The Sun.
London, England, 1839-12-07 00:00:00

LATE EXTENSIVE FORGERY AT
BATH._ APPREHENSION AND CONFES-
SION OF THE FORGER.

(From the Bath Chronicle.)
James Sealy, the principal in the late inge-
nious forgery, has been apprehended. Last Tues-
day he underwent a long examination befog the
Magistrates at Chandos House, when he made an
wimple confession of the whole transaction. The pri-
soner is forty-two years of age, but appears considerably
older, and he has lost the sight of his right eye. He is
of a very diminutive size, and was shabbily dressed.
So far from being daunted at the situation in which he
was placed, the prisoner was remarkably communica-
tive on the subject of the forgery. He was also very
facetious, and related many anecdotes of his chequered
life, coolly observing that he supposed that he had
obtained some notoriety in the world, and that his
name would be handed down to posterity.
The Magistrates asked the prisoner if he had any
answer to the charge. Putting his hand in his pocket
be said, " I wish to read this paper," producing a
written statement. After receiving the usual cau-
tion, it was read by the prisoner in a firm audible
voice, amid the most profound silence and in-
tense interest. The following is a copy :—" About the
month of January or February last, a person of Frome
recommended me to Thomas Candy as a person who
could engross ; this was told me by Thomas Candy
himself ; I was not then at home, but at Mr. Hawkes's
office in Frome. In the evening Thomas Candy came
to my house, and asked me if I could engross ; I told
him I could ; he said he wanted me to do some skins ;
I was much surprised at hearing him use the word
skins,' as most people who are not aware of the
nature of deeds, generally call them writings ; he did
not then bring any papers with him, neither did he tell
me of what nature he intended them to be ; after I had
been with him about an hour at a public-house, where
I had two glasses of beer, he said he wanted me to look
over an abstract, which he would bring to me in the
course of a day or two ; we then parted, and I went
home ; he asked me to come to his house at Marston
on the following Sunday ; I went, and Thomas Candy
produced me an abstract, and asked if I could make
some deeds from it ; his mother, himself, Francis,
Theophilus, William, and, I think, one other brother
and sister were present. Mrs. Candy was dressed in
mourning. Thomas told me his father was dead, '
and had crape round his hat. I was a complete
stranger to the whole family. In a few days Thomas
Candy called on me again, and asked me what skins
were necessary. I told him, and he procured them•
I engrossed them, taking the substance from the
abstract, which was in the hand-writing of Fran-
cis. Previous to my engrossing them, Mrs. Candy, '
her daughter, and two sons, Thomas and ano-
ther whom I did not know by name, called at my house ;
Mrs. Candy was dressed in widow's weeds ; she told me
her husband was dead, and at the same time said, there
was no fraud intended ;it was not as though any person
would be a loser ; they wanted to raise a little money for
a short time, or till they could get the deeds from the trus-
tees under her settlement ;' I advised her and her sons to
file a bill in equity, and compel the trustees to give up the
deeds ; Mrs. Candy asked me who she had better em-
ploy ; I recommended her to my then employer, Mr.
Hawkes ; she said she did not like to employ him, but,
turning to her son Thomas, remarked, Tom, as you
are going to Bath, you had better get a lawyer there to
do it ;' this was finally arranged ; she asked me what I
should charge, I told her I could not exactly tell, as I
did not know how many folios it would be ; she also
asked me when I could get it done ; I replied some time
in the course of the week. Tom came to me with two or
three of his brothers, and looked at the deeds after I had
engrossed them ; there was no signature then, nor seals,
nor endorsements. Tom then said, pointing to one of
the skins, "Fhis skin must be dirtied ;' I informed him
it was not yet finished, on which he took and rubbed it
on his velveteen jacket, and dirtied it a little, and I took
my pounce patch and rubbed it in the coal ashes, so as
to give it the appearance of originality. I made my ink
from the common ink, and mixed it with sonic garden
mould, and tinged the red ink with a little black. I
made use of very common wax, and the tape, which was
a bright green, I discoloured with vinegar. Tom called
a short time after, and asked me if I had finished : on
my replying in the negative be was very angry. He
gave me two sovereigns and I promised to let him have
the skins the next night ; he did not, however, come to
hip appointment. In a few days he came and gave me
irty shillings, and asked me for a receipt for 41., say-

lug that he had a great deal of trouble, and that he
should keep 10s. I agreed to this. He said he wanted
the receipt to produce to his mother. He took the
,seeds away with him, along with a quantity of old
useless leases, which he let me have to take off the
stamps to affix to the blank skins which he provided
for me. Some time after this he brought me a de-
claration, which he said he had got done at Bath by a
lawyer'; clerk, who was a very clever fellow, signed as
declared before Lord Cork. This I copied, and he left
uly house. In about three or four months afterwards
tie came again, and told me he could not get the deeds
from the trustees, and must have some more made, but
never told me in what way it was to be done ; at an-
other time he called, and gave me the name of a field
on which he wanted to raise about 150/. ; he said the
tool of an uncle of his was now at the point of death.
He wished me to make some deeds, and a deed of gift,
bet went away without giving any instructions. In
about a week or ten days he paid me another visit, when
he told me had no uncle, but that I must make him
s, in- (leek and furnished me with the name of a field,
as well as the names of some parties. I wrote them on
two skins, and afterwards affixed an old stamp, taken
from one of the old leases which he had at his house at
Marston ; I was to have had 3/. for my trouble, but
only received 55., and this was out of 10s. which he had
borrowed upon a watch that day. I have learned since
I have been absent from Frome, and while I was at
Coleford, that Thomas Candy, or one of his brothers,
had paid my wife a sovereign ; on the Sunday I left
Frome, now a month ago last Sunday, I called on Mrs.
Candy, and told herself, Thomas, and another, that the
forgery was discovered, and that we should all be
transported (meaning himself, and the Candys, already
committed); about a fortnight after I had written the
last deed (but a month before I had let the things go),
Thomas brought me a letter from the Stamp Office,
Somerset House, respecting the administration to the
effects of a Thomas Candy, and, in a conversation with
him, it came out that his father was then alive ; this
was the first time I heard he was living : I said, You
never to be sure swore your father was dead, when you
knew him to be alive.' I said had I known it I never
would have written a single word, and added, how
could you deceive me so ?' I also said, If you do not
mind you will get yourself hanged, but I can make the
necessary return to Government, provided you furnish
me with the cash to pay the duty.' About a month
after I had made out the first deeds, Tom, in company
with his two brothers, told me I must make out a
certificate of baptism, and one of his brothers, Theo-
philus or Francis, I forget which, also telling me the
name (which I cannot now remember), and that I was to
put such a date to it as to make it appear that be was
of age some time ago. I accordingly made out the
baptism, and signed my own name as Curate at Gear
Hill, a little village beyond Marston."
At this astounding announcement the Bench of Ma-
gistrates and the whole of the Court seemed perfectly
amazed, and all eyes were immediately fastened on the
prisoner ; he, however, met their gaze with the greatest
unconcern, and looked as if he thought it was a master-
piece of art.
We refrain from giving the latter part of the . pri-
soner's statement, hoping, for the credit of human na-
ture it is not true, as it relates to alleged most hortid
and dreadful threats uttered by that part of the family
who are now in custody, against the father. A thrill of
horror pervaded the whole Court on hearing the alleged
denunciations of the sons against the parent.
Colonel Bailey then told the prisoner that he stood
fully committed to Ilehester gaol, to take his trial at the
next Assizes.

The prisoner, while in custody at the Guildhall, to
which place he was brought by the Frome officer, re-
marked that his motto was " Dum vivimus vivamus,"
and that the severest misfortunes could never make the
least impression on him, it being a matter of perfect
indifference to him in what quarter of the globe he had
his habitation, or whether he fared sumptuously every
day, or whether he endured the degradation of slavery,
and eked out his existence in chains and dungeons.

SELLING SPIRITS AT FAIRS.—At the last
meeting of the bench of Magistrates at Croydon several
persons attended to answer informations issued at the
instance of the Board of Excise for selling spirits in the
booths at Croydon fair without being duly licensed,
whereby they had incurred a penalty of 501. It will be
recollected that a short time ago similar proceedings
were adopted against other parties, when the Magistrates
inflicted mitigated penalties of 121. 10s. The question
sought to be established by the Board of Excise in-
volves a point of very great importance to licensed
victuallers. The Magistrates upon the former
occasion expressed an opinion that not only had
a publican no right to lend his license to a party
to enable him to sell spirits at a fair, but that be
had no right to sell spirits there himself, and that
the license was merely intended to protect him upon
his own premises. The Commissienars of Excise, how-
ever, it appears, entertain a different opinion, and, ac-
cording to their interpretation of the law, a licensed
victualler may legally, under his license, sell spirits away
from his own premises. The Magistrates, therefore, to
this extent, appear to be at issue with the Commission-
ers of Excise. The defendants in the present instance
admitted that they had borrowed licensed victuallers'
licenses, and declared that they were ignorant that it
was an illegal proceeding. They pleaded guilty to the
Informations, and the Magistrates inflicted a penalty of
121. 10s. All the persons whe have been convicted
under the circumstances above mentioned, it is under-
stood, intend to petition the Board of Excise for a re-
mission of the penalty, on the ground that they have
I infringed the law solely through ignorance.