Richard Bromfield

135

C H on 25th February 2024

Old Bailey Online RICHARD BROOMFIELD. Theft; grand larceny (to 1827). 13th January 1796. Text type Trial account Defendants RICHARD BROOMFIELD Offences Theft > Grand larceny Session Date 13th January 1796 Reference Number t17960113-16 Verdicts Guilty Punishments Transportation 73. RICHARD BROOMFIELD was indicted for feloniously stealing, on the 23d of December , seven pounds of raw sugar, value 3s. the property of Joseph Sabine , Robert Wagner , Timothy Holland , Thomas Henton , Jonas Deane , John Taylor , Thomas Knight , Henry Winpus , John Brooke , and John England . JONAS DEANE sworn. I know nothing about this business, but from information. - STEELE sworn. I am a day-labourer: I was weighing off some sugar, in the first story of the warehouse in Galleyquay ; we went up into the third story to weigh off; I missed a fourteen pounds weight; I went down to the first story, to look for the fourteen pounds weight, and saw the prisoner lying himself down between two hogsheads of sugar, with a hat full of sugar under his arm; he tried to hide it as well as he could; a part of the hogshead of sugar was knocked in; I asked him what business he had there; he made no answer; I pulled him from between the hogsheads of sugar; I bid him go down stairs, took his hat from him, and put the sugar into the hogshead; I pushed him down, he was loath to go; I said, go down stairs, you have no business here; he went down; I went to my work; a little while after, looking out, I saw the prisoner cross the street to a lone house, where the door was opened. Q. Was that where the prisoner was taken? - A. Yes? my master bid the keeper give a look out, to see him come out; a few minutes after, I saw him on the leads of the house, where they dry cloaths; I said, there is the man I saw with the sugar; I will swear to him; then my master sent over a man, who took hold of him, and found more sugar about him. Q. Are you sure this is the man? - A. I am certain this is the man: when I wished him to go down, he said, give me my hat; and pretended to be drunk. Q. Was he drunk? - A. No; I believe he was sober enough. WILLIAM GREEN sworn. I am an officer: I was sent for, on Wednesday the 23d, to take take charge of this man, in the house where he was taken; I searched him, and this sugar tied round his middle, under his apron; I went over, with the gangsman, into the warehouse; I found another hogshead knocked in, took some sugar out, and found it to be the same sort as the sample I took out of the hogshead; he behaved very ill when I apprehended him; this is the sugar,(producing it). Jury. Q. How do you know it to be the same sort of sugar, by the taste, or look? - A. By the look. JAMES MILLS sworn. I am a warehouse-keeper: On the 23d of December I was called out of a warehouse opposite that the sugar was supposed to be taken from; and was told the prisoner was in an empty house, upon the top of the leads; I went there; he was then come down to another story, and pretended to be much in liquor; I saw the sugar taken from him. - DEANE sworn. I am a gangsman. Q. Who do these warehouses belong to? - A. Collings and Johnson. Q. Who have the care of the things in it? - A. Me and my partners; there are ten of us. Q. Are you answerable for things in those warehouses? - A. We are; I know nothing of the transaction but what was related by Steole; he called me down; it is like the sugar that came out of the hogshead; but as sugar is so much alike, I cannot positively swear it came out of that hogshead. Prisoner's defence. I never took it from them; I never belonged to them; a keeper called me to roll nine hogsheads into Water-lane; he told me to scrape the hogshead; there was a little sugar I might have for my trouble; I scraped this out of the hogshead, and put it into the handkerchief; this man came into the house where I was, and took me into custody, and charged me with stealing the sugar. GUILTY . (Aged 40.) Tried by the London Jury, before Mr. COMMON SERJEANT.

ALIAS BROOMFIELD Crime date December 23, 1795, trial date January 13, 1796 at the Old Bailey, aged 40 years. Charged with stealing 7 pounds of raw sugar value 3s, property of Joseph Sabine, Robert Wagner, Timothy Holland, Thomas Henton, Jonas Deane, John Taylor, Thomas Knight, Henry Winpus, John Brooke and John England. Transportation 7 years.