The Sun.
London, England, 1863-11-26 00:00:00

CHARGE OF FORGERY.

Yesterday Frederick George Heatley, otherwise
Captain Heatley, a man of 27, described as of no
occupation, and residing in Wincheater-street,
Pimlico, was brought before the Lord Mayor at the
justice-room of the Mansion-house, in the custody
of Sergeant Pannell, a city detective officer, charged
with forgeries to the estimated amount of between
£9,000 and £lO,OOO, with intent to defraud the
Marquis of Anglesey, the Earl of Uxbridge, and the
Earl of Westmoreland. That is the general
accusation against the prisoner, but the examina-
tion yesterday was confined to the specific charge
of forging and uttering two bills of exchange for
£l,OOO and £5OO, with intent to defraud the two
first-named noblemen.

The case excited considerable interest in a
crowded court.

Mr. Lewis, jun., conducted the examination.
This he prefaced by a statement intended to explain
some parts of the evidence, which would otherwise
appear obscure or unintelligible. The prisoner, he
said, who was charged with forging bills of ex-
change to the amount in the whole of about
£lO,OOO, described himself 58 having been a captain
in the 60th Rifles, and he was now evidently in a
state of distress. He was utterly unknown to the
three noblemen whose names he was accused of
forging ; and the mode in which he committed the
alleged frauds was extremely daring, though he
could hardly have failed to foresee in the end that
it would result in discovery. It appeared that in
the first instance the prisoner handed a bill of ex-
change for £l,OOO, purporting to be drawn by the
Earl of Uxbridge and accepted by the Marquis of
Anglesey, to Mr. Wylde, of the Alhambra Palace,
and asked him to discount it for £5OO in money and
£5OO worth of the shares in the palace. Mr. Wylde
not being in a position to give effect to the prisoner's
wish at the moment, advanced him £lO, at his re-
quest, for some temporary purpose, and retained the
bill for £l,OOO in the meantime. Subsequently
Mr. Peters, a commission agent, was introduced to
the prisoner, who instructed him to procure the bill
in the hands of Mr. Wylde, by repaying him the
£lO, and then to get it discounted. Mr. Lewis
then related the circumstances which turned upon
that transaction, as they were afterwards proved in
evidence, explaining by the way that the prisoner
had sought to implicate Captain Hugh Massey in
some of the forgeries with which he was charged,
but it was due to that gentleman to state that there
was no proof of his complicity beyond the mere
statement of the prisoner himself, which was not
believed. The Earl of Westmoreland was now in
Paris, and the Marquis of Anglesey, being in the
country, could not attend the court that day, but he
should eventually call them, as wail as the Earl of
Uxbridge, to give evidence for the prosecution. He
believed there were bills forged and uttered by the
prisoner to the large amount the had mentioned
in circulation now, but the sum the prisoner had
raised on them was comparatively small.
Mr. Charles Peters, of 105, Rutherford-street,
Lower-road, Islington, was the first witness called.
He said—l am a commission agent, and have some
acquaintances who discount bills of exchange.
About the 9th of November, from some information
.1 received from a Mr. George Knights, I went to
the Alhambra Palace, in Leicester-square, and paid
£lO to Mr. Wylde, in consideration of which I re-
ceived from him a bill of exchange for £l,OOO, which
I subsequently returned to the prisoner. A day or
two afterwards the prisoner was introduced to me
as Captain Heatley, at a publichouse in Bush-lane,
Cannon-street, by Mr. Knights. I then told the
prisoner that the bill in my possession, which I had
received from Mr.Wylde, was informal and useless,
iu consequence of the stamp being damaged, add of
the name "Uxbridge" to the acceptance written over
an erasure. The prisoner said he would get another
bill in about two or three hours from his friend Lord
Uxbridge, with whom he said he was on most in-
timate terms, as he was also with the Marquis of
Anglesey. On the same day the prisoner met me
at the same publichouse, and brought the bill of
exchange produced for £l,OOO, dated the 17th of
October last, payable three months after date at
Messrs. Hoares, the bankers in Fleet-street, pur-
porting to be drawn by the Earl of Uxbridge, and
addressed to " The Most Noble the Marquis of An-
glesy," by whom it purports to be accepted. He
said he had got it from the Earl of Uxbridge. When
he handed me that bill I returned the first bill,
which I had told him was useless, and took the
second £l,OOO bill to Mr. Antony, of Martin's-lane,
Cannon-street, to be discounted. It was then dis-
covered that the date was written on an erasure,
and, in consequence, I saw the prisoner a few days
afterwards, and,explained that circumstance to him,
He said he could procure other bills from his friend
Lord Uxbridge. I told him I thought I could get
bills discounted for £l,OOO and £5OO. He asked
me to provide the necessary stamps, as he should not
like to ask his lordship for them. I got two
stamps, on which the two bills produced for £l,OOO
and £5OO are now written. I then went with him
to a coffee house in St. Martin's-le-Grand, and there
in my presence he wrote the bodies of the two bills.
He said if I would accompany him to the Junior
United Service Club his friend Lord Uxbridge and
the Marquis of Anglesey, whom ho had to meet
there, would sign them. I went there with him.
He entered the club-house with the bills and I
waited outside. He returned in a few minutes and
said their lordships were not there, but that he
knew where to find them at Pimlico, that he would
go to them and bring me back the acceptances. We
then arranged to meet at Carter's publichouse in the
Haymarket. I went there and he joined me in
about half an hour after I had left him. He then
handed me the two bills for £l,OOO and £5OO, with
the names of the Earl of Uxbridge and the Marquis
of Anglesey appended as they now appear, as ac-
ceptor and drawer respectively. He said he himself
saw them signed by the earl and the marquis. I
then took the bills to Mr. Antony to get discounted
and left them with him for the purpose, cautioning
him at the same time as my suspicions had been ex-
cited. I have seen the prisoner frequently since
that time. In a conversation he told me he could
procure the Earl of Westmoreland's bill for 11,000
if I could get it discounted.
By Mr. Champ, the prisoner's attorney—The
prisoner never told me he was acting as agent for
the noblemen in question.
Mr. Lewis explained that Messrs. Hoares, at
whose bank the forged bills were made payable,
were not the bankers of either the Earl of Uxbridge