Susannah Smith

135

C H on 25th February 2024

Old Bailey Online SUSANNAH SMITH. Theft; grand larceny (to 1827). 30th April 1794. Text type Trial account Defendants SUSANNAH SMITH Offences Theft > Grand larceny Session Date 30th April 1794 Reference Number t17940430-41 Verdicts Guilty Punishments Transportation 269. SUSANNAH SMITH was indicted for feloniously stealing on the 22d of April , a black silk cloak, value 1l. two pair of shoe buckles, value 8s. six silver tea spoons, value 10s. a pair of cotton stockings, value 6d. a muslin handkerchief, value 1s. a linen apron, value 1s. the goods of William Purser . WILLIAM PURSER sworn. I live at No. 2, James-court, James-street, Featherstone-street, Old-street-road , near the Lying Inn Hospital. I am a brewer's servant . Q. When did you lose these things in the indictment? - Easter Monday morning, about four o'clock, Monday morning Susannah Smith went out and left my wife; she had come to nurse her while she was laying in, she had been in the house from the Friday evening before; she went out about four o'clock Monday morning, and was gone some time, and then I came back again; I left the house Sunday evening. Q. When did you return to the house? - I returned to the house the next day; I was at work in Bridge Water-gardens, pulling up beer for Messrs. Cox, King and Curtis. Q. Did you go home then and find these things missing? - Yes, and I went down to the public office, and took a runner along with me. Q. Did you find the prisoner at your house when you went there on Monday? No, I did not, I went in search of her, but we did not find her that evening, but I found her on Wednesday morning, in Allen-street, Goswell-street, laying on a bed. Q. Did you go into the room where she was laying on the bed? - Yes, I said to her you must get up and go along with me; she said for what? what had she done? and the runner insisted on her coming along, and we took her to where I live, to my house, when I found her she had one of my handkerchiefs on her neck, a white muslin handkerchief, and a white pair of cotton stockings. Q. Had you observed the stockings before you took her home or after? - I observed the stockings as she was laying on the bed; I asked her about my spoons and buckles; she said she had done nothing with them, but gave them to another girl to pawn. Q. Did you make her any promise? - Something of that sort, the runner desired her to tell what she had done with them. Q. Did the runner tell her it would be better for her? - I never heard any thing of that. Q. I want to know what you meant by something of that sort? - There were many words passed between them. Q. Were there any words that imported promise of favour? - No promise of favour. Q. Did she mention the name of the other girl? - The name of Robinson, I think, and he said he should go and look after that other girl; I left it to the runner; he asked her where she had done the things? and she said she did not know, she had given them to another girl to pawn; then he asked what she had done with the other pair of buckles and silk handkerchief? she said she had pawned them in St. John-street, and we went to the pawnbroker's the same day, Higgs, in St. John-street; we took her there, and we found the silk handkerchief, and a small pair of child's buckles, and at Mr. Lowe's, the pawnbroker, in Clerkenwell-green, we found the spoons and the other pair of buckles; they are small womens buckles, my wife's. Q. Did you find any thing else? - A check apron at the pawnbroker's, in Barbican, Mr. Burrows, who delivered that up as soon as the runner went in. Q. These then were all the things you lost? - There was a black silk cloak that we found laying on a little table in the room, in which we took her from. Q. How do you know that these things were in your house at the time that the prisoner absconded? - I had pulled out the child's buckles out of her shoes when she went to bed on the Sunday night before, and I laid them on the top of the table, in the room where my wife sleeps, I have but one room; I cannot say that the other things were there on Sunday evening, I did not see them. Q. But do you know them to be your property? - The spoons are marked W. M. P. the child's buckles, one of them, has been soldered in two different places, the spoons were in the drawer, I had not seen them for three or four days. Q. Do you know the cloak? - Yes. Q. The cotton stockings were they your own or your wife's? - My wife's. The silk handkerchief is like that on my neck, I had not bought it above a fortnight, and had never worn it. The apron is an old check apron. Prisoner. The prosecutor said, when he came into the room, that he had missed these things, and in short, I must have them, and if I would tell him where they were, he would not hurt me. Prosecutor. I never promised her any favour, nor heard the runner, nor any body else, I did say to her mother before I found her, that if I could find her, and get the things again, and find out where they were pawned, I would not trouble her any further about it. Q. But then she did not come to you voluntarily, but you found her out? - I found her out. Q. You found a pair of child's buckles and silk handkerchief at one Higgs's, in St. John-street; did she tell you they were at Higgs's? - She went along with me to Higgs's herself, and she went and took I and the runner to find the other girl. Prisoner. The runner told me if I knew any thing of the things to tell him of it, for it had better be cleared up before I went to the justice. WILLIAM BLACKITER sworn. I am an officer belonging to Worship-street. The prosecutor came to me on Monday the 21st, and he told me that his wife's nurse had robbed him of several things, I found nobody on Monday, he came to me again on Wednesday the 23d, and told me that he had an information where she was, I went with him to Allen-street, Goswell-street, I went up into a first floor, and I found the prisoner in bed along with a man, and woman with her clothes on, as if she had been out all night, except her shoes and cloak. I told her to get up, and when she got up I searched her and found one duplicate about her; I asked her where the rest where? she said, she did not know. Q. What promise of favour had passed between you and her? - I never promised her any thing. Q. And did not the prosecutor say any thing to her? - Never. I asked him if he knew any thing that she had on? he said, he was not sure; and I took the woman to the wife's, and I took the handkerchief off her neck, the wife said, this is my handkerchief, the prisoner said not a word to it, I asked the woman if that was her cloak? - she said, yes. Q. Was that cloak on her when she was laying on the bed? - No, it was laying on the table, about a yard from her, I told her to pull the stockings off and show the woman her stockings, and she did, and the woman said they were her stockings; she then said that she did not pawn the buckles and spoons, but Sal Robins had. I knew Sal Robins , and she said the handkerchief and buckles were pawned by herself, at Higg's, in St. John-street; then I went to Mutton Hill, to Sal Robins , which she said pawned the things; she was not at home. Q. Did you find any thing there? - No, I did not search the house. Then I went up to Mr. Higgs's the pawnbroker's. in Clerkenwell Green, and I asked him if he had such things pawned there? he said, yes. Q. What did you enquire after? - A pair of buckles, and six silver tea spoons. Then I asked for whoever took them in to bring them up to the office at such a time. Q. What became of all the different articles found? - The pawnbrokers has got them, except the cotton stockings the cloak and handkerchief. JAMES CRAMP LOWE sworn. I am a pawnbroker, on Clerkenwell Green; I produce six tea spoons and a pair of buckles, they may be wore by a man or woman; they were pledged with me by Sarah Robins the 21st of April. Q. What did you lend her on them? - Eighteen shillings. I have seen her before and known her for three or four years. JAMES GILMORE sworn. I live with Mr Higgs, in St. John-street; I produce a silk handkerchief and a pair of buckles; I got them the 21st of April from the prisoner Smith, on a Monday; the handkerchief she pulled off her neck; we had not the least doubt but they were her own property; she said she lived in Compton street, she pledged them by the name of Mary Williams . Q. Did you give her a duplicate in the name of Mary Williams ? - I did. Prisoner. It was not me that pawned the things, but Mary Williams . Gillmore. The prisoner was the person of whom I received these things, who pulled off the handkerchief from her neck and the buckles out of her pocket. Q. How much did you lend on them? - Seven shillings. SARAH ROBINS sworn. I live in Mutton-lane, Clerkenwell Green. This girl came to me about half after five o'clock, Monday morning, when I was in bed, and she asked me to take these buckles to sell for her mother; I had seen her about three or four months before that, I never spoke to her above a dozen times in my life; she brought a pair of silver buckles and half a dozen tea spoons; I told her she had better not sell them, she had better pledge them, then she might redeem them again, and I took them to Mr. Lowe's, Clerkenwell Green, and had eighteen shillings on them; I pledged them in my own name, she desired me. Q. What are you? - I goes out to work; and I got my pocket picked of my money and all my duplicates; I don't remember I gave her the money; I don't know what I lost, for somebody took me home and put me to bed, it was seven o'clock when I awoke. (The things produced and deposed to.) Prisoner. Ask Sarah Robins where she got the silk handkerchief and spoons, that she gave me on Monday morning, on Clerkenwell Green. Robins. I never see them till she brought them to me, and called me, out of bed, Monday morning. Court to Purser. How do you call the prisoner? - Susanna Smith, that is her mother's name, and she has been called so for years. Prisoner. I met Sarah Robins on Clerkenwell Green, about seven o'clock, I was taken ill with a pain in my bowels, and I went out to get something to drink to carry the pain off, and I went down to ask my mother to know what I should get, and my mother told me to get a little lovage, and I went to get a little lovage, and I could not get it nearer than Clerkenwell Green, and there I met Sarah Robins , and she shewed me this silk handkerchief and small buckles, and she asked me to pawn them for her, and I made answer that I did not like to pawn them, and I had another young woman with me, and she said she would pawn them, and she had likewise a pair of large buckles, and six silver spoons with her, and she said she was going to pawn them; afterwards I met her again, and she told me she had pawned them at Mr. Lowe's, and had got in liquor and lost all the money. The prisoner called Mary Johnson to her character. GUILTY . (Aged 21.) Transported for seven years . Tried by the Second Middlesex Jury before. Mr. Baron THOMPSON.

135

C H on 25th February 2024

Description Description 20. 5/11 dark hair Black Eyes Brown Complexion From Hadley Herts.

34

Kathleen Cobcroft on 27th September 2015

Sister of Sarah Smith (wife of convict John Cobcroft) who arrived on 2nd fleet. Married Thomas Spencer 1810 and Richard Sephton (convict) 21 Aug 1832.