Stafford Lett

221

D Wong on 16th July 2015

Old Bailey: STAFFORD LETT was indicted for feloniously stealing, on the 16th of June, a great coat, value 20s. the property of John Goldham. JOHN GOLDHAM sworn. - The prisoner, with seven or eight others, came into my shop, I keep wine-vaults , No. 7, Fore-street : About nine o'clock in the evening, on Friday the 16th of June, they asked for some liquor; while I was serving them, one of them went into my accompting-house, and took my great coat off the hook, which I do not know, the prisoner was the only man that went out of the shop; when he went out, I suspected my coat was gone, and I went to look, and it was gone, all the rest remained in; I followed him out, and he began to set off directly, I pursued him, and he threw the great coat down, I called out, stop thief, and he was taken; I lost sight of him after he threw down the great coat; he was taken, I suppose, two hundred yards from where the coat was thrown away, down another street. JOHN SHRUBSHAW sworn. - I am a book-binder; I heard the cry of stop thief; I went out and stopped him, and took him back to Mr. Goldham,(produces the coat); I received this from Mr. Goldham, when I took the prisoner to his house. Goldham. This is my great coat that the prisoner threw away. Prisoner's defence. I had just left work, and stopped to have a glass of anniseed; I had pulled off my trowsers with my money in them; I said, I could not have the anniseed then, I would go back and get the money out of my trowsers, and when I came back again, I heard a cry of stop thief, and they laid hold of me; I never saw the coat. Jury. Q. How many people were there when you stopped him? - A. There might be sixty or seventy. The prisoner called three witnesses, who gave him a good character. GUILTY (Aged 16.) Transported for seven years . Worked as a carpenter after his arrival. 29/3/1807: Married Sophia Brundell (Coromandel and Experiment 1803) – 5 or 6 children. Stafford Lett built the low, plain, whitewashed Punchbowl hotel and held a Publican’s License from 1813-01817. October 1817: shortly before his death, he paid 50 pounds plus land and premises at 60 Cambridge Street, Sydney to purchase a dwelling house and premises at 66 Cambridge Street, Sydney for his wife, Sophia. 24/11/1817: Stafford died in Sydney, and was buried at the Old Sydney Burial Ground. Burial LETT STAFFORD AGE 38 1817 Nov 25 29/11/1817: Sydney Gazette: DIED—Early on Monday morning, at his house in Cambridge-street, after an illness of seven months, which he bore with religious fortitude, Mr. Stafford Lett, he had been upwards of 17 years a resident in the Colony, and had gained the esteem of all who had been acquainted with him; he has left a wife and three small children to lament his death.