616. WILLIAM WOOD proceedingsdefend was indicted for burglariously breaking and entering the dwelling-house of Solomon Fell < no role > , on the 12th of August, about the hour of one in the night, and stealing four woollen cloth coats, value 8 l. four woollen cloth waistcoats, value 3 l. four pair of woollen cloth breeches, value 40 s. a man's cloth night-gown, value 20 s. two cotton waistcoats, value 10 s. twenty-four linen shirts, value 24 l. twenty-four muslin stocks, value 40 s. six morning caps, value 6 s. twenty-four pair of silk stockings, value 9 l. twelve linen handkerchiefs, value 30 s. a man's hat, value 15 s. two pair of leather shoes, value 17 s. three silver table-spoons, value 30 s. five silver tea-spoons, value 8 s. and a silver tea-strainer, value 2 s. the property of the said Solomon Fell < no role > , in his dwelling-house .

[The witnesses were examined apart at the request of the prisoner.]

Mr. SOLOMON FELL proceedingsvictim sworn.

My house in Holborn-row, Lincoln's inn-fields , was broke open about the 12th of August , as I am informed: I was then in the country. When I came home on Wednesday the 14th of August I found the stable-doors broke open, and a window which led into the clerk's office, and which had been fastened with an iron bar, had been broke open with great violence. In the clerk's office I had a bureau, which appeared to have been broke open with some instrument; and all the drawers were broke open in my parlour. There was a mahogany cloaths-press, which contained several suits of cloaths, linen, silk stockings, handkerchiefs, and other matters which I cannot perfectly recollect; the contents were all taken away, except one pair of silk stockings, a white handkerchief, and an old suit of mourning. I was on my return from Norfolk the day after my house had been broke open; my clerk was sent to Mr. Hornby's, near Hounslow, to give me information of it, but I did not get to Mr. Hornby's till about nine or ten o'clock that evening, to the best of my remembrance; I returned to town the next day, and then I found my rooms in the situation I have described: I likewise lost some plate, as I was informed by my servants; three table-spoons, three tea-spoons, and a tea-strainer. I went to Sir John Fielding < no role > 's, being informed the prisoner was then in custody; I was there shewn two shirts, one ruffled, the other plain; my linen was stamped with my name; the name is cut out of the ruffled shirt; the plain one, when I first saw it, had the name obliterated that I could not see what it was; Sir John Fielding < no role > 's man afterwards washed it, as he informed me, and that which they had put over my name to deface it washed out, and my name remains in the shirt, with No 6. they likewise produced to me two pair of shoes, in the inside of which my name was written; there had been an attempt to obliterate the name with ink, but it was not done so as to prevent its being read; they are new; they were sent home on the 27th of July, and I paid 17 s. for them; there were likewise some table-spoons produced, two of which I believe to be mine, and a tea-spoon.

Were all these things left in your house when you went out of town? - Yes: they produced to me likewise a slip of paper, which I conceive to contain a list of houses intended to be broke open, and of some which had been broke open; amongst which my house, I believe, is described, it is, Holborn-row, No 2. straight on from the public; meaning, I suppose, two doors from the public house; my house answers the description, for my stable door, which is the back part of the Row, is No 2. and is the second from the public house; the house having been robbed, as it appears, they have taken a pen and struck through it; that is all I know about it.

WILLIAM KAY < no role > sworn.

I am clerk to Mr. Fell: on the 12th of August I remained in the office till about half after seven o'clock; it being then duskish I fastened the window; the next morning I found it broke open: I sleep in the house, but was not again in the office after I had fastened the window, but the maid was: I came down in the morning at half after five o'clock; the first thing I observed was, that my buckles were gone out of my shoes, which I had left on the landing-place of the stairs: I went into the office, and found a bureau that stands there broke open, and all the drawers were pulled out; they had been rummaging among the papers. I observed the sash of the window, which I had fastened over-night, was put up; I examined it, and found they had wrenched off the bar: the pin that fastened it hung in the bar. Mr. Horsefall likewise lay in the house; I called him up, and told him the house was broke open, and then I went backwards, and found both the door that goes into the yard and the stable-door were open; I went into the stable, and found they had broke the outer stable-door open; they had made use of a great deal of force, for the lock was bent entirely back out of the staple, and the door shattered almost to pieces: the lock scarcely hung to the door, it fell off afterwards; they had taken the lock off the inner stable-door, and the door off the hinges, to get it open; I went into the parlour and found every thing broke open that they could get open; there were some locks they could not break open; they had taken a great many of Mr. Fell's cloaths; what they did not take they had thrown about the floor; there were two swords and a hanger belonging to Mr. Fell left upon the chairs; I went down into the kitchen and found they had broke open every lock there; and the butler's pantry was broke open; the maid told me there were some silver table-spoons and tea-spoons gone out of the kitchen. Mr. Fell being out of town, I could not tell what he had lost till he came home.

Cross Examination.

What morning of the week was this? - Tuesday morning; on Monday night I fastened the window, on Tuesday morning I found it broke open.

JOHN HORSFALL < no role > sworn.

I live at Mr. Fell's; I lie in the back garret.

What time was you awake on the morning the house was broke open? - Some time before four; I heard the watch cry the hour of four.

Could you have heard any noise that might be made in the back stable or back yard? - I believe I could; the violence was so great, I must have heard it if I had been awake.

Did you hear any thing during the time you was awake? - I did not.

Cross Examination.

This garret was up three pair of stairs? - Yes; the back garret in the yard.

SARAH DEAN < no role > sworn.

I am servant to Mr Fell: I saw that the doors and windows were fast the night before the house was broke open.

Did you see that the window in this office was fast? - I saw that it was fast between eight and nine o'clock.

Were there any other servants in the house at that time? - No

Was Mr. Kay first up in the morning? - He was.

What things were lost that you know of? - My master's cloaths press and all the drawers were broke open, and all the contents taken out.

What was taken out of the kitchen? - Three silver table-spoons, five tea-spoons, and a tea-strainer; all the locks were broke open in the office, parlour, kitchen, and butler's pantry; the locks were all fast over night.

SIMON LLOYD < no role > sworn.

I am servant to Mr. Fell; I was not in the house at the time it was broke open; I believe these spoons produced are my master's property.

JOHN CLARKE < no role > sworn.

On Tuesday the 20th of last month an information was sent to Sir John Fielding < no role > , that a house had been broke open in Great Queen-street, and a great quantity of plate stolen; the officers went to several different houses in the town; myself and several others went to the prisoner's.

What is the prisoner? - He kept a public house at that time; I asked his wife if he was at home; she told me, he was up stairs; I went up to his bed-room; he was counting money at a bureau, I believe, when I went in, without his coat or his wig; the first thing I saw in his bureau was this picklock key (producing it); I asked him what he did with such a thing as that, as he kept a public house? he made me no answer; the slap of the bureau was turned down; I put my hand into the bureau, and found these four ingots of silver (producing them); that struck me; I ordered the officers that came with me to take care of every body till the search was over; I searched that bureau, and in the bottom drawer I found this clean ruffled shirt, in another drawer I found this dirty shirt, and these pair of shoes (producing them); those shoes were very remarkable, having Mr. Fell's name wrote upon them; I had got a hand-bill of Mr. Fell's house having been broke open; I asked him whose shoes and shirts they were several times over? he said, they belonged to him; then I searched the cellar, but found nothing there; finding that plate had been melted down into ingots, I thought it must be done in the house; I observed there were two staircases, one at the tap-room door, and the other at the parlour-door; I went up the other staircase, and saw there were two rooms, which were let out, and a garret, which was not let out; I found the garret was the prisoner's room; I broke the door open, and in that room I saw an air-furnace for melting, the fire was then in, and there was a broken melting pot, a vice fixed, some files, and a large quantity of picklock keys; then I went and asked the prisoner whose room that garret was; with some difficulty he told me it was his, and that the key hung up in the bar; I found this key in the bar (producing it) I tried, and it unlocked the door; I ordered one of the officers to search under the bar, where they serve out the liquors; I stood by and saw him find two picklock keys, two pistols, and a large iron crow.

(Mr. Fell looks at the spoons.)

I believe these two are my spoons; the crest is taken out, but they appear to me very clearly to be my spoons.

Can you take upon you to swear they are your spoons? - Yes.

CLARKE. There was ink that had been fresh laid on one of the shirts all over the name; I washed it with soap, which took the ink out, and left Mr. Fell's name very plain.

Mr. FELL. I can swear that this is my shirt, the mark on the other shirt appears to have been cut out; I have compared it with some of my other shirts, and am satisfied it is mine; I believe the shoes to be mine; the shoemaker who wrote my name in them is present.

Cross Examination of JOHN CLARKE < no role > .

What day of the month did you make the search? - I think it was the 20th of August, to the best of my knowledge.

In consequence of some other robbery? - Yes.

Did you send to several houses before this? - No; I said the officers were sent to all the noted houses.

Did any one lodge in Wood's house? - Yes.

Do you know how many? - No.

Do you know a man by the name of Knowland, that lodges there? - I know there is such a man in custody: there was nobody in the bed-room but himself.

JOHN HELEY < no role > sworn.

I was present when the search was made at the prisoner's house: I found a pair of shoes on the mantle-piece in the one pair of stairs room which belongs to the prisoner: he said that was his bed-room.

Was it the same room the bureau was in? - Yes, it was.

Mr. FELL. I believe these are mine; there is the same mark in them; they were made by the same shoemaker as the others.

JOHN HELEY < no role > . This piece of paper (producing it) I found in a little drawer in the bureau; as Mr. Clarke pulled the drawers out he gave the papers to me to look at.

Mr. FELL. That is the list I referred to; my clerk took a copy of it: (it appeared upon

'inspection to be so much blotted over, that

'the words Holborn-row, mentioned by Mr.

'Fell as contained in it, were almost unintelligible.')

PETER MEDLICOT < no role > sworn.

I am foreman to a shoemaker; Mr. Fell has his shoes made at our shop; these shoes that have been produced were made at our shop for Mr. Fell; I wrote Mr. Fell's name on the inside; I delivered them at Mr. Fell's house on the 27th of July.

' SARAH DEAN < no role > deposed that the spoons

'produced were her master's property.'

' SIMON LLOYD < no role > deposed that he believed

'by the make and shape of the spoons they

'were his master's property, but they were

'so defaced he could not positively swear to

'them.'

ELIZABETH PETTY < no role > sworn.

I made these shirts; I am as sure they are Mr. Fell's, as I am that I exist.

MOSES MORANT < no role > sworn.

Upon the 20th of last month I went with Mr. Clarke and others to search Mr. Wood's house: Mr. Clarke, after searching the prisoner's bed-chamber, came down stairs, and bid me be careful who went out; upon searching the bar, I discovered that there was a false floor, and between the floors I found two pistols, an iron crow, a large parcel of picklock keys, and other things (producing them); Mr. Clarke came down stairs, and said there must be some place where he melted down the silver, and we must see if we could find it out; he went up another pair of stairs; he came down again, and asked the woman in the bar who lived in the garret? she said, she did not know; he asked her where the key was? she said, she did not know: he bid me come up with the crow; we broke the door open; we found in the room a round stove and a charcoal fire burning in it; there were three crucibles, and one broken one; we also found a parcel of keys, and in a bird-cage, I found a dark lanthorn; they were in the same room. (They were produced in court.)

PRISONER's DEFENCE.

I know nothing about the things; they were left at the bar in care of my housekeeper; I was not in the house at the time: I have some witnesses to call.

For the PRISONER.

MARY JONES < no role > sworn.

I am servant to the prisoner.

Do you know of any things being left in your house in August? - Yes; two pair of shoes, and two shirts; these are the shirts, and these are the shoes; they were left with me.

Who were they left by? - A man.

Do you know him? - I do not know any great deal of him; I have seen him in the house two or three times.

What is his name? - They call him Watty Knowland < no role > .

Did he leave any thing else there? - No.

He did not leave all these picklock keys and crows and things? - No.

He did not leave the spoons, did he? - No.

To Mr. FELL. What was the value of the things you missed? - I cannot tell the exact value, upwards of a hundred pounds in the whole.

JURY to MARY JONES < no role > . Under what pretence did the man leave these things at your house? - He called for a glass of brandy; he had these things under his arm, and desired to leave them.

When was it that he left them? - I don't know, it was the latter end of July.

GUILTY . Death .

Tried by the First Middlesex Jury before Mr. Justice ASHHURST.