607. THOMAS EDWARDS proceedingsdefend and ANN SHUTER proceedingsdefend were indicted for burglariously, and feloniously, breaking, and entering the dwelling-house of Thomas Vials proceedingsvictim , about the hour of four in the night, on the 1st day of October , and burglariously stealing therein, three linen check aprons, value 3 s. one muslinapron, value 2 s. one tin cannister, value 1 d. three ounces of tea, value 4 d. one silver tea-spoon, value 2 s. and one piece of foreign coin, called a quarter of a dollar, value 1 s. his property .

THOMAS VIALS < no role > sworn.

I live at No. 52, Church-lane, Whitechapel ; I am a housekeeper there; on the night of the 1st of October, I went to bed about ten in the evening; I was the last person up; before I went to bed, I fastened every door; the front door has a spring lock; I double locked that door, and bolted it; the back door has only got a single bolt, and I bolted that; there was no lock to that; the windows were all fastened; the front window has an outside shutter; the back window has an inside shutter; I awakened, and I heard the watchman crying four; and I heard the back door give a crack; I took no notice of it; I went to sleep again; and about half past five, I got up to go to work, and found the back door wide open; I went into the yard to the house, and saw the back gate open, and the bricks off the wall; I had fastened the gate of that yard, before I went to bed, with a bolt; then I went in doors again, and told my wife; and I missed two tea-chests out of the house; I went into the yard again, and looked in the privy; and saw the two tea-chests there, broke open; they stood on the seat; and four tea-cannisters on the side, and one was in the tea-chest; I came in doors, and brought them in; I missed nothing else then; I looked round the house; then I went up to my work; and other things were missed; the prisoner, Edwards, who had lodged in my house before this happened, but was gone away about four days; Bassett, the constable, went in search of the prisoner, Edwards; we did not find him that day; I found him the next day in Houndsditch, about nine in the morning, looking into a pawn-broker's window; he walked away from me, I do not know whether he saw me, I followed him down Whitechapel, he stopped to speak to two sailors, I passed him and stopped at the end of Petticoat-lane, he came by me, and turned up Petticoat-lane, and went into a cook's shop, I passed that cook's shop, and I could not get an officer; and I went into the shop, and I said to him, did not you lodge at my house once, and he said no; I said to him, I am sure you are the person, for that reason you must go with me down to my house in Church-lane; says he, I never lodged in Church-lane in my life; I said, I am sure you are the person, you went away and never paid your last week's rent; says he to the woman in the cook's shop, be so good to let me go backwards to your privy, and she gave him leave to go, and he went I and stood at the front door, and the daughter of the man went backwards to see if he was there; he came back to the shop again, I insisted on his going with me to my house, he went and the man and woman of the shop went along with him, and I gave charge of him; he was put in the watch-house; me and Bassett went to the cook's shop again, and went into the privy, we could see nothing, we came into the shop, and there we saw a bundle which was shewn us by the daughter, her name is Sarah Jones < no role > , she is here; the prisoner was not present, we examined the bundle, and found in it a check shirt, (which he owned to be his, and 3 check aprons wrapped up in that check shirt, we found nothing else there. Then we went after Ann Shuter < no role > , his woman or wife, whichever she was; Bassett took the bundle and he left it at his own house, and then we went down to the watch-house with the prisoner, and asked him where to find Ann Shuter < no role > , (she lodged with him at my house, they lived as man and wife, she took the lodgings as such,) then the officer searched him and found directions where to find her, at the India-arms, a public house at Cockhill; we went in there, and called for a pint of porter, and we got a direction to the Green Dragon-yard, Whitechapel; I went there with Bassett, he went up stairs and brought down Ann Shuter; when she came down stairs, says I, you are the person that lodged at my house in Church-lane;no, says she, I never lodged at your house in my life, I never lodged in Church-lane, it must be my sister; I went up stairs with the officer and her, she desired to put on her hat, and the first thing I saw was a tea-cannister with tea in it; I said to the officer, I will swear to this tea-cannister, it belonged to the tea-chest that was broke open; and she said, the prisoner Edwards had sent it to her the day before for a present to the woman where she then lodged; we asked the woman who brought it, she said a man brought it to her in a brown coat, she did not know him, but should if she saw him again; we took the woman with us to Mr. Staples, there I said what I had lost out of the house, I lost three check'd aprons, one muslin apron, a silver tea-spoon, a quarter of a dollar, and a tea-cannister with some tea in it.

Court. Were all the cannisters belonging to the tea-chests there? - No, four were found and two were missing; I saw the tea-chests and the cannisters on the table over night when I went to bed; and the aprons hung on the line to dry; the spoon was in the tea-chest; they were locked both of them, I saw them in the afternoon; I never found any of my things again, except the three check'd aprons and the cannister, (these are the three aprons which were found in the room at Jones's; here is one of the tea-chests which was broke open, and here is the hasp of the other; I know the cannister by the fellow cannister to it, it sits the place; it is a common cannister; the prisoners lodged in our house, and passed as man and wife during that time.

BASSETT sworn.

I am a constable, on the 1st of October I was applied to by the prosecutor, I went with him but did not meet with the prisoner; on Thursday the 2d of October, he brought the prisoner to my door, and gave me charge of him; I put him into the watch-house in Wellclose-square, and then went with the prosecutor to the cook's shop, Jones's; and there Sarah Jones < no role > produced a bundle to us, which she said Edwards had left there the day before, and was to call for it at dinner time; it contained three check'd aprons and a shirt; I took the bundle home and have had it ever since; these are the same, they were very wet when produced to me, and I hung them up to dry, and locked up the room, and then I locked them in a drawer; and then I went to the watch-house to get a direction to the woman Edwards lived with, but he said he did not know where she lived, but I found in his pocket a paper, on which was written,

"direct to me at Ann Shuter < no role > 's, at the India-arms, Cock-hill." We went and found her in Green Dragon-yard, Whitechapel, she said her name was not Shuter; then I brought her down, and the prosecutor said he believed she was the woman that lodged in his house, but he had but little knowledge of her; I found a cannister on the table, and I asked Ann Shuter < no role > how the cannister came there; and she said, Edwards had sent it to her to make a present of to the woman where she lodged, she said she had nothing else; the woman of the house said it was brought by a man in a brown coat, from Edwards; she did not know him, but should if she saw him. I brought Shuter before the magistrate, and the things were produced and sworn to; this is the cannister, I have had it ever since; Edwards owned to the shirt and claimed it before the justice, but not the aprons; the justice ordered me to keep the shirt.

SARAH JONES < no role > sworn.

I live at No. 140, Petticoat-lane, a cook's shop; on Wednesday morning, I cannot tell the day of the month, it was the day before Bassett and Vyals came to our house, the prisoner came with a bundle and desired to leave it till dinner time; I believe it was between the hours of 9 and 10 in the morning; I did not know him before, only two or three times he called for some leg of beef, and always paid for what he had and went away; he did not call again for it; he did not say what was in it, I put it under the small-beer barrelunder the counter: the next morning Vials and Bassett came together, and I was up stairs making my beds; when they came to take him up he had not called for any thing, nor asked for his bundel, but he was there at a table; then I came down and produced the bundle, I had never opened it, I am quite sure it was the same; he said it was his.

SARAH VIALS < no role > sworn.

(Looks at the aprons,) I can swear to them, they are mine, and one has a stain on it and a piece on the side; the other has a mark a cat with a knife in wiping it; the third has two little holes at the bottom just by the hem; one of them hung on the back of a chair to dry, my mother had been washing it; one of the others lay on the table wet by one of the tea-chests; the other had some pieces of cloth in it, it was dirty on the chair; the tea-chests stood on the table, there was a silver tea-spoon in one marked with SS and E, there was a quarter of a dollar in it and five tea-cannisters one I lent; I missed the aprons first- they were below stairs, we lay below even with the room that was stripped; the cannisters fit the tea-chest.

(The aprons shewn to the Jury.)

Pros I am sure this is the tea-chest which I found in the privy which had a silver spoon in it; there is no till in the other; my wife had the key.

Mrs. Vials. I locked up that spoon in the tea-chest about 6 in the evening, when I had done tea.

PRISONER EDWARDS's DEFENCE.

I know nothing of it; I am innocent.

PRISONER ANN SHUTER < no role > 'S DEFENCE.

My Lord, and Gentlemen of this court:

I have taken the liberty to lay my case before you, as I have no friend but God, and not having the affluence of speech to tell my case; I unfortunately lived with the said Thomas Edwards < no role > on a promise of marriage till Thursday the 26th of September, and he told me he was going on board the Royal Admiral, and that I should not see him till the 10th of the next month, or the month after; as I found I could not pay the rent myself, I delivered the key, and I told Mrs. Vials that I would call and pay her another time, she answered it was very well; I went to a friend in Whitechapel, and on the 29th of September, a man came and asked for Mrs. Adams, I told him she was not at home, he had a cannister in his hand for her; I told him to put it down, and he did; I never saw him before nor since.

And on the 2d of October, there was a man came to me at this Mrs. Adams's, and asked for Mrs. Shuter; I told him that she was in the country, but I was her daughter; he desired me to go with him, and I did; he took me before a justice, then I saw this Thomas Edwards < no role > , I had not seen him from the 26th of September till then; I am entirely innocent of his connection, and this affair I am brought here for; and hope this honourable court will do me justice, as I never was in any trouble before.

ANN SHUTER < no role > .

Prisoner Edwards. I have no witnesses for want of money.

(For the prisoner Ann Shuter < no role > .)

PHEBE LLOYD < no role > sworn.

I live in Whitechapel, in Green Dragon-yard, there is no No. only eight houses in the place; I was in Mrs. Adams's room where the prisoner Ann Shuter < no role > was; it is something better than a fortnight ago, a man brought up a tea-cannister, and said, here is some tea for Mrs. Adams he did not say where it came from: Ann Shuter bid him put it on the table, she was mending her stockings, she did not rise; the man put it on the table and went down again; I did not observe any thing particular about his dress, I did not take any notice.

What for cannister was it? - A dirtyish looking cannister.

Court to prosecutor. How did your back door appear to have been opened?

It appeared to have been wrenched, there was a bit of chip off the door where the bolt was.

THOMAS EDWARDS < no role > GUILTY , Death .

ANN SHUTER < no role > NOT GUILTY .

Tried by the first Middlesex Jury before Mr. Baron THOMPSON < no role > .