Smuggling & Smugglers in Sussex: The Genuine History of the Inhuman and Unparalleled Murders of Mr. William Galley a Custom-house Officer, and Mr. Daniel Chater, a Shoemaker, by Fourteen Notorious Smugglers, with the Trials and Execution of Seven of the Criminals at Chichester, 1748-9Anonymous
History
Smuggling & Smugglers in Sussex: The Genuine History of the Inhuman and Unparalleled Murders of Mr. William Galley a Custom-house Officer, and Mr. Daniel Chater, a Shoemaker, by Fourteen Notorious Smugglers, with the Trials and Execution of Seven of the Criminals at Chichester, 1748-9
Anonymous
Crime -- England -- History; Smuggling -- England -- Sussex -- History
After talking over matters together, and observing that all their cases
were very desperate, Pring, as a friend, offered his advice, by which
he intended to inveigle them into the snare he had laid for them. He
said, since they were all alike in such desperate circumstances without
any hopes of mending their condition, he would have them go with him
towards London, and to his house at Beckenham in Kent, and then consult
together, to go and rob upon the highway, and break open houses in the
same manner as Gregory’s gang used to do. Upon which they all agreed
to come away together; and upon the road, amongst other talk, Mills
owned that he was one of those who committed the murder of Hawkins, and
both the Kemps confessed that they were concerned in robbing farmer
Havendon, in the manner it was proved upon their trials.
When they were all come to his house at Beckenham, Pring then pretended
that his horse being a very indifferent one, he would go to town and
fetch his mare, which was a very good one, and would come back again
with all convenient speed, and then they would set out together on
their intended expeditions; for as their horses were very good, and his
but a bad one, it might bring him into danger in case of a pursuit.
Upon which he set out, and they agreed to stay at his house till his
return; but instead of going to town, he rode away to Horsham, where he
applied to Mr. Rackster, an officer in the excise there; who together
with seven or eight more, all well armed, set out for Beckenham, in
order to take them, where they arrived in the dead of night, and found
Mills and the two Kemps just going to supper upon a fine breast of
veal, and secured them. They bound the arms of the two Kemps, but
Mills refusing to be bound in that manner, and being very refractory,
they were forced to cut him with one of their hangers, before he
would submit. They then brought them all three to the county gaol for
Surrey, where they found Robert Fuller and Jockey Brown in custody for
smuggling; and knowing that they had been guilty of many robberies on
the highway in Sussex, they applied to the government for a Habeas
Corpus, to carry them all five down to the assizes at East Grinstead,
where, though they were each tried only upon one indictment, yet there
was another indictment for murder, besides two for robbery against
Mills, another for a robbery against Fuller, and two other indictments
against the two Kemps, besides a number of other prosecutors, who were
ready at East Grinstead to lay indictments against them, if there had
been occasion.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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