Twenty Years' Recollections of an Irish Police MagistratePorter, Frank Thorpe
History
Twenty Years' Recollections of an Irish Police Magistrate
Porter, Frank Thorpe
Crime -- Ireland; Criminals -- Ireland; Ireland -- Social life and customs; Porter, Frank Thorpe, 1801-1882
In two or three months after the trial of this swindler, I returned to
Ireland, and engaged in professional pursuits, to which I devoted my
attention for about twelve years. I then became a magistrate of police.
In 1844, I was doing duty in College Street Police Court for the late
Alderman Tyndall, who was suffering from severe indisposition. An
application was made to me by a director and secretary of one of the
principal banks in the city, I think it was "The Royal." They were
accompanied by their solicitor, and it appeared that a bill of exchange
for £100, purporting to be the acceptance of a gentleman of high
position in the county of Wicklow, had been tendered for discount on the
previous day, and that they had ascertained it to be a forgery. A close
description was given of the accused, who had been told to call at the
bank at two o'clock. An information was sworn and a warrant issued, and
the delinquent was apprehended in the vestibule of the bank, whither he
had the audacity or folly to proceed on his nefarious design. On being
placed before me, he stated his name to be John Sharkey, and that he had
recently returned from Oporto, where for several years he had been
employed as a clerk in an English house engaged in the wine trade. I
remanded the case for the production of the alleged acceptor, and during
the intervening time very conclusive evidence was obtained as to the
body of the bill having been written by the prisoner. At his final
committal, I told him that, although I never before had any magisterial
cognisance of him, I had no difficulty in recognising the person whom I
had seen convicted at the Old Bailey, and who had previously been an
inmate of Kilmainham, after having the sentence of capital punishment
commuted to transportation. The latter punishment was subsequently
awarded to him in Green Street, and thus, as far as I am aware, was
closed the career of Mr. John Sargeant.
THE MAGISTERIAL OFFICES.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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