The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1844-01-23 00:00:00

THE FORGED WILLS.

An examination into a wholesale forgery of wills has
lately occupied the Lord Mayor at the Mansion-house,
' and the accused were re-examined on Tuesday. They
are Mr. Barber, of the firm of Barber and Bircham,
' solicitors, in New Bridge-street—the other partner being
L in no way implicated—and a Mr. Fletcher ; and on Mon-
, day Mrs. Georgina Dorey, the vvite of a respectable
shopkeeper in Oxford-street, was added to the list of
prisoners. The first case was that of a Miss Ann Slack,
who had property left her by her father, amounting to
more than £6,000. She seems not to have been very
astute in business. Her guardian, Mr. Hulme, had the
management of her affairs ; and he transferred stock to
her name in two separate sums ; furnishing her with
money as she required it. The guardian died in 1832 ;
and the lady, who up to that time had lived in Smith-
street, Chelsea, went to reside with a married sister and
her husband, Captain Foskett. Miss Slack continued to
receive dividends at the bank, ou one part of the stock,
while the rest remained forgotten ; and having been un-
claimed for ten years, was, on the 6th of June, 1842,
transferred to the Commissioners for the Reduction of
the National Debt ; and Mr. Barber became aware of
the transfer. On the pretext that he was empowered to
convey some funded property bequeathed to a " Miss
Ann Slack " by a lady who had died six weeks before
at Bath, he applied to Captain Foskett, apparently to
settle some doubts as to the identity of his sister-in-law;
and thus obtained information respecting the owner of
the unclaimed dividend, and also Miss Slack's signature.
A will in her name was now produced in Doctors' Com-
mons, purporting to bequeath the unclaimed stock to her
niece, " Emma Slack ;" a note purperting to be from
" Emma Slack " was addressed to the governor of the
bank, requesting that the stock might be transferred to
her ; and a person answering to that name attended at
the bank, and received the dividends due on the stock.
Mr. Fletcher first appears in the business as introducing
" Nliss Emma Slack " to Mr. Barber.
In the next case, the forged will of a Mrs. Mary
Hunt, of Queen's-square, Bristol, was proved at Doctors'
Commons by Barber, who afterwards received the amount
mentioned in the will, with the interest for ten years.
Barber was accompanied on the occasion by a person
who called himself Thomas Hunt, and who pretended to
be the executor. That the document was forged there
I could be no doubt, as Mary Hunt died in 1806, while the
will proved by Barber made it appear that she did not
die before 1829. A book belonging to Fletcher con-
tained an entry of the name of Mary Hunt, the amount
of unclaimed money due, and the name of the solicitor ;
and Fletcher is suspected of having personated Thomas
Hunt ; but the evidence was not clear on that point.
The third case, which was just like those described,
related to the will of Elizabeth Burchard, in which the
property bequeathed amounted to £2,000. Mr. Barber
and his client were again remanded until the 22d instant.
On Friday Mrs. Dorey was produced as the personator
of Emma Slack, in which name she had taken lodgings
in Francis-street, Tottenham-court-road; and at her
own house were found some articles of dress which she
had worn as Emma Slack, and a seal like that on the
false will of Elizabeth Burchard. The prisoner was
remanded till Monday (yesterday), to be examined with
the others.