Eliza Williams

Level 349

Maureen Withey on 25th August 2026

The case at the Old Bailey, immediately before Eliza's, was that of her mother, Mary Williams, transported for the same crime, sentenced to death, reprieved, and also transported to VDL per Northampton.

Level 349

Maureen Withey on 25th August 2026

Tried at the Old Bailey, 20 April 1814. 288. ELIZA WILLIAMS was indicted for that she, at the General Sessions of the peace, holding for the County of Middlesex, on the 17th of September, in the 50th year of his Majesty's reign, was tried and convicted of being a common utterer of false money, and was sentenced by the Court to be confined in the house of correction one year, and to find sureties for two years more, that she after being so convicted, on the 15th of March last, one piece of false, counterfeit, money, made to the likeness and similitude of a good shilling, as and for a good shilling, feloniously did utter to one Kemp Godfrey . JOSIAH GILL SEWELL . I am one of the clerks of the Solicitor of the Mint. I produce the copy of the record of the conviction of the prisoner; I examined it with the record; it is a true copy. (Read.) WILLIAM BEEBY . I have known the girl at the bar nigh seven years. Q. Were you present at any time in September Sessions, 1810, when she was convicted - A. I was; she was convicted of uttering counterfeit money, she was ordered to be confined in the house of correction one year, and to find sureties for her good behaviour, and she then was informed by the chairman that if she was guilty of a like offence she would be liable to a capital conviction. Q. Was that the only time that you saw her in that court - A. No. KEMP GODFREY. I live at No. 14, Henrietta-street, Manchester-square, with my uncle; he is a baker. Q. Do you know the girl at the bar - A. Yes, I have no doubt of her person; she came to our shop on the 15th of March, she asked for a threepenny loaf; I gave it her. She gave me in payment a shilling; I gave her nine-pence, deducting threepence for the loaf; she went away. I put the shilling on the lidge of the counter with some halfpence; there was no other shilling there. Johnson, the officer, came in as soon as she went out; he enquired what had happened. I told him, and shewed him the shilling the girl had given me. He marked it, and I marked it. He sealed it up. He went out into the street. That is all that I know of it. After the shilling was sealed up in paper I put it in a drawer by itself. On the next day, Johnson came; I gave him the shilling that I had received of the prisoner. BENJAMIN JOHNSON . I am an officer. On the 15th of March, I watched the prisoner and Mary Williams ; I saw the girl go by herself into the shop; (the shop in Henrietta-street, about two hundred yards from Oxford-street); the mother had been left by the prisoner in Oxford-street while the girl went into the baker's shop. Upon her coming out, I went in; I asked the boy; he produced a shilling; I saw it was a counterfeit shilling. I marked it. I told the boy to mark it; he did so. I followed the girl. She joined the mother in Oxford-street. She gave her mother the three-penny loaf; the mother put the loaf in her apron along with other articles that they had purchased. I looked at the shilling the boy gave me, the next day; I saw it was the same shilling that I had marked the day before. I have had it ever since. I see now it is the same shilling that I marked. Godfrey. It is the same shilling that I marked. MR. NICOLL. It is a counterfeit shilling; it is the same manufactory as the others. Johnson. I pursued the mother to the place where I searched them, to Mr. Bird's house; I heard something drop; I picked it up. As soon as she dropped her hand, the four shillings were laying at her foot. I observed the motion of her hand. I went and picked it up; it was in a direction as if it came from her hand. There were four shillings. It was as if it came out of a paper. These are the four shillings; I have had them ever since. Mr. Nicoll. These are the same I saw before; they are counterfeit. Johnson. I searched the mother again; I found on her fifteen counterfeit shillings, two good shillings, two good sixpences, and two counterfeit sixpences, and one shilling and ten pennyworth of halfpence in her pocket. The prisoner said nothing in her defence. GUILTY - DEATH , aged 13. [ The prisoner was recommended to mercy by the jury on account of her youth .] First Middlesex jury, before Mr. Justice Chambre.