150. FREDERIC FEHRENKEMP proceedingsdefend was indicted for stealing, on the 11th of December , a gold watch, value 101. and two cornelian seals set in gold, value 1l. the goods of John Moffatt proceedingsvictim , Esq . in his dwelling house .

(The case opened by Mr. Knowlys.)

SARAH MOFFATT < no role > sworn.

I am the wife of John Moffatt. I know the watch very well, which is the subject of this indictment; I have wore it myself, at times, for two years and a half. The prisoner at the bar was a servant in the family; he was a footman , he had left our service about fifteen months before the watch was lost.

Q. How long was he in your service? - Between ten and eleven months.

Q. How lately before the watch was lost had you seen it? - I saw it the evening before, but Mr. Moffatt put it in the drawer himself, at ten o'clock that evening.

Q. How late that evening did you see the watch yourself? - I did not see it after dark myself.

Q.Where did you see it in the course of the day before it was lost? - Hanging up by the side of the fire, in a small parlour, where Mr. Moffatt generally dresses, on the ground floor, close to the hall, it opens into the hall, it always hung there, in the course of the day time.

Q. Was that the practice, to hang the watch in that place at the time the prisoner lived in your service? - Very frequently, but sometimes Mr. Moffatt carried it.

Q. Where was it usually deposited in the evening after Mr. Moffatt went to bed? - In a little table-drawer in the same room.

Q. What time of the evening was it generally removed from the fire-place to the little table-drawer? - Sometimes eleven o'clock; now and then at half past ten; Mr. Moffatt used to wind it up just as he was going to bed.

Q. Was it the practice at the time the prisoner was in your service, to deposit this watch of a night in this table-drawer? - Yes, always when we were in town.

Q.How did this table-drawer open? - The top listed up.

Q. Was it locked or not? - It was not locked.

Q. How long was it you missed it after you had seen it? - Nine o'clock is the usual time that Mr. Moffatt comes down stairs, and then he always lifts up his drawer, and that morning the watch was missed; I was not present.

Q. You said it was usually hung up by the fire-side; at what time of the day did you see it hung up at the fireside? - I cannot say what time I saw it in the course of that day.

JOHN EATON < no role > sworn.

I am a servant in Mr. Moffatt's service, and was so at the time the watch was missed. I am a footman. I know the prisoner at the bar, I saw him the day the watch was missed, in the house; I opened the door to him; he said pray is Master Norris here he is a young man belonging to the family; I said no,he is not; he asked me if my master was up? I told him no, he was not up; he asked what time he would be up? I told him he would not be down much before nine; he asked what it was o'clock, I looked at the clock? and said it wanted twenty minutes to eight.

Q. Did you know him before? - I did.

Q. You did not know at that time he had lived a servant in the family? - No, I did not; he said he came from some gentleman at Westminster, I have forgot the name; and he said my master had written to him to be there at eight o'clock; then I asked him if he would call again? and he took his hat and went out to the door, and I shut the door after him, and held the door; he never went out of my fight at that time, while he was in the house.

SARAH WRIGHT < no role > sworn.

I was cook in this family of Mr. Moffatt's. I know the prisoner perfectly well.

Q. Do you recollect the day when the watch was missed? - On Wednesday morning, I think it was the 18th, it was a fortnight before Christmas; I was in the hall when the last witness gave him the answer the first time, cleaning it; and the young man sent him away, and I was at the bottom of the stairs, and he came in again in about twenty minutes afterwards, or not so much, the door was a jarr and he came in.

Q. Was any body in the hall besides yourself? - No, I was on the bottom of the stairs, I knew that to be the same man that came after my master before, and so I shut the hall door, and shut him in.

Q.What did he say? - He had told the young man what he came for, and I had heard it all, and knew him to be the same man again; while I was cleaning the hall, he asked several things about the family, he made a deal of wet about the door, and I left him, to go down into the kitchen to fetch a cloth to clean where his feet had wetted the hall.

Q. Was there any of the family left with him in the hall, or was he alone? - He was alone in the hail.

Q. Had he been in the hall all the time before you went down? - Yes, he had not been out of the hall at all.

Q. When you returned from the kitchen, where did you see the prisoner? - I see him coming out of my master's little room, that opens into the hall; I was rather surprised at seeing him come out of that room, but he asked me for Mr. Moffatt's, or my master's bulfinch, I told him it was dead; he says dead! how sorry I am, that bird cost five guineas. I told him my master was very sorry for it; he stopped some time in the hall after that, and then said I have heard that Mr Moffatt is better natured after breakfast, and I will call again.

Q. Did he call again? - He did not, I asked him if he had ever lived in the family? he said he had not.

Q. Have you ever seen your master's watch hang up? - Yes, I believe I have, I never saw it in any other place; he told me he had been at Mr. Moffatt's country house, with his master, who was a single gentleman, a month or two at a time; I let him out, and never see him till he was taken up.

Jury How do you know the prisoner at the bar? - I knew him by sight very well because I see him before.

Q. How long was he in the hall after what past about the bird? - About five or six minutes, not longer.

Court to Mrs. Moffatt. Do you know the particular day it was lost? - It was the 11th of December.

PETER PRESCOTT < no role > sworn.

I am a watch-maker; I live in little Newport-street, Leicester-fields; I know the prisoner at the bar, I recollect him perfectly well, he came into my shop to know the opinion of a watch, which he said he found; it was on Wednesday, the 18th of December last, I looked at it, and told him it was a very good watch, likewise told him that he was very lucky to find so good a watch, that I frequently looked for to find something, but never was so lucky as he had been; so then says he, I cannot say that I admire this watch, it is not modern, and it was a high watch, and he fixed on one that was then in the shew glass, a silver watch.

Q. How came he to fix on a watch in your shew glass? - He fixed on a silver watch, and intimated that if I would make an exchange for the silver one, he would let me have the gold one; I answered him that I would do no such thing, that the watch that he had found was preferable to the watch that he meant to exchange for; he then pointed out on the gold watch the defect of the maker's name being crased, I told him that I could rectify that; I had seen that, but I did not say any thing to him about it.

Q. In what way did he express it? - He said it was rather an eye sore, or a hurt to the watch; I told him that I could put a name plate on the watch, and that the cap could be cut again as there was sufficient thickness there; he asked me how much it would come to? I told him half a guinea, which, he found rather too much, he then seemed rather to with to dispose of the watch, and for me to buy it, he intimated as much as that, I told him if he had the defects rectified he could better dispose of the watch, and perhaps get more than I could allow him for it; he asked me then, do you think that you could dispose of the watch for me? I said, I dare to say I can, he said, he would call the next day, or next morning, which was Thursday, I said, very well, but if you leave it only till to-morrow, I cannot be able to get it done, nor perhaps the next week, because it is holiday week; but at last I promised it should be done for him by the Saturday; he left the watch with me, I asked him what name I was to put on the watch? he told me, Frederic Hatfield, London. I asked about the number? he said it was immaterial; O, then says I, I will put one of my following numbers on it; he said, just so; and he left the watch; I took it in pieces the very moment he left it, in order to trace out whether this watch was not stole, I had my suspicions, and I found a mark in the inside, Mudge, No. 576, I recollected that an hand-bill had been left at our shop which mentioned something about a watch of that description, I made enquiry and at last traced it to be the property of Mr. Moffatt's. The prisoner called again on Saturday and then I apprehended him, I have had the watch ever since.

Q. Are you sure that he is the man of whom you took that watch? - I am.

MATTHEW DUTTON < no role > sworn.

I am in partnership with Mr. Mudge.

This watch was made at our house, it was made for a Mr. Quick.

Q.Do you know whether it was ever the property of Mr. Moffatt or not? - I do. I knew it afterwards by coming often to our house to be repaired, while it was in the hands of Mr. Moffatt.

Mrs. Moffatt. I know this is Mr. Moffatt's watch, there was a little bit of gold just by the number six on the dial plate.

JOHN MOFFATT < no role > sworn.

This watch is mine and has been twenty years; it was deposited the night beforeit was missed, in a little drawer in my little parlour, the parlour which the witness has described, I am sure I put it there that night, and I missed it in the morning, it was the practice during the time that man lived with me to do it, and he knew it.

Prisoner. The servant must be mistaken by me for I never was at the house since I left Mr. Moffatt; I was in prison very ill, I could not send for some gentlemen in the country.

Court to Moffatt. You and this man parted friends? - I turned him away but not for any dishonesty.

Q. What do you value this watch at? - Ten pounds.

Q. Would it sell for that? - I think it would.

GUILTY, Of stealing to the value of 39s .(Aged 33.)

Transported for seven years .

Tried by the first Middlesex Jury before Mr. RECORDER.