The Sun.
London, England, 1849-11-16 00:00:00

ROBBING WINDSOR CHURCH

On Wednesday afternoon George Keith, a shabbily
attired young man, 19 years of age, who described
himself as a commercial clerk out of a situation, was
finally Examined before the Mayor of Windsor and
two other magistrates, on the following charge of
rubbery at Windsor Church.
The following are the circumstances under which
the apprehension of the prisoner was effected :—On
Saturday afternoon, on the arrival of the train that
leaves Datchet at 4 30, at Vauxhall Station, the pri
soner, who was seen to alight from a first-class car-
tinge, attempted to pass Mr. M`Carthy, the ticket
collector, at a speed that created suspicion, when he
was forcibly stopped, and asked for his ticket. He
said he had none, and was then told he must pay the
first class fare from the most distant station, which was
Datchet. He said he had no money, and admitted he
had got in at Datchet. The prisoner was then referred
to Mr. Rose, the station agent, when he said he was a
junior clerk in a mercantile house, but at present out
of employ, the last situation he had held being at a
house in Lower Thames-street. The prisoner was then
taken by the railway officers to the police station of
the V division, at Clapham, and given in charge to
Inspector Coleman for riding in a first-class carriage
from Datchet to Vauxhall, not having paid his fare,
and with intent to defraud the London and South-
Western Railway Company. The inspector observed
that the prisoner's pockets looked bulky, asked him
what he had got in them; and he answered "some
books." Mr. Coleman then took from his coat pock t
two prayer books, one with the name of Gould writ-
ten in it, which he had since ascertained to be the
property of the Rev. Mr. Gould, the Rector of Wind-
sor Church ; the other was the property of Mr. Jud-
kins, one of the congregation. The inspector, on
making a further search, found a large door key,
and on asking him where he got it, he said from
Windsor Church, and he took it out of the church
door on Friday afternoon. The inspector then took
off his hat, and found in it a hymn hook, embossed
with a Bishop's mitre, and in it the words " Windsor
Church Communion Table." The prisoner was de-
tained on the two charges, and on Monday last taken
before Mr. Elliott, at Lambeth Police-court, when the
officer from the railway station attended, and stated
that it was the intention of the Company to forego
their charge, leaving the prisoner to be dealt with on
the charge of robbery. The prisoner was remanded
till Wednesday, and on that day given up to Inspec-
tor Coleman, who had previously been to Windsor,
and who, on arriving at the church, found the sexton
in the act of taking the lock off the church d nor, not
being able to find the key, which Mr. Coleman pro-
duced much to the astonishment of the aged sexton,
and it fitted the lock. The sexton said it had been
missed since Friday, when a soldier's funeral took
place. lie (the inspector) also ascertained that two
of the books found on the prisoner had been taken
from the pulpit and reading-desk, and the third from
a pew. The prisoner, on his return to:Windsor,
said he had been in custody before for stealing books,
and he had been charged by his own father. He had
been twenty-one days in Hatfield gaol for another
offence, and had been in custody for attempting to
take a lady's purse. The whole of the foregoing
facts were proved in evidence, and the prisoner, who
had declined saying anything,
,was committed for
trial at the Quarter Sessions for tne Borough of New
Windsor.

AN AMERICAN GIANT.—From the Law Courts I
adjourned with Mr. Holl to a diii,.rent scene—thl Pu-
giiistic 'Rooms of Mr. Hudson, where I saw the young
giant, Freeman, exercising with the gloves. I conversed
with him, and found him good-tempered and communi-
cative: he stated that his age Wl'3 twenty-one, and his
height seven feet, that he weighed 32.011),% and was lifty-
eight inches round the chest, and could lift 1,500 lbs.
Fceetnan used to be employed at the Circus, in carrying
a boy round the ring, and riding on two horses, and
though he was so bulky, he could throw a somersault.—
,Sir John Alexander's" Acadie."