ELIZABETH GRIFFITHS < no role > sworn.

I am laundry maid to Mr. Stratton, he lives at Hackney ; I went last to bed, I locked the laundry the night the robbery was committed, which was the 16th of June, the doors and windows were secure; in the morning about six I was alarmed, the laundry had been broke open and robbed; when I got up I observed the window opened, and an iron bar taken out.

Did you look at that window before you went to bed? - Yes, it was fast then.

Did your master lose any thing? - Yes.

What did he lose? - There were a vast many things lost, there were three counterpanes, eight table cloths, shirts, shifts, and aprons, and sheets, I saw these things the night before; some part of them are here.

Mr. Peatt, Prisoner's Council. Was you all over the house before you went to bed? - No. Sir, only all over the laundry.

Jury. Is the laundry a detached building from the house? - Joining to the house.

Court. How does it join? - It joins to one corner.

Mr. Peatt. Is the laundry and the house distinct? - They are just joining.

Court. Do they join brick to brick? - - Yes.

Mr. Peatt. Are there any cellar windows to the laundry? - No.

Is there any garrets to the laundry? - Yes.

You was not there? - No.

How long before that evening had you been in the garret? - Not for three or four days before.

JOHN MOORE < no role > This name instance is in set 1412. This set is in the group(s): GarrowsClients . sworn.

I am a gardener, I apprehended the prisoners in the middle of the day, about eleven, on the 17th of June, they had three bundles, each had one; I sat in a cart, waiting to give a man a cask, and I saw the prisoners come out at the end of the lane, and I suspected them, and I went to catch Allen, and he threw a bundle at me plump in my face, and the other two ran away; I called out stop thief! and I saw them all seized, with the bundles on them; the bundles have been in Lovell's possession ever since, I gave them to him.

Mr. Peatt. Were they out of sight any part of your pursuit? - Neither Sampson nor Allen.

Were there any other persons about in the fields? - Five or six people run.

What do you know of Collins? - I never saw him till he was taken; Lee took him.

How soon after did you see Collins in custody? - About three minutes.

SOLOMON LOVELL < no role > sworn.

I took possession of the things, I took them home and dried them, the next day I brought them to the Office.

Mr. Peatt. How came they in your possession? - I took one up which Collins dropped, then they came up with the other two.

The things deposed to by Elizabeth Griffiths < no role > , the table cloth and sheet marked I. A. S.

Court. What are the value of these things? - I do not know; the table cloth and sheet are marked, and this counterpane I have washed several times.

Court. That is nothing at all as to the counterpane.

Mr. Peatt. What does your master do with his old linen? - I do not know.

Court. What is the value of the sheet? - I am not a judge.

PRISONERS DEFENCE.

We leave it to our Council; we picked the things up under a hedge.

ALL THREE GUILTY. Of stealing, to the value of 30 s. but not of breaking and entering the dwelling house .

Each transported for seven years .

Tried by the first Middlesex Jury before Mr. Justice HEATH.