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
The prisoners being called upon to make their defence, both said they
knew nothing of the robbery; and the prisoner Thomas Kemp said that
they never made any such confession to the evidence, Pring; that he,
together with John Mills, alias Smoker, Francis Doe and Jockey Brown,
were all the persons who robbed the farmer at Heathfield.
Being asked whether they had any witness to prove what they had
asserted, or where they were when the robbery was committed, they
said they had no witnesses, for that they had no “steady,” meaning no
certain place of abode, for two years past; upon which the jury found
them both Guilty. Death.
Robert Fuller was indicted for assaulting William Wittenden in an open
field, near the King’s highway, putting him in fear of his life, and
taking from the said William Wittenden seven shillings and sevenpence
halfpenny, the 14th of November.
William Wittenden deposed that coming across a field near Worth, the
prisoner at the bar, who was on horseback, stopped him and enquired
the way to Worth; that this witness directed him; then the prisoner
asked if he had any money; he answered, “No.” The prisoner replied,
“D--n you, you have, and I will have it,” and then pulled out a pistol
and put it to his breast; that then this witness pulled out a little
bag, in which was seven shillings and sixpence in silver, and three
halfpence, which the prisoner snatched from him, and then rode away.
Being asked by the court if he was sure the prisoner was the man that
robbed him, answered he was very sure, and that he saw him ride by him
the next day, in company with another man.
The prisoner in his defence said that the prosecutor declared, when he
came to see him in the prison, that he did not know him; and to prove
this called William Cooper, who, being sworn, deposed that the day
before, the prisoner at the bar, with two other prisoners, were put
into a room; that the prosecutor came in and said he knew nobody there.
The prosecutor being asked how many prisoners he saw in that room, said
he saw but two, and that afterwards he went into another room, where
all the prisoners were, and did not see anybody there that he knew,
but, turning on his right hand, he saw the prisoner standing behind
him, and he said, “That is the man that robbed me.”
Mr. Rackster deposed that he was in the room the first time the
prosecutor saw the prisoners; that there were indeed three prisoners in
the room, but that the prosecutor saw but two, which stood before him,
for the prisoner at the bar stood behind him, which was the reason that
he did not see him then.
The prisoner being asked if he had any witnesses to his innocence or
character, answered that he had none; upon which the jury found him
Guilty. Death.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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