The Express.
London, England, 1868-10-16 00:00:00

THE POLICE COURT&

MANSION-HOME.

A respectable lookingman named enry Fram;,,um,
described u s clerk, was brought up on remand bow.
Alderman Sir Wm. Rose, on a charge of makir a;l4
jag a false declaration as to the date of his
tent to obtain • situation aa • writ. _ to the c
whereby he had rendered himself ' ••••
ash.•le to a peilltrl
o
1001. . .

Mr. Graham attended to
• prosecute on behalf of the
Board of CUstOMe.
It appeared that VAG primmer
applied for a situation se
• welter to the CrAeseas, sad having been nominated on the
3rd of July last ke was requested to fill up the usual form
in such cu i
es- n one of the columns ho had to make an
entry resper4eig the date of his birth, and he put himself
down as t Asia"( been born in the year 1829. He was asked
to prod' a certificate of his birth, but he said be was
unabl,s to do so, and that he could not find out where he
had been baptised. Ho, however, believed his age to be
'Cast he represented. At the same time he was informed
that persons over forty years of age were not admissible
to the situation. Ile subsequently produced a family
Bible, in which a register of births was kept, and in
which ho was entered as having been born in 1829 ; but
the "9" appeared to have been substituted for some
other figuie that had been erased. Suspicion was excited,
and an officer belonging to the Customs having been sent
to Sheerness, he ascertained from the register of baptisms
there that the prisoner's birth was entered as having
taken place in 1826, instead of 1828. It appeared, also,
that the prisoner, who several years ago held a
situation as steward in one of her Majesty's ships,
bad sent in a similar form to the Admiralty,
in which be inserted the year 1826 as the date of his birth.
Proceedings were accordingly taken against him, but it
was stated that he had absconded, and that he was sub.°.
quently apprehended on a warrant.
The prisoner said that he was an illegitimate son, and
that he was always kept in ignorance of the date of his
birth. He affirmed that the entry in the family Bible had
become obliterated, and that he had inserted the year 1829
at the dictation of his father, who was now dead. When
he took the form to this office of the Board of Customs he
said he left the date of birth blank, but a gentleman told
bins he must 611 it up. He replied that he was 'lot sure
of him exact age, but that if it was a mere matter of form
he would 611 it up, and he did so, and entered what was
to the best of his belief the correct year. He certainly
did not make a wrong entry with a guilty knowledge.
za
An aunt of the prisoner, a widow, named Susan
lin, residing at Sheerness, was called, and deposed that
she had a son, now forty years of age, who was born a
short time before the prisoner.
Ann Smith, a married aster of the prisoner, residing in
Vauxhall-street, who attended her father when ho was
dying, said that, before him death, be had told her he had
done an injustice to his son (meaning the prisoner ) by
entering the date of his birth incorrectly, and that if ha
applied for a situation it would cause him trouble.
Alderman Sir William Hose remarked that there was
sufficient uncertainty about the matter to justify him in
thinking that the prisoner did not make the declaration
with a guilty knowledge, although there were circum-
stances of very considerable suspicion.
The prieoner was accordingly discharged.