John Peart

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C H on 25th February 2024

Old Bailey Online JOHN PEART. Violent Theft; highway robbery. 8th December 1790. Text type Trial account Defendants JOHN PEART Offences Violent Theft > Highway robbery Session Date 8th December 1790 Reference Number t17901208-40 Verdicts Guilty Punishments Transportation 40. JOHN PEART was indicted for feloniously assaulting Ann White on the king's highway, and putting her in fear, and feloniously taking from her person by force, a bundle containing a quantity of wearing apparel, her property . (The witnesses examined separate.) ANN WHITE sworn. I was robbed on the 25th of September. I was coming home from Brentford; it was about four in the evening, and was robbed in Piccadilly , in the open street; I got out of the stage, and went into a hackney coach, and all the things were put in. The prisoner at the bar, and the coachman, tried last sessions, pushed me down, and took my bundle out of the coach; they pushed me all along the street, as I was getting into the coach; who pushed me down I do not know, whether the coachman or the prisoner. What did the bundle contain? - It contained a great many articles, a gown, two shifts, two or three caps, a petticoat, three pair of stockings, five aprons: I got into the coach, and told the coachman I had lost my parcel; the prisoner and the coachman both damned me several times, and said, they had not got any thing, nor had I lost any thing. Did they say any thing to you when they first pushed you down? - Nothing at all; they pushed me down, and took the bundle; I went then to my lodgings, and I had the coach searched then, but the bundle was not in it when I got there: Sir Sampson Wright's men found the bundle some time after. Prisoner. I would wish to ask whether I was nigh her? - The prisoner was near me, and damned me several times: there was only him and the coachman present. JOHN THOMPSON sworn. I brought Mrs. White from Brentford to London; she asked me to call an hackney coach; the coach did not come near enough to step out of one coach into another; I went to assist her, and put in her bundles; and as she was getting in, she was shoved down, and the bundle was stole; I was shoved down along with her; I can say there was no one near but the coachman and the prisoner at the bar; the prisoner at the bar was at the hackney coach door at that time; and he was there some time after. Prisoner. I would ask whether I was not with him from the time that the lady said she lost her bundle, for an hour after? - He was with me some time; I cannot say for the time; he came and attended the coach as usual: he was the watering man, and generally attends the coaches there. EDWARD HUGHES sworn. I am one of the patroles: I was on duty in Piccadilly, and heard of the robbery; I was told that John Peart had taken the bundle; I saw him about there a few minutes afterward; and about five minutes after I saw him on an hackney coach box in Piccadilly, with the man who was convicted last sessions; I pursued him up Rupert-street; Peart got off the box; and at the end of a little court, called Edmond's-court, facing St. Ann's church, the coachman stopped, and got off the box; (this might be ten minutes or a quarter of an hour after the robbery was done); he got down and opened the coach door, and took the bundle out, and had walked down the court some yards; and Peart came up from the bottom of the court to meet him; and he was close to him when I apprehended the coachman; his name is Johnson. What became of the prisoner? - He left London after the sessions, and went to Portsmouth; and an information coming up that he was at work at a stable-yard there, I went down and took him. Prisoner. He says I rode on the coach, and he followed me about to the dead wall of St. Ann's church; then he says he saw me in the court, at one end, and the coachman at the other; now, if he saw me in Rupert-street, how could he see me at the other end of the court? - He was coming to the coachman, almost the distance as I am to you, my lord; I saw him first at the corner of Air-street; and he passed just the end of the street; I says to the man with me, there is Peart on the coach-box; says I, we will follow him wherever he goes. Prisoner. Is it possible for a coach to go to Piccadilly, and set the lady down at Mary-le-bone, in this time as he has mentioned he saw me? - I cannot be positive for a few minutes. (Part of the articles produced and deposed to by Mrs. White.) Court to Mrs. White. Did you go in Johnson's coach to Mary-le-bone? - Yes, I did. William Custody , the other patrole on duty, deposed to the same effect. Court. Did you see enough of him on the coach-box, to swear that he is the same man? - I believe I can swear he is the man, safely. RICHARD MOUNTAIN sworn. I am bound over to prove that neither the coachman, Johnson, nor Peart, are servants of mine. PRISONER's DEFENCE. I will say I never was with the coach. This man says it was nine o'clock when he saw me on the coach-box with Johnson, when Johnson will say he did not see me; it was one of Mr. Watson's post-boys, at the Plow, Prince's-street; and he set him down at his own door. I never was with the coachman, nor see him. GUILTY of the larceny . Transported for seven years . Tried by the second Middlesex Jury before Mr. Justice BULLER.