Some Distinguished Victims of the ScaffoldBleackley, Horace
History
Some Distinguished Victims of the Scaffold
Bleackley, Horace
Criminals -- Great Britain; Executions and executioners; Trials -- Great Britain
Although it would be difficult, with any degree of accuracy, to
apportion under the separate charges this adverse balance of over
half a million pounds, and although much must be left to conjecture,
it is possible to explain some of the ways in which this vast sum was
dissipated. At the outset, the suggestion--arising out of one of the
pleas of Fauntleroy, and believed at the time--that the overdraft
on loans to two of the partners was responsible for a deficit of
£100,000, is refuted by the fact that both Messrs Marsh and Graham
refunded eventually their obligations to the full extent. In like
manner, the belief that large sums were lost owing to the necessity of
reinvesting constantly the various stocks sold by Fauntleroy in order
to avoid detection, overlooks the fact that, on the other hand, these
transactions must have afforded similar opportunities for making a
profit. It is probable that many such losses did occur; but since we
may believe that the Berners Street Bank prior to the forgeries was
earning an income of £7000 a year, it is likely that such an astute
manager as Henry Fauntleroy would be able to cancel many of these
losses through reinvestment by the profits he earned on the immense
capital he had secretly appropriated.
[Sidenote: (_a_) Loss of £160,000 in building speculations.]
[Sidenote: (_b_) £90,000 lost by paying dividends on the stolen stocks.]
Although the forger’s estimate of the result of his building
speculations is extravagant, the newspapers of the 20th of December
1824 make it clear that the Berners Street house must have lost in this
manner £160,000. It is certain also that immense sums were absorbed
by the payment of dividends to the proprietors whose stocks had been
stolen. Nearly £7000 per annum must have been required for this
purpose from the year 1816, and the sum would accumulate at compound
interest, until, as some say, an annual fund of £16,000 was required.
Setting aside all excessive calculations, we have the great authority
of the historian of the Bank of England that £9000 to £10,000 a year
was thus expended during the progress of the forgeries. Further than
this, notwithstanding that the partners in the bankrupt firm were
not entitled to any fraction of profit, the testimony of almost the
entire press credits each of them with receiving an income of over
£3000. At the examination of William Marsh, reported in the newspapers
of the 1st of March 1825, it was proved that he was indebted on his
private account for an overdraft of £26,000. As there is no reason to
believe that Mr Stracey or Mr Graham had enjoyed a smaller income, a
further deficit of nearly £80,000 is the result. And finally, as will
be shown, there is an overwhelming weight of evidence to prove that
the iniquitous Henry Fauntleroy, during the nineteen years he was a
partner, dissipated at least £100,000. In addition, the repayment of
the capital of Sir James Sibbald (who died the 17th of September 1819),
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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