The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1869-05-15 00:00:00

FOUND GUILTY.

At the Central Criminal Court, In London, Henry Brooke,
aim." Rev.,"" Dr,"' A. IL,"" L D.," "0.0,' N. 5.,"
" G ." itc., described as • schoolmaster, has been found
guilty of obtaining by false pretences a large quantity of
household furniture, the property of Mr. HaNsman, and also
with inducing him to execute a deed of assigunnint for the
disposal of the some. -
• • •

The prisoner accepted a situation as master at the
East London College. Bow, conducted by Mr. Hays-
man, and his wife also became a governess at the
Stainsby College, Limehouse. He represented him-
self to be a man of considerable means, deeply inter-
ested in educational matters; that he possessed shares
in the London and Westminster Bank, had money
out on mortgage at Lichfield, kept a large bank-
ing account, and that his wife had a separate
income of £lOO per annum in her own right. By
these and similar representations he induced Mr.
Haysman to agree to sell him the lease of the two
schools, goodwill, furniture, &c. When the day for
settlement arrived he professed to be disappointed in the
receipt of £2,300, and having persuaded his soli-
citor to discount bills for £4OO in lieu of deposit, he
induced Mr. Haysinan to sign the deed of transfer,
leases, &e., on receiving the balance of the purchase
money in acceptances of short dates. Having thus
gained possession of the premises he immediately
issued prospectuses in his own name as "principal and
proprietor," took the school fees, and contracted heavy
debts for stationery, books, iron safes, office furni-
ture, &c. But at the end of six weeks he made him-
self a bankrupt in the name of "Augustine Henry"
Brooke, his only assets being the lease and furniture
that he bad obtained from Mr. Haysman and the goods
above mentioned. On further inquiries it was ascer-
tained that at the time he was making the representa-
tions as to this means, he was really an uncertificated
bankrupt from Ryde. Isle of Wight, where he filed his
petition in June, 1867, and only once appeared at the
Court. The prosecutor has since had to re-purchase
his furniture of the assignees, and in order to get hie
lease back has been obliged to make himself responsi-
ble for the £4OO advanced by the solicitor, and costs to
a heavy amount.
Mr. Healey and Mr. Warner Sleigh prosecuted; Mr.
Metcalf and Mr. Slipper defended.
Mr. Becky said that the prisoner had, in 1864,
rented a furnished house at Milford, near Godalming,
where he proclaim& I himself a wealthy man, related to
Sir James Brooke, Rajah of Sarawak, and offered to
repair the church, to purchase an organ, value £l,OOO,
clock with spherical bells, &c. He soon got largely into
debt with the local tradesmen, and in a few months
suddenly disappeared. The organ and bells were
returned, and a subscription raised to pay for the
church restoration. In 1867 he defrauded numerous
tradesmen and others at Swanmore, Ryde, Isle
if Wight, by representing himself as Warden of St.
Augustine's College, and sending his orders to London
and elsewhere through a brother Sebastian, who
turned out to be his own son, twelve years of age.
After getting largely into debt with Cramer,
Cbappel, the principal London ecclesiastical deco-
rators, local builders, &c., he filed a petition in
the name of "Henry Dyson Brooke," music-seller
and dealer in musical instruments. In January,
1868, he went to Chieveley, near Newbury, as a
national schoolmaster, represented himself to the vicar
of a neighbouring parish as the " Rev. A. Brooke,
M. A.," preached in his church, and, on one occasion,
in behalf- of the "Society for the Propagation of the
Gospel," the offertory for which has not to this day
been received by the treasurer of the society. He pro-
fessed to have been ordained by the Bishop of lona,
at another time by the Bishop of Calcutta. The
Bishop of Oxford made inquiries, and subsequently
inhibited him, and warned other Bishops concerning
him. He appears to have been within the past ten
years notorious also at Tillingbam, Chelmsford, Tor-
quay, Dawlish, Plymouth, Reading, Sturminster
Marshall, Wimborne, Stafford, Chilton, Godalming.

The jury returned a verdict of Guilty.
The Judge in summing up said, " I feel it my duty
to remark ttn..t the pr”secutor appears to be a gentle-
man of very great literary attainments, who has strug-
gled into a good position by his own exertions, and
whose only fault, if any, appears to be one common to
many literary men—that he commenced business with
but little capital. This difficulty he had overcome,
but has been nearly deprived of that position by the
prisoner's conduct. Many imputations have been passed
upon him by the defence, but there is no foundation
whatever for any of those imputations; and I can only
express my regret that they have been made. My de-
cided opinion is that Haysman's conduct has been
wholly without reproach."
. .

The prisoner was then sentenced to five years' penal
servitude.