ROBERT FRANKLYN proceedingsdefend was indicated for forging and counterfeiting, on the 3d of October , a Bank of England promissory-note for the payment of 10l. with intention to defraud the Governor and Company of the Bank of England proceedingsvictim .

Another Count. For uttering and publishing the same as true, Knowing it to be false. And

Sixteen other Counts. For a like offence, varying the manner of charging it.(The indictment was stated by Mr. Giles, and the case by Mr. Fielding).

SARAH DIXON < no role > sworn. - Examined by Mr. Knowlys. I live in King-street, Soho; in October last, I lived in Charles-street, Middlesex-hospital.

Q. Do you know Mr. Franklyn? - A. Yes; on the 3d of October, he was at my lodgings, at Mr. Seares's, a shoe-maker.

Q. What was the business he came about? - A. To leave some money for a lady in the hospital; I saw him give my servant a note to change, her name is Sarah Banks < no role > .

Q. Did you happen to know, at the time he gave it her, what note it was? - A. I did not.

Q. Did your servant go in consequence of that? - A. I was in bed.

Court. Q. Did you see him give her the note? - A. Yes; she went away, and returned to my room, she was not gone above five minutes; she gave Mr. Franklyn four 2l. notes, and two 1l. he left with me a 2l, note, one shilling and two sixpences, to give to a lady in the hospital.

Q. Had you seen Mr. Franklyn before, and knew him well? - A. Yes, by sight, seeing him come to that lady.

Cross-examined by Mr. Knapp. Q.I think I understood you that you never saw the note? - A. No.

Q. You were a lady living in Charles street, Middlesex-hospital? - A. Yes.

SARAH BANKS < no role > sworn. - Examined by Mr. Giles, Q. You lived with the last witness, Sarah Dixon < no role > , in Charles-street? - A. Yes.

Q. Do you know Robert Franklyn? - A. I never saw him but twice; he came one Tuesday morning about half-past eight, it was some time in October, I did not sleep there, I only came on days, to do what she might want.

Court. Q. Did you find him there, or were you there first? - A. I found him there; I heard him ask Sarah Dixon < no role > where her servant was, and I said I am here; I saw Mr. Franklyn talking to her by the side of the bed; he asked me if I thought I could get him change for a 10l. note; I told him, I would try if I could, he gave me the note, but I do not know what the note was, I never looked at it. I went to Mr. Kearse, at the One Tun, in Charles-street, which was next door; Mr. Kearse said, he could not give it me in cash, he would give it me in notes, if he could; he gave me four 2l. notes and two 1l. I returned, an gave them to Mr. Franklyn.

Q. Was the note that you gave to Kearse, the same that you received from the prisoner? - A. Yes; I had no other note; I told Mr. Franklyn I had got it in notes; he said, he wanted to send a little money to an unfortunate woman that was in the hospital; he left a 2l. note, one shilling and two sixpences, which she was to take to the lady in the hospital; her name was Maria Nesbitt, and he pulled out a letter that he had wrote to her.

Cross-examined by Mr. Gurney. Q. You never saw the inside of the note at all? - A. No; not I could not have read it, if I had.

Q. Then you know nothing about it but what Mr. Kearse told you? - A. No.

Q. There were six notes given you? - A. Yes.

Q. Have you any distinct recollection that there were six only? - A. Yes.

Court. Q. You could not read? - A. No.

Q. How did you know that there were four twos and two ones? - A.Because Mr. Kearse told me so.

WILLIAM KEARSE < no role > sworn. - Examined by Mr. Fielding. I keep a public-house in Goodge-street, the One Tun.

Q. Do you know Sarah Banks < no role > ? - A. Yes; I have known her, I suppose, these two months: On the 3d of October, between eight and nine in the morning, she came to me to change a 10l. note, I gave her change for it, in small notes.

Q. What were those notes? - A. To the best of my memory, four twos and two ones; I did not minute them down.

Q. Did you tell her they were so? - A. To the best of my memory I did.

Q.What became of that very note which you received from Sarah Banks < no role > ? - A. I paid it away, on the 5th, to one Mr. Piper. clerk to Messrs. Fassett and Burnet, at Vauxhall.

Q. Are you able to say, to a certainty, that the very note you received from Sarah Banks < no role > you delivered to Piper? - A. Yes.

Q. Did you make any mark upon the note? - A. I did not.

Cross-examined by Mr. Knapp. Q. You did not make any mark upon it? - A. No.

Q.Nor did not particularly notice the note that you received? - A. No.

Q. You keep a public-house, and do considerable business, I believe? - A. Yes.

JOHN PIPER < no role > sworn. - Examined by Mr. Fielding, I am clerk in the house of Messrs. Fasset, Burnet, and Son, at Vauxhall: On the 5th of October last, I received from Mr. Kearse either forty or fifty pounds, I am not certain which.

Q. Did you receive a ten pound note from him? - A. I did.

Q. Do you know the very note you received from him? - A.Certainly.

Q. Was there any other ten pound note that you received from him that day? - A. I did not.

Court. Q. Did you receive any other ten pound note that day from any body? - A. Yes; I put Mr. Kearse's name upon the note, and I had a very particular reason for putting his name upon it; a friend of mine, who lived at Thrale's Brewhouse, had taken two fifteen pound notes that were forged.

Q.Is that the note? (shewing him one). - A. It is.

WILLIAM MULLENS < no role > sworn. - Examined by Mr. Fielding. I am one of the cashiers of the Bank.

Q. Are you able, from the inspection of that note, to say whether it is a real of a forged Banknote? - A. It is forged.

Q. Are you clear that it is a forged note? - A. I am perfectly clear.

Q. It purports to be signed by yourself; that is not your signature? - A. No, certainly not.

Q. And from your knowledge and inspection of the note, are you certain that is a forged note? - A. I am. (The note read).

No. 4555. 1796. Bank, 20th of January, 1796.

I promise to pay Mr. Abraham Newland < no role > , or Bearer, On demand, the sum of ten pounds.

London, the 20th day of January, 1796.

For the Governor and Company of the Bank of England. W. < no role > MULLENS.

Ten Pounds. Entered, S. FATT.

EDWARD LAVENDER < no role > sworn. - Examined by Mr. Fielding. Q. In consequence of some directions you received from the Solicitor of the Bank, You went, I believe, in pursuit of the prisoner? - A. It was merely to take examinations at Rochester: I went on Thursday the 5th of October, in consequence of making some little enquiry at Rochester, I had reason to believe the person we then enquired after was either at Rochester or at Chatham at that time; we made further enquiry, and found that a person of that description was gone to Sheerness, with the tide-boat, and as soon as the tide suited, I also went to Sheerness, and made enquiry there, and was directed to go on board the Hydra ship, at the Great Nore; I had John Rivett with me, and also North, the waiter from the George Inn, at Rochester, I believe his name is Thomas; we took a boat to the Great Nore, and went on board the Hydra frigate; I communicated my business to Sir Francis Le < no role > Foy, the captain, he immediately ordered all hand to be called on deck, to be mustered, to give an opportunity of seeing the person; in a few minutes, before half the people could get on deck, Mr. Franklyn came on the quarter-deck, and North, the waiter, exclaimed, that is him; whether Mr. Franklyn heard the exclamation or not I do not know, but he immediately went down below; Sir Francis then called to the master at arms to go and secure Mr. Franklyn, I also followed below; the master at arms went one way, and I went the other, and he got to Mr. Franklyn first; I then asked Mr. Franklyn which was his birth, which he very readily pointed out to me; I then asked him which were his trunks or boxes, he also readily pointed them out to me; I then asked him for the keys of the boxes, and he gave them me out of his jacket pocket; I think then, before I opened either of the boxes, I asked him if he had got any Bank-notes; he replied, none but what I should find in the trunk; I opened the trunk, and in searching, I found a purse containing small Bank-notes to the amount of one or two and twenty pounds, and some gold, the gold I returned to him, and kept the notes at that present time; I asked him afterwards what he had done with the five hundred pounds worth of Bank-notes that he had brought from London; he hesitated a little, and at length replied, that he had no other; I had some further conversation with him which I do not immediately recollect; I told him he must go on shore with us, that I must take him to town; he then sat down on his trunk to dress himself for that purpose; I again asked him if he had not got some more Banknotes; he then says, yes, I have, and I will tell you where they are; but before he could tell me, Rivett came with the parcel in his hand, and said, I have found them; that parcel contained Banknotes, they are here, they amounted to four hundred and fifty pounds; we, as soon as we conveniently could, brought him on shore, and took him to London.

Q. Four hundred and fifty pounds was the whole that Rivett found? - A. Yes.

Q. You had asked him before what he had done with the five hundred pounds worth of notes? - A. yes; I took the notes I found in the trunk to the Bank, and had them examined, they were good; I have since returned them to a friend of the prisoner's.

Q. Was there any examination of him taken in writing? - A. I believe not.

Cross-examined by Mr. Gurney. Q. You say very fairly, that when you enquired about his trunk, he told you, with the greatest readiness? - A. Yes; certainly.

Q. And he gave you the key? - A. Yes.

JOHN RIVETT < no role > sworn. - I was in company with Mr. Lavender, on board the Hydra frigate; Mr. Lavender stated to the captain the circumstance of our coming there, and in consequence of that, he ordered the boatswain to pipe all hands; the prisoner at the bar came upon deck, and immediately returned below again.

Q. How came he to go below again? - A. I do not know; the captain desired the master at arms to secure him, and I went below and searched the prisoner's trunks, but there was nothing particular found; in the place where I supposed his bed would be, in searching a locker, in the prisoner's birth, a little place like a cupboard -

Q. Was it locked? - A. NO, it was not; it had a place to sit down upon it, and behind some old biscuit bags that were in the locker, I found a pocket handkerchief rolled up, and in that handkerchief there were some Bank-notes, they amounted, I think, to four hundred and fifty pounds; I immediately called Mr. Lavender into the birth, and told him I had found these notes; I kept them till we got to town, and then I gave them to Mr. Lavender; I marked them all before I delivered them to Mr. Lavender.

Court. Q. What is the apparent value of them? - A. The lowest, I believe, is fifteen pounds, and the highest one hundred pounds.

Q. When you had found these notes, where did you go? - A. I told the prisoner I had found these notes in the place that I supposed was his birth; he made little or no answer at first; sometime after, he said, he had received them from a man who had robbed him, and we then brought him up to town.

Cross-examined by Mr. Knapp. Q. I believe, in point of fact, you understood the prisoner had not been on board the Hydra till within a day or two? - A. Something of that kind.

Q. You said properly, you supposed it to be his birth? - A. I could not know it myself, and the prisoner did not chuse to tell me; he said he had no birth, or something of that sort; I have no birth; where is your bed, or your cot, says I; he told me it was upon deck; I then went to the first lieutenant, and asked him, and he shewed me the birth.

Court. Q. Was his cot upon deck? - A. Yes, it was; as I understood it was not in the birth, I asked him where his birth was, and his bed; says he, my bed is upon deck; says I, where is your birth? I have no birth.

Mr. Knapp. Q. Then he referred you to the cot which was upon deck? - A. Yes.

Q. When he said he had no birth, did he not add, that he had no birth particular to himself, that other persons occupied the same birth as well as he? - A.Certainly, I should suppose so.

Q. Will you swear that he added nothing more than that he had no birth? - A. I do not recollect that a word passed more than that he had no birth.

Q. Do you happen to know, that the birth that you afterwards found this locker in, belonged to five other persons? - A. I understood there were some other young men that messed with him.

Q. You told me just now, that he had only come a day or two before - A. I understood so on board the ship.

Q. The prisoner was not at the birth when you went down? - A. No.

Q. The locker was open? - A. Yes

Q. The notes you found out were behind some biscuit bags? - A. Yes.

Q. The biscuit bags had the appearance of having been there some time? - A. I cannot tell how long they might have been there.

Mr. Giles. Q. He told you he had received these notes from a man who had robbed him? - A. Yes.

Mr. Knapp. Q. In point of fact, a man was taken up, and examined at Bow-street, upon a charge of that kind? - A. Yes; he certainly did complain of being robbed some days before he was taken up, and came to Bow-street to make his complaint.

JOHN NORTH < no role > sworn. - Examined by Mr. Fielding. I was waiter at the George-Inn, at Rochester, in October last.

Q. Look at the young man at the bar? - A. I recollect the prisoner very well.

Q. Do you recollect the arrival of Lavender and Rivett at your house? - A. Yes; I think it was on the 5th.

Q. You went with them on board the Hydra frigate? - A. I did; I saw the prisoner there; it was intimated that I knew the man, I knew him the moment I saw him, I said, that is the man.

Q.Then what became of him after? - A. He went down below immediately, upon that I staid upon deck.

Q. When you saw him before, in what place had you seen him, so as to know that he was the person? - A. At the George, at Rochester, on Wednesday the 27th of September, to the best of my knowledge; he came to our house in the evening, he enquired of me for a place in the mail-coach to London, that very evening; he had a sailor with him at the time; he ordered supper, a roast fowl and some other things; he eat his supper, drank two bottles of Lisbon, and then a bowl of punch; he thencame out into the kitchen, and said, he had got some notes in his pocket, and a pocket-book that he had had the misfortune to drop into the sea coming from abroad, the leaves of the pocket-book were edged with green, which had stained these Bank-notes; he asked me if I could give him cash for a note or two; I told him that I could not; he asked me, if my employer could do it, I told him, I would enquire, and then I told him that he could not; he afterwards paid me for his supper in cash, and he had in bulk, as near as I can imagine, thirty guineas in cash.

Q. That was, he had asked you, if you could exchange him a note? - A. Yes; he afterwards came to the bar, and asked it as a favour to give change for a note; I told him he did not want cash, for he had got plenty of cash; I told him, that when he took the place in the mail-coach, probably the book-keeper might give him change for it; he afterwards appeared much disguised in I quor, and about half-past eleven o'clock he desired to go to bed; I told him it was of no use to go to bed, for the mail-coach would be in about half after twelve, and he would have very little time, if he meant to go with the mail-coach; he said. he would go when the mail-coach came in; the chamber-maid went to call him, he slept in a double bedded room, when the chamber-maid went up, he had his coat off.

Q. Did you see that? - A. No.

Q.Did you happen to see any thing of him afterwards? - A. He did not go by the mail; I was desired to call him at six o'clock, I called him about six o'clock.

Q. Was there any other person in that room when you called him? - A. No; he ordered coffee.

Q. Did he come down out of his room when the coffee was ordered? - A. Yes; the coach came to the door, and I put the things in; there was a bundle tied up in a white handkerchief, a brace of pistols, and a hank whip; when I had put them in the coach, he came running back, exclaiming, that we was robbed; I asked him what he was robbed of; he told me, that he was robbed in cash and notes, to near the amount of forty pounds; I said, possibly, as you were very much in liquor, you might have shook it out of your pocket; and he desired I would take the things out of the coach, for he would not go on; then the things were taken out, and put into the room again; I begged of him to go up stairs with me, and to shake the bedclothes, I called the chamber-maid up with us, and we shook the clothes, and took the bed off the bedstead, but could not find any thing; he said, he would advertise, and a suspicion fell upon two men that had slept in that room the night before; he staid till near two o'clock in the afternoon; some time after he made himself very easy, he said, it would not ruin him, and he should make himself easy till he got to London; when Mr. Lavender and the other officer came, I went with them on board the ship.

Cross-examined by Mr. Gurney. Q. All this part of the conversation, about the notes, was after they had drank two bottles of Lisbon, and a bowl of punch? - A. Yes.

Q. Do you know what propostion of the liquor they had had? - A.After the second bottle was in; and, I believe, three parts of it was by that time drank.

Q. Was the punch in too? - A. I cannot say.

GARNETT TERRY sworn? - Examined by Mr. Knowlys. Q. You are all engraver, employed by the Bank of England? - A. I am.

Q. Look at that parcel of Bank-notes, are they, in your opinion, printed at the Bank of England? - A. NO, they were not; these are forged prints; here is not one of them that was printed at the Bank.

Q. How long have you been engraver to the Bank? - A. About two years and a half.

Q. Look at that ten pound note? - A. This is a forged note; I have no doubt but they are all of one manufactory.

Cross-examined by Mr. Knapp. Q. You seem to have some difficulty; you took some time to look at them? - A. You saw the time.

Q. Having take some time to consider whether they were good notes or not, they might quite as easy come into a sailor's possession without his knowing them to be forged? - A. Yes.

THOMAS NICHOLSON < no role > sworn. - Examined by Mr. Giles. I am clerk to the House of correction for the County of Middlesex.

Q. Look at that paper; did you receive it from any body? - A. Mr. Franklyn; I saw him write it.

Cross-examined by Mr. Gurney. Q. I do not know what that paper contains, but I wish to ask what passed before it was printed? - A. Barnett was taken up for a similar offence, and he was writing his confession as well as Mr. Franklyn was.

Q. Was it for the purpose of his being made use of as a witness against Barnett? - A. No, I advised Mr. Franklyn to write it that it might be of some service to him afterwards.

Mr. Fielding. Then we cannot produce it.

Prisoner's defence. My Lord, and Gentlemen of the Jury, I cannot speak very loud, I have a violent cold. MY Lord < no role > , I could not suppose there notes forged from the different evidence I shall bring forward in my favour, if I had known them to be forged I should not have made any enquiry about them; my reason for leaving the quarterdeck was, I was obliged to do it, it being my dutyto see all hands on board before I came up myself; I have no particular birth, these notes were exposed to every body in the birth, there were six messed together; I had had no reason to suppose they were forged.

GUILTY Death . (Aged 29.)

Of uttering knowing to be forged.

Tried by the first Middlesex Jury, before Mr. Justice Grose.