William Lansdown

Old Bailey Online WILLIAM LANSDOWN. Theft; theft from a specified place. 5th December 1834 Text type Trial account Defendants WILLIAM LANSDOWN Offences Theft > Theft from place Session Date 5th December 1834 Reference Number t18341205-245 Verdicts Guilty > With recommendation Punishments Transportation 245. WILLIAM LANSDOWN was indicted for stealing, on the 22nd of November, at St. James, Westminster, a £5 Bank-note, the property of Aaron Henry Hart, his master, in his dwelling-house. JOHN HART . I am clerk to my father, Aaron Henry Hart, of No. 356, Oxford-street. On the 22nd of November, I received nine £5 Bank-notes, from Dixon's, of Chancery-lane—eight of them were new, and one old—I lost the old one; and knowing there was one old one, I recollected it had a blot of ink on it, and either "Jones or Johnstone and Co., Bush-lane," on the back—the new notes were all following numbers—I saw the old one again at the Bank of England, and recognised it—I stopped it on the Monday, and it was paid in on Tuesday—I missed it on Sunday, the 23rd of November—I knew the note again, and believe it to be the same—the prisoner was in our employ, and had been so about three months, as errandboy—I had given the notes to my mother to put by—my father's house is in the parish of St. James. ELIZABETH HART . I am the mother of the last witness. He gave me eight new and one old Bank-note on Saturday, the 22nd of November—I did not notice them myself—I put them into a cash-box into an escritoir, in our sitting-room—the prisoner had access to that room—on Sunday I discovered one was gone—I had the key of that escritoir—the ward was out of the lock, so we suppose it was opened with another key—it was not broken open—I am certain I had put all the notes into it—I mentioned it to my son—the prisoner was there on Sunday—he did not leave—we did not charge him with it till the Thursday after, when I traced the note to him, by his buying clothes, which he said were given to him at the workhouse, where he had come from—and we suspected him. ARTHUR STRACHAN . I am a linen-draper, and live in Oxford-street. The prisoner came to my shop on Saturday night, the 22nd of November, for change of a £5 note—he bought nothing of me—he was in the habit of coming for change for Mrs. Hart—I sent him to our cashier to get change—I took the note from him myself, and he had change for it—my partner wrote Mrs. Hart's name on the note, and the date in my pretence—it was paid into our bankers, Sir C. Price and Co.—I saw it afterwards, and knew it was the same as I took from him—the prosecutor saw the note. JOHN HART . I saw the note afterwards—it was produced from the Bank—it was the same note I had lost—it had the marks on, which I knew—I told the clerk there would be a blot on the back—I did not send the prisoner to change it—he said afterwards that he found it. ARTHUR STRACHAN re-examined. I did not see the note since I paid it in to the bankers—I do not know whether it had the name of Jones or Johnson on it—it is not here. MRS. HART. I did not send him to change a note on Saturday night—I did not lock the cash-box—the ward of the escritoir lock was broken. JOHN HART . Before the prisoner's first examination, he said he had bought the clothes with the change of the £5 note, and told me where he had bought them—I told him to point me out the place where he bought them—I made him no promise nor threat—he said he found the note in my shop. GUILTY . Aged 15.—Recommended to mercy on account of his youth. Transported for Life.