The Brief, from the trial not having been proceeded with, is not endorsed to any Counsel, but is marked “Brooker, Brighton,” the original of the firm, Messrs. Brooker and Penfold, now Messrs. Penfold and Son, solicitors. Phœbe Hassell, the person who was chiefly instrumental in bringing Rook and Howell to justice, was a very celebrated character. She was born at Stepney, London, in March, 1713, of respectable parents, named Smith. Of her early life little is known; but the first incident of her remarkable career, as related by herself to the compiler of this work, was her falling in love with Samuel Golding, a private in the regiment known as Kirke’s Lambs. Phœbe Smith then was but fifteen years of age, being, as she used to remark, a fine lass for her years. Golding’s regiment being ordered to the West Indies in 1728, such was Phœbe’s attachment for him, that, donning the garb of a man, she enlisted into the 5th regiment of Foot, commanded by General Pearce, then under orders, also for the West Indies, and embarked after him. There she served for five years without discovering herself to any one. She was likewise at Monserrat, and would have been in the action there, but her regiment did not reach the island till after the battle was over. Soon after her return to England her regiment was ordered to join the forces under the Duke of Cumberland, on the continent, and she was present at the battle of Fontenoy, May 1st, 1745, when she received a bayonet wound in her arm. Golding’s and her regiment were afterwards at Gibraltar, where he got wounded, and was then invalided home to Plymouth. Phœbe then informed the Lady of General Pearce of her sex and story, obtained her discharge, and was immediately sent to England. She went to the military hospital at Plymouth, with letters of recommendation from her late Colonel, and there nursed Golding; and when he came out of the hospital they were married, and lived happily together for more than 20 years. Golding had a pension from Chelsea. After but a short widowhood, she married William Hassell, of whom little is known beyond what is recorded in the parish book of Brighton; extracts from which will show that in 1792 they were in poverty, as at a meeting of the Churchwardens and Overseers, held at the Castle Tavern, on the 5th of December that year, it was:—“Ordered that Phœbe, the wife of William Hassell, be paid three guineas to get their bed and netts, which they had pledged to pay Dr. Henderson for medicine.” Hassell died about this period, and Phœbe then, by the assistance of a few of the inhabitants, purchased a donkey, and travelled with fish and other commodities to the villages westward; and it was on one of these journeys that she obtained the capture of Rook and Howell for robbing the mail. The following minute appears in the Vestry book:—