551, 552. (M.) WILLIAM NORBURY proceedingsdefend and JOHN VINER proceedingsdefend were indicted, the first for stealing two engraved plates of copper, value 30 s. and thirty-nine engraved plates of pewter, value 8 l. 10 s. the property of Thomas Harper proceedingsvictim , in the dwelling house of the said Thomas ; and the other for receiving the said plates well knowing them to have been stolen , May 27th . +

Thomas Harper < no role > . I am a copper-plate musick printer ; I live in Brownlow-street, Drury-lane ; on Friday the 26th or 27th of May I lost thirty-nine musick plates and two copper-plates belonging to this work (producing a book of musick). I have the two copper-plates here; one cost three guineas the other one guinea engraving; they were found by the intelligence of Graves; Viner had been apprentice to me; I know nothing more of it but what I heard from the evidence.

John Graves < no role > . I have known the prisoner two years; I was brought up to a glasier; I followed my business till within these two months; in Whitsun holidays the prisoners and I were playing at skittles at the Cheshire Cheese in Parker's-lane, and were talking of the robbery of one Check a carpenter in Drury-lane, for which a man had been hanged; I said I should like to read the sessions paper about it; Viner said if we would go to his master he would lend it us for nothing.

Q. Who did he mean by his master?

Graves. Mr. Harper; we all three went to this man's house for it; Viner and I staid at the top of Brownlow-street, and Norbury went in to borrow the paper; he staid about five minutes and then he brought out something in his apron very heavy; I did not know what it was at that time; he bid me lay hold of it; I did and took it across Drury-lane down King-street and through the Two Sugar Loaves a publick house, into Parker's-lane to my own lodgings; Norbury went with me; Viner left us when he saw Norbury come out of his master's house; he said he would have nothing to do with it, and ran away directly; when I came to my lodgings I opened them and found they were musical plates; there were forty-one or forty-two of them, and there were these two copper-plates on the top; I took notice of them and know them again by the figures; Norbury and I staid in my room all day and melted down the pewter plates, and then we took the pewter to one Edward Parker < no role > 's room and asked him to sell them for us; there Viner met us; Parker said he would, and took them to several shops, but could not get rid of them; I took them to my lodgings that night; we went to Parker's in the morning, and he said he would get a woman to sell them for us; we went with her to St. Andrew's steps; she took one parcel and sold it, and then came and took the other parcel; there was about seventy pound weight of it; she sold it for half a guinea; I gave Norbury half a crown; he gave the woman a shilling and I gave her sixpence; Parker cheated us out of a good deal of the money, so I would not give him any thing; Viner came the next day to my lodgings and I paid him half a crown, which was a debt I owed him, but not on account of the pewter; Norbury had the two copper plates in his room in Long acre; he came to me and said he was going from his room and wanted to get rid of these things; he asked me to go with him to throw them in a pond; I did not chuse it; he went up into Parker's room and got him to go with him; he left him and went about two fields from him and hid them; afterwards Norbury was taken up for a highway robbery, and he got these plates out of the ground himself; Parker was taken for a highway robbery, and was an evidence against me for bringing some things to him, but the things not being produced I was discharged.

Dennis Macdonald < no role > . I am a constable; I had Norbury in custody for something else; Parker was an evidence in the Borough; he mentioned these plates; I asked Norbury about them and he told me where they were; I went and found them according to his direction.

Norbury's Defence.

I know nothing of the robbery; I went with the evidence into the field and he gave me the slip, and went away from me; I afterwards found these things in the field; I know nothing at all of it.

NORBURY guilty of stealing to the value of 39 s. T .

VINER acquitted .