The National Register.
London, England, 1819-03-21 00:00:00

THE NATIONAL REGISTEIt.

jATELLIGENCE.

KENT—LENT ASSIZES.
Mack "17.
CIVIL SIDE.
MOW AND ANOTHER v. iIiATLETI-OLERE.

~•• .. ,

This was a case of rather a singular nature. It was
an swum) of trover by thc.plaintifsi as eiturchwardetis
of the parish of St. John the Baptist, Matgate, against
the defendant, as rector of that parish, to terorer the
value of certain black clot* which had been put tip in
the parish church in respect to the memory of the UV
'Princess Charlotte of Wales, but %%Illicit the defendant
had couverted into his own use by haring it made up
intocoats,wahrtcoats, anti ot:ter articles of apparel.

The plaintiffs' case was cnuducue•l by Mr. Gurney
and Mr. Chitty, and the defendant's by Slr.Cornyti and
Mr. Holland.

It appeared that the plaintiffs, as churchwardens of
the parish in question, wishing to ',ay proper. respect to
the memory of the late Princess Charlotte, had pur,
chased a quantity of black superfine emit and cassia
mere of a woollen-draper at Margate' for the pnrposst of
covering the pulpit, the reading desk, and the commu-
nion table of the church, Mono! the time allotted for
politic umlauting upon that melancholy event. The
emit cost 37/. us. 9,1. and WjS nailed to the l.laees above
mentioned, where ii remained for weeks. At the
end of that time tile plaintiffs sent for the woollen
draper to take down the cloth again, and give them tale
of its then value to be solaced to the account or
the parish. 'rile defendant, however, having been sti-
prised of the intention of the plaintiffi, took steps to
appropriate a portion of the cloth to his own use, the
remainder of which was divided between the clirk and
the sexton. The defendant afterwards employed tile
Satre woollen-draper of whom the cloth hail been oriel
it:illy purchased, to make him a coat, and other articles
of cltnhioe, from the cloth so taken and convened.
Some seemed to have -arisen in the parish in C 4111•
itypience of this act of the defendant, who was charged
be report with having stolen the clout. He was alter-
wards applied to for the purpoae of accotintins to the
parish for the amount of the cloth taken, but having
declined all commitatication with the plaintiffs, in con-
srqwenee of the coarse imPtitatioa cast upon hint, the
present action was brought.
The defence set 11) was, that it was the general ens-
, tom of all the parishes in the kingdom to allow the
rec.or tc take a portion of the black. cloth pot up in
churches on the occasions of Public and private mount-
ing, and that in all t vents such was -the custom of the
particular parish in question.
Mr. Justice Bayley objected to the evidence of general
co.toin, but allowed evidence to be given. of the CUStODI
Of the particular parish.
Witnesses were then examined upon this latter head,
but their evidence went to chew that in two instances
where private individuals had put up black cloth in the
church, out of .respect to departed friends, the rector,
the parish clef k, and the sexton had been allowed re-
spectively to take a portion of the cloth so put up. The
general impression of the witnesses was, that such was
the general usage.
Mr. Justice Bayley, in -his address to the Jury, Lid it
. down as the rale of law, that no permit had a tight to
bang up what are called ornaments in the church, with-
out the leave of the rector, because the freehold of the
church was in him, and he ani2,ht make his own terms
for that leave. In general, where private itulividuais
hung black cloth in the parish church, with the con-
currence of the rector, there was a kind of understand-
ing between thesis that the cloth became the property of
the rector. .In the present case, however, liwre had
been no bargain between the plaintiffs and 'he defen-
dant, .with respect to the terms whicit the cloth
was to be bong in the church, and consequently the
latter had 410144'0t to take any portion of the cloth, be-
cause by law he was notantiCled to take such a propene,
unless by matter of ,arrangernent or xoecitient between
the parties to whom it belonged. Under these cir -
stances the plaintiffs were entitled to a ve:ilict for the
valise of the cloth which the defendant had converted
to his owls use.

'Lae Jury fourvi cur the plaintiff—Damages 151.

CROWN SIDE.
Joseph lin(pe, Thomas Smart, John Ward, and
elkojamin Binning:tam, were indicted for borglariously,
breaking and entering the dwellingliouse of Zehn
Sprincate, iti the night lime, between the 27th and edit'
of Octobcr, in the parish of Litittm, and stealing. therein,
22 pieces of Irish linen, a large quantity of tea and.to-
bacco, worth in the whole about t&01.
The prosecution was conducted by Me, Pelvis and
Mr. D. Pollock, arid Mr. Andrewe appeared for the
prisoner Smart.
The facts of the case appeared to be then :—The pro-
secutor was a country dealer, and kept a shop at Linton,
and on the night of the 27th of October he and hie fa-
mily went to bed, after havifig taken care to fasten all
the doors and windows of the house. In the morning
one of his shopmeti got up at •the usual hour, when he
disetntred that a bolehad been spade in the roof of the
warebotwe, large enough to admit the body of a man,
and that the ph:perty above specified was missing. He
also discoveretl.that the warehouse door was unfastened.
Tliti alarm
,was immediately given, and in the course set
the thc,. circumstances were discovered, which led to a
sospirion that the prisoners and their accomplice Sum-
m: ra were the thievesoitid in the evening they were all
„,,i,rehetided at Strew!. The accomplice Summers if.
sel.ctrds turtieil Kiiii,...etuletace,and from his suttetueut

trAiteit et;

- -- •
it appeared, that on the teGth of October he met the prk.
Boners at ►he Red Lion and Star public-house at Simnel,
when it was propoard by Knipe that they should
evening roo the warehotwe of the prosecutor, and the
witness was invited to meet them at a place called Shci-
hold Point, in the road leading from Maidstone to lan-
' ton, where the prosecutor resided, but he refused to go,
s lying that he would have nothing to-do a ith the Um
mil,. The following day they persuaded hint to assist iu
the wart that night. The evening before they set ortt
upon the expedition they met at hothouse at Snood. On
that occasion Smart aik ed hint if he had any fire.arms,
god be replied that he had a pistol, but that was wit hls
own. Smarr salt, that that was no matter; upon which
►he pistol W 33 produced. at woman, named Lydia
'turner, who •lived with Somme's, slid, "Por God's
sake, what are you going to do with that?" The pri-
soner Ward answered, "To shoot a man sootier than a
own should shoot we." About eight o'clock the parties
severally went out ow their read towards Maidstone,
Suitimers taking with him a horse and cart, and they all
jotted 1111 the road before they got to the first turop.ke-
gate. When they arrived near Kitt',: Cony House, the
prisoner Stuart took a pistol out of the hedge. They
then proceeded towards the proseetitoes house, and at
• about nine rods front his re•sndehce they took the horse
from the cart, leaving one of the prisoners to mind hint,
while he grazed. The others proceeded to poi on each
other•cluthes,and having loaded the pistols with powder
tli..y proceeded to the buck of the prosecutor's
preniiies, behind which was Linton. chinch-y.4)d, and
having j peel over the church-yard walk, they got into
a small garden.next to the prosecutor's warehouse, the
road which was only about three feet from thcground.
The prisoner Smart then took some tiles from off the
roof, sod having cut away the laths got into the ware.
house, 311(1 was fntlowe•d by Summers and the rest of his
companions. Titer remanied in the ;Realities about an
hour, during which time they carried old• 22 pieces of
Irish linen, three chests of tea, and a lame quantity of
shag tobacco. They afterwards concealed their plunder
in a hedge-row on the tarot cf a slr. Matson, on the
road leading from Maidstone to Rochester. Suspicion
afterwards tell upon the prisoners in cousequence of one
of them having sold some of the tea, anal in the count
of the Jay the report of the robbery hitting spread to the
neighbourhood of Snood, the prisoners were all 'pre-
'headed.

The evidence of Sommers, the accomplice, was cor-
rohoraird by tli testimony of serval witne.we, who
spoke to many particulars which he mentioned in the
course of his evidence.

case wen: to the Jt!:p under the learnrrl Judge's
directiols, and they found a:I the prisoners C;ut:ty—
Death.

YORK; TUESDAY MARCH 9.

Thomas Robinson was charged with stealing, on the
30th of January lag.. at Wetherby, the mail-bags, con-
taining the letters for Knaresborough. HarrAgate, and
Rivicy; such bags being in the possession of a person
employed by the Past-office foe-the conveyance of the
mail from NVetherhy to those places.

The trial occupied the Court from nine o'clock in the
until about two in the afternoon ; but all that
is matertal or interesting in the casemay be compressed
into a narrow con:peas. At the time this rolthety was
committed, the mail from Wetiterhy, containing the
letters the above:main-ad places, was conveyed by a
person of the name of Benjamin Dobson. These bags
contained both the bunnion and country letters. tin
Saturday, the 30:h of January, about, half-past five
o'clock in the mousing. Miasma received from 111 r.
the Yost-master of Wetherby. four bags con-
taining the kiwis, which he put int...411e portmanteau
used fur hut purpose, and fistetied it upon his horse,
which wai standing at the stable door, about thirty yards
fmm Mr. Hunsley's house ; being lame in his arm, he
left the horse to get Mr. llonsley's servant to assist bins
to put no his great coat. On his returns although he had
not been absent more than two or three minutes, he
found that the straps had been cut, and the portmanteau,
containing the mail, taken away. • An alarm was in-
stantly given, and search after the robber commencad.
In the course of the saute di.y, the bags, with the whisk
of the letters- and newspapers, were found in a worst
about two nide, and a half from Wetherby, called
Noble Wood. The: letters had been opened. and Oil
omiteitts taken out. The person who found. them t9ox
.them the SJllle eveiiit% to the Post-office, where they
,were scaled with the valve dal.. and. forwarded • to thecr
respective (testi na ion.. About three hours after the Mb-
bery had been committed, the prisoner was seen coming
out of Noble Wood, anti going in a direction gaivarits
Waghill, where lie was seen at a ipublic-horse, in com-
pany with a person of. the name of• Rhodes,. who again
SAW him at a initalimhouse Mt Asktiam Bryan. near this
city. The prisoner, upon tibia occasion, exhibited to
Rhodes a goof., Bauk
.poolsill,.and the half of So!.
Bank-note, which he said were the fruits or a Chancery
stilt, in which he had been successful. lie was then
traced to this city, and (wind in a public-house, from
whence he escaped, and endeavoured to conceal himself
ins bay-chamber, in .adjoiningyeril, but was imme-
diately aim:ewes-eel t he same place was foiniii a pocket-
book. contaiiiing VOOI.- Bank pis t.btll, foto 41. notes.
the half of a suf. Bank-note, and a great variety. of other
bills and notes, to the amount of 5201.. The Bank post.
big had been transmitted limn the house of Messrs.
Smith, English, and Co. of London. to Mr. Henry
Fisher, of Knaresl,orungltt and the hien country notes
had been sent from Nintliallerton to the house of Wal-
ton, 0-its. and Co. of Knaresburongli. These were
prated
London taondbaj:ear been put intoan
d theirt
ne r ;caret
erest‘peurarivarCtulna;

ill are .1;n these notes were received a day later than
they ought to have been, *Jul without their (-in:insures.
Toe prisoner made a et►cntn.ranti,tl confession of the
manner in which the robbery had been effected, soil in
which lie implicated three other perms. After this
confesi:init, he was triited in the Castle by the Surveyor
of the Pint otter, who wished to obtain from him untie
disclusores respeeting some other transactions, the nature
or witch was not captained on this occasion. The
prisoner said, he mutt have been either drunk or mad,
ur have the in him, when he charged the persons
wtmed in his confession with haying been concerned in
the Wetha by robbery.—Cuilty.