Mary Jones

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C H on 18th February 2024

Old Bailey Online MARY JONES. Theft; theft from a specified place. 20th February 1793. Text type Trial account Defendants MARY JONES Offences Theft > Theft from place Session Date 20th February 1793 Reference Number t17930220-78 Verdicts Guilty Punishments Transportation 273. MARY JONES was indicted for feloniously stealing on the 14th of January , a set of cotton furniture, for a four post bedstead, value 20 s. two callico window curtains, 5 s. a looking glass, value 3 s. a pair of brass candlesticks, value 3 s. a pair of steel snuffers, value 1 s. and a japan snuffer stand, value 3 d. the goods of Ann Constable , widow , in a lodging room . ANN CONSTABLE sworn. I am a widow; I live in Vine street, Middlesex Hospital ; I keep a house; Mary Jones the first of this month came to take a lodging of me, and came to it that night, a three pair of stairs front room, ready furnished, to pay 5 s. a week; I had other lodgers in the house, in the first and second floor at that time; I live in the lower part of the house in the parlour. On the 7th of this month the second floor was then to be let, and she took that; I never see no more of her, but I heard a noise which occasioned me to tell her to leave that lodging at the week's end; the noise was between her and some men that she brought into the house. On Thursday the 13th, between the hours of nine and ten at night, she came down to me and said, she could not leave the lodgings until Saturday, as she had then got a lodging to go to, and begged for a night's lodging over her week; I told her she was extremely welcome to the night, provided she went away quietly; I saw no more of her never, till she was taken; she went away immediately as she asked for admittance to stay an over night; I had never seen her before she came to my house in my life. On Friday I was called up by one of the lodgers who suspected she was gone, and a person ran up by my desire to see whether the things were gone or not, and I went up, and I went into the room and found the room stripped of every thing; the first thing I missed was the sopha cover; not half the things are in the indictment; I missed the cotton furniture, the window curtains, the brass candlestick and the snuffer stand; these things were found at Strangeways, a pawnbroker's, over Black Fryar's Bridge. JOHN STRANGEWAYS sworn. I am a pawnbroker in Surry Road. On Friday, the 15th of this month, the prisoner at the bar, brought me these things to pledge, they are the things mentioned in the indictment, she pledged them in the name of Maund, I am sure the prisoner is the person, I knew her before by that name, I had had some things of her some time back; I know it is the same woman; I was the means of her being taken. (The things produced mentioned in the indictment, and deposed to.) Prisoner. My husband sent me out to get a lodging, he took the best part of the things in my absence, and when I came back again he told me if I would not take the remainder he would murder me. Court to Prosecutrix. Did she come as a single woman or as a married woman? - She came as a single woman. Court to Strangeways. Do you know whether she has a husband? - I do not. The prisoner called two witnesses to her character. GUILTY . (Aged 26.) Transported for seven years . Tried by the second Middlesex Jury before Mr. COMMON SERJEANT.