Lyon County times. [volume] (Silver City, Nev.) 1874-1907, 1875-02-14
Criminal Women.

CRIMINAL w omen.
There is an interesting case of a wo-
man forger in Jeffrey's time. A certain
Lady Joy, widow, probably, OF a city
knight, laid claim to lands in the town Of
Shadwell, long held by st. Paul's Church.
She produced her deeds, fine old parch
mcnts, duly illuminated, very clear in
their definitions, high-sounding, proper,
and kingly titles of Philip and Mary and
all the flourishing, useless, formal, legal
phraseology. She claimed so much that
the court was alarmed. A church, too, is
hard antagonist: bishops, priests, and
deacons, hold on with lasting grip. Is
this not 30, heirs of Anneke Jansf
So it came to pass that they found the
Lady Joy a forger. Clever as an anti
quarian, curiously excellent as an illu-
minator, the Lady Joy had, with the aid
of two or three ignoble tools, named va
riously Bannister and Dutfett, and some
two or three others, gotten up new parch-
nent to look like old, and, by an ingen-
ious story of having found them in gar
ret with some genuine deeds which she
produced, came very near getting her
lands. Strange neglect of English law,
this non-registration of deeds! in coun-
try, too, where rank and title depend upon
the possession of land.
Lady Joy had clever lawyer, but so
had the church-one Mr.. Bradbury, an
antiquarian, though not a forger. He
took home the deeds and read them care
fully. Yes, here was an anachronism. She
styled Philip and Mary liking and Queen
of Naples" They had never borne that
title, or not, at least, at that time.
Jeffreys was delighted. "Ah, JOY" said
he, 'thou trimmest not round that fair
treew
Lady Joy bore her cross-examination
admirably, but her poor tools broke down
lamentably. Duffett's wife turned states
evidence, and gave the following queer
information:
''They babe me put saffron in the ink,
and they rubbed theparchment over dirty
windows, laid them out on balconies to
be rained on, and dried them by the fire
to make them look shriveled, they wore
them in their pockets and sat on them,
to give them rubbed and worn APP
pearance."
So this accomplished lady, who could
paint andilluminate so beautifully, would
have received the lands but for one mis-
take--she knew little too much; she had
added one title too many. She might
better have deprived Philip and Mary OF
two titles than to have added one which
they had not yet borne. Jeffreys was en-
chanted; he admired Mr.. Bradbury's acu-
men, and praised him in an unstinted
manner. He showed great clearness and
cleverness himself in the cross-examina-
ton, making Bannister tell at least fifty
lies. He insulted the woman Duffett in
his usual coarse manner, and brought out
all sorts of unpleasant family secrets from
Lady Joy. She claimed that her agent
had found these deeds in a garnet; that
the lands belonged to her great-grand-
father, and she really had cunninGl y dove
tailed in some startling and true facts
about the sale of sluice-way and pond
where, indeed, some early lay brother
of st. Paul's had evidently cheated a land
holder out of very good piece OF prop
erty.
But the sluice-way, as Jefireys SAID,
sswould not hold water" and she was de-
feated. The dry law-reports do not tell
if she was punished, nor give us the pleas
ure of knowing how she bore imprison-
.ment or death. Perhaps the loss of her
Shadwell, for which she had so valiantly
fought, was a sufficient punishment.
From her surroundings, in spite of her
pretty name, she does not seem to have
been very refined or lofty parsonage
Jetfreys admitted that the forgeries were
enormously clever, but he reserved his
praises for Bradbury, whose cunning de-