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
We will next proceed and give the trials in a concise manner, of Jockey
Brown, the two Kemps, Fuller and Savage, all smugglers, and tried at
the same assizes at East Grinstead, in Sussex, and then proceed and
give an account of their wicked lives and conversation. And first we
shall proceed on the trial of Jockey Brown.
John Brown, otherwise Jockey Brown, was indicted for assaulting and
putting in fear John Walter, near Bersted, and robbing him of twelve
guineas in gold and twelve pounds in silver, on the 12th of October,
1748.
John Walter deposed that riding along the road near Bersted, above
seven o’clock at night, the 12th of October, he was stopped by four
men; two of them laid hold of the horse’s bridle, and demanded his
money, which he not delivering, the other two pulled him off his horse,
one of them drew out a pistol, and the other aimed to strike at his
head with a hanger, which he guarded with his stick; in the meanwhile
one of the other two took a canvas bag with the money in it out of his
pocket, and afterwards cut his horse’s bridle, and then they all rode
off.
Thomas Dixon,[15] otherwise Shoemaker Tom, deposed that himself,
the prisoner and two others, attacked the prosecutor in the road to
Bersted, on the 12th of October, pulled him off his horse, and took
from him a canvas bag, with upwards of twenty pounds of gold and silver
in it. They afterwards rode about fourteen miles farther to a public
house, where they shifted, meaning shared, the money among them all
four.
Thomas Wickens deposed, that the night the prosecutor, Mr. Walter,
was robbed, the last witness Dixon, the prisoner at the bar, and two
others, came to his house about ten o’clock at night; that they called
for a private room, where they stayed drinking till twelve o’clock
at night; that they had often been at his house, sometimes two, and
sometimes three of them together, but at this time they were all
together.
Sarah Wickens, wife of the last witness, deposed that the night Mr.
Walter was robbed, the prisoner at the bar, Thomas Dixon and two
others, came to their house at ten o’clock at night; that they called
for a pen and ink, and a private room; that she waited upon them, and
saw them telling out money in four parcels: that there was a great deal
of silver and some gold, but could not tell what was the quantity.
The prisoner in his defence, said that the witness Dixon was a drunken,
idle, good-for-nothing fellow, and deserved no credit to be given to
what he should swear. But as he could call no witness to disprove
the facts or justify his character, and Dixon’s evidence being very
circumstantially corroborated by Mr. and Mrs. Wickens, the jury found
him Guilty. Death.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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