Old Bailey, Monday, Sept....
The Times, 1824-09-21T00:00:00

Robert Beall was capitally indicted For setting fire to a hou3e, N?o. 'l7, Strand, with intent to defratid( the Sun Fireofflice. ir. BO LL.N, having stated thc case, calle(d John Fearne, the tenant of the hiunse ihentioiied in the indict. ment. In March last the prisoner applied to him to rcnt one roomn in the house, for the nurpose of depositing atticies of his trade, which is that of' a huiider. The witness agreced to let him have a hack room on the third floor for this purpose. The prisoner tonk possession, andt the witness afterwards saw some woollen cloth and wenring apparel, with other thinlgs, he should value at 1001. Fle had not, however, seen the interior of the roots for four months before the 15th of August, when the fire hap. ,cenel. On the Thiutslay preceding, witness told the prisoner that hc wished him to give up the room; when the prisoner said it would be inconvenient to him to do so at that time. MVitnes, efFered him the use of his closets to deposit his-goods, but he saitI they would not be large enough to hold th' woollen cloth and other things he had in his room. This conversation took place at the Obelisk in St. George's-fields. On the night of the fire, witness left the pri- soner (vrho hadl been four or five times in thle course of the day) in the house: on returning at half-past ten on the same night, in con. seqoence of an alarm which had been given, he went up to the room occupied by the prisoner, vihen he found a jean coat and a sack on fire on a shelf in the recess. There were several persois in tihe roomn ndeavousring to put out the fire. The chimnny.jaml was also burning. The eack was suspended hy a brad-awl. Thicre were empty oil and turpentine cans standing in the recess. In a stone bottle, near them, was what appearea to witness to be a mixture of oil anId turpentine. The size of the room is 1 feet by 12. In a cupboard in the opposite corner of the room was a hat-box filled w.itb smok, and a waistcoat en fire and nearly e6nsumed. There vas also a cask in the cspboard, containingoil and tttrpentine mixed and on the floor were lying a great toany pieces of wood and shav. ings, witn pieces of paper and letters steepel in oil. An apron half burnt, and a sheet of brown paper, were in the cupbokrd. A crack in the door of the cupboard, through which any persb n fAom tre staircase might hsave tsen a liglt if it had beci in the cvspboati, wths stu ed up with rags. A mahogany door whilch lay on the floor of the room was scorched by -tome rags dipped in turpentine, which had been laid on iL All the places whe'e the witness observed. the fire were distinct fromn rach other. There was a hole, four or five -inches each way; or more, bored in the ceiling of the room through which the laths twere exposed, There were in the room a saX,, home planes, locks, and nails. Of wearing apparel, there Wae oisly Ia coat and a ialr of narikeen breeches; at the whole value of the contents of tbe rooni was about C1. Cross-examined.-He badt been iunforttnate in business, and sonic time azo took the'ben6fit df the Insdlvent Act. fie was living for sonia time in the rulcief the Xing's Bench prisona, and was hssenit frnm his house in the Strand eight of' nine weeks in January ard February. He Was liberated in March, and thten returned -to the Strand, whlereiie occupied the first flooriipart of the thiird, and all. the upper pare of'the h6ufo. Some-glass.tiealers occupied the lower part tf the house. The~prebso~ rres-ided at Valwortb, and hado wIl onie rporn. WVitness told tho-Kmmissioners thatt hip badi psirted It thiv leise for $01. Ile-hrul not partea ;w.ith his interestintef. tures for 251. An,execution liad bee&in ios;tefxue were sold by a broker ulrd;j that 4~xecro.Tiswsaoto orfisremi6rthqsb6fosre the fire ;iappen1~ - r o asfre telserwtneis's lantlitd :'neitherheujd8sransxsdido,ie prqmL* if,ii6h timeFbf the ie -Otne.' upni~ gbe oskd Wb-thlae.wIthe~s '; the other caZ tal ba o mnh n.les$ toner's poiisea416y,dnan were uised'lesmlPis:t~i~;~~ paid tls~ retik tfE thfe'iptuAe~ Thugssde1r,~0t iet rI' tOft.~u8.Ji te ~ nl was thoul to have been paid over to witness, and it Was paid to hint by all the other lodgers. Alr. Wm.Bontld, one of M11r. Fearne's workmen..saw theprisoner three times in the course of the day of the fire. The last tlme WAs at eiglit o'clockv,- wben he came into witness's room for a light, which %was given to limt-. At half-past 10 witness was alarmed by a smell of fire, antl went downi stairs, when he fou)id the prisoner s room tras on fire, and assidted in puttinig it out. Esther Dat is oecupied a room opposite to the prisoner's. She first discovered the fire, and gave the alarm; the door Was then broken open, and the fire put out. John WTVood a sculptor -saw the prisoner on the night of the fire; he came at about 9 o'cloci into a room in wvhieh Alrs. Fearne andt the witness were sitting. IMrs. Fearne romarked that there was a stront smell of turpentine. Prisoner quitted the house, and at about half past ten, witness, hearing the alarm given bv AlisqDavis, ran up and found the prisoner's room padlocked, with a greu. light under the door. Witness forced the door open, water was brought, and the fire got *ander. He then described the state of the room in neasly the same terms ns those used by the witneAs Fearne. James Skeal was present at the breaking open of the door, and corrohorated the testimony of- the othter witnesses as to the state of the roonm; and a brother of the witness deposed. to the same effect. - Bannister, one of the Westminster fitesnen, arrtived when the fire had been put out. He was quite 4itre that the fire could not have been the eff'ect of accident. This witness prdlueed the things which lie hlad found half burnt. An attorney's clerk proved the service of a notice to the prisoner to produce the policy of insurance. 'I'his not being proAuced, Charles Taylor, a clerk in the Sun Fire-office, p-ove(d that an ap- plication was made to him on the S0tlt of INarch, to effect a oolicy on property at No. 97. in the Strand. Mrs. Pearne was recalled, anti provedl the handwriting of the pri- soner in the figures on a paper produced by the last witness; none of the words were written by him. The insurance had been miade by hiat as i dealer in wearing ap- parel. The whole amount of tlhe insurance was 4501. The case for the prosecution having been concluded, the prisoner, in his dlefence, denied thecommission of the crime imputed to hin. He dwelt upon the improbability of his having done so. He said thsat 'he interest lie had in Air. Fearne's houtse, and the quantity of woollen cloth anid wearing apparel which fie deposited in that. house, justified him in effecting an insurance tothe amountwhich had been stated. IThoi goods hc had redeemed from a pawnbroker to the aiouoat of 1501. The jury could not doubt that they were worth a muccl larger stut; le had sold some of tiem, and removed the rest publicly, and in the face of day, withont an attempt at concealment. I c went on to say, that the fire as it had becn discovered was in such parts of the room where it was lea?t likely to do much mischief, and insised again upon the improbability of his having pursued such means to consurmmate the offence charged against him. Several witnesses were called who gave the prisoner a good hlia- raciter. Air. Justice GASE LEE summedl up, when another witness appear- ed to the prisoner's character, who had notanswered when calle(d. The prisonler then begged the Court TO allow him to call witnesses wvho were now in attendance, end who vould prove that the proper^ ty of hieh he was possessed at the tirne he effected the insurance was to the full valse of the amount of the policy. Ir. Justicc GASELEE said, ithe had instructed his counsel, the witnesses should even ano be called. Mlr. LAW, the prisonet's counsel, then came into court, and pro- ceeded to examine - Alatthews, who saiti lie had known the prisoner 7 months: lie kner lie was in possession of a large quantity of wearing apparel. A pawnbroker, in his evidence, deposed to facts tehding to prove that the prisoner had redeemed propertv out of his hands in March to the vaJue of 401. and upwards, exclusive of interest; hut lie was unable to speak to the absolute value of the goods. They were pledgedl by Matthews, the witness. Several other witnesses were called, btut their evidence was imma- terial. Ill. ,Jnsftce GAsarrFE then conecluded his summing up; and the jury returned a verdict of uilty. Judgment respited until the point of law shall be decided in respect of an objection taken by the counsel for the prisoner, as to the discrepancy of the proof of posses- sion of the house, from the recital in the indictment. Before Mr. Ser.-eant ASAABEn and a London Jury. Franeis Jordatt was indlicted for feloniously stealing and embez- zling 200 sovereigns in gold, bills of exchange. and bank-notes to a very large amount, the property of Messrs. Keuworthiy, ofthis city, his employers. Mlr. ADoLPItIus, for the prosecution, stated that this case would iletail one of the mast cxtraordinary scenes of mixed honesty and knavery, duplicitv and ci11iness, that hail ever come tinder the Notice of a court of julstice. The prisoner was a nLtive of Ireland, and for some time employed bv the very respectable prosecutors, thejliessrs. Kenworthy. At first he conducted himself with unimpeachable ho- nesty but, on one oecasiln, havingc been sent in the city tn receive the amount of a bill of exchange, he never returned. For some time nm tidings were heard of hini; but at length a sum of about 201. was remitted by the post fro- the " Green Dragon," at 'irap- ping, to the genitlemiien in question, in a letter stating that the pri- soner h,td bceii robbed of the rest of the mniney. It would easily he supposed, that on inquiry no such persnn as AIr. Jordatn was to he founti at ilc Green Dragon; but so badly hail he contrived mat- ters, that lie left abuindant traces of his removal to Ireland; in which country, with the assistance of the police, he was soon discovered, delivered tip to justice, and lodged in gaol: from whence, bv disguising himself in women's clothes, he had already managed to get beyond the first and second gates of the prison, when the agility with whichl he leaped the outer wall be- trayed the fatal fact the the prisoper was not what he appeared to be-a decrepit old woman. He was pursued and taken but the sum of money fbuntd on his person, a5ded to the sum remitted bv hin to hi employers, his former good character, and the willing- ness of the prisoner now to retract the olea of not aiuilty, and throw hlinself on the mercy of the Court, induced him (Mlr. Adolphus) to notice in this inanner to the jury circumnstances of so favourable a complexion in the prisoner's case. This appeared, moreover, to be his first offence and the prosecutors, Ml[essrs. Kenworthv, uow em- povwered him (Mi\Ir. Adolphus) to say', that it fas their wish to recom. mendl hinm to the favour of the Court. Alr. Sergeatnt ARAnBs said, the prisonet's ease should certainly receive, utlOler all the circumstances. the most favourable considers. lioIl ot'the Court. The plea of Gutilty waq then recorded, and the prisotuer wRas re- moved from the bar. OfD RX4II.F. }.fOV.AV. R,zVR. 20.