Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-07-21 00:00:00

A CORNISHMAN'S ADVENTURE IN LONDON.

At the Thames Police-court, on Saturday, Jane Thomas
and Eliza Burns, women of the town, were brought before.
Mr. Yardley, charged with stealing a silver watch, value
£3, and £8 in gold, from a little old man, named John
Wilcox, who stated his age to be (34, and who described
himself as a roper on a railway in Cornwall. The prose-
cutor, who is vary deaf and almost bald-headed, charged
the prisoner Jane Thomas only, on Thursday, and said he
found himself in London, a few days ago, with two purses
containing gold in his pocket. On Wednesday he fell in
with the prisoner Thomas, and he then had twenty
sovereigns in one purse, and two sovereigns in another.
The women ascertained that he had bean a neighbour,
and he knew her grandfather and grandmother at Redruth,
in Cornwall. They went to a public-house and thence
to a private house, where they remained half-an-
hour. The woman took his purse containing twenty
sovereigns, and said she would tell him how to
keep it, and put in his stocking. He could not walk about
with his purse in his stocking, and she took it out of his
stocking, tied it up with a piece cf string, and put it into
his pocket. She then kissed him (a laugh), took his purse
from his pocket again, placed ten sovereigns in each end of
it, and then tied it with string and put it in her bosom. He
laid out £3 with her, and purchases the shawl and bonnet
she was then wearing and some ribbons. He a 'lced her for
his purse and money, and she refused to give it to him,
and he went and told the police all about it. In ans wer
to a question from the magistrate, the old man said that he
remained with the prisoner two ho .rs, after she took his
purse and money from him. Mr. Yardley : How came
you to he so foolish as to allow her to take your purse and
money ? Wilcox : Because I knew her friends in Corn-
wall. Mr. Wm. Reuse, the landlord of the Hoop and
Grapes public-house in Cable-street, Whitechapel, said that
the prisoner called at his house on Wednesday night. She
was ineb7iated and had a purse with £lO or a little more in it.
Ile took it away from her and gave the money and purse
to the police. Wile ox was recalled, and said he lost his
watch on the previous Saturday. He had close on £4O
when ha c Imo to London a few days age. It was all gone.
He had not come into possession of a legacy. Ha had
saved the money. He came to London to see a Mr. John
Micgregor, whose life he saved from the Kent, East
Indiaman, when the gentleman was a baby five weeks old.
He saw Mr. Macgregor who welcomed him heartily. The
prisoner said the old man had been her neighbour, and
she know him in Cornwall, which was her home. Mr.
Yardley said the old man was very silly, and appeared to
hav 3 become known to all the loose female in the neighbour-
hood of Rose nary-lane and RetclitY Highway. A
pawnbroker produced the old man's watch, which
had been pawned by the prisoner Burns, Burns did
not deny taking the watch, which she seated defen-
dant gave her in lieu of money. This, however, the
prosecutor denied, and strongly asserted that he gave the
woman Burns two shillings. Mr. Yardley : This old man
seems to have had a variety of female companions since
he has been in London, and they have all fleeced him.
He did not think the facts as regarded Thomas amounted
to a felony. The prosecutor had put by a portion of his
hard earnings for many years, and had come to London
and had wasted his money like a simpleton. Upon the
evidence adduced, he should convict Burns for unlawfully
pawning the watch, and in default of paying 16s, the sum
for which it was pawned, and a fine of 20s, sentenced her to
bs impriioned and kept to hard labour for one month. He
directed that 16s should be paid to the pawnbroker out of
the money in the hands of the police, and the watch be
restored to the prosecutor. With regard to the woman
Thomas, the prosecutor's conduct had been so foolish that
he could not say that what she had done amounted to a
felony. He must therefore discharge her. Kelby, 130
K, here opened a bundle containing bacon, ham, cheese,
b cad, w men's boots, and slippers, gloves, four salt-cellars,
a glass decanter, and various other articles, whi.:h he foand
in a public-house where the old man had left the bundle.
Mr. Yardley : When you gat back to Cornwall your friends
will laugh at you, and say you have brought those things
back wick you as testimonials of your experience in Lon-
don. Go back to Cornwall directly, and do not repeat
your absurdities. As to the prisoner Thomas, she has
been taking advantage of a silly old man, who came from
the same quarter as herself. Now, my good man, take
your money from the police, and proceed to the railway as
soon as possible.