The Sun.
London, England, 1859-08-27 00:00:00

THAMES.

ROBBING AN OLD LADY IN A FlT.—Ellen Bryant, an
artful woman, aged 41, who has been convicted several
times for petty robberies, and was once imprisoned for a
long period for stripping children of their clothes, was
brought before Mr. Yardley charged with stealing two
gold rings, one shawl, one sheet, and one bed-gown, the
property of Margaret Johnson, an old lady, residing at No.
22, Upper North-street, Poplar. It appeared that for a
few weeks prior to the 4th inst. the prisoner had been in
the practice of waiting upon Mrs. Johnson, performing
sundry offices for 'her and sleeping with her occasionally.
On the last-mentioned day the prosecutrix was attacked
with an epileptic fit, and it was some time before she re-
covered. The prisoner was attending upon the old lady,
and Sarah Perry, a young woman living in the same house,
saw Mrs. Johnson recovering from the fit, and noticed
that her gold rings, which she had seen on her
fingers :in the day had been removed, but had then
no suspicion of the prisoner, who went out soon after Mrs.
Johnson recovered from the fit, and did not return until five
or six hours afterwards, when she was very much intoxi-
cated. The young woman Perry then alluded to the old
lady's rings, and said they were not on her fingers, and
could not be found anywhere. The prisoner said the old
lady must have bitten the rings off her finger and swal •
lowed them while she was in the fit. The prisoner slept
with the old lady that night, and left her the next morn-
ing, observing to Perry that she should very soon return,
but she never entered the house afterwards, and was even-
tually traced to Poplar Workhouse, of which she became
an inmate on the ground that she was destitute a fortnight
ago. Mrs. Johnson did not arrive at a perfect state of con-
sciousness until the morning of the sth of August, when
she missed her rings off her fingers, and a quilt, a shawl,
a sheet and bedgown from her drawers.

The prisoner, in her defence, said she had not taken the
things, and declared that the rings were taken away from
the old lady by her son's wife last Christmas.
Mr. Yardley said it was clearly proved the rings were
upon the fingers of the prosecutrix on the morning of the
4th instant, and after hearing a good deal of circumstantial
evidence against the prisoner committed her for trial.
A VERY MEAN THIEF.-Edward Smith, formerly a wan-
dering gipsy, a dissipated lazy fellow, who is not very fond
of work, was brought before Mr. Yardley, charged with
stealing 48. 111 d. in money belonging to a poor youth
named James Thomas Bliss, who keeps a coffee stall
for his grandfather, a cripple, in • Limehouse, and
by which they obtain a bare subsistence. The
prisoner came to the coffee-stall, near Limehouse
Church at an early hour in the morning, and seated him-
self upon a chair, on which was a coat belonging to Bliss.
One of the pockets of the coat contained a bag, in whioh
was 4s. all the money the prosecutor had in the
world. The prisoner remained seated upon the chair for a
quarter of an hour, and when he left Bliss missed the bag.
and money. The prosecutor called for a police -constable,
named Sorrell, 410 K, who searched him and found the
bag and money upon him.
Mr. Yardley asked the prisoner what he had got to say
in his defence ? to which he replied, " I don't know what
to say, T am guilty," and Mr. Yardley sentenced him to
three mouths' hard labour in the House of Correction.