107. ESTHER JANE HARDY proceedingsdefend was indicted for feloniously stealing, on the 4th day of February , seven yards of printed cotton, value 14 s. the goods of James Somerset proceedingsvictim , privily in his shop .

WILLIAM HILTON < no role > sworn.

I am shopman to James Somerset < no role > . On the 4th of February, between six and eight o'clock in the evening, Saturday, I was in the shop, and a boy who takes out parcels,and no one else. This woman came into the shop, and asked for half a yard of linen cloth, which is here, and paid for it. After she asked to look at some printed cottons for gowns; I shewed her a vast number. She then asked to look at several other articles, and made as if she meant to purchase them, but with no intent to pay for them. She agreed for them, and had them cut off from the pieces. The last thing of all she looked at was some check for aprons, and I shewed her at least twenty pieces; and I was looking for a measure, she run immediately quite out of the shop. I jumped over the counter, and went after her, not thinking she had got any thing; she had got near one hundred yards, and fell down; I got up to her, and on taking her up, she said she had lost it; I asked her what she had lost, and from under her I took this piece of cotton. She fell down in putting her foot on the pavement; she slipped, and on taking her up, this lay under her. It was one of the pieces of the cotton I had cut off for her; all the other things were left behind excepting this that she had agreed for; she did not produce any money except 6 d. for the first half-yard, and that was before I shewed her the cotton. The cotton is James Somerset < no role > 's; I can swear to it. I laid the things on the counter; she took it from thence; I did not see her take it; I did not discover it till she was six or seven yards from the counter; she had looked at it, and I cut it off for her, and it laid under several other things which I had cut off afterwards. It is worth 14 s. I cut her off seven yards; it cost us 17 s.

EDWARD TREADWAY < no role > sworn.

I am a constable. I produce the property; the witness marked it when he put it into my hands with Somerset; it is the same I received, and have kept it ever since.

Prisoner. I don't know the property.

GUILTY , Death . (Aged 22.)

Tried by the first Middlesex Jury before Mr. RECORDER.