Ambrose King

Level 135

C H on 17th February 2024

Old Bailey Online AMBROSE KING. Theft; grand larceny (to 1827). 11th September 1799. Text type Trial account Defendants AMBROSE KING Offences Theft > Grand larceny Session Date 11th September 1799 Reference Number t17990911-88 Verdicts Guilty Punishments Transportation 470. AMBROSE KING was indicted for feloniously stealing, on the 20th of June , two sacks, value 4s. the property of Thomas Blackburn . THOMAS BLACKBURN sworn. - The prisoner was my servant ; he lived with me about eleven months and a fortnight; I am a corn-chandler , in Little Britain : About the middle of last March, I missed a sack from my mill, a very particular sack, and some time after I missed another; I found it in his possession, No.22, Holiday-yard, Creed-lane, in a cellar, where he kept a parcel of rabbits, I dare say there were 150; on the 28th of last May, I caught the prisoner upon the premises when I got up in the morning, I could not tell how he got in. JAMES HALL sworn. - On the 20th of June, Blackburn came to Guildhall, and I went with him to Mrs. Lambert's, and, in the cellar, I found a sack full of bean flour; I went into another cellar, where a number of rabbits were kept, and found another sack; I then went home with Blackburn, to wait for the prisoner coming home; he came home, I searched him, and found upon him two keys; I asked him what keys they were; he hesitated at first, and then said, why, they are the keys of my lodgings, one of them is a key that opens Mr. Blackburn's private door, and the other is a skeleton key that opens Mrs. Lambert's door; I then took him with me to this cellar, where we had seen these things before; we went into his own place, where he keeps the rabbits, and he was asked how he came by that sack; he said, it was his own, it had nothing to do with Mr. Blackburn; I then went into the other cellar, belonging to Mrs. Lambert, where the full sack was; I asked him, if that was his; he said, it was; I asked him what it contained; he said, clover chaff; I told him, I must look what it was, and, upon opening the sack, it contained bean flour; Mr. Blackburn said, you do not call this clover chaff; the prisoner said, it is no matter to you whether it is or not, it is not your's; Mr. Blackburn said, they were his sacks, and he denied it, and said, they were none of his. Cross-examined by Mr. Alley. Q. You call that a skeleton key; it is such a skeleton key as I never saw before? - A. It is a skeleton key. Q. Did not one of these two keys open the cellar where the rabbits were? - A. No, the other key opened Mr. Blackburn's premises, and it is a very common key, it opened the door where the prisoner lodged. ANN LAMBERT sworn. - I take in washing, and live at No. 22, in Holiday-yard: The prisoner asked me, one day, for the key of my coal-cellar; the prisoner lodged at No. 28, he hired a cellar belonging to my house to keep rabbits in, and had it locked up to himself; he asked me for the key of the coal cellar; I told him I would not let him have it; then I went with him down into the cellar, and he set down a sack of something there; I asked what that was; he said it was clover chaff, and he locked it up there; I told him I believed he could get into my house whenever he pleased; he told me it was a lie. Q. Was it the same sack he put in, that Hall, the officer, took away? - A. Yes. Q.Had any body access to the cellar where his rabbits were? - A. No; he always kept it locked up. Cross-examined by Mr. Alley. Q. Did he ever give you any of the rabbits? - A. No. Q. You were not very well pleased at having so many rabbits about the house? - A. Some of the lodgers complained very much. Q. I should have thought you would have been pleased with him for having a key to let himself in and out? - A. No; it was necessary if the lodgers wanted a key that they should ask my leave. Q.This sack being in your cellar might have brought you into a scrape, if he had not directly said it was his? - A. He could not say otherwise. THOMAS SHIPLEY sworn. - Q.Look at this sack? - A. I know nothing at all about this sack, and this other, I could not swear to; it is a twelvemonth since I lived with Mr. Blackburn. Prosecutor. I know this sack to be mine; it is a four bushel sack; it is darned with double twine near the bottom, and it is mended near the top with yarn, such as they make mops of; I would swear to it if I found it at Jerusalem. Mr. Alley. Q. He, perhaps, had been stealing some of your flour, and borrowed the sacks to carry it home? - A. I missed it last Christmas, and he said he had given it to the horses. Q. Did not he tell you he had brought the sack from Worcestershire? - A. No, he said he brought it from Peterborough, in Northampronshire. The prisoner left his defence to his Counsel, and called five witnesses, who gave him a good character. ( GUILTY Aged 48). Transported for seven years . Tried by the London Jury, before Mr. COMMON SERJEANT.