Newspaper Transcripts
Some Selected Reports from The Windsor and Eton Express
3rd February 1827
Left at the New Inn, Windsor, on the Evening of the Funeral of his late Royal Highness the Duke of York,
A Bay Horse,
The owner may have him by application to W.Clode, the Landlord, on paying the Expenses incurred.
Feb 3. 1827
Forged Bank of England Notes
Caution
The Magistrates of this Borough having received information that on Saturday evening last Three Counterfeit Bank of England Notes of Five Pounds each, were thrown away on the road between Windsor and Frogmore, all Persons are highly cautioned against uttering or receiving the same, as they will thereby, after this notice, render themselves liable to Prosecution and Punishment, pursuant to the statutes, in that case made and provided.
It is particularly requested that any Person, into whose hands the above Counterfeit Notes, or either of them, may fall, will immediately forward the same to my office; or to Messrs.Freshfield and Son, Solicitors, Bank Buildings, London.
By order of the Magistrates, John Secker, Town Clerk.
Windsor, Feb 2, 1827.
Very considerable apprehension and excitement have been produced in the public mind of Windsor and Eton, and the neighbourhood, from the discovery of some utterers of forged notes and counterfeit sovereigns, whose operations appear to have been carried on upon a systematic and extensive scale. On Saturday evening last, the 27th of January, two men from Heston, in Middlesex, were discovered in the endeavour to circulate forged notes of the Bank of England. They were examined before the Mayor and Justice on Thursday last, two other persons having been taken into custody, two other persons having been taken into custody, in consequence of being [...] in those transactions. The evidence brought forward against the two utterers in Windsor was as follows :-
[William] Newton, of Peascod-street, butcher, deposed, that on Saturday evening last , William Burr, one of the prisoners came into his shop and asked for a leg of mutton; - a large one was cut off, and the weight being determined it came to six shillings. The prisoner then tendered a five pound note for payment. Being asked his name, he said the meat was for his master, Giles of Heston. Newton then gave Burr the change of the note, which he immediately locked up in a cupboard of his parlour. The prisoner continued talking, and while he was there, Mr.Hewitt, grocer, came in, and taking Newton aside said that he had reason to believe that he had been receiving a forged note. He immediately detained Burr, and required that he should give back the mutton and the change. The prisoner said he did not know the note was forged, and gave up the change and the meat. He said his master Giles, was at the Hope Inn, with a horse and cart. They all proceeded thither, when, after waiting an hour, Giles returned, and they detained him in custody.
Charles Hewitt, grocer, of Peascod-street, deposed, that about half past five, on Saturday evening last, his neighbour, Thomas Bullock, a butcher, came into his shop, and asked him to give him change for a five pound note. Upon looking at it he was satisfied it was a forgery, - and asked Bullock of whom he had taken it. Bullock replied that a working man had offered it, and was then waiting for change in his shop. Mr.Hewitt advised him not to take it. Shortly after he heard that James Morton, a pork butcher, in Peascod-street, had been also offered a forged note; - and his suspicion being excited he went in and stated his belief that the prisoner was uttering forged notes. He proceeded with Newton and the prisoner Burr to the Hope Inn; they secured the horse and cart, and the prisoner Giles afterwards returning, they succeeded in detaining him. He had no doubt that the note was a forgery.
Henry Ogilwy, of Harlington, rode in Gile's cart part of the way to Windsor on Saturday afternoon; on the road they overtook William Burr, who got up in the cart, and they came together to Frogmore.
Thomas Bullock, of Peascod-street, butcher, proved the circumstances of the prisoner Burr coming to his shop to purchase meat, and offering a five pound note. He detailed his application to Mr.Hewitt; - and he subsequently went to Mr.Smith, the constable. He refused to take the note, and the prisoner went away. He thinks Burr had some small change in his pockets.
Samuel Barrs observed the prisoner in Bullock's shop, and upon his coming out perceived that he was joined by Giles, who was waiting outside.
James Morton, pork butcher, proved the prisoner Burr had come to his shop of Saturday evening, and having chosen a leg of pork, offered a five pound note for change, which Morton did not take.
The preceding comprise the most material parts of the evidence with regard to the uttering in Windsor. Warrants were immediately on the apprehension of these prisoners issued for searching the premises of Giles, who is a baker, at Heston. Some letters were there found which showed that he had a transaction with William Trundell, a small farmer at Laleham. Trundell and his wife were in consequence apprehended, and lodged in Windsor gaol. The woman was subsequently discharged.
At the examination on Thursday, Charles Pink, a lad of 14 years of age, in the employ of Giles, was examined, and gave a most circumstantial account of the mode in which he was trained by his master in the circulation of counterfeit sovereigns. On one occasion, under the direction of Giles, having purchased a sack of meal from a corndealer at Hounslow, he offered a five pound note, and having received sovereigns in change said that he would take another sack if the mealman thought the weather would hold fine, - the other sack was placed in the cart, and the boy then paid for it out of two bad sovereigns, which he had in his pocket, the mealman receiving them as part of the identical change which he just given the boy.
After these depositions had been finished, the prisoners, Giles and Burr, entered into voluntary confessions of the mode in which they had first become implicated in these nefarious proceedings; the extent to which they had carried their depredations; and the profits which they had obtained by this abominable traffic. It appeared that Giles was the purchaser of the notes from a local agent, and Burr his assistant in the circulation of them. We forbear to detail any of the curious particulars of these confessions, as the ends of justice may, at the present moment, be best advanced by their not being disclosed. Trundell remains in confinement, and a person of the name of Langley has also been apprehended.
Mr.John Secker went on the part of the Magistrates of Windsor, on Friday, to lay the depositions before the Bank Directors, who sent a confidential agent to Windsor this morning. We have no doubt that many important disclosures will arise out of this discovery. Great credit is due to Mr.Hewitt, whose activity and intelligence were mainly instrumental in the detection of these offenders.
On Friday last, Thomas Allan was charged, before E.Foster, Esq., one of the magistrates for the county of Berks, with stealing on the 16th of Nov., a quantity of oak, elm , and deal boards, the property of George Finmore and Jonathan Griffin, of Clewer. The prisoner was committed to Reading gaol, to take his trial at the next Berkshire Sessions.
At the petty sessions at Watford, two informations came on to be heard against Mr.Robert Walford and Mr.John Hale, of Uxbridge, for sporting in the parish of Rickmansworth, not being duly qualified. The former gentleman proved his qualification, and the information against him was dismissed; on the part of Mr.Hale, it was objected (on the basis of Buller's Nisi Prius) that as it had been given in evidence that the informer was a minor, this was fatal to the information, for that a minor could not be a common informer. The justices held the objection good, and dismissed this information also.
A fire, which had nearly proved fatal in its consequences, took place in a cottage occupied by Wm.Kimpton, Esq., at Burnham, near Maidenhead, on Monday night. The maid servant, while engaged in doing something to the bed, with a candle in her hand, unfortunately set fire to the curtains; and when Mr.K retired to his chamber he found the room enveloped in flames, and, but for the timely arrival of the parish engine, and the active exertions of the inhabitants, that and the adjoining premises would have been a prey to the flames in a few minutes. The injury done is chiefly confined to the bed-chamber where it commenced. The greatest praise is due to Mr.Williams, overseer of the parish, who conducted the engine, and by whose exertions, in great measure, the premises were saved.
At a meeting of the Corporation of Reading, held on Wednesday last, an address of condolence to our gracious Sovereign was agreed to, and it has already been numerously and most respectably signed, as well by the members of the body corporate, as by the loyal inhabitants of the town generally: -
To the King's Most Excellent MAJESTY,
The dutiful and loyal address of the Aldermen, Burgesses, and other Inhabitants of the Borough of Reading, respectfully beg leave to offer our condolence in the deep affliction occasioned to your Majesty by the death of your Royal Brother the Duke of York, an event which we deplore as a national calamity; as well as an individual loss. The ability displayed by his Royal Highness in the high office which he held, so much to the honour and advantage of the country, and the conciliating qualities which marked his administration of it, have been long the theme of universal admiration. That they were justly so recognized, is proved by the sorrow which the army had shed over the grave of a beloved, and highly valued commander.
This mournful dispensation of Providence has also deprived the church of a sincere and manly defender; but while, as members of that church, we deplore this unexpected visitation, we reflect with feelings of consolation and gratitude on his zealous and unalterable regard for the Protestant establishment.
We trust that the mighty disposer of all things will shortly heal those wounds which it hath pleased him in his inscrutable wisdom to inflict upon your Majesty and the country; and that he will grant a long duration to the benignant reign of your Majesty, is the present prayer of your Majesty's devoted subjects.
Aylesbury
On Saturday afternoon last, a fine little boy, the son of William Bailey, a working painter and glazier, at Aylesbury, being at play with other children on the ice of Bull-pond, accidentally slipped into a hole and got under the ice . He was about a quarter an hour in the water, and when taken out animation was too far gone to be restored. An inquest was held on the body on Monday, when a verdict was returned of Accidentally drowned.
The improvement between Whitchurch and Winslow, off the Buckingham road from Aylesbury, which both shortens the distance and enables the traveller to avoid the sharp hills at Oakham-gutter, has some time been completed. It has been judiciously executed, under the superintendence of Mr.Perrin, the surveyor, whose skill in road-making we have before had occasion to notice.
We omitted to notice in our last weeks paper the loyal and respectful manner in which the inhabitants of High Wycombe had marked their sense of the loss the nation has sustained by the decease of his late Royal Highness the Commander in Chief, prior to his funeral. The marks of respect to his memory were, we are assured, of a character that proved how highly his worth was appreciated, and how deeply his loss is regretted. It will be some atonement to our readers in the neighbourhood for this omission to notice the proceedings since our last publication. On Sunday last, the Mayor, Aldermen, and Bailiffs of High Wycombe, attended divine service, when the mace was dressed with black crape, and the servants wore black crape hatbands, and black gloves. The Rev.George Price Curate of Dutchworth, Herts, youngest son of the Vicar of High Wycombe, preached an excellent sermon from Hebrews xi, 13. "Then all died in faith," and closed a most interesting exposition of the text with the following application:-
"But that I may apply this subject more immediately to the recent dispensation of Providence which has so deeply afflicted the nation at large, and as we have in the chapter before as a precedent for the honourable notice of illustrious characters who have been not more famed for their piety that their patriotism, I would ask, are we not mourning the loss of a tried, a firm, a powerful friend ?, are we not mourning the loss of a defender of the Faith - one who in his zeal for the Church of Christ, stood up in the face of the nation, and boldly declared himself bound by the ties of conscience to support by his latest breath those principles which placed his family on the Throne ? And did he not as a pledge of his sincerity , call the God of his fathers to witness ? But he is gone ! And it now becomes our duty as a Church and people to be thankful for his services, and earnestly to pray that his removal may not be a judgement for our lukewarmness. For are we not lukewarm ? , and do we not undervalue those privileges for which the Reformers were content to die ? But while this Providence speaks to us as Protestants, does it not also loudly call to us, as dutiful subjects, to sympathise with our Sovereign, who has not only lost the friend and companion of his youth, but the first subject of his realm. Yet, my brethren, while we sympathize with our beloved Sovereign for his loss, and mourn for our own, let us not do it as those who have no hope, for altogether it may appear to us that a great support of the Protestant religion is removed, although it may seem a triumph to our adversaries that this great bulwark to our hopes is destroyed, yet from the subject we have been considering, every hope, every expectation, every comfort may be derived, for recollect we are to have faith - faith, not in man, but in God - not in instruments which we in our imagination may have raised up, but those which the Almighty shall deem fit to appoint; therefore, if this, of our own structure, be removed, another of God's building, will, we believe, be placed in his stead. For God's purposes are a sealed fountain, His promised a fountain broken open!"
On Monday morning, at the request of the Worshipful the Mayor (the Rev.Isaac King) a meeting of the inhabitants of the town and neighbourhood of High Wycombe was held in the Guildhall; it was most respectably attended, and the following address of condolence to His Majesty, was unanimously voted:-
"To the King's Most excellent Majesty,
"We, your Majesty's most dutiful and loyal subjects, the Mayor, Alderman, Bailiffs, Burgesses, and Inhabitants of the Borough of Chepping Wycombe and its vircinity, beg leave deeply to sympathize in the grief felt by your Majesty, the Royal family, and the nation at large; for the loss sustained by the death of his Royal Highness the Duke of York, Commander in Chief, whose just impartiality upheld the honour of the service, and whose conduct as a Prince was in the highest degree illustrative of his manly and sincere principles, and his uncompromising attachment to the Protestant religion, and to the British constitution."
The pulpit and reading-desks of Hughenden church, have ever since the decease of his late Royal Highness the Duke of York, been hung with black in respect to his memory.
The pulpit of Great Marlow church is handsomely hung with black cloth, and the great bell tolled from ten o'clock in the morning until ten o'clock at night at the time the funeral of his late Royal Highness the Duke of York took place. On Sunday, the 21st ult., the Rev.T.T.Coxwell, the vicar, delivered a very impressive discourse on the late melancholy event.
Depredations at Brill, Shabbington, Oakley, and other villages adjacent, have lately been so numerous and frequent, as to induce the owners of property in that neighbourhood to enter into a subscription to bring down two Bow-street officers to use their efforts to break up the gang of thieves whose daring robberies have been the cause of terror to the inhabitants. Bishop and Smith were engaged for this purpose, and came down last Saturday; they were assisted by the most active and intelligent of the local constables, and succeeded in apprehending two men, who have been committed for trial. One of these Robert Hubbock is charged on suspicion of steeling a sheep, the property of Mr.Harding, of Chilton; and the other Cook Nelmes, an old offender, on the charge of stealing a copper boiler. The circumstances which led to the apprehension of Nelmes, were rather curious; the officers were engaged in searching the houses of a number of suspected persons for stolen property, and accidentally removed a large chest in Nelmes's house, in doing which Smith (the officer) nearly fell into a large hole which the chest concealed; the officers, of course, explored this place, and found in it a copper boiler, which has been identified as the property of Mr.Blick, of Worminghall, being one stolen from him three years ago. Some other persons, known to have been concerned in robberies at and near Brill, have taken to flight, and for the present evaded pursuit.
A few days ago died, at Aston Clinton, "Nurse Studham," at the extreme old age of 101.