George Manners

135

C H on 26th February 2024

Old Bailey Online GEORGE MANNERS. Violent Theft; highway robbery. 13th September 1815. Text type Trial account Defendants GEORGE MANNERS Offences Violent Theft > Highway robbery Session Date 13th September 1815 Reference Number t18150913-60 Verdicts Guilty Punishments Transportation 834. GEORGE MANNERS was indicted, and the indictment stated, that he, on the 25th of August , in the King's highway, upon Robert Johnson Parker , esq. unlawfully made an assault, and with menaces, that is to say, by threatening to charge him with an unnatural crime, in a forcible and violent manner, feloniously did demand the money of and from the said Robert Johnson Parker , with a felonious intent to rob him of his money from his person, by force, and against his will to take . CAPTAIN ROBERT JOHNSON PARKER . On the 24th of August, I dined with Sir Lumley Skeffington, in Charles-street, Grosvenor-square. I quitted his house at about nine o'clock in the evening, for the purpose of going to the Haymarket Theatre; Sir Lumley accompanied me part of the way; I went through the Green Park, down Constitution Hill, where Sir Lumley quitted me. Just as I got to the Queen's gate , by Lord Harrington's, I was going through the stable yard, where I felt a tap on my shoulder; I turned round, and it was the prisoner; he said, I believe your name is Parker; I replied, it was. He said, my name is Manners, and I wish to speak to you. I told him, he must be mistaken, and desired him to leave me immediately. He then said, he was in great distress, and he wanted some money, which I refused to give him, having never seen him in my life before. He then seized me by the collar of the coat, and said, unless you give me some, I will accuse you with having attempted to commit an unnatural crime upon me, and will follow you to your own house. I was not at all alarmed; but told him to follow me quietly into Pall Mall, and I would borrow some money of a friend, as I had none about me. I had money about me, he said so, and the first watchman I met was just at Hammersley's the banker's, to whom I gave him in charge. He then begged pardon, and begged to be let go. I went with him to the watchhouse, and there when I had given in my charge, the prisoner dropped upon his knees, and entreated me over and over again to let him go. I was determined however not to let him go. Prisoner's Defence. I was one night, about this time twelvemonth, sitting in the stage box at Covent Garden Theatre, when Captain Parker came in, and fell into conversation with me; after the play was over, he went and spent the evening with me, at the King's Head coffee-house, just by Furnival's-inn, in Holborn, and I paid five and thirty shillings for him, as his share of the reckoning, and this evening, I was in the Green Park, he met me as he was walking with Sir Lumley, and said, how do you do, Manners, where have you been all this time; I told him, I was in very great distress, and would thank him to let me have the money that he owed me, but he said, he could not speak to me then, as I was dressed so shabbily, and Sir Lumley Skeffington was with him. Mr. Alley. Since the prisoner has dared to set up a defence of this kind, I must go farther in proof. WILLIAM PARSONS . Mr. Alley. Q. You are an officer. Look at that letter, did you convey that from Newgate by the prisoner's desire to Captain Parker - A. I did. (The letter was now read.) Signed GEORGE MANNERS , and dated from Chapel-yard, Newgate. "Confessing his guilt of the charge against him, imploring Captain Parker's forgiveness, and imputing his guilt to intoxication." ANDREW ROGERS . I am the watchman into whose custody the prisoner was delivered. I heard him repeatedly implore forgiveness of Captain Parker, both before he went to the watchhouse and afterwards. Captain Parker. At the time the prisoner states, he was in my company in the stage box at Covent Garden Threatre , I was recruiting with his Majesty's 41st regiment; since that, I exchanged into the 21st Dragoons, and I have now quitted the service. GUILTY . Transported for Seven Years . First Middlesex Jury, before Mr. Watson.