Some Account of the Robbery of Lord Harrington, by breaking open a Beaureau at his house in the Stable-Yard, St James's, in Dec. 1764. IN N the year 1762, Lord Harrington was fo unfortunate as to receive into his fervice in the capacity of a porter, one John Wefket, who had before A been affociated with John Bradley, and James Cooper, in robbing the chambers of Henry Mountague, Efq; in Lincoln's Inn, and the house of Mr William Burton in Hatton Garden. Both Bradley and Cooper had been livery fervants; Bradley in December 1763, when Wefket had lived about a year and half at Lord Harrington's, was out of place, and Cooper having before failed as a cheesemonger in Ratcliff Highway, kept a chandler's fhop and coalcellar in New Turn-fyle, Holborn ; Bradley at that time being his lodger. Wefket having formed a design to rob Lord Harrington, took opportunities of going frequently under various pretences into the room in which his lordship usually fat, and in which there was a bureau where he kept his cash and notes. By going thither to his lordship with a letter, tho' it was not his business, he had feea the bureau open, while his lordship was counting money, and had remarked what part of the bureau it was kept in. He had also been told by Mr Bevel, my Lord's steward, that money had been received to pay bills; and when Bevel was asked in court how he came to give him this intelligence, he answered, that it was to apprize him of tradesmen receiving their money, that he might get from them what these people have long exacted, by the ty. ranny of custom, under the name of perquifite, at their going away; and Bevel added, that he would take care the tradefmen fhould come to the houfe to be paid, to enfure the levy ing of this tax by the porter. B C D F Weket having got this intelligence, and having acquainted himself with the bureau, and the particular part G of it where the money was kept, he communicated his purpofe of robbing his Lord to his old affociate Bradley, and appointed him to come to affiit in the fact on Saturday evening, the 5th of December 1763, when he knew his lord and lady were to be H at the opera, directing him at the fame time to bring a brace of pistols and a tinder-box. With what view the piftols were or. dered does not appear, the robbery being to be perpetrated in fecrecy and filence, where no body could be prefent but the thieves, except to fecure their retreat, if they fhould be detect ed in the fact. The tinder-box was to be left behind, that the robber might be fuppofed not to be a domeftic, nor fufficiently acquainted with the house to know where to light a candle. Bradley accordingly came, about 8 o'clock in the evening, with his pistols and tinder box. Wefket let him in at the door of the porter's lodge, and ordering him to walk foftly, took him into a little room where he flept."No body, fays he, has a right to come hither; I will get you fome"thing to drink, and here you shall remain till the middle of the night, "and then we will have my Lord's money.' 66 Wefket immediately left him, locking him in, but returned foon afterwards with a bottle of rum; and Bradley then fhewed him his piftols and tinder-box, which he took from him, and left him again; he was afterwards to and again feveral times, but always locked the door, and took the key 'with him when he went away. About 12 o'clock, Lord and Lady Harrington came home, and between one and two Wefket came to him, and told him the family were fecure :"Take a draught of rum, says he, have courage, and follow me.' " They then went into the kitchen, and Weket fhewed him a very high window, which opened with a pulley and ftring, telling him, that must be his way out when the business was done. To this Bradley objected for a very good reason, because he did not know where he should come when he had got out of the window. He faid, however, that the purpose intended might be answered without trouble or rifque; and immediately pulling off his fhoes, which were dirty, he made the mark of his foot upon the dreffer, which it was neceffary to mount to get at the window, & then he daubed the window and the wall, to make it appear that fome body with dirty feet had got out of it. When this was done they both went very foftly to the bureau in my Lord's ftudy, when Wefket giving Bradley the candle, took a gimblet and chiffel out of his pocket and broke open the bureau. He took out two Bank notes, one for a hundred pounds, and the o ther ,ther for thirty, three gold fnuff-boxes, four hundred pounds in money and other things to the value of two thoufand pounds; he gave this booty to Bradley, and leaving the tinder box he conducted him again down stairs, and then giving him the piftols, he with great caution opened the ftreet door and let him out, defiring he might not fee him for a fortnight or three weeks. The #treet door he left a jar, fearing to fhut it left he should be heard, and went to bed. A Bradley made the heft of his way with B his booty to Cooper's houfe, having defired him to fit up for him; Cooperhowever, when he came thither was not at home, & he went about in fearch of him, but without fuccefs; he then returned to his house and deposited the treasure, which he had carried about the street all night, in a kind of fhed in the yard under nc lock. It was then near four o'clock, and Cooper was not yet come home, he therefore went out again to feek him, and by accident met him near Temple Bar. It might reafonably be thought that he would then have gone immediately back to fecure the money, but instead of that they went both to a night houfe, where they lat drinking together till it was light. C came out of his chamber into the room where the bureau ftood and immediatlely perceived that it had been broken open. A fearch was immediately made to discover where the thief had got in or out. The dirt on the dreffer in the kithen, and against the window was observed, and the window alfo was found open, but as rogues are always cunning by halves, Wisket when he contrived there appearences of perfons having come in or out of that window had not taken care to have him traced out of the place into which he must have come from the window; this place was enclo.ed with a wall about 5 feet high, and the top of the wall was overgrown with mots, fo that if any body had got over it, a mark must have been feen; the appea rance therefore of dirt about the win dow and its being open, only confirmed the notion, that the robbery muit have been committed by a fervant. The steward went to the lodge and examined Wefket's fhoes, which he found clean. The marks of a gimblet and chiffel being found on the buDreau, a little box of tools that was kept in a place where all the fervants had access to it was fearched, and a gimblet and chiffel were found that exactly answered the marks. This was further evidence that a domeftic was the thief, Lord Harrington, therefore, fent for Mr Spinnage, a juttice of peace, to examine the fervants; and Wefket was chiefly fufpected, as my lord's footman and valet de chambre were newly come, and the prifoner was the only perfon in the house, except the steward and a maid or two, that knew the drawers where the bilis and money were, his box was fearched Coster being acquainted with the bufiefs be had been doing, and fhewed the booty, put all but the negociable notes and bills of private perfons, which they deftroyed, in a box and E buried it in his cellar. It was very strange that Wet and Bradley fhould be to careless to fecure what they had with fo much danger obtained. Wilket gave Bradley the whole booty without knowing its value, and Bradley futtered Cooper to keep F it where be might at any time have access to it without his confent or even knowledge; neither did he examine what he had got till it had been thus depofited near a month. When a maid fervant of Lord Harrington's came down Hairs on funday morning, the day after the robbery, between leven and eight o'clock, the Found the treet door wide open, and as the was laying the fire in the iteward's room, Wefket came to the door, and asked her if the had let in an old man, that used to be frequently about the house; the faid no, but that the door was wide open when the came down ftairs, upon which he turned a way, and faid, dn it who could go and leave the door open. Between ten and eleven, my lord (Gent, Mug, JAN. 1765.) G H and a drinking horn was found with fixteen guineas in it, but nothing elfe appearing, and he alledging he had received it for wages, he was not taken into custody, nor did any thing appear that jullified a fufpicion of any other perfon in the family.. Wefket, however, was not long afterwards turned away. The first time Bradley faw him after the robbery was in a fide box at the play; Eradley, who was in the gallery, met bin as he came out, and they went together to a houte in the Piazza, Covent Garden, where Wefket faid every thing was lafe, meaning that the enquiry had ended in nothing, and was fatisfied with Bradley's account of the things. Atter this they met feveral times when Weket blamed Bradley for t putting C Putting off the bank notes; Bradley To Chefer, therefore, he went, at the Midfummer fair of 1764, and pretending to be a young trader, he bought fome linen of the Irish factors, and changed both his bank notes, taking linen and cash, and bills on perfons in London in exchange. B The bills they got accepted and paid, and had now reason to think themfelves fafe beyond a poffibility of detection, if they did not betray each other. They were, however, difcovered by an accident fo remarkable, that it would probably have been blamed as exceeding probability, if it had been made C an incident in a novel. Some time after Wefket had been difcharged from his place, a gentleman happened to pick up a woman of the town, in Conduit Street; and in the courfe of their converfation at a tavein, she told him, that the had been feduced under pretence of marriage, D by John Wefket, who lived porter with Lord Harrington when he was robbed, and the gave fuch an account of his manner of dreffing and living, that the gentleman brought her to Sir John Fielding. She faid that the first became acquainted with Wefket, after his quitting Lord E Harrington's, that he had lived with him, that they had been parted about a month, but that he still went by his name. She gave an account, alio, of his acquaintance, and among them, of Bradley, and put into the juftices hand, 1ome letters which he had received from Weket's acquaintance while the F lived with him, among which was one written by Bradley. She faid also, that the had very lately teen fixty guineas in Weket's poffeffion. Sir John upon this information, had Weket taken into custody, and examined him, he alfo upon fearching his box found fixty guineas; he could not account fatisfactorily for this money, but there being nothing elfe found, he wis difcharged, notwithstanding the fulpi ion against him was ftrengthened by the money. An attempt was made to take Brad. ley into custody, but he could not be found. In the mean time, Lord Harrington, happening to have an exact defcriping of the 30l. bank note, had adver G tifed it; and about the 6th of September, juft nine months after the robbery, his lordship received notice, that this note had been prefented for payment by a banker's clerk. This note being fecured, was traced through a great number of hands, to one Smith a mer chant of Liverpool, who being applied to, declared that he had it of Mr Beath, a linen factor of Newry, in the north of Ireland. Upon application by letter to Mr Beath, to know of whom he received it, he wrote for answer that he receiv ed it at Chefer Fair, in payment for fome linen of a perfon who called himfelf John Walker of London, a low, thin faced pale man, fomewhat pitted with the small pox, and slender, his eyes fore or inflamed, and a large tumour on his hand, Mr Beath added, that he was a bad clerk, that he wore either a wig or his hair in a long queue, and in a poftfcript he fays, that he was dreffed like a gentleman but appeared fomewhat under that standard in converfation. This laft diftinction which fhews great good fenfe and nice difcernment was the characteristic of a man who had lived as valet-de-chambre with persons of rank; it does not however appear that either the juftice or any other of the parties fufpected this Walker to be Bradley, or that they enquired of the woman whether Bradley's perfon correfponded with Beath's defcription, if they had, they would have taken a nearer way to their end. On the contrary, Mr Bevel fet out for Chefer to enquire where Walker had lodged, and by what carriage the cloth he bought had been sent to town, and how it was directed. After much enquiry he found that the person who called himself Walker, lodged at one Rippington's a shoe maker; and that he carried the linen away with him in a poft-chaife towards London; he learnt also that the boy who drove the chaife the firft ftage from Chefler to Whitworth, brought a letter band the glafs in the room where he back to Rippington defiring him to look had lain, for an old pocket-book, which be, had left behind him, and to fend it directed to John Walker to be left at the Blooms Inn in London, till called for; the book, however, could not be found, and Rippington foon after H received another letter from London as from a friend of Walker's, defiring him to fend the book, which was not yet come to hand, and to advise him of the the conveyance by a letter directed to Mr. Davis, at St Clement's Coffee house in the Strand, London. This letter Rippington gave to Bevel, and Bevel brought it to Fielding. The master of the coffee house was ordered to stop the person who should come for A a letter directed to Davis, which letter he had already received, but Bradley, who had affumed many names on va. rious occafions, had forgot what name, he ordered Rippington's answer to be directed to, and enquiring for it at the coffee houfe by another name he escaped detection. B he confeffed that he knew Wefket and Bradley committed the robbery on Lord Harrington, Bradley having told him the very night it was committed, that he was going to Wefket who was to conceal him in the house for that purpose, till the family was in bed. He added, that the booty had been buried in his celler, where fome part of it ftill remained. The cellar was then fearched, and the gold fnuff boxes, and feveral other things were found, which were sworn to be Lord Harrington's property. Soon after, Bradley was apprehended in a failor's habit at Wapping, and brought before Fielding; Cooper was there alfo, at the fame time, and Bradley obferving that he attempted to become evidence for the crown against him & Wefket; & at the fame time denyCing and concealing many principal tranfactions relative to that and other robberies in which he had been concerned, Bradley at once without any promife of favour declared the whole truth, and it being the opinion of the magiftrate and all prefent that Wisket and Cooper were the greater vilians, Bradley was admitted as an evidence againit them. Wefket was indicted for the robbery, Cooper for receiving the goods, and being both convicted upon proof of the facts that have been related in this narrative, Wefket was executed, and Cooper is to be tranfported D Here then the hunters were at fault; but upon comparing the letter written to Rippington from London, and given by him to Bevel, and by Bevel to Fielding, with the letters that had been put into Fielding's hand by the woman, it appeared exactly to correfpond with that written by Bradley; his father was found to live in Clerkenwell, and with several others of his relations examined; their defcription of his perfon was found minutely to agree with the defcription given of the fuppofed Walker by Mr Beath, and it allo came out that he had been at Chefter during the lalt Midfummer fair, and had lodged at one Cooper's, a chandler, in new Turn Style, Holborn. Upon this Cooper was fent for, who faid that Brad. ley had left his houfe about fix weeks before, that he did not know whither he was gone, and that he took nothing E away with him. Upon this Bradley was publickly advertised, hand bills were difperfed all over the kingdom, perfons planted at all the ale-houses he ufed to frequent, and every other method used to discover and appre- TH hend him. These steps produced a man, who F accidentally heard one Bradshaw a coachman who drives a jobb at GerTard's Hall Inn fay, in an alehouse, that he had got a large cheft of Bradley's in his hayloft; on this information Brad. fbaw and the cheft were fent for; the chelt was found to contain the linen that was bought at Chefer, and the G coachman faid he brought the cheft in a coach about fix weeks before from the house of one Cooper in Turn Style. Cooper was then fent for again, and being confronted with Bradbaw con• felled what he had before obftinately denied, that he knew of the chelt H going to Gerrard's Hall Inn. He was then threatened to be committed for concealing this circunftance as an acceffary after the fact, upon which for 14 years. A Letter concerning Libels, Warrants, and the HE firft warrant that over was giant ed for feizing papers generally was, by Lord Townsend, in the reign of George the it, untill that time, no fecretary of ftate ever went farther than to direct the feizure of fome papers particularized. The attorney having flightly paffed over the feizure of papers, after talking of it as a mere picture for which he happened to have no tafte, intirely omits the subsequent grievance of the cafe confinement; the di rection to the conttable of the Tower, is not merely to keep Mr Wilkes fate, but "to keep him fafe and clofe, untill he "fhall be delivered by due courfe of law." Now, the cuftody here dirc&ed, is unwarrantable in law, in the cafe of a mifdemeanor, nay in any cafe; infomuch, that out of all the various forms of mittimus's to be met with in Burn's Juice, or the Regiftrum Brevium, there is not one where the word clofe or area is inferted. My opinion therefore is, that before con Conviction the law does not warrant clofe onfinement, fo as to debar a friend from ccets, in any cafe whatever; for if a man When apprehended be committed forthwith the matter in queflion. He concludes on this head with asking, whether all the printers and other "parties aggrieved,, "deny that they have had ample fatisfac tion?" whereby he indirectly admits that they had been aggrieved, but then infinuates, that as money is in his mind the measure of all things, and an adequate confideration either for a broken head or a broken conftitution, fo there has been no harm done at all, but what is now compleatly paid for. clofe cuftody, fo that nobody can get at hm, it will be impoffible for him to get A In Habeas Corpus. Indeed, it feems to me to be an abfolute deprivation of the right that every fubje& has to his liberty, but in fuch an offence as a libel, the leaft definable and the most ambiguous of all misdemeanors, and by contruction only a breach of the peace, it is not only abfo- B But, in God's name, what have damages lutely illegal, but extreme cruelty in itself, to do with the great point the attorney is and, with refpe&t to the constitution, the arguing, whether the commons of Eng and mott lawless tyranny that can be exer:- thould or thould not come to a strong re-, ed by any minifer, and fuch as ought to fokition upon fuch an infringemen of the make every gentleman ftarile, when he conftitution. Moft people are of opinion," thinks of it only. when a power, dangerous at any time to be exercised, is made ufe of in an ordina y point unneceffarily, the parliament should immediately brand fo violent and irregular a flep, and if the circumftances required it, ftigmatize the perfon who took it. power notoriously and confeffedly illegal, feems to need no great examination, but if it did, people without doors are apt to think, that thofe within fhould have given' it that examination. It is not the corperal injury that conArures, in the eyes of mankind, the dread fulness of the example. It is the force exer-ed and continued against law. C D When I fee a fecretary of state, obiBately fighting with the laws of his country, uting privilege to the umoft, availing himself of every practicable effoign, and, at length, withitand ng all the process and penalties of a court of justice, to avoid trying the right of a tranfaction, which has never yet been directly given up; and perhaps waiting for an outlawry of his profecutor,, in order then to mock the juftice of his country ftill more, by entering an appearance to the fuit against him, at a time, when his profecutor can no longer ro on with it: I proteft, although an old, fober, E private individual, that I lose my temper, jook for redreís f om fome other quarter, and icel myself inclined to join in an addiefs to the commons of England, to take up the confideration, and go on with the profecution of that caufe, which every freeman is interested in, and which the ordinary courts of justice have been fo long foiled in. I remember what is Mr Lock's definition of liberty; what he makes the province of a court of judicature; what the extent of the legislative power; and what, according to him, creates a diffolution of all government. If mankind is to be enraged, I really think this is the readieft way to effect it. If a questionable act has been done by G the great officers of a flate in any just government, and when taken notice of, they avoid a decifion of the established courts of law, I will fay they dif-ferve the crown by fuch conduct, let who will advise it. The attorney wonders, what should oc cafion any "alarm" and fays one would H think, "that fome innocent man had been oppreffed by arbitrary violence, tyranny and perfecution." To which I thall only fay, that the legality of the arreft itfelf by virtue of such a warrant, and of the innocence of the man arrested, is Α But the attorney, is afraid that the lords might differ from the commons, either as a house of parliament, or as a court of judicature. But, I can rid him of this fear, by referring him to the proceedings of the prefent parliament in confequence of the king's meffage, where, upon the mere view of the North Briton. No. 45, they determined it unanimously to be a libel, without any previous communication with the Lords. The commons even went farther, for, they afterwards called for evidence, in order to find out who was the author, and it appearing to them, although by witneifes not upon oath, that one of their own members was, they expelled. him, after fitting, debating and deliberating on their conduct 'till halt an hour after three in the morning. Now, this laft was a fact, which by the conflitution of this country, is to be tried by a jury. Nay, the commons came to both thefe refolutiops, whift the fame matter was in a courfe of trial before a jury in the courts below; where it was poffible that it might be differently determined. For, nobody can tell what a jury will do in a libel; and they generally determine both the law, and the act, as it is called; but fuppofe them to be to docile as to find only that fuch a mas had published the paper, and to leave the conftru&ion thereof to the court, and that the judge who presided was one of thofe intrepid magiftrates who do not care at all for the refolution of a house of commons upon a point of law; it is furly, very poffible, that fuch a judge might have made a different determination from what 1 the |