James Lowe

135

C H on 8th March 2024

Old Bailey Online JAMES LOWE. Theft; grand larceny (to 1827). 14th September 1796. Text type Trial account Defendants JAMES LOWE Offences Theft > Grand larceny Session Date 14th September 1796 Reference Number t17960914-57 Verdicts Guilty Punishments Transportation 514. JAMES LOWE was indicted for feloniously stealing, on the 26th of June , four pair of silver shoe-buckles, value 42s. a broken silver buckle, value 2s. a broken marrow-spoon, value 6d. fourteen tea-spoons, value 14s. a tea-spoon handle, value 6d. four silver buttons, value 2s. a pair of silver clasps, value 1s. three plain gold rings, value 9s. a pair of gold ear-rings, value 2s a metal watch, value 20s. 53l. 6d. in money; 26l. in money; two Bank notes, each of the value of 20l. two other Bank notes, each of the value of 10l. and two Bank notes, each of the value of 5l. the property of James Lowe the elder. The case was opened by Mr. Const. JAMES LOWE sworn. I am a pawnbroker , I live on Clerkenwell-green , the prisoner is my nephew, and was my apprentice ; I dismissed him from my service near a twelvemonth ago, after which he had no access to the house. On Saturday, the 26th of June, after my business was over, I had made it a rule for a number of years to tell my cash that has come in of a Saturday, before I go to bed; and between the hour of one and two o'clock in the morning of Sunday the 26th of June, I told my silver first, and put it into a canvas bag, twenty-six pounds in silver; the gold I told, which amounted to fifty-three pounds and sixpence, fifty guineas and a half, I put them into two paper bags, thirty in one, and twenty and a half in the other; prior to my going to bed I put this gold and silver into a wooden dish in the window-seat; in the same dish there was a linen bag with some farthings in it; judging it to be safe, my son making it always a rule to see every thing safe before he comes to bed, and then puts the key under my door; my son came into the room and removed it, and put it under the grate; in the morning about seven I waked and rose, I generally rise first in my family of a sabbath morning; I looked to see if the cash I had put there was there still; I found it was moved; I looked round my room in order to see if I could see it; after I had looked some time I perceived it drawn a little way from the grate; I found the door open; at that time I went to ask my son if he had meddled with this money, or knew any thing of it; and to my great surprise, as soon as I got to my room door I saw a small iron chest that I have about the size of a tea-chest, which I usually kept in my bureau in the bedroom; I had placed some Bank notes in it the night before; I took hold of the handle of this chest and found it was unlocked; there were six Bank notes in it, amounting to 70l. this confused me very much; I went to my son's door and found a bolt on the outside of the door shot, to prevent my son coming out of the room; I waked him, and we consulted what was best to do; we went to Bow-street in the morning. Q. You knew nothing of it till Mr. Cooke took you to Mr. Paisley, a pawnbroker? - A. No; Mr. Paisley was at his dinner; it was on Friday the 15th of July, between twelve and one o'clock; the prisoner was then servant to him; we asked for his master; he said he was above stairs at dinner; we requested him to stop, and we would call his master; but he slipped out of the shop and ran up stairs himself; Mr. Cooke and I followed him up stairs, and the master met us on the stairs and said, what do you want here? He passed his master and went up stairs, and we followed him up stairs and stripped him, and we could find nothing about him, nor even in his cloaths at that time; we told him we had a suspicion that it was he that had committed the robbery, and insisted upon it that we should search him; we found nothing; we went down stairs, and were going away, supposing he was innocent; when Mr. Paisley said, I saw a Bank note in your nephew's hands last week, that gave us a further suspicion, and I examined him how he came by that note; he said, he had had a sixteenth share of a 2000l. in the last lottery; I asked him what he got for this sixteenth share; he said, near 150l. I knew that a sixteenth share of a 2000l. could not bring that; his master told me that he had changed a 30l. note the week before at the Bank; just at this juncture of time my son came in, and we went altogether in a coach to the Bank to trace out whether any of those notes that he had taken were the notes I had lost, and they proved not to be; then we went in the same coach to Bow-street, and the office was shut; we came to our house in Clerkenwell, and Mr. Cooke and I took him into my dining-room, and after some conversation he beckoned to me to go to another apartment, and Mr. Cooke and I went with him, and there he made a confession. Q. Did you make him any promise of any sort? - A. I did not. Mr. Knapp. Q. Did Mr. Cooke make him any promise in your presence? - A. Not that I know of; I am rather thick of hearing, and could not hear all that passed. Mr. Const. Q. Did you desire Mr. Cooke to make him any promise? - A. I did not. Mr. Knapp. Q. Do you know whether it was in consequence of any thing that Mr. Cooke said, that he made that confession? - A. I cannot say. - COOKE sworn. Examined by Mr. Const. Q. You had some conversation with Mr. Lowe and the prisoner in an apartment at his house; did you make any promise to induce him to make any discovery? - A. I did not; I requested him for God's sake to inform me of it, and it would be better for him; I certainly did say that; in consequence of which he told us the story, part of which was true and part false; being upon the most intimate terms with young Mr. Lowe, I was desirous to discover the truth: On the 15th of July Mr. Lowe and myself attended at his master's, Mr. Paisley, in the Borough; when we went in young Lowe, the prisoner, was in the parlour; I called him to me, and asked him where his master was; he answered he was in the warehouse, and he would go for him; I said, no, you must not leave me; there was a counter between us; he immediately answered, I will bring him down directly, and ran away; I was some moments before I could open the counter to get on that side to follow him; however I did, and I ran up stairs after him; upon the stairs I met the master, he asked me where I was going; I desired him to ask no questions, but immediately to bring the prisoner down stairs; he said certainly, and went up and brought him down from the garret; he was then brought into the dining-room of the first floor, and I accused him of having committed the robbery on his uncle; he denied it most positively, and said we were at liberty to examine him and his boxes; I accordingly did so, but found nothing either on him or in his boxes; the master then asked what was the property that was lost; the prisoner was then present; I informed the master there were Bank notes, gold, silver, and various other articles; the master immediately answered, I saw him with a 30l. Bank note in his hand on Saturday last, and I think he had others, but I am not certain; but he afterwards said, that he was positive he had others; I asked him what he had done with the note, and where he had got it; he said that he had got it at the Bank for a Bank note, two five pound notes and cash, and that he had sent it to his father in Shropshire; and in our way there he said he had got it for one five pound note, and the rest cash; I asked him in whose name he had got it; he said, in the name of Turner; we went to the Bank, and found that story true, that he had obtained a 30l. for a five pound and the remainder cash, in the name of Turner; being convinced then that he had committed the robbery, we took him to Bow-street; the office was shut, and then we went to Mr. Lowe's house, and I asked him how he came by that money, and he said he had a sixteenth of a 2000l. prize. Q. And then that conversation took place in which you told him it would be better for him to confess? - A. Yes; I went to his master's house, and he then gave me the things contained here,(producing a bundle); the 30l. note he afterwards said he did not send to his father, but it was in a stocking, and he gave it me out of the stocking; in consequence of what he said, we searched the cellar; all the notes have been found since. Cross-examined by Mr. Knapp. Q. You stated that he ran away, he ran up stairs? - A. He appeared to be very much alarmed, and ran up stairs. Q. Do you know whether he sleeps in the garret? - A. I was so informed. Q. The story he told you last about the name of Turner at the Bank was undoubtedly a perfectly true story? - A. It was. JAMES LOWE , junior, sworn. I am son to Mr. James Lowe : On the morning of the 26th of June, about three o'clock, I went to bed; it is my usual practice to go into my father's room to leave the keys of the warehouse that lock the warehouse-door; I went over the warehouse, and found every thing safe; I carried the keys then into my father's room; I then looked for the key of his door to lock it; it was my custom to lock it, and put the key under the door; the key was not in the door; and in searching about the room for the key I saw some money in a little dish in the window in my father's room; after I had searched the floor and the carpet for the key of my father's door, I thought as I could not find the key I would remove it under the stove in his room, and I came out at my father's door, and I shut it; as it was broad day-light, and the servants all gone to bed, I thought I would not wake them to enquire for the key; between seven and eight in the morning my father came to my door and knocked at it; I got out of bed, opened the door, and he asked if I had been in his room. Q. In consequence of what was discovered, the servants were afterwards suspected? - A. Yes. Q. Did you make any memorandum of the notes you had taken? - A. My father had been in the country and returned the Saturday before this, the 18th, and all the notes I had taken I had put my name upon, and gave them to him on Sunday the 19th; there was one 20l. two 10l. and two 5l. notes. Cross-examined by Mr. Knapp. Q. You always put the same mark upon every Bank note? - A. It is but very lately that I have endorsed Bank notes. Q. How many Bank notes have you endorsed lately? - A. I suppose forty. Q. Were the endorsements upon any of them of the same kind with those you lost? - A. Some of them. JAMES ARIS sworn. I am son to the keeper of the House of Correction: The prisoner was in my father's custody, I think it was on the 15th of August last, I am not certain of the day; I took from the prisoner some Bank notes, (producing them); they were concealed in the lining of his coat on the right hand side; two 20l. two 10l. and two 5l.; I have had them ever since. James Lowe , junior. Five of these notes are the same that I delivered to my father, all except one of the 20l. Mr. Const. (To James Lowe , senior). Q. After you had returned from the country did your son give you any notes? - A. Yes; I put them into that chest; these are the same notes, I told them over on the Saturday morning previous to the robbery; I know the other 20l. note by the indorsement on it; I can swear to them all; this broken marrow spoon I can swear to, we have had it in use in our family I may say these eight years; these buckles were taken in the week before the robbery, and I was obliged to pay 2l. 5s. for them; I know them all. Prisoner's defence. My Lord, I was taken up on the Friday from my master's in the Borough, and went to Bow-street; Mr. Cooke said I should not be hurt, "consider where we are going (says he,) if you get once to Bow-street there is no saving of you;" at Clerkenwell, in my uncle's dining-room, he said "nothing shall hurt you if you will own it;" I cried, and was very sorry for the girl under confinement innocently; I threw myself upon the bed; Mr. Cooke tapped me on the back and said,"Jem, own it, and you shall not be hurt;" the whole of the property was found at my master's, except one watch, and the notes upon my person. GUILTY . Transported for seven years .