01807

Trial Summary:
Crime(s): theft : specified place,
Punishment Type: death,
(Punishment details may be provided at the end of the trial.)
Verdict: Guilty: with recommendation, Not Guilty,

Original Text:

597. JOHN CRAWFORD and MARTIN DUNCAN were indicted for feloniously stealing, on the 15th day of June last, three guineas, value £3 . 3 s. and eight shillings and sixpence in monies numbered, the monies of William Reeves, in the dwelling house of Philip Townsend.

WILLIAM REEVES sworn.

I sell hay in St. James's Hay-market; the prisoners sat by me drinking, and they picked my pocket; we were drinking at the Red-lion, Piccadilly; the prisoners came to see me safe home, and I asked them to drink.

You was drunk, I suppose? - No, I was not; they desired to come and see me safe home.

Was not you worse for drinking? - I had drank a draught of beer, and went there to treat them with a pot of beer.

Did you know them before this? - I had been to receive some money in Tottenham-court-road; I lost three guineas in gold and some silver; I went into the house of one of the prisoners, who pretended to be landlord of the house in Tottenham-court-road, for a pint of beer; I do not know I ever was in the house before; I knew nothing of it.

Did you shew any money there? - No, Sir, the prisoner Duncan pretended to be master of the house, he drew the beer and took the money of me; I do not know whether I had one or two pints.

Were not you drunk? - I was not drunk; he and the other prisoner came to see me safe home; I believe it was as late as twelve, I cannot say justly the hour; they came quite home, and after I came home we had a pot of beer at the Red-lion, I believe we had one pot, I suppose we were there half an hour or three quarters, I cannot say exactly; when I sat in the box, the man that was on the right hand side of me, that is the prisoner Crawford, cut my pocket and took my money out, I stopped him immediately, and had him searched, and it was found upon him, he wanted to go out, and I perceived his hand upon my thing, and I stopped him and said, you have robbed me, he said, he had no money about him, and would stand search, and the landlord searched him, and he had no money, and two beadles came in and made him strip, and found it all upon him, they found three guineas in gold, and seven shillings and sixpence in silver, and three halfpence farthing; I lost three guineas and some silver.

Was there any other person near you besides the prisoner? - Only this man in the box, while he was doing it I felt him; my pocket was cut out.

What did the prisoner say when the money was found upon him? - He said at first he had no money, but when it was found upon him, he said no more; they took him away to the watch-house; the money had no mark upon it.

Mr. Macnally, prisoners counsel. You have been frequently before at this house, the sign of the Red-lion? - Yes.

How many glasses of gin had you the morning of the day you was robbed? - Not one.

Do not you recollect when you was at the Running-horse, that you fell asleep on the table? - I was not asleep at all at the house.

Did not the landlady of the house raise you from sleep, and tell you, that you would be robbed in that situation? - I was not asleep.

How came these men to go with you, to see you home? - I do not know.

Did not the woman of the house say, that you was in such a state of drukeness that you were incapable of going home, and the servant should see you home? - She did not.

Is not the prisoner servant to the woman of that house? - I do not know, I thought he had been the landlord.

Did not he go home for the purpose of protecting you, by the desire of the landlady of the house, did not he assist to awake you? - The woman might say so, but I was not asleep in the house at all.

When she gave you this advice, if you sleep here you certainly will be robbed; did not you answer, there is no danger of that, for I have been in company with two women of the town all the morning, and I am perfectly secure? - No, Sir.

Was not you in company with women of the town that day you was robbed? - As to women of the town, I do not know what they were.

But before you came to the Running-horse, was not you in company with women of the town? - I might, but that is nothing, I was robbed in this house, I have nothing further to say at all.

But you shall answer; did not Mrs. Butler tell you if you slept there you would certainly be robbed? - She might say so.

Do you admit she did say so or not? - Well, I believe she did.

Did not you in answer to that, say to her I am not affraid of being robbed, for I have been in company with two women of the town, and I am perfectly secure? - No, I did not, I will take my oath of that I did not.

Did not you say, you had been in company with women of the town, and that they had got all the money you had about you? - No, I did not.

I ask you on your oath, did not the prisoner Duncan go home with you, at the request of his mistress to see you safe? - Yes, and I thought it had been the landlord of the house.

Have you any charge against the prisoner Duncan respecting the robbing of you? - I have not.

Was Duncan searched? - Yes, there was only a knife found upon him; no money.

PHILIP TOWNSEND sworn.

I keep the Red-lion; I know the prosecutor; I remember his coming to my house with the prisoners.

In what condition was he? - He was not drunk, he was rather inclined to sleeping after he sat down; he came in very well and called for a pot of ale.

Did he appear to you to be drunk? - No, he did not; they sat down, and in about half an hour he stood upright and said, I am robbed of three guineas and some silver; I then went out of the bar and took the prisoner Crawford whom he charged with the robbery, and he said, he had no money about him; I unbuttoned his breeches, and felt them; in the mean time the beadles came in, and I resigned him up to the beadles, and they searched him, and after searching him sometime they found the same property about him, that the prosecutor said, he had lost, that was three guineas and some silver; I did not stand to see him searched, I went into the bar again.

What did he say after this was found? - I cannot say.

JOHN JONES sworn.

I am beadle of St. James's; I was told the prosecutor was robbed of some money; I searched Crawford, and found three guineas and eight shillings in silver; I found this piece of pocket that was cut out, and a guinea by the side of it, on the ground; here is the pocket that matched the breeches; I found one guinea under his backside, and he took the silver out of his breeches pocket, and held it in his hand, and the other money the lanthorn bearer found; we could not find a mag on the other, nothing but a common pen knife was found on Duncan; he wanted to go to the vault; there was no knife found on Crawford.

(The piece of pocket and the breeches produced and shewn to the Jury, which matched exactly.

Court to Townsend. Was there a knife in the box? - No; they searched under the box for a knife that cut the pocket, but could find no knife at all.

PRISONER DUNCAN'S DEFENCE.

This man was at my mistress's house, he had a parcel of women, he was very drunk; my mistress came and said, friend, if you have money you shall leave it; indeed, madam, says he, I have but very little money; for, says he, I lost a couple of guineas any how; he said he was not at home the night before; and she sent me home with him; I went along with him all the way; he knocked at the door, and the landlord would not let him in, then he wanted me to go along with him to have something to drink; I had a pot or two of ale with him; says I, Mr. Reeves I wish you would hold up your head, so he stood up and said he had lost his money, and the constable came in and took me in custody; before Jones came in I could have gone away long before; so they took me up and brought me down here.

MARY BUTLER sworn.

I keep the Running Horse; I know the prosecutor, I recollect his coming into my house on the day of the robbery; he said he was at Primrose hills and he came in with two girls of the town, that I know to be infamous girls, and asked for liquor; he seemed to be very much in liquor; he said he was up along with me girls; he said he was rolling with the girls all the morning; it was Thursday, I asked him where he lived, and he said he kept the straw-yard in the hay-market; says I, you look to be a country farmer, if you do not take care of these women they will rob you; they diddle daddled all day till night; he told me he went out of my house to go to sleep with a woman, and the next morning he came to my house, says he, Mrs. Buttler I have been robbed, that d - nd b - h has robbed me of two guineas and some silver; then he called for two pints of porter, then he kept slumbering and sleeping, and he went out and came in again, and he called for a pint of porter; and then for another, and he went to sleep on the table; I raised him up and shook him by the shoulders, and said, my friend you must not sleep here; he said he would, he said he had nothing to be robbed of, he had only two or three shillings, and says he, if I should be robbed of that, I shall not come to you for redress; I offered him a bed, he would not have one; I sent my man Duncan home with him, and he had very bad company with him drinking, there were people that did not mind taking his hat or his coat off.

Did you observe whether the prosecutor's pockets were whole or not when he left you? - I did not, he gave me seven farthings out of his waistcoat pocket, the last he gave me.

Mr. Mac Nally. How long has Duncan lived with you? - These four or five years; I have kept the running horse two years; I have known him thirteen years, a worthy honest hard working man; he is a trusty man; I trust him with my money equally as myself, he always gives me a very just account; I have tried him in several measures.

The prisoner Duncan called one more witness who gave him a good character.

Court to Reeves. Was you ever in this Mrs. Butler's house at any time the day before? - Never before that I know of.

How long did you stay? - I might stay an hour or two.

You are sure you was not there the day before? - Yes; I swear that positively.

PRISONER CRAWFORD'S DEFENCE.

They took my own purse from me; when I sat down in this place, the man was asleep; I believe I just tapped him twice on the thigh to get up, he got up, and the bottom of his pocket was loose, and he threw it on the ground; I took out my silk purse that is in custody, and there is a cut in the bottom of the purse, and the money dropped out of my purse into my hand; says I, now this money will be taken from me, and I shall be robbed; I took up one guinea and the silver, and I whipped it into my pocket; the two guineas dropped, and my purse dropped, and they took the purse and the money; I said I had another guinea and some half-pence about me; ask the beadle whether I did not mention these words; accordingly he took it out of the lining of the coat immediately.

JOHN CRAWFORD, GUILTY, Death.

He was humbly recommended to mercy by the Jury.

MARTIN DUNCAN, NOT GUILTY.

Tried by the first Middlesex Jury before Mr. Justice HEATH.

Court. Let it be known to the Westminster justices what a very bad house this woman keeps.

Court to Mrs. Butler. You appear in a very bad light here? - It is not the walls of a house that makes it bad, it had been a bad house before I took it.
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10 January 1787 - Reprieved to transportation for life and sent to the Thames hulk 'Stanislaus'

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Old Bailey Supplementary material: 10 Jan 1787.
The Proceedings of the Old Bailey Ref: o17870110-1

Trial Summary:

Punishment Type: pardon, transportation,
(Punishment details may be provided at the end of the trial.)

Original Text:

The following prisoners who were capitally convicted at former Sessions received his Majesty's pardon, on condition of being transported for the following terms, to the Eastern coast of New South Wales, or some one or other of the islands adjacent, (viz.)

Charles King, Thomas Thompson, Benjamin Rogers, Hugh M'Donald, Joseph Dyer, George Charlwood, Thomas Colebrook, John Langford, Sarah Parry, Thomas Harris, Hannah Mullens, James May, Edward Paild, John Delove, Henry Asser, Daniel Chambers, John Turwood, Thomas Freeman, and JOHN CRAWFORD, for life.
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16 November 1789 - Embarked on the convict transport the 'Surprise'