392. ANN SMITH proceedingsdefend was indicted for stealing, on the 24th of May , a linen shirt, value 5 s. the goods of Valentine Pearce proceedingsvictim .

MARY PEARCE < no role > sworn.

My husband name is Valentine Pearce < no role > ; I am an housekeeper in No. 2, Lloyd-street, Whitechapel . The prisoner was an entire stranger to me, she came into the yard and took the linen, I saw her take it, I was at a window; I went to her and I catched her in the fact; the shirt belonged to a gentleman who keeps a chandler's shop next door; I am a washerwoman, and was to be paid for washing it; I stopped her with the property under her arm in my passage, coming out of the yard door; I have kept the shirt ever since. (Produced and deposed to.) I laid hold of her and called my husband to my assistance, and he came and took her into my own apartments, and took the shirt from her.

VALENTINE PEARCE < no role > sworn.

I am the husband. She had the shirt under her petticoat, under her arm, and and I took it from her.

Prisoner. I went to this woman to enquire after a woman that lived up one pair of stairs, one Mrs. Jones; I saw the shirt lay as I went up stairs, and did not know what it was; as I was coming down stairs, just at the bottom of the stairs, this gentlewoman came out and said I was going to steal the shirt; I told her I was not going to do any such thing; she called her husband out, and they took me into the room, and then she went and put the shirt in some water to rince it while they sent for the constable and when he came, and we were going to the justice's that gentleman came running after her, and said she had made a mistake and taken the wrong shirt.

Court to Valentine Pearce < no role > . Did you ever know this woman before? - No, she was an entire stranger.

GUILTY . (Aged 33.)

Imprisoned three months in Newgate and fined 1 s.

Tried by the first Middlesex Jury before Mr. RECORDER.