- 678. GEORGE WILKINSON was indicted for feloniously stealing on the 7th day of August last, one pair of white Marseilles quilted breeches, value 6 s. the property of Isabella Kent.
ISABELLA KENT sworn.
I missed the breeches on the 7th of August last, at half past five in the afternoon, I saw the breeches in the prisoner's pocket.
Court. Did he live in the same house? - No, I never saw him before in my life, I overtook him by Mr. Dickinson's brewhouse.
How came you to suspect him? - I saw them in his pocket.
Did you see him take them? - No, I said he had more in his pocket than was his own, he said, damn you, you old bitch, what is that to you, he run away, and I cried stop thief, he was taken in about a quarter of an hour.
Court. Was he in your sight all the time? - Yes, he took them from under his arm, and threw them into a ditch, and stamped upon them, about two minutes before he was taken.
Prisoner's Council. Was you present when the breeches were thrown into the ditch? - No.
Who does the breeches belong to? - Me, I had just washed them, they were hanging out to dry.
Who did you wash them for? - A young boy in the country.
Where were they hanging? - On the pales before my door.
Did you see them taken away? - I saw them in his pocket as he was going out of the Crown and Woolpack yard, I am satisfied these are the breeches I washed, there is the hole behind.
GEORGE LINLEY sworn.
I am a taylor, I live in Gray's-inn-passage, Red Lion-square, I happened to go up to Islington to the Crown and Woolpack upon business, and I saw the prisoner and another there, the prisoner beckoned to the other young man, the prisoner went first, and the other after him, he went across a gate, and there was a young child setting up the skittles, and this woman came crying out, for God's sake, I am ruined, I have lost my breeches, I did not see him take them, I said one of the young men must have them, she followed him and said he had got more than belonged to him, he damned her, and said, what is this to you, I saw him drop them in the ditch as I followed him, and he stamped upon them in the mud twice; a brewer's servant took him, and I picked up the breeches, they were in my possession till they were taken to the Justice's, from the 7th to the 9th of August.
- Harris a drayman confirmed the above account.
PRISONER's DEFENCE.
I was at the Woolpack, but I never saw the breeches.
The prisoner called two witnesses to his character.
GUILTY.
Transported for seven years.
Tried by the second Middlesex Jury before Mr. Justice ASHURST.
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Centuries Past
Abt 1755 - 1816 (61 years)