Old Bailey, Saturday, Sep...
The Times, 1824-09-20T00:00:00

JlTir'ael .12oore a'u elderly man of respectable appearance. was capitally indicted ?eor tittering foreed TcCeip ts as roIichers hi his ac- counts, he being Ilirser of his Alajesty's ship Liverpool. The ut- tering wa8 charged to be, first with intent to clefraiud his Majesty and in the second place, with intenit to detraud the executiveof e il. liam Twyiham, deceased, who had been thc ship's purser before the prisoner. Ilr. BOLLADID, who conducted the proorention -fer the Crows, together with Mr. ADOLPHUS and Mr. PLATT, stAted tile case. The prisoner having been appointed pu-err in consequencc of' thc death of Mfr. Twynham, drew a bill for 3001. on the Victualling Board, which was paitd. Suspicions having afterWarTs risner,. an account was requiired of the prisoner, and on its being furnishetl. certain reccipts noi' charged to have becn forged wvere sent with it The prisoner was afterwards apprehiended, an(i at thig tin wvere tound upon him materials for making aJfSc simile ot a signature. The alleged forgerv was committed in 1821. The clerks from Somerset House prove(d the receipt of'the letter from the prisoner, containing his accouints, andi the voucltrs itt proof of them; and it was also proved thbt the letter and account were in the prisoner's hand-writing. It was proposed here to read the vouchers alleged to h..ve beeti forged, but this was objected to by Mr. BRODErtICK, the prikoner's counsel, on the ground that the receipt of them at Somerset House hadl not yet beeti proved. James Bowen Somerville, senior Lieuteinant of' the Liverpool, proved, that in consequence of cotplaints made by the men that the purser ha;l not paid them, he sent for the prisoner. whol did not come until he n-as brought by a guardl. Tle letter alid accounts were shown to the -vitness. who said that the signature purporting to be his was not made by hiin. Alacclaonald, the steward of the late purser ofthe Lirerpml, swore, that the signature of one of the names wats not the hand-writing ot' the person supposed to have signed it. lie atitiited, however, that the signature purporting to be his own, on the samne document, wats really his. Captain Collier commanded The Licerpool. The prisoner became purser on the death of 1r. T'wynham. and had accets to that gentle- man's papers. On looking at two certificates now produced, the wit- ness said that the signattires wereso tnuch like hiiN hand-wriding, that he could not swear whether they were so or not; bxit upon looking at the document-he was quitecornvinced that thev were noto, his hand- writing. They purported to be certificates that payments had been made to the men in the witness's presence, which net-cr had been) so mated. He could tiot swear to the hand-writing of tile otber persons whose signatures were affixed to the accounts. On his cross-examination, Captain Collier said hc never hind had so good a clerk, one who kept his accounts so well and so closelv, or citabled hhsn to pass them with so much ease since lie had been in the service, at Somerset House. He had a hich opinion of' the prisoner's itttegrity, and had trusted hint with his own and other loonies, all of wlihl he had faithtrully accounted for. He supposed that Twynham's books were sent homeon h;s deeease_th2t being the usual practice. He had signed many thousand documents tIuring the time that the prisoner Iwas clerk and purser. Captain Collier's examination being concluded, he expressed a wish to ad1d something with respect to tile prisoner and alter com- municating the nature of wlhat he wishedl to sav to the prisoner's counsel, lie resumed his place in the witness-box. He then stated, that afier theprisoner becare the ship's purser, he went otn as cx- peditioti to the Persian Gilf, when a mortalitv ensued on board his ship, which was so tatal that he buried three lieutenants out of four in one morning. The prisoner. as well as almost everv body else on boardl, was aick, and so terrified at his illness, and so much irritaterl at the tricks playe(d hiln by the young gentlenien on board t'he ship. who thought his fears a fine subject for quizzing, that lie eas in a state of frenzy. He used to weep like a child, and, in Captain Collier's opinion, had not the possession of hirfacultes. Smythers Aldis, a sergeant ofMarines, was sure that ithe siurna- ture to the account, purporting to be that ot Serg eant Stokes, was not written by h'm, nor was it like his writing. f Houghton, a mariie, also knew Stokes, and swore that the signature tn questiotn was not his harid-writing ; nor was that of John 4eynolds hisbkand.writing. The winless was asked as to several other signatures, rtIe forgery of which he failed to prove. Jones, a mariner, knew the hand-writing of several of the per- sons5 whose namnes were afflxed tO the account; he, however, cle- clined to speak to any of them but one, anti this he said he thought it might or might not be the man's writing. Proof was given, that several of the seamen, who were described in the vouchers as having affixed their niark thereto, were able to write. It was then proposed to read the accounts, and to give in evidence other accounts found hit the prisoner's possession, for the purpose of proving that be had before attempted to imitate the signatures of the seamen. * Mr. BRODERICK objected to this; but the accoutit sent in to the Victulalllng-office, and two other accounts sitbsequently found at the prisoner's lodgrngs, and which appeared to relate to the same trans- actions, were ultumately put in, and subjected to the inspection sf the ury. Tllhe prisoner put in a written defence, which set forth that the ac. cousnts were made out in the Gulf of Persia, when he was sicks. He alleged that Air. Twynbam hbi letl his accounts in a confused statei which ocecioned the erors thatt were made the subiect of tbis prosecution and most strenuously denied any intention to com. mit a fraud. AMr. Richardson, of the Victualling-office, deposed, that the vrioner knew the investigation was going on at the office xince illarch, and might have absconded, if he had supposed he coul.l not meet the eliarg6, ritnesses (amongst whom vwere many ntaval officers of distinction) were then called to speak to the prisoner's character; but the only person wlho appeared was Mr. Emans,jandlord of thie Edinburgh Castle Tavern, in the Strand. He had known the prisoner for about a year, during which time his concduct had been irreproachable. Air. Justice GAsEf.g summed up the case most minutely. There were, he ob'seVed, two material points for cotisideraion: first, whether the prisoner had himself forged the names of those parties; and. if not, whether lte had uttered the vouchiers, knowing the narries to bavebeen forged by some other person. In either case the of'ence was capital. lo man, he observed, could have received a higher character tian tbe prisoner had done from Captain Collier; and it was to be regretted that the other gentlemen, whose names had been. called to give evidence to character, had not attended. He must, however, state to the jury, that if they were convinced in their minds of the prisoner's guilt. they must leave the question of cha- racter entirely out of their consideration. If, on the other hand, they had any doubt on the subject, then the consideration of charac- ter became a matter of the greatest importance. The Jury retired; and, after deliberating for a quarter of an hour, returned a verdict of-Not Guilty. OLD B4ILEY . SATURDA,A SEP7. If;.