on the same evening, the scene of his crime rendering it necessary that
he should suffer execution in the county of Kent. The wretched prisoner
made no attempt to deny or to palliate his guilt, and appeared to be
deeply sensible of the painful nature of his situation. He maintained an
unusual degree of firmness throughout the remaining portion of his life,
which did not forsake him even at the scaffold.
His execution was attended by a vast number of persons, a great many of
whom were soldiers or marines.
The execution took place on Monday, May the 18th 1835.
* * * * *
As this is the first case, to which we have alluded of the trial of a
prisoner at the court constituted as the Central Criminal Court, it may
be well to mention the change in the law, by which this alteration in
the title of the "Old Bailey" was effected. The extreme inconvenience
attending the prosecuting offenders, for crimes committed in the
immediate vicinity of the metropolis, but not within the district to
which the jurisdiction of the Old Bailey extended, involving, as it did,
among other evils, the necessity of the attendance of witnesses at
Maidstone, Chelmsford, or the other assize towns of the Home Circuit,
had long been felt and complained of; and parliament had been called
upon to provide a remedy by which the existing system might be improved.
Under the superintending influence of Lord Brougham, the Central
Criminal Court Act was prepared, and carried through both Houses of
Parliament. The general effect of this important statute is all that it
is necessary for us to state. Its provisions materially extend the
district over which the judges sitting at the Old Bailey have
jurisdiction. They render it necessary that there shall be at the least
twelve sessions in the course of the year, thus rendering the delivery
of the jail of Newgate more frequent than formerly; and they also give
the judges of the Court jurisdiction over offences committed on the high
seas, for the trial of which hitherto a Special Admiralty Session had
been held. These are the main alterations of the law which are effected;
and the experience of nearly six years has shown the operation of the
new act to be attended with the most admirable results.
HENRY STANYNOUGHT.
TRIED FOR THE MURDER OF HIS SON.
This melancholy case excited, at the time of its occurrence, almost
universal sympathy, as well for the unfortunate victim of the attack, as
for the miserable parent by whom that attack was made.
Mr. Stanynought was a stationer in a respectable way of business,
residing in Connaught-terrace, Edgeware-road. On the morning of Friday,
the 4th of September 1835, his shopman was horror-struck at perceiving
his master run down stairs in a state of partial nudity, bleeding
profusely from a wound which he had inflicted on his breast with a
case-knife, which he carried in his hand. Rushing towards Mr.
Stanynought, he at once was informed by him of the death of his son by
his hands. An instant alarm was given; and the declaration of the
wretched father, that he had killed his son, was found to be true. Mr.
Stanynought and his son, aged about twelve years, it appears, had
retired to rest in the same room on the previous evening; and in the
course of the night the former was heard moving about by his servant.
The body of the deceased child presented a melancholy spectacle. It was
lying with the face towards the bed, and the poor boy had evidently died
of suffocation. There was, however, a deep wound across the forehead,
which seemed to have been dealt with some blunt instrument. Mr.
Stanynought, upon being questioned, at once declared that the dreadful
act had been committed by him. He said that he had long meditated the
destruction of both his child and himself, and that he had burned
charcoal in the room in which they slept on two nights without effect.
On the previous evening he had taken laudanum; and in the course of the
night he had struck his son with the boot-jack; but finding his blows
ineffectual, he had smothered him with a pillow.
Further inquiry at once elicited the fact that the wretched man was
subject to occasional fits of insanity--a malady from which both his
father and grandfather had suffered. The apprehension of the same
disease displaying itself in his son, appeared to be the sole cause of
the dreadful deed which he had committed.
At a coroner's inquest held on Monday the 7th of September, the
circumstances attending the death of the deceased were elicited, with
the additional fact of the insanity of the father. Proof of this feature
in the case before the coroner's jury, however, was unavailing, and a
verdict of "Wilful Murder," was returned.
Between this time and the period of his trial, Mr. Stanynought almost
completely recovered from the effects of the wound he had committed upon
himself. On Friday, the 25th of September, the wretched man was put upon
his trial at the Central Criminal Court, when his insanity being clearly
proved, a verdict of acquittal was returned upon that ground.
He was therefore ordered to be detained during his Majesty's pleasure,
and was subsequently conveyed to a mad-house.
ROBERT BALLS, THOMAS HARRIS, AND MORDECAI MOSES.
TRANSPORTED FOR FORGERY.
The offence of which these men were convicted, was that of forging and
circulating an immense number of notes which were forged, but which
purported to be genuine notes of the Austrian and Polish banks.
The prisoner Balls was an engraver residing in the neighbourhood of
Clerkenwell, and he had been employed by Harris and Moses, both of whom
were of the Jewish persuasion, the latter being a native of Poland, to
prepare fac-similes of the notes of the Austrian and Polish banks, with
a view to the preparation and circulation of forged instruments of the
same description. An immense number of these notes had been already put
into circulation before the apprehension of the prisoners; and M.
Salzman, a cashier of the Austrian bank at Vienna, was despatched to
London, from which place it was found the forged notes emanated, in
order to take the necessary steps to secure the parties guilty of these
fraudulent proceedings. Ruthven and Fletcher, the Bow-street officers,
were employed by him to assist him in his inquiries; and in a short
time, they succeeded in discovering the connexion of Harris, Moses, and
Balls, with the forgeries. Their proceedings were in consequence watched
for some time; but at length Balls and Harris were secured on Monday,
the 16th of November 1835, at the Star Coffee-house, Crown-street,
Finsbury, having in their possession a quantity of unfinished Austrian
notes, and the necessary plates and other instruments to complete
fac-simile representations of genuine notes. In the house of Harris, in
Sadler's-court, Gravel-lane, Houndsditch, other instruments of a similar
description, but which had been prepared to print Polish notes, were
found, together with evidence which left no doubt of his guilt on both
charges. On the 9th of November, Moses was also apprehended at the
Strand Coffee-house, near Temple-bar, with a parcel in his possession
containing like evidence of his guilt of the crime of forging and
uttering notes of the Polish bank.
After several examinations at Bow-street, the prisoners were committed
to Newgate, and they took their trial at the following Central Criminal
Court Sessions, on Friday the 18th of December. The first case gone into
was that of an indictment, which charged Moses, who was described under
the _alias_ Marcus Warshaur, Balls, and Harris, with forging and
uttering notes of the Polish bank. The evidence was insufficient to
support this charge, and they were acquitted. On the following day,
however, Moses was tried upon an indictment, charging him with
feloniously possessing copper-plates engraved with a fictitious
undertaking in the Polish language, to pay the sum of five guilders,
(equal in value to 2_s._ 6_d._), and a verdict of guilty was returned,
after a trial of several hours' duration. Harris was on the same day
tried upon an indictment charging him with uttering forged notes on the
Polish bank, and he too was found guilty. On Monday, the 21st December,
Balls was also tried and convicted; but further proceedings against the
prisoners upon other indictments were delayed, until the opinion of the
Judges should have been obtained upon certain objections which were
taken to the indictments upon which they had been convicted.
On Wednesday, February the 3d 1836, the prisoners were informed, that
the objections taken in their favour were unavailing, and that they had
been rightly convicted, and on the 10th of the same month, they were
sentenced to transportation; Balls and Harris for life, and Moses for
fourteen years.
WILLIAM SUMMERS.
TRANSPORTED FOR LARCENY.
This unfortunate young man was guilty of a very extensive robbery upon
his employers, Messrs. Ashley and Co., bankers, of Regent-street. He
held a responsible situation in the service of that firm; but in the
month of May, 1835, he suddenly absconded, carrying with him a sum of
3240_l._ in Bank-of-England notes, four hundred sovereigns, and 40_l._
in silver. His accomplice in this crime was supposed to be a person
named Jackson, a member of the New Police, and notwithstanding every
exertion was made to discover their retreat it was without avail, and
for a time they succeeded in getting clear off. Nothing more was heard
of them until the month of November, when a paragraph appeared in the
daily papers, copied from a journal published at Montreal, in which the
fact was notified of the apprehension of Summers at Quebec. Handbills
describing the persons of the runaways, and also the nature of the
property which they had stolen, it appears, were extensively circulated
after the robbery; and some of these reached the possession of the
managers of the Montreal bank. In the month of September, a young man
presented himself at the counter of that bank, and requested money for a
50_l._ note of the Bank of England. The particulars of the note were
found, upon comparison, to correspond with those furnished of one of the
stolen securities; and upon the person who presented it being
questioned, he at length, after some hesitation, confessed that his name
was Summers, and that he had committed a robbery upon his employers and
had absconded with its proceeds, in company with an acquaintance named
Jackson. Upon his being taken before a magistrate of the place he made a
confession, of which the following is a copy.
"William Summers being charged on oath before me with having, on the 6th
of May last, feloniously stolen a large sum of money belonging to his
employers, Messrs. Ashley, bankers, London, voluntarily and freely
declared that he was clerk in Messrs. Ashley's employ, and that on the
day in question he did abscond with a sum of money, of which the notes
now produced were a part; and that for this act, he being desirous of
making all the amends in his power, by delivering up notes and gold in
his possession, amounting to 1,300_l._, has done so; and further
declares, that he had been acquainted with George Jackson (formerly of
the Metropolitan Police) for about ten years; that they were in the
habit of frequenting gaming-tables together, and that his salary of
36_l._ a year being insufficient to meet his expenses, he was instigated
by the said George Jackson to commit the robbery; that George Jackson
had said to him, he had ample opportunity of making his fortune; that
with the booty he could obtain from Messrs. Ashley they might both go to
America and be independent; that he did commit the robbery, and at two
o'clock the same day he went to a coffee-shop in Long Acre, and met
Jackson there by appointment; that he and Jackson took a private lodging
at Dock-head, and remained for about three weeks, when both went to
Dublin; that they remained there about two months, when Jackson, during
the absence of witness, robbed him of three hundred sovereigns, and
2,015_l._ in notes, and left Dublin, and he had not seen nor heard of
Jackson since; that it was agreed between him and Jackson they should go
halves; that after Jackson left Dublin, witness took a passage to
America, by the name of William Smith, in the Friends, Captain Duncan,
in August last; that this statement was carefully read over to the
prisoner, and he persisted therein and signed it."
The prisoner, therefore, was committed to jail for safe custody, until
an opportunity should occur for his transmission to England.
On Saturday the 26th of December, he was placed at the bar of
Marlborough-street Police-office, charged with the robbery, and he
exhibited no hesitation in at once confessing himself guilty of the
charge preferred against him. He was immediately committed for trial,
and on Thursday the 7th of January, 1836, having been arraigned at the
Central Criminal Court, upon an indictment charging him with stealing
the money from the dwelling house of Messrs. Ashley, he pleaded
"guilty."
At the conclusion of the sessions, he received sentence of
transportation for life.
The unfortunate man, at the time of his conviction, was twenty-eight
years of age. He was the son of respectable parents, who lived in
Westminster, and who were remarkable for their religious demeanour.
Their son was supposed to be equally devout; and it is worthy of
observation, that notwithstanding the offence of which he was guilty,
and the irregularities of which he accused himself, a memorandum-book
was found in his possession, containing a vast number of quotations from
the Scriptures.
* * * * *
This case is remarkably similar in its nature to one which occurred with
reference to a person named Air, a clerk at Messrs. Brooks and Dixon's
banking-house, in Chancery-lane. The consequences to Summers, however,
were more severe than those experienced by Air; for while the latter
succeeded in effecting his escape to America, where he was free from all
criminal responsibility for his guilt, the former remained in Canada,
exposing himself to the probability of apprehension, and of
transmission to England, to suffer the penalty of his crime.
In the month of November, 1831, Mr. Air absconded from the employment of
Messrs. Brooks and Dixon, carrying with him money to the amount of
2,400_l._ It was soon ascertained that he had immediately set off for
Portsmouth, to join an American ship, bound for New York, which had
sailed from the river, and only waited a fair wind to be off. On
reaching Portsmouth he retired to rest, and had nearly lost his passage
by over-sleeping himself; and, indeed, would have done so, had not the
ship's boat, by a lucky chance for him, been upset, with the captain on
board. Through the assistance of a pilot-boat, however, he reached the
vessel and escaped. Scarcely had the American got clear away, when one
of Brooks and Dixon's confidential assistants, and a Bow-street officer,
reached Portsmouth, but they were too late, for the bird had flown. No
time was to be lost in pursuing another course. Application was made to
the American consul, who advised that an affidavit of debt should be
made, and sent out, with a power-of-attorney, to an agent at New York,
to act for the interests of Brooks and Dixon. This was done: a
fast-sailing ship was on the eve of starting from Liverpool, and by this
the documents in question were despatched. The latter vessel reached New
York in a very few days after Air, who, on landing, invested his
sovereigns in Ohio and Insurance shares, which he subsequently deposited
with a banker. The moment the affidavit of debt and power-of-attorney,
accompanied by a description of Air's person, arrived, he was arrested
and thrown into prison, and the situation of his property being
ascertained, an injunction from the Court of Chancery was obtained to
impound it. Thus circumstanced, the fugitive had no alternative but to
remain in prison, or consent to the restitution of his plunder; he
preferred the latter course, gave up the shares, and was discharged. We
have only to add, that by these simple means Messrs. Brooks and Dixon
shortly after received back from their American agent upwards of
2,000_l._ of their loss, and at a very trifling cost, while Air was left
pennyless, to reap the ignominious reward of his breach of trust, in
poverty and disgrace.
WILLIAM JOURDAN, _alias_ LEARY; THOMAS SULLIVAN; HENRY MOTT; AND WILLIAM
SEALE.
TRANSPORTED FOR A ROBBERY AT THE CUSTOM-HOUSE.
The extraordinary robbery, for their participation in which these men
were convicted, was committed on the 27th of November, 1834, and
Bank-notes and money to the amount of 4,824_l._ were then carried off.
The whole of the particulars of this most daring burglary were revealed
at the trial of the offenders, whose names are above-mentioned, by one
of the men who were concerned in it; and they exhibit, probably, more
plainly than any case which ever came before the public, the system to
which modern thieves have reduced their plans of depredation, while, at
the same time, they show the success which but too frequently attends
their enterprising attempts at robbery. Few among the "family men," as
these experienced housebreakers are commonly called, appear to have been
so successful as Jourdan and Sullivan, but few have been able to
proceed with the same determination and ingenuity in the execution of
their plots.
We have already stated that it was on the night of the 27th of November
1834, that the robbery at the Custom-house of London, for which Jourdan,
Sullivan, Mott, and Seale, were eventually convicted and transported,
was effected. This extensive depredation was committed in the office of
Mr. Frederick Thomas Walsh, the receiver of fines and forfeitures. The
office, on the evening before the robbery, was left securely fastened in
the ordinary manner; but on the next morning, it was ascertained that
the iron safe had been broken open, and property to the value of
4,824_l._ carried off. The consternation produced in the establishment
by such an event, it may be easily conceived, was of an extraordinary
description, and upon its discovery instant information was conveyed to
the various police-offices in the metropolis of the circumstance, as
well as of the numbers and dates of such of the notes as, by memoranda
made of their particulars, could be identified. More than a year
elapsed, however, before any of the perpetrators of this daring outrage
were apprehended. Lea, an officer of Lambeth-street police-office, was
the person to whom the duty of making inquiries into the case was
deputed, and after the most arduous investigation, carried on with
praiseworthy perseverance, he was at length enabled to bring the
principal parties to this burglary to punishment.
On Wednesday, the 2nd of December 1835, Jourdan and Sullivan were taken
into custody, and the circumstances of their apprehension deserve to be
narrated. Lea, it seems, had been long convinced of their participation
in the robbery, and had striven hard to obtain evidence confirmatory of
his suspicions, and, at the same time, to procure such a knowledge of
the "whereabouts" of the objects of his investigations, as to enable
him, when a fitting opportunity should present itself, to secure them,
and to bring them to account for the long list of evil deeds of which he
knew they had been guilty. Keeping them in his eye, he at the same time
was anxiously engaged in procuring testimony of their criminality; but,
at the moment when this evidence came to his knowledge, he found that
his birds had suddenly flown. For two months all his exertions to
discover their retreat were useless; but at length chance threw him
again upon their track. An assistant to the officer watched a well-known
associate of theirs to the Red Lion, in King-street, Holborn, and in
that house they were captured on the morning of the 2nd of December.
Upon inquiry it was ascertained that they had been staying there during
a short time only, and that they passed as mercantile men. They occupied
an upper room, where they kept their trunks; and they appeared to be
possessed of plenty of money, an excellent wardrobe, and, indeed, they
seemed to lack nothing to render their appearance highly respectable.
Upon the introduction of Lea to the "gentlemen," they appeared
astonished to find that he had discovered them, and, without hesitation,
consented to accompany him; but Sullivan declared, that if he had been
armed, nothing should have induced him to surrender himself alive. They
were instantly taken to Lambeth-street, and Lea then commenced a search
through the apartment which they had occupied. In their trunks he found
a great variety of housebreaking implements, of the most ingenious
construction. Files, centre-bits, spring saws, and every sort of tool
used by "cracksmen" were among those which were discovered, while a pair
of scales, calculated for ascertaining the precise weight of metals and
precious stones, was also discovered to be in their possession. These,
of course, were instantly seized by the officer, who, having further
examined the room, and satisfied himself that nothing was concealed,
retired from the house. A gold watch and a 10_l._ note were taken from
the person of Jourdan, as being calculated to lead to the discovery of
further evidence against him; and the circumstances of the apprehension
of the two prisoners having been detailed to the magistrates, they were
ordered to be remanded.