The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-08-09 00:00:00

STEALING FROM THE PERSON

William Heaton, 23, was indicted for having indecently
assaulted an old woman, 74 years of age, at West Houghton,
and stolen from her two shifts and a pair of clogs. The jury,
after some hesitancy, convicted him, and he was sentenced
to three months' imprisonment and hard labour, the first and
last week solitary.

FORGING A SEAMAN'S WILL

Margaret lir Grath, 19, and Sarah Hodgkinson, 29, were
indicted on a charge of having feloniously offered and uttered
a certain forged will and testament of one Robert Wilson,
with intent to defraud the representatives of that individual.
Mr. Adolphus conducted the prosecution. Mr. Owen, clerk
in the Registrar's Office, Chester, produced the forged will,
with a certificate attached. The Rev. T. S. Bowstead, sur-
rogate, said the instrument produced was handed to him on
the Ist of February last, by a woman who called herself
M'Grath, but whom he could not identify. She was sworn
to it, and it was sent to Chester for probate. The probate was
got from Chester, and he gave it to Mr. Maddock the clerk.
—Thomas Maddock, clerk of St. Philip's Church, was
sent, in April last, by Mr. Bowstead to Mr. Hurry, agent to
the port trustees, with the probate. M'Grath came to him,
and said Mr. Bowstead wished him to go with her to Mr.
Hurry. He went with her to that gentlemen. Mrs. Ann
Taylor was there. Mr. Hurry refused to pay the money, as
he said he thought it was not a true will. Mrs. Taylor ob-
jected to the money being paid. Witness went again to Mr.
Hurry's, by request of M'Grath, for the money. He went,
but Mr. Hurry refused to pay it. He went a third time, at
her request, and he still refused to pay it. He went with a
view to get the fees for the probate out of the money. The
will and probate were here read, by which the prisoner was
made sole executrix of the said Robert Wilson, at his de-
cease, and a previous will in favour of Ann Taylor, of Ray-
street, was revoked. The certificate of the prisoner M'Grath,
to the effect that she was sole heir, and sworn to by her be-
fore the Surrogate, was also read. It was dated 27th Feb.,
1842.—Ann Taylor, a lodging-house keeper, said the de-
ceased owed her upwards of £3 for board wages. Ile sailed
with the ship Peru on the 28th February, 1841. The ship
returned home in the beginning of the present year. She
went several times to Mr. Hurry, and there saw Sarah
Hodgkinson, who asked her her name, which she told her.
She afterwards met the prisoner M'Grath and Mr. Mad-
dock. They both asked them to go into Mr. Hurry's office.
They went there. Mr. Maddock showed the probate to Mr.
Hurry, and the witness said it was false. M'Grath had a
child with her, as now, and said it was Wilson's, and he had
left the property for it. Witness inquired the date of the
will, and was told it was the Ist of March. Witness said it
was false. as Wilson had gone before it was dated. M'Grath
said she had known Wilson two or three weeks before he
went. M'Grath said he was a middling fine man, tall, and
with whiskers, all of which witness denied, as he was a very
small dark-complexioned man, without whiskers. She went
again, and found the prisoners there with Mr. Maddock.
Witness afterwards saw Ainsworth, the constable. The
prisoners had employed Mr. Davies, an attorney, in
John-street. She there saw Hodgkinson, who said
M'Grath's mistress was ill, and she could not come. Hodg-
kinson said M'Grath lived in Chapel-place, Brick-street.
She afterwards saw M'Grath, in presence of Ainsworth, and
she then said the child was not her's. Wilson could riot
read nor write. He did not know a letter in a book. On
cross-examination by M'Grath, witness admitted that she
once said she wished the business was settled, and she agreed
to take the money owing to her by the deceased—they hav-
ing offered her ;U.—Harriet Hilton, wife of a publican, said
M'Grath was in her service. Hodgkinson often came to
the house, and asked M'Grath to go out with her, which she
frequently did. M'Grath said that she was receiving money
from her uncle, and afterwards that it was from her sweet-
heart. Before she was taken into custody, she told witness
she had done wrong, as she had signed a false will, and that
it was through Mr. and Mrs. Hodgkinson. She afterwards
said she had received some drink from them, and that was
the reason she had signed it. She had never been ill, while
the prisoner was with her. The prisoner Elodgkinson, who
had a child in her arms, said she had three children, and had
been deserted by her husband and left destitute.—Constable
Ainsworth apprehended the prisoner M'Grath at Mr.
Hilton's public-house, Henderson-street. He charged her
with having forged the will of a Robert Wilson. She said
she had not—she could not write. He asked her if she had
had a child by Wilson, and she said she never had a child.
She said she was taken to Hurry's by Burns, who had per-
suaded her to sign the certificate of the will, and to say she
had a child.—The cooper of the ship said Wilson went on
board the Peru with him, on the 28th February, 1841, with
witness. He died at Benin, on the coast of Africa, before
the return voyage.—lt was shown that Messrs. Harrison,
owners of the Peru, had paid over a sum of £l4 ss. 6d., due
to Wilson, to Mr. Hurry.—William Edmondson proved
that Wilson could not write, as he had made his mark fre-
quently in place of signing it, to advance shipping notes, &c.—
Mr. Hurry, receiver of dead-money for the port trustees,
said he received, on the Ist of February last, £l4 ss. 6d.,
due to the late Robert Wilson. Both the prisoners fre-
quently called for the money.—The learned Judge summed
up, and the jury found both prisoners guilty, and they were
put down to wait the result of the other similar cases.