843. GEORGE SIMPSON WHARTON proceedingsdefend and GEORGE MARTIN HUTTON proceedingsdefend were indicted for feloniously stealing, on the 15th of September , forty-six yards of Irish linen, value 10 l. six handkerchiefs, value 15 s. four tablecloths, value 2 l. fourteen yards of Nankeen, value 18 s. fourteen yards of calico, value 1 l. 15 s. the property of John Morgan proceedingsvictim , in his dwelling-house .

JOHN MORGAN < no role > . Q. Where do you now reside - A. No. 5, King's Arms-buildings, Wood-street, Cheapside. At that time I carried on business in Bond-street , and at Hastings, in Sussex.

Q. When did you leave Bond-street, to go to Hastings, to go to Sussex - A. On the 19th of August. I left Wharton and Hutton, the prisoners, to conduct my business in Bond-street, in my absence.

Q. Had you a valuable stock of goods in your shop at that time - A I had.

Q. In what parish was your house in - A. St. George, Hanover-square.

Q. Did you give any authority to either of them to make any payment, or to borrow money on account - A. I authorised them to pawn goods to the amount of sixty pounds, to pay the rent that was due the Midsummer before.

Q. Was that the extent of the authority that you gave them - A. That was the extent that time. I told them to raise that money upon Irish linens. I gave this direction to Wharton. Hutton was not present at the time.

Q. How soon after you left town did you hear from Wharton, or see him - A. I cannot say exactly. He wrote to me two or three days after this. I have not got that letter; I destroyed it. He said, in that letter, he had a deal of difficulty in raising the fifty pounds; the goods deposited for sixty pounds, amounted to upwards of two hundred and fifty pounds. There was nothing else material in that letter. I destroyed all his letters he sent me while I was at Hastings.

Q. Why did you destroy them - A. I thought them of no use. I had a great many other letters in my pocket.

Q. What is that in your hand - A. A memorandum of dates. I made it last night.

Q. Now tell me the contents of any letter you received after the first - A. On Saturday, the 5th of September, I received a letter from Wharton, stating, that there were a great many payments becoming due, and that it was impossible to raise money to satisfy them, and therefore I must be made a bankrupt; that he had thought of a plan by which eight hundred pounds might be put in my pocket; that he should come down by the Saturday evening mail, and let me know his plan. There was no mail to Hastings, but he came down by the coach on Sunday night. He then sent me a note by the porter, saying, that he had arrived at Hastings. I went to him. He then told me, as he had in the letter, that I must be made a bankrupt, and he wished me to conceal goods. I told him immediately, it was needless to ask me to conceal goods; I would not do it. He said, he had found so much difficulty in pawning the last goods, he thought it impossible to raise any more money in that way. I enquired the amount of the goods he had disposed of. His answer was, two hundred and fifty pounds. He told me he had pawned them in ten pound duplicates, as the Act of Parliament would not allow any more to be pawned at a time.

Q. Did you ask him to give the account of the goods he had so pawned - A. I did not. When I left London I directed him to enter them in the back part of the memorandum book, therefore I expected to find the account in that book, and there is no account whatever. I directed him to go home immediately, which he did not. He made an excuse that the coach was full, and on Monday he repeated his applications again, by sending me a note from the inn. in the morning. It was merely to say, that he had not gone out of Hastings. I saw him again on the Monday. He repeated the same intentions.

Mr. Gurney. Tell us what he said - A. He wanted me to conceal property, which I before stated I refused, and said, I would not. I told him, it was useless to ask me to do any such thing; I was determined not to do any thing of the kind. I gave him twenty pound to pay Messrs. Lowndes and Company, of Gutter-lane, which he never has paid. I told him, to go home, and take care of the shop in London.

Mr. Andrews. Did you, before you parted company with Wharton, give him any authority to dispose of any other part of your stock whatsoever - A. No, none, except to selling to customers in the shop.

Q. Do you know Wharton's hand-writing - A. I do. This letter is his hand-writing, which I received in London, on Monday, the 21st. It was directed to Hastings.

Q. Before you received this letter had you been to Bond-street - A. I had, with Perks, the officer. I went to get some goods that were secreted in a closet in the bed-room.

Q. When you came to the house was Wharton there - A. He was not. The shop was shut and sealed up. It was in the afternoon, between four and five, on Thursday, the 17th, after the examination of the two prisoners, at Bow-street. I found an officer in possession of the house.

Q. Did you go with Perks to examine the bedroom - A. I did. I found seven packages of goods there, in the closet of the bed-room where Hutton and Wharton slept. All the seven packages were in this one closet, in a wrapper, and some old clothes upon the top of the packages. Perks and myself took the packages to Bow-street. They were opened at Bow-street. The packages contained goods belonging to me. They are not the goods in this indictment. It was those in the trunk. Perks had taken the trunk before. I saw the trunk at Bow-street. It was a trunk of Wharton's which I had seen before. That trunk contained two pieces of Irish linen, and some striped muslin handkerchiefs, (I do not recollect the quantity), four tablecloths, some nankeens, and some calico.

Q. Are you able to say that these things were yours, and formed a part of your stock in Bond-street - A. I am. They were produced in Wharton's presence at Bow-street. He gave no account of them.

(The letter read.)

Addressed to Mr. Morgan, Hastings, (with speed), 14th of September, London, and signed, George Simpson Wharton < no role > .

="DEAR SIR,

I am sorry to inform you of the dreadful circumstance that occurred last night. Our shop has been robbed of nearly every thing that is in it, or, at least, every thing that is valuable. You, of course, will set out immediately to come to London. If there be no coach, you had better take a chaise. I am very uncomfortable, having been absented by all your friends, but I trust my character and conduct is such to command your esteem. Your obedient servant,

GEORGE SIMPSON < no role > WHARTON.="

Mr. Gurney. Mr. Morgan, this indictment is not prefered by your creditors - A. No, by me, sir.

Q. Then, I am distinctly to understand you, the prosecution was not commenced by you, but by your creditors, and when your creditors abandoned it you took it up - A. The two prisoners were taken up by the direction of two gentlemen. I do not know who they were.

Q. Why, they were your creditors, you know very well - A. Yes, they were taken up by the direction of two of my creditors. Mr. Sowerby was one of them. I do not know who they were. I was led to understand it was Mr. Sowerby and Mr. Mears.

Q. We have got your creditors here. Do not be backward. This shop in Bond-street was originally belonging to Mr. Williams, was it not - A. It was.

Q. Mr. Williams put you in the shop to conduct it for him - A. Yes. Mr. Wharton was there for a week before I was. He put me in.

Q. Then it was agreed that you should take the stock and lease, and pay Mr. Williams in money, for which you gave him bills - A. Yes. This was on the 4th of May. I was to give two bills of two hundred and sixty-six pounds each, and one of four hundred pounds.

Q. In the month of August last you did not begin with any great capital, I understand - A. None whatever.

Q. And as you had no capital, you, besides this business in Bond-street, which required a good deal, you set up another shop at Hastings, and a third at Beck's Hill, I believe; and, upon the strength of your large capital, and great business, you lived like a gentleman - A. I lived like a tradesman.

Q. In September, bills were becoming due, and you had a deal of difficulty in raising money to pay them - A. Yes.

Q. Business rather dull, and there was no way of raising money, but by the pawnbrokers - A. I went down to Hastings to raise money, and left Wharton commission to pawn things in town to pay the rent.

Q. And when he wrote you word that bills had become due to about eleven hundred pounds, he said, you must become a bankrupt - A. Yes. He did not say the amount. He said, I must stop, or become a bankrupt. That letter I burnt directly. I was ashamed of his asking me such a thing. I went to him at the inn. I did not like any of my young men to see him there, his message was so altominable.

Q. So you went to him to the inn - A. I did, and he told me to secrete the goods, but I resisted him at once.

Q. Did not you knock him down on the spot for the proposal - A. No, I did not attempt anything of the sort. I told him, to go off to London directly.

Q. You thought him a great scoundrel, did not you - A. I thought him an honest young man to me at the time, therefore I sent him back with confidence to the shop in Bond-street. I told him, to go off to London immediately. I called the waiter into the room, and told him to call him up the next morning, to go off with the coach. I told him, to take care of the stock in Bond-street until my return, which would be on the Monday following.

Q. So he proposed to you to cheat your creditors, and therefore you thought him an honest man, did you - A. I did not suppose he would rob me as he has done.

Q. No, no, how could you suppose that. But you did not stay many minutes in his company - A. No. I ordered in a glass of wine and water, and drank with him, and told him to go home.

Q. Leaving him to go off by the coach - A. Yes.

Q. The next morning you had a note from him, begging to see you again, and you went to him - A. I went to him. I found that he wanted to rob my creditors.

Q. You found he was so bad company you went home, and did not see him again - A. Yes, I did; he was very ill, and that was the reason that I took such compassion on him.

Q. You took a walk out with him on the hills - A. Yes, I did, on the Monday. He wanted to see the place.

Q. How many hours do you think you were out together - A. About an hour and a quarter.

Q. Now, Mr. Morgan, I must put a question to you, to which I know what your answer will be. Did not you there instruct him to carry the goods from the house to different places, and then to pretend to your creditors that your house was robbed - A. No, I did not.

Q. Did not he and you ride together in a gig - A. I drove him eight miles to town in a gig. I secured him a place in the coach at Hastings, and drove him to Battle, eight miles on the road.

Q. So that he did not get the coach at Hastings - A. No, he did not. I took him on, because he was very unwell at the time, therefore I thought, as he had taken an outside place, it would be bad for him to get up early in the morning.

Q. When you came to town there was a bill of Mr. Sowerby's coming due, was not there - A. There was.

Q. And you instructed him to wait upon Mr. Sowerby, and beg for time - A. I did, at Battle; and I likewise gave him twenty pound to pay Lowndes and Son.

Q. I know you did. After he came to London you received another letter from him telling you that Mr. Sowerby would not give any longer time, therefore the plan that you had instructed him must be put in execution - A. I never instructed him.

COURT. The question is, whether you received a letter from him, telling you that Mr. Sowerby would give no longer time, therefore the plan must be put in execution - A. I did not receive any such letter, and that I swear.

Mr. Gurney. When did you receive the news of the supposed robbery of your house - A. On Tuesday the 15th.

Q. And very much astonished you was - A. I was.

Q. How soon does the post come in at Hastings - A. The letters are delivered about eleven or twelve o'clock.

Q. You got to London by that time - A. No, I did not; I got to town on Wednesday night. I did not go to my house in Bond-street, until the Thursday following, between four and five in the afternoon. The officers were in possession of the house.

Q. The most valuable part of your stock was gone out of your shop, to a person of the name of Neale - A. I don't know, there was some found in Northumberland court.

Q. I am talking of Northumberland-street - A. The prisoner informed me the greatest part of the goods were at Mr. Neale's, and there they were found.

Q. Then it became necessary to be acquainted who had concealed the goods, you or the prisoner, and you swore positively, at Bow-street, that you had given no instructions to conceal the goods - A. Certainly I did.

Q. Upon your first examination, did you say one single word of your giving Wharton authority to pawn any one thing - A. I did; sixty pound.

Q. To what amount were bills becoming due - A. To the amount of, altogether, three thousand five hundred pound.

Q. Now, I ask you, sir, except by deceiving creditors, or by any other means had you money to take up one-fourth of them - A. At the time I had not a single hundred to take them up with.

JOHN PERKS < no role > . I am an officer of Bow-street.

Mr. Gurney. Q. The prosecution was not set on foot by the prosecutor, but by the creditors, and the prosecutor is now carrying it on - A. Yes.

Mr. Alley. Q. Did you at any time search the house of the prosecutor - A. On Monday, the 14th of September, I went to the house, about the middle of the day; the two prisoners were in possession of the house. Finding the shop shut up, I asked the prisoner, Wharton, whether the house had been broken open or not, and what property was missing, and whether he could give me an account of the different articles lost. His answer was, he could not at that time. I asked him, if he could judge of the amount of the value that had been stolen from the premises? He said, he suspected that it was from one thousand to twelve hundred pounds. I examined the premises; I gave him to understand, that I could not discover that any forcible entry had been made, either outside or inside. I then left the premises, and had the house watched until the next day, and from the information which the creditors received on the Tuesday, Mr. Sowerby, Mr. Mears, and Mr. James, I accompanied them to Bond-street, with intent to take the prisoners into custody. On our arrival we understood, by some of the workmen on the premises, that they were gone out. I waited with two brother officers, and about nine o'clock the prisoners came home.

Q. Did they come together - A. I took Hutton, leaving Taunton and Townshend in the house; Wharton had not come in at that time. On the following morning, I was given to understand, that Taunton had taken Wharton into custody, and had lodged him where Hutton was, but separate. I searched Wharton, on him I found these three keys; this key opened a room-door of the house on the second floor; this key opens this box. At the office, I asked him if it was his box; he said, it was, And this key opened the door of the private entrance in the passage into the shop. On opening the trunk then, it contained the things it now does. There were a quantity of loose prints removed away by the order of the creditors I believe. I found on the prisoner, Hutton, two keys; this key opened, in another room, a cupboard, and on examining that cupboard, with the prosecutor, it contained nothing but Hutton's wearing apparel. On the following day, when the prisoners were in custody, this trunk was found in a room, in a cupboard, unlocked; this trunk was in the front room, in the two pair of stairs. In the same bed-room where the box was found, there was a cupboard in that room, which contained seven packages, the cupboard was not locked; we brought the packages away, and from the information I obtained, that a hackney-coach went away on the Saturday

COURT. That has nothing to do with these things.

Mr. Alley. Produce the box - A. These are the the things; they are in the state I found them.

Q. to Prosecutor. Look at the property - A. Here are two pieces of calico; they are of the value of one pound fifteen shillings. All the goods in the box are mine.

Mr. Gurney. Have you sent up any of your goods from the shop at Hastings - A. I have.

Q. Not in your own name, but in the name of your servant - A. I did not; I sold a parcel of goods to one of my servants.

Q. Which goods were found out by some of your creditors, at the Cross-keys inn - A. I believe they were.

Q. Are they worth a shilling or some pounds - A. They are worth one hundred and six pounds. I sold it to my servant, in payment of some money he had advanced for me. The servant bought them at Hastings, he sent them; they were not mine after he sent them. I told him to do what he liked with them.

Q. Upon being questioned upon the subject, have not you said that you let him have them for his wages. - A. No, I did not; I said part were for his wages, and part a sixteen pound bill; and eight, and seventy-one pounds, which he advanced for me, and in return for that I sold him the goods.

JOHN SOWERBY < no role > . I am a linen-draper in Cheapside. On Monday, the 14th of April, the prisoner, Wharton, called at my house; he came to say, that Mr. Morgan's premises had been robbed on the Sunday night, or on the Monday morning.

Q. Did he describe what part of the premises the robbers got in - A. I asked him what part of the house he supposed they got in? He said, at the back part, it was then open. The roof of the house was open, and they had workmen in the house. He told me, at the same time, that nine-tenths of the property was gone. He said, when he came down stairs on Monday morning, he found the door in the passage, leading into the shop, half open; he went in, he was shocked to see the property gone, and the street door was also open, through which, he had no doubt, the property went. He asked me what I thought would be best to be done; my reply was, that I hardly knew how to advise him, as it then appeared to me that I was more shocked than he was; he did not appear to me to be affected. On Tuesday, the 15th, the next day after, he called upon me. I saw Wharton at a public-house in Bow-street, I think it was after the first examination; he told me, in the presence of Mr. James, he believed Mr. Morgan to be a very honest man. The chief thing that struck me in that conversation was, the discovery of the property in Northumberland court; he said, he believed Mr. Morgan would not hurt him, but he did not know what the creditors might do. I replied, that I thought he stood in a very awful situation, and I thought, to make the best of it, would be to disclose all he knew; he then told where the goods were in Northumberland-court.

Mr. Adolphus. At this interview you had not seen Morgan - A. I had; I think I first saw Morgan on Wednesday night, about eight o'clock.

Q. You, of course, hinted to him what had been done, and your suspicion on the shopman, Wharton - A. I did.

Q. You told him, of course, that a great many goods had disappeared from the shop - A. Yes.

Q. Did he, upon that, tell you that he had given authority to Wharton to pawn some of them - A. He did not; he never told me any thing about it, until Wharton mentioned it on the Thursday. Morgan and I were sitting together, at the office in Bow-street, and during the examination, there were a great quantity of goods brought from Parker, and there appeared many more than we expected. He then told me, that he had given orders to Wharton to pawn the goods to raise the money. Upon my seeing so many goods, I said I was very much surprised at it, and then, for the first time, he said, Oh! I had commissioned Wharton to raise money upon that property; he stated from sixty to seventy pound.

Q. Did not the goods appear very disproportionate to that sum of money - A. Very much, indeed.

Q. In your interview on the Wednesday night, had you any particular conversation with Morgan; did he tell you a word about Wharton ever being down at Hastings, persuading him to secrete goods - A. No, I don't think it was that night certainly not that night.

COURT. He did not say a word about Wharton persuading him to defraud his creditors - A. He certainly did not tell me a word of it at our first interview.

Q. At the time that Wharton told you he had lodged the goods at Neal's, you had no knowledge of that fact but from him - A. No.

Mr. Adolphus. What had led to an inquiry about that, was a free declaration of his own - A. I believe it was, and he said it was by his master's direction that he had deposited the goods at Neale's, and that the goods in the box and the closet, were to raise money to pay the bills, and that the pretence of the robbery was for the purpose of defrauding the creditors.

Q. Upon your first impression, you with other creditors, instituted this prosecution - A. Yes.

Q. In consequence of what you have since learned you have dropped it, and left Mr. Morgan to go on with it - A. Yes sir.

WILLIAM JAMES < no role > Q. Did you ever have any conversation with Wharton, on the subject of this robbery - A. Yes, I was with Mr. Sowerby, at the public house in Bow-street; when we went in the prisoner was crying. Wharton then said, it is a very unfortunate piece of business; I said, it appeared so to me on his part. I then asked him how he came to fill his trunks with Morgan's goods; he replied, that his intention was to go into the army, and that he had taken such things as would be useful to him; that Mr. Morgan allowed him to take any little odd matter that he wanted for himself, and I having no other idea than that he had committed this robbery, I put the question to him. I said, Mr. Wharton, you have committed this robbery yourself, you had better confess.

Mr. Gurney. This conversation that you had with him was prior, in point of time, to the disclosure that he made to Mr. Sowerby - A. It was at the same moment. I was with Mr. Sowerby, and this past before Mr. Sowerby, and before the examination. He confessed, after some little hesitation, that he himself had committed the robbery, and that Mr. Morgan knew nothing about it. He said, he had taken them to the house of a porter belonging to the Golden-cross, Chairing-cross, and Morgan knew nothing of the fact. He had done it entirely himself.

Q. Do you remember his saying, he was sure Mr. Morgan would not hurt him - A. He never said so.

Q. What is the amount of all your debts - A. To the amount of four thousand, three hundred pounds.

Q. What is the value of the effects to pay them - A. About one thousand, eight hundred pounds.

Q. I believe, Mr. James, you are Morgan's uncle - A. I am; and if the creditors had taken my advice, they would never let him have a shilling.

Wharton's Defence. May it please your Lordship, and Gentlemen of the jury. The witnesses brought against me at Bow-street office false swore themselves; and the evidence now brought against me, Mr. James, he states that I did not deny this robbery, and that Morgan knew nothing of it. At the time that Mr. Sowerby and Mr. James came to me, after the first examination, I stated to them, that Mr. Morgan gave me directions to commit this robbery, when I was at Hastings, and I further desired that they would bring Mr. Morgan into me then, I would secure him of it, and in such a way, that Mr. Morgan could not deny it. I further told them where the goods were secreted, and that it was all by Morgan's directions. Mr. James got up and said, he would not believe that his nephew, Morgan, knew of it; he further said, if that was the case, that the goods were there, that Morgan should not proceed against me. On Mr. James leaving the room, I requested that he would bring in Mr. Morgan to me. Mr. Sowerby got up to leave the room. Prior to that, Mr. Sowerby said, in consequence of the circumstance I had stated, he was disposed to believe what I said was right, and that he would go immediately himself to the magistrate, and would endeavour to persuade him to put it off, and have it made up. My prosecutor has false swore himself, by stating, that he never received any letter at Hastings from me, after my interview with Mr. Sowerby. After I came from Hastings, from Mr. Morgan, by his direction, I went to Mr. Sowerby, to ask if he would provide for a bill becoming due to the amount of two hundred and forty-five pound; Mr. Sowerby refused to do it. I was then to put this plan in execution; it was settled between me and Morgan, at Hastings. I went to Mr. Sowerby the next day; he was not at home. I called on the following day; Mr. Sowerby refused to provide for the bill, saying that he could not take up the bill, nor was it to save Morgan's life he would not do it. I went home, and immediately wrote to Morgan, saying, that Mr. Sowerby would not provide for the bill, and that his plan of robbery would be put in execution the night after; I read the letter to my fellow-prisoner; Hutton sealed it and sent it to the post-office. We then put the plan of robbery in execution, on the Sunday night. Mr. Morgan false swore himself; he stated to the magistrate, at the time I was examined, he had given me authority to pawn goods to the amount of two hundred and sixty pounds, to meet a bill of sixty pound becoming due; and also, he desired me to pawn no more than sixty pound. At the time that Morgan left London, and gave me these instructions to pawn goods, he was obliged to borrow money to leave town. He sent me to my old master, Thomas Williams < no role > , No. 1, Piccadilly, to borrow thirty pound to set him out of town; which money I brought back to him. I then proceeded with Morgan to a stable-yard, where he had desired me to hire him a pair of curricle horses; he paid twenty pound for the horses for a month, and the other ten pound he put in his pocket for expences. He desired me to drive him a short distance out of town; at the same time two of his friends were to walk. During this time he requested, as a favour, that I would get a hundred and twenty-five pound, for half a year's rent due, as he was threatened with an execution for half a year' rent, due at Midsummer; he was then threatened with an execution in the house in Bond-street. I then proceeded home, and with a vast deal of trouble and fatigue, I got the money, by pawning and selling. I sent the money to the landlord's attorney, and obtained the receipt.

NOT GUILTY .

First Middlesex jury, before Mr. Baron Thompson.