Thomas Frost

135

C H on 9th March 2024

Old Bailey Online THOMAS FROST. Theft; mail theft. 5th February 1844. Text type Trial account Defendants THOMAS FROST Offences Theft > Mail Session Date 5th February 1844 Reference Number t18440205-570 Verdicts Guilty Punishments Transportation 570. THOMAS FROST was indicted for stealing 1 sovereign, the money of the Right Honourable William Baron Lowther, Her Majesty's Postmaster-General.—2nd COUNT, stating it to be the money of John Playle. The ATTORNEY-GENERAL, with, MESSRS. SHEPHERD and ADOLPHUS conducted the Prosecution. JOHN PLAYLE . I am an inspector of letter-carriers at the General Post-office; the prisoner was a letter-carrier. On the morning of the 29th of Jan. I was at the Post-office—I had previously procured this letter with the Birmingham post-mark on it, addressed to Mr. Tyrrell, Bank of England, London—Mr. Russell, another inspector, was with me in the assistant-inspector's room—I saw Mr. Russell inclose a sovereign in that letter, and a 1l.; note of the Edinburgh Bank—before the sovereign was inclosed in the letter I marked it on the obverse side, and Mr. Russell marked it on the reverse side—Mr. Russell sealed the letter with coloured wax—this is the sovereign—my mark is a dot, on the head side, after the word "Rex"—I have a memorandum, which I made at the time, of the mark, and it answers the description of the coin—the date of the coinage was also taken down—the letter, with the sovereign in it, was placed in this other letter, directed to "Mr. F. Morgan of Birmingham, to be left at the Angel Coffee-house, next door to the Bluecoat-boy, City-road, Islington, London"—I then sent for Henry Rice, the superintending letter-sorter, and gave him the letter, with directions to place it among the prisoner'sletters in the Inland-office—at that time the letter, with the sovereign in it, was certainly placed within the folds of the other—it was allowed to fall into it, so that it could not be perceived, and it could not shake out—the prisoner was on duty that morning—I went to the Angel Coffee-house, where the outside letter is directed—I got there about ten minutes past nine—I was not acquainted with the landlord up to that time—I stated to him why I came—about a quarter of an hour after I had been there the prisoner came—that house is within four or five doors of the first house at which he delivered any letters—he delivered this outside letter to the landlord, who immediately gave it to me—the other letter was not then in it—I saw the prisoner deliver this to the landlord, and without losing sight of it, I received it from him—I then went to the Bank of England, and saw Mr. Tyrrell, to whom the inner letter was directed—I ascertained that he had not received the letter—I was on duty at the Post-office next morning, the 30th—John Arthur, the letter-carrier for the Bank of England, received instructions to bring all letters directed to the Bank of England to me that morning, and had done so up to eight o'clock, about which time he brought this inner letter, directed to Mr. Tyrrell, saying he had just found it on his desk—he gave it to Mr. Boydon, another assistant-inspector—I was not there at that moment, but I received it within a minute afterwards—it was then sealed, but it had been opened—it was not opened in my presence—Mr. Rackley, another assistant-inspector, showed the letter to the prisoner, who was sent for as he was leaving the office, about a quarter-past eight in the morning, and said, "Have you seen that letter before?" or, "Do you know anything of that letter?" or words tantamount to that—he said he knew nothing about it—Mr. Rackley replied that he had evidence that the letter had been in his possession yesterday—the prisoner's seat is about six or eight yards from Arthur's desk—there are ten or twelve letter-carriers' seats between them—the sovereign is my own. Cross-examined by MR. WILKINS. Q. Was any impression placed on the seal of the enclosed letter? A. It was fastened with the point of a pencil-case, so as to form a ring of the circumference of the pencil-case—the mark I made on the sovereign was a slight indentation with the point of a fork, made after the word "Rex"—I did not see the mark Mr. Russell made, but I saw him in the act of marking it—I did not see where Rice took the letter to when I gave it him—he took it singly from my hand—he had no other with him that I know of—he left the room immediately, as if he was going to the Inland-office—I did not see that letter again till the following morning—it was then in the possession of Mr. Boydon, accompanied by Arthur, in Mr. Kelly's room—about 260 persons were employed that morning in the same room that Arthur's seat is in—about ten persons were between the prisoner's seat and Arthur's—I had taken this sovereign out of my own private purse—the Scotch note was not mine. THOMAS RUSSELL . I am an assistant inspector of letter-carriers at the General Post-office. On the morning of the 29th of Jan., I was on duty in the inspector's room—I saw Mr. Playle produce this sovereign—I put a mark on the reverse side—it is here now—I am confident this is the same sovereign—when marked, it was enclosed in a letter addressed to Mr. Tyrrell, and that was put into the folds of another, directed to Mr. Morgan, Angel Coffee-house, near the Blue-coat-boy, City-road—I took this memorandum of the description of the sovereign at the time, "Letter directed to Mr. Tyrrell, Bank, put inside a letter for Mr. Morgan, City-road, from Birmingham; sovereign of George III., date, 1817; puncture or dot made between the fore-legs of the horse"—that is the puncture I made. HENRY RICE . I am a letter-sorter in the General Post-office. On the 29th of Jan. I was on duty at the Inland-office—I was sent for to the inspector of letter-carriers' room about twenty minutes to eight o'clock, and Mr. Playle gave me this letter addressed to Mr. Morgan—my attention was called to another within the folds of it—I was desired to put it among the prisoner's letters after they had been sorted in the Inland-office—I took out the inner letter, and copied the address—I then replaced it in the letter again as it was—I felt the letter directed to Mr. Tyrrell, to ascertain that it contained something, and I felt it contained something like a coin—I supposed it to be a sovereign—after placing the one letter within the other—I took them to the Inland-office, where I placed them with the City-road letters, already sorted for the prisoner's delivery—I remained there about teu minutes—Brooks, the collector, came and took all the letters away in a tray—I did not see where he took them to, but it was his duty to take them to the letter-carrier's office—I am certain he took this letter away, because he took the whole that were placed there—I sent a communication to Mr. Boydon. Cross-examined. Q. I suppose there was a tray full of letters? A. There was—I did not notice the seal of the enclosure. JOHN BROOKS . I was in the service of the Post-office. On Monday morning, the 29th of Jan. I delivered letters to several letter-carriers of the 8th division—the prisoner was one of the letter-carriers of that division—I put the letters on the different seats—I put on the prisoner's seat the letters of the City-road district, which is in the 8th division. THOMAS BOYDON . I am an assistant inspector of letter-carriers in the General Post-office. On Monday, the 29th of Jan. I was on duty at the Post-office—Rice made a communication to me—I saw Brooks come from the Inland-office with the letters on the tray—I saw him take from the tray that portion of the letters belonging to the prisoner's district, and place them on the seat before him—the prisoner was at bis seat at the time—I saw him take the whole of that parcel of letters in convenient portions, and divide, and arrange them for delivery—next morning, about twenty minutes, or half past eight o'clock, I received from Arthur this letter, directed to Mr. Tyrrell, Bank of England—Arthur went with me into the inspector's room—I there found Mr. Rackley, another assistant inspector, the prisoner, and the officer—I produced the letter, and told Mr. Playle I had received it from Arthur—the prisoner was not exactly present—there was only a door dividing the room—he was within hearing—Arthur said he had just found it on his seat. JOHN ARTHUR . I am a letter-carrier in the General Post-office—the Bank of England is in my division—my assistant delivers the letters there—they are. delivered at the lodge kept by Mr. Tyrrell—on Mondays they are delivered to one of the Bank porters at the door—he calls at the office for them—they are delivered by my assistant—there are some registered letters which I take myself—I was on duty at the Post-office on Tuesday morning the 30th—I had been at my desk, and left it for about two minutes—when I returned I found this letter there, directed to Mr. Tyrrell, Bank of England—I cannot say whether the prisoner was in the room at that time—I had not seen him that morning to take any notice of him—I put the letter into the box where I generally place the Bank letters, and afterwards took it into the inspector's room—Mr. Boydon came to the door, and took the letter from me—when I found it in my seat there was nothing in it to my knowledge—I did not feel anything in it—if there had been a sovereign in it, I have no doubt I should have felt it—I felt no such thing—my seat is fifteen or sixteen yards from the prisoner's—other men are between me and him. JAMES TYRRELL . I am a Bank porter, and reside at the lodge at the Bank. All letters that come to the Bank of England pass through my bands—on the 29th of Jan. I received no letter for myself—I first saw this letter directed to me at Bow-street-office on Tuesday, the 30th of Jan. MATTHEW PEEK . I am a police-officer attached to the General Post-office. On Tuesday morning, the 30th of Jan., I was sent for to the inspector's office—I there saw the prisoner, Mr. Rackley, Mr. Blott, Mr. Russell, and Mr. Playle I believe—this letter addressed to Mr. Tyrrell was produced, and the prisoner was asked if he knew anything about it; but before that, he was cautioned that whatever he said would he used in evidence against him—he said he knew nothing about it—it was stated to him that it was known it was in his possession the day before—he said he knew nothing about it—I asked where he lived—he said at No. 26, Goswell-terrace, Goswell-road—I went there, and saw a female on the first floor, who answered to the name of Frost—I afterwards went back, and stated, in the prisoner's presence, what had passed between myself and Mrs. Frost—I said to her, "I want the sovereign your-husband gave you yesterday"—she went into a back room—I followed her, and from a chest of drawers she took this box and gave to me, stating that the sovereign was inside—I only found one sovereign in it—it was not locked, nor Were the drawers—this is the sovereign which I have produced—I asked her when her husband gave it her—she said the day before, after he had done his delivery—I returned to the Post-office with the sovereign and box, and stated to the prisoner that his wife had given me the sovereign, stating that he gave it to her yesterday—he said that all the money he had got, he got on his work yesterday for his directories and postage—he was asked where he got the sovereign from—he said he did not know—the sovereign was shown to Mr. Playle and Mr. Russell—I afterwards pointed out the woman who gave me the sovereign, to Mr. Rickards and Richard Craddock. HENDRY RICKARDS . Peek pointed out a lady to me—it was the prisoner's wife—I knew her as his wife by living in the same house with them, No. 26, Goswell-terrace. Cross-examined. Q. How long ago did you know her as his wife? A. They have lodged there two years and nine months—the last time I saw them living together was about a week ago—last Monday week or fortnight. ATTORNEY GENERAL. Q. Are you the landlord of the house? A. I am—they always lived together as man and wife up to his being taken in charge—I understood from him that she was his wife. GUILTY . Aged 31.— Transported for Seven Years.