Canterbury Journal
25-3-1854
Assizes:
George Stone, for uttering a counterfeit sovereign, well knowing the same to be
counterfeit, and having at the same time other counterfeit coin in his
possession, at Cheriton, on 1st February. The prisoner is a soldier
of the Foot Artillery. He went to the White Lion at Cheriton, kept by Mr.
Collins, on the day named, and asked for a pint of porter. Mrs. Collins served
him, and he then tendered something she supposed to be a sovereign and she
returned him change. Prisoner said it was a good one, and he had just taken it
from his pay sergeant. She kept it in her purse till her husband came home, and
he found it was spurious. He gave information to the police at Folkestone, when
Steers, the police superintendent there, apprehended the prisoner. He owned
that he had changed a sovereign at the White Lion or Bird in Hand that morning.
He took from his pocket five half crowns, two shillings and the piece now
produced resembling the coin tendered. He said he did not know it was bad.
Prisoner said in defence that he had received the coins in change. Five months`
hard labour.
Maidstone Journal
28-3-1854
Assizes,
Tuesday: George Stone, for uttering a counterfeit sovereign, well knowing the
same to be counterfeit, and having at the same time other counterfeit coin in
his possession, at Cheriton, on 1st February. The prisoner is a
soldier of the Foot Artillery. He went to the White Lion at Cheriton, kept by
Mr. Collins, on the day named, and asked for a pint of porter. Mrs. Collins
served him, and he then tendered something she supposed to be a sovereign and
she returned him change. Prisoner said it was a good one, and he had just taken
it from his pay sergeant. She kept it in paper in her purse till her husband
came home, when he found it was spurious. He gave information to the police at
Folkestone, when Steers, the police superintendent there, apprehended the
prisoner about 11 a.m. at the Swan, Dover Road. He owned that he had changed a
sovereign at the White Lion or Bird in Hand that morning. He took from his
pocket five half crowns, two shillings and the piece now produced resembling
the coin tendered. He said he did not know it was bad. He had received a £5
note from his pay sergeant about two days previously, which he had changed at
the foot of London Bridge. Prisoner said this in defence and that he had
received the coins in change. He told Mrs. Collins he was going to the Star,
where the inspector found him. He had no witnesses, but produced a good
character from his commanding officer. The coins were those well-known medals, having
a man on a horse and “To Hanover” on the reverse. The learned Sergeant
recommended the jury to confine their attention to the first count, charging
him with putting off the piece knowing it to be false. Guilty on the first
count. His Lordship, in passing sentence, said that he had a document before
him which certainly gave the prisoner a good character, but it also said that
the only money he received from the regiment was 11s. 4d., all in silver. Five
months` hard labour. The change of the sovereign found on the prisoner was
ordered to be handed over to Mr. Collins.
Note: Where was he found? Report is conflicting.
Southeastern
Gazette 24-10-1854
Quarter Sessions.—These sessions were held on Monday,
before James John Lonsdale, Esq.
Alice Hobday pleaded guilty to an indictment
charging her with breaking open, and stealing, from the dwelling-house of Peter
Penfold, one silk dress, value 20s., 1 coburg dress, value 1s., and a shawl,
value 5s., the property of Maria Kenyon. The prisoner, at the suggestion of the
Recorder, withdrew her plea of guilty, and pleaded not guilty.
Maria Kenyon deposed that
on the 17th August last she left her home, having shut all the windows, and, on
her return, between two and three o’clock the next morning, the articles named
in the indictment, which were hanging up behind the door in the bed-room, were
gone. She left Edward Page in the house; he was a lodger. When she returned she
found the back window open; the windows were so low that any one could get into
the house from the ground.
Edward Page, musician,
deposed that he was left in the house, but went out a few minutes after the
last witness. Not feeling well, he returned home, and got in through the front
window—no, the back window. He went out again, and returned with Peter Penfold,
but did not recollect which way he went in, though it was by the door. Was
sober; had been playing at the Bird-in-Hand; it was bout three o’clock in the
morning.
William White, landlord
of the Two Bells public-house, two doors from Peter Penfold’s house, deposed
that on the 17th August he saw the prisoner at the back of his
house, between 8 and 9 o’clock in the evening; it was not quite dark. Saw her
get over the gate at the back of the house, and then go round to the front of
it. Shortly afterwards saw the prisoner pass with a bundle.
Edward Barry,
police-constable, apprehended the prisoner about a mile from the town on the
Cheriton Road. She had a bundle of clothes. Witness asked her where she got it
from, and she said, “From Peter Penfold’s,” and that she was very sorry for
what she had done.
The Recorder, in summing
up, said that he adopted the course of examination of the witnesses, doubting
whether the act of braking into the house could be sustained , thought that it
could not, and should direct them to acquit her of the graver charge and find
her guilty of larceny.
The jury returned a
verdict accordingly.
There was a second
indictment against the prisoner for obtaining, by false pretences, on the the
19th August, nine pair of shoes and boots, value 18s., of Mr. George Francis,
of Sandgate.
From the evidence of the prosecutor it appeared
that the prisoner obtained the goods, stating that they were for her sister, who
was in service at Sandgate. As she did not return them, he informed the police.
James Steer, Superintendent
of police, stated that vhen the prisoner was brought to the station-house,
three pair of shoes were found in the dress which had been stolen from Peter
Penfold, the prosecutor in the last case.
The prisoner, in her
defence, stated that she did not intend to steal the shoes, but to go the next
day and pay for a pair.
The
jury, after some consideration, found her guilty.
The
Recorder, in a feeling address to the prisoner (who was but 16 years of age),
sentenced her to twelve months’ imprisonment for the first offence, the first
fortnight solitary, and six months` for the second offence, the last fortnight
solitary.
Kentish Gazette 6-2-1866
At the Magistrates’ Clerk's
Office, Hythe, on Friday (before Thomas Demie, Esq.), Joseph Jones, a private
in the Scots Fusilier Guards, was charged with stealing a silver watch, of the
value of 25s., the property of Walter Walker.
The prosecutor lives at a
beerhouse in Cheriton Street, kept by Mr. C. Cornelius, and on Sunday, the 28th
January, upon going to bed, he placed the watch in his waistcoat pocket, and
then put the waistcoat into a box in his bedroom and locked it up. On the following
Tuesday evening he was asked to look in his box, and he then missed the watch.
The prisoner was in the house at seven o’clock that evening. The next day Colour-Sergeant
Thomas Phillips, of the Scots Fusilier Guards, having been informed of the
robbery, and that the prisoner was suspected, searched the prisoner’s kit and
found! the watch in his mess-kettle, wrapped up in some handkerchiefs.
Information was given to the police, and the prisoner was apprehended. On being
told the charge and that the watch had been found in his mess-kettle, he said
“he knew it was there; he was on the spree that night and got in the window of
the house about nine o’clock, and saw a box in the bedroom. He opened it, and
saw the chain of the watch, and then he thought he would have it.” In reply to the usual caution the prisoner
said that he was very sorry for what had happened. He found the things in his
possession the next morning, and did not know how he came by them. He was the
worse for drink the night before.
The Magistrates committed him fur
trial at the next adjourned Quarter Sessions at Maidstone
Kentish Gazette 6-3-1866
Adjourned Kent Quarter Sessions,
Thursday: Second Court (Before J. Espinasse Esq.)
Joseph Jones, 26, soldier,
pleaded Guilty to stealing at Cheriton, on the 30th January, a
silver watch, value £1 5s., the property of Walter Walker. Mr. Wright was instructed
for the prosecution. Four months` hard labour.
