Robert Butt

110

Ron Garbutt on 22nd September 2022

Old Bailey Proceedings Online (www.oldbaileyonline.org, version 8.0, 22 September 2022), October 1810, trial of ROBERT BUTT (t18101031-2). ROBERT BUTT, Royal Offences > coining offences, 31st October 1810. 765. ROBERT BUTT was indicted for that he not being a person employed by the mint of the tower of London, or elsewhere, nor being a person authorised by the lord commissioner of the treasury of our lord the King, for the time being; on the 22nd of August , one cutting engine for cutting out round blanks by the force of a screw out of flatted bars of gold or silver, or other metal, knowingly and traiterously had in his custody and possession, against the duty of his allegiance and against the form of the statute . WILLIAM STAFFORD . Q. Are you acquainted with the prisoner Butt, when he lived in Checquer-alley - A. Yes. Q. Did you ever see any instrument called a cutting engine at his house - A. Yes; I went up in the top garret of his house where he resided; I saw him usethe cutting engine for cutting out metal blanks for shillings and sixpences. I have seen him do that more than once or twice. On the 22d. of August, in the morning, I saw him using it in that way. Q. In dimension and size these blanks resemble shilings and sixpences - Yes, excepting the colouring they pass for that coin. JOHN ARMSTRONG . Q. You went to Butt's house - A. I did. On Wednesday the 22d of August, we found him at home and Mrs. Walton; I took them up stairs in the garret, I there found this cutting engine with these pieces of metal laying by the side of it. All these plates of metal were laying on a box in the same room, this is one cutter of the size of a shilling, one part of the cutter goes to the bottom and the other at the top, and the metal plate goes between, and by the force of a screw it cuts out the blanks. CALEB EDWARD POWELL. Q. How is the operation performed, look at that instrument and say by what force the operation of cutting out the blanks is performed - A. This is the under part of the cutting engine, and this the top; the plate is put between, and by force of this large screw the blank is cut. Witness cut out a blank and it was handed to the Court. Armstrong. I found this counterfeit money in a drawer, under the cutter a considerable quantity of shillings, here is some more counterfeit shillings, and these are all sixpences. JOHN VICKERY . I produce a blank sixpence found under the cutter; and a quantity of money finished in another part of the house; it is in this paper there is a great many shillings and a great many sixpences, they were all found in the lower part of the house. I found this blank under the cutter, this one dropped to the floor; there was a box at the bottom to catch them. Butt gave the key of the drawer in which that quantity was found; here is a blank of a sixpence which was cut by me in the presence of the prisoners, by order of the magistrate; it exactly corresponds with the others. There was a quantity of sand paper, sissel, and other things found in the house; there was a lathe that works by the foot that is for the purpose of rounding the edges with a file after they are cut out by the engine. MR. NICOLL. Q. Would this instrument cut out blanks from gold and silver - A. Yes, and these are flatted bars. Vickrey. The one blank was found under the cutter, and the other in the room down stairs; the key of a drawer in the room down stairs he produced himself, and admitted that the whole house was in his possession. The prisoner said nothing in his defence. GUILTY - DEATH , aged 33. First Middlesex jury, before Lord Ellenborough. https://www.oldbaileyonline.org/print.jsp?div=t18101031-2