The Chronicles of Newgate, vol. 2/2Griffiths, Arthur
History
The Chronicles of Newgate, vol. 2/2
Griffiths, Arthur
Criminals -- Great Britain; Newgate (Prison : London, England); Prisons -- England; Punishment -- Great Britain
Hunton's execution no doubt aroused public attention to the cruelty and
futility of the capital law against forgery. A society which had already
been started against capital punishment devoted its efforts first to a
mitigation of the forgery statute, but could not immediately accomplish
much. In 1829 the gallows claimed two more victims for this offence. One
was Richard Gifford, a well-educated youth who had been at Christ's
Hospital, and afterwards in the National Debt Office. Unfortunately he
took to drink, lost his appointment, and fell from bad to worse.
Suddenly, after being at the lowest depths, he emerged, and was found by
his friends living in comfort in the Waterloo Road. His funds, which he
pretended came to him with a rich wife, were really the proceeds of
frauds upon the Bank of England. He forged the names of people who held
stock on the Bank books, and got the value of the stock; he also forged
dividend receipts and got the dividends. He was only six-and-twenty when
he was hanged. The other and the last criminal executed for forgery in
this country was one Maynard, who was convicted of a fraud upon the
Custom House. In conjunction with two others, one of whom was a clerk in
the Custom House, and had access to the official records, he forged a
warrant for £1973, and was paid the money by the comptroller general.
Maynard was convicted of uttering the forged document, Jones of being an
accessory; the third prisoner was acquitted. Maynard was the only one
who suffered death.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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