The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1844-12-10 00:00:00

TRIAL OF MR. WINTERBOTTOM.

John Kenyon Winterbotlom, late a most respectable
solicitor at Stockport, was on Thursday indicted for
forging the endorsements to a bill of exchange for £5OOO,
whereby he defraud,-d the Pelican Life Insurance Com-
pany of that amount. There were four indictments
against the_ prisoner for the same offence, which were
merely variations in the name of the party defrauded.
The prosecution was conducted by the Attorney-General
(of the Palatine), Mr. Davidson, and Mr. Yardley; and
the prisoner was defended by Mr. Jervis and Mr.Welsby,
both of whom were specially retained.
The circumst 'aces of this case, as appeared from the
evidence, were as follow :—The prisoner had been for
many years the confidential attorney of a gentleman
n .med Isherwood, who resided at Marple Hall, near
Stockport. In 1813 this gentleman effected an insurance
upon his life for £5OOO with the Pelican office, the annual
premium upon which was £l6l ss. The policy continued
in Mr. Isherwood's hands till his death, in May, 1839;
and at his death the prisont.r (who was well known as
Mr. Isherwood's legal adviser) went to Mr Tate, the
company's agent in Manchester, with the policy. Mr.
Tate had previously received instructions from the office
in London to pay the £5OOO. The prisoner asked him
for the money. On the 7th December,•lB39, Mr. Tate
told him be would give him a bill of exchange, at seven
days' sight, for it; but that the names of the executrixes
(the wile•and daughter of the late Mr. Isherwood) must
be endorsed, in their own hands, and not by procuration.
When the bill was fir-t drawn the words "or order" were
omitted. The prisoner called Mr. Tate's attention to the
omission, and at his suggestion those words were inter-
lined. 'I he bill being rhos in the prisoner's hands, he
paid it into the Bank of Stockport on his own account :
the Bank of Stockport sent it to their bankers in London,
Messrs. Jones, Lloyd, and Co., by whom it was present-
ed to Messrs. Roberts, Curtis, and Co., (the bankers of
the Pelican office,) and by them paid at the clearance. It
was not till the month of July that the traud was disco-
vered ; but in the meantime the executrixes, or some of
them, had applied to the prisoner concerning it, and he
alleged various excuses as the cause of delay, one of which
-was, that the office had not given a receipt for the last
payment of the annual premium, and that in consequence
of some difficulty in obtaining a prerogative or Canterbury
probate, the office would not pay the sum insured, but
would pay the interest on it. The prisoner, it appeared,
had been made a bankrupt, but previously he had ab-
sconded, and was not met with till September last, when
he was accidentally seen in Liverpool by a person who
fermerly knew hint, and by whom he was given into cus-
tody. The prosecution was carried on by Messrs. Bush
and Mullen, solicitors to the London Association of
Bankers, on the part of Messrs. Roberts and Co.
For the defence no witnesses were called, but a very
powerful speech was made by Mr. Jervis. with the view
of reducing the offence to a breach of trust.
Some objections to the indictment, arising from a vari-
ation between the designation of the insurance-office, as
stated in the bill, and that in the policy, and also as to
the intent being laid to defraud the trustees, whilst their
designation was not set forth as required by the Joint
Stock Act, were reserved by the Judge for the considera-
tion of the court above. _

The jury immediately found the prisoner guilty. Sen-
tence, however, was not passed, nor will it be till the
opinion of the superior court is known upon the objec-
tions.

Mr. Jervis, as the prisoner had been convicted on one
indictment only, applied for his discharge from the other
three, but the Judge refused the application.

CONVICTION FOR MURDER.—Mary Gallop, a young
woman having the appearance of a servant, aged 20, was
on Friday placed at the bar, and pleaded not gull y to an
indictment charging her with the wilful murder of her
own father, Richard Gallop, at Monks Coppenhall, on the
2d of November last, by the administration of a quantity
of white arsenic. After a long examination, the jury
found a verdict of guilty, and his lordship, in an impres-
sive address, passed sentence of death upon the prisoner,
who appeared to be very little affected at her situation.

It is rumoured that Sir W. Follett is to be judge of the
Privy Council.

The Court of Queen's Bench was occupied on Monday
with a case, Hope v. Harman and others, which is an ac-
tion brought, by direction of the Court of Chancery, to
ascertain the equitable right of different parties to a share
in the jewels left by the will of the late Mr. P. H. Hope,
valued at the enormous sum of £210,000. The principal
question in the cause is, whether .the will of the testator
revoked a deed made in his life time, respecting the dis-
pt sition of his jewels. It was stated that one of the dia-
monds cast the deceased £14,600!
LIABILITY OF SHAREHOLDERS.—In the Court of
Chancery, bublin, on Tuesday last, the Lord Chancellor,
in the case of Taylor v. 11 oghes (one of the public officers
of the Agricultural Bank), decided that the registry of
the plaintiff's name in 1843 (it having been omitted for
more than seven years trum the registry lodged at the
stamp office, pursuant to the statute), was for the frau-
culent purpose of exposing him to the liabilities of the
establishment ; that lie was bound, therefore, to grant
relief prayed for in the bill, and that therefore, luokirg
to all the circumstances of the transaction, he was of
opii ion that the decree should be with costs. The result
of this decision will relieve 2400 shareholders, whose
names were placed on the registry since 1843 ; therefore,
the liabilities of the parties remaining on the registry are
greatly increased.