The National Register.
London, England, 1816-06-03 00:00:00

GRANT, THE IRISH ROBBER.

The following is an extract from a private letter, dated Dub-
lin, .Hay YGI :—" A person, generally known by the mote of
Carttlin (i rant, whose extraordinary endowments rendered him
competent to achieve much good or evil, after having escaped,
by means which appear miraculous, from 11111011 A gaols, was
some time since lodged in that of Mary borough, the capital of
Queen's Comity. Here, being abundantlystipplied with money,
lie treated the prisoners with such good filings as the place
afforded ; and repeatedly told the Sheriff, as well as the nu-
merous persons whose curiosity induced them to visit him, that
he would chide their vigilance, in defiance of every assertion
they could make. The discovery that he had cut his irons
nearly through. leaving oulpsufficient remaining to keep them
together, anti the substitution of others of singular weight and
thickness, did not appear to disconcert him: he laughed at the
zeal of the Officers of the detachment, which had induced theist
to take lodgings opposite the gaol, as a measure of increased
security. The night after the immense irons wi re put on is in,
he cut through -them, cud through those of 23 other moo,
charged with capital offences; and, rushing forward at their
head, knocked down too soldiers stationed in the passage, the n
the turnkey., and lie assistants : and, opening the door, the
key of which he had seized, knocked down two soldiers
were at the outside of it, and taking their arms, as. he had dune
those in the passage, ran down the street, with six of his asso-
ciates, crying, • stop thief,' till the darkness of the night rev
tiered pursuit unavailing. On the first Marini» the prison, a
man, coldined for debt, and who was taking tea with the gaoler,
ran into the passage, and with great presence of mind shut the
iron gate, by which means the flight of in of the feltris wet te
fortunately prs,:vented, and they were remanded to their former
quarters.. •-The escape of Grant was almost immediately pro-
claimed throughout the country by his depredations. The
eight sifter, he carried oti*Mr. White's coach-horses from Scots-
wieth, between Moktrath and Abelaix, he comonitted a rob_
berg near Waterford, 60 English miles distant and returning
with nearly equal rapidity, plundered the house of Mr. Horan,
close to Maryborough, of every article of value, as is Ins.ge-
tweet practice. lie is sometimes numerously attended, and on
other occasions only by one or two. Hcobserves,thathenever
broke into any house, but that he walks into all, which is liter-
ally the case; for lie depredates at Mght-fall. whet• persons
are off their guard, and by the time his business is accomplished
darkness favours his escape. So general is the alarm occasion-
ed by this esteem dinary delinquent, that most of the houses in
the Queens County, and ',limy in the counties of Kildare, Car-
low, Kilkenny,. and Waterford, are barricaded ut dusk, and
till the MI/owing morning scat eel), any circumstance could ()yeas
sien a door to be opened in a district so justly celebrated for
hospitality, and still so animatedly alive to it.—At one of the
houses visited a few days since by Grant, attended by 12 nun,
well armed, • the Captain' amused himself at the piano-forte,
whin( tea was prepiiriug, and his associates were packing up
all the things they conceived worth being carrietbott."

Jahn Bull, lodging at the house of W. Booth, Paradise-street,
Battle-bridge, being confined to his bed for a week with a brain
fever, got tip on edtiesdav morning, and, running into tha
street in a state of mental derangement, was StiAed with a 61,
awl capitra.

IS6

POLI('R.
QUEEN SQUARE.
FINAL RICAN IN VrION Or M Otir ANN KING.

Monday this person was again brought up ; ahen the follnwing
persons gave evidence :—A. a pastry-cook, of High-
Hol hnrn, said, on the last day of January the prisoner engaged
a bed-room and drawing. room in his house, at I I guinea per
week, saying. she had rut: away trout a Whirding-school to he
married to a Mr. Thomas on that day week. He was to find
emery HMIs; for her, and at the end of the week was to send in
his bill. After dinner she expressed a wish to have same per-
Oars to sleep with her, as she was not iu the habit of mileephig
alone, and his wife and children slept alternately with her.
until about the middle of the e eel.; when see expressed a wish
t t go into the country, sas ing she came away without any
1111/11Cy or clothes, and requested Mrs.- M. to lend her £lO ; she
only lent her six. All the timeshe represeuted herself to he a Lady
of immense fortune, and oil Mr. Thomas's arrival he should 1w
paid. She ordered wending cakes, and directed him to go 111111
tneet Mr.Thumilas ; but in hisabsence she decamped, taking with
her a siik shawl and a pair of silk stockings-belonging to Mrs.
; she also got a pair of shoes t'rom a shoemaker in the neigh.
lemirliond, for which she was obliged to pay ; and from a bed-
warelieuse property to the inirmuut of 1:6, besides other tritling
articles. J. Simpson, in Portman-street, said, the prisoner
ream to his Weise nu the lath of April, and wanted lodgings.
seeing, she had property to the anionut of .'1,00; and Said 4111'
ha h taken no refreshment, and had been taken ill on the road,
having run away from her father, near Margate, Wending to
be married to air. Thomas that day week ; she took apartments
at fear guineas per week. To the course of the week Mrs. S.
lent her tea, and at the end of the week I presented my bill,
whirls amounted to £25 t when she put it into her pneket book.
and ordered me to co to yt r. l'iminas at the White Horse Cells,.
in the mean lime she ordered four wedding cakes at Mr. C.'s, a
pastry-cook, in Ilerkeley-squai e, which weresent; amid at my
return, not meetine Mr. Thames, she was gone. Mr. Pocock.
a listen draper, in 0 sthrml-stteet, said, he is aequainted with her
tattier, who lives in Gloucestershire ; that she received a li-
beral education, although she denied being able to read or
write. Witness litre produced a pair of sugar tongs she had
left at his house, which lie suspected she had stolen from some
person. G. Scott, a baker in Winchester-street, deposed, that
the prisoner came to him with a similar story ; she conti-
nued wi.li tulips about eieht days, dining which time she borrow-
ed of Nlrs. S. £3, and is bile he was gone to meet Mr. Thomas,
she decamped, having in that short period drank about two
gallons of gin. A Surgeon in St. John's—treet, stated, that
about five years since he was called in to ,isit her at a house in
Queen street, Pereim al-street, by a man named Higgins, who
affected great tenderness for her, and requested lie would call
in a Physician, which was done, and on her recovery he was
induced by a plandble story to take a bill for £2l, giving him
as a balance £$ in cash ; but this hill had never been honmired.
Mr. Tilt, of Ludgate hill, stated, that she took lodgings at his
house, and her behaviour Was so extraordinary that ae taxed
her with being a swindler; but she toil the Amity of los seduc-
tion so pathetically, as to obtain rat: co iiiiii iseration of Mrs. T.
to such a (IPUI'Ve that she wislied to continue her in the bause,
she said her father was brotti& to Lord King, and neettifw to
the Earl of Kingston, but would not gust eeference toany per-
eon in town, and ileeamped without paying any thine; but she
left a duplieate for a Broach, pawned 6'r lens. and a eap and
tippet for t', 2s.—She was then cuminitted, and the parties
bound over to prosecute.
Siiilt:;ers, a Revenue Offieer, laid an infnrmation
water the Arts of the Ilth of Geo. I. chap. 30, see. 16 ; and
the tath of Geo. 111. chap. 63, regulating the prohibition of
foreign silks, against Misses ne and Elirabeili Hinter, mil-
liners sod dress-makers, of Hanover-square. Having re-
ceived information, he searched the house, amt runlet 36
yards ot' India silk, a hich lie sallied at 61. which, by the Arts
of Parliament, was forfeited; and the party in whose pus-es-
lion it Was found was liable to a prettify of three limes the
value of the article. Mr. Rutter attended tier his sisters, and
stated, he had come to admit the fact of the silk being found iu
t'ie house; but it Was not the property of his sisters, it belmmg-
e.l to several ladies of fashion, who had sent it to them to make
up, amid they were perfectly ignorant it was foreign silk : but
even if they did know, they timid not refuse to make it up
ithout offending their customers. But what be was utmost
anxious to rebut ea-' that She information given to the Officer
mated there was Soul. worth of contraband goods in the house.
He would ask him, after the strictest it' lie found any
thing more than what he then produced? Stint hers ac-
knowledged, that the information lie received was, that there
were MM. worth of foreign silk and lave in the house. He
had made a sti ict search, but found 1101/P except what he had
R.eineed. l'lestow, the sitting Magistrate, asked Mr.
utter, if his sisters could nut bring forward some of the ladies
who bad sent the silk to them? Mr. Rutter said, lie had not
the least doubt but they could ; but some of them were of very
high rank, and would be at any expellee sooner thau have their
names introduced to public notice. He would, therefore,
sooner pay any sum the Magistrate would award. Mr. 131-4-
taw observed, that fine ladies *mould get those kind of things
tiny way they contd. It was in his power to mitigate the
penults to one-half ; and lie thought this a case in which lie
emislit to do me He therefose flirt et eil the defendants to pay
91. and the rosts, and the silk to be forfeited. Mr. Rutter im-
tnefliatele paid it.

UNION-HALL.

SINGULAR CASL.—Brabason Chrivian, a young man of
genteel appearance, was charged with stealing two Nooks,
containing wearing apparel and mathetnatical instruments, anti
1,8,) pair of pistols of considerable value, the property of Capts.
John and James 1311444 rd ; and one bunk, containing wearing
apparel to a considerable amount, the property of Mr. Robert
Nersclotyle. It appeared by the evidence of the prosecutors,
that the two first are natives of Switzerland, and the other an
Irish gentleman. 'Tay became acquainted with the prisoner
. at Ghent, and travelled with him to ,i.vet al places, and Ulti-
mately they embarked together at Ostend, art ;vein at Rann9ete
in the same packet, and all came up in the Dover coach as fir
at Blackheath. During the whole of the intimacy of the partie:<,
the prisoner tixed.ltiniself in their regard by the moat onrentit-
ting atteation, gentlemanly conduct, and insinuating manners.
In the course of the journey the prosecutors lent non cash to
the amount of 20;. At Blackheath, on Thursday se'nuight, the
NM/4 cttlill2 themselves fut,gucil, stepped, and requested the
lois• tier to take harge of their trunks. The latter proceeded
oc, lo:1 the oursoae of the coach. and Mr. Versclanyle
At night, about Ito clock, the coach arrived in the Borough;
whom the prisoner called a hackney-coach, took three pack-
cfes from the s,age, and went nff with them. He had promised
to Icily: the b irgagr at the house of Memo-9. Colley and Co.
Calm• n-street, having rciacsem.,l himself to be a partner in
tham tirm, anal gave his own v.-At...lce at No. 116, lied Lion-
street. Nevt mutating the Calaains came to tone, and 1.10. I
cutlet! 10 Cum-street, but could hour of uo suchitc.rou as