From the Kentish Gazette, 11 April 1837.

CITY QUARTER SESSIONS.

On Thursday these Sessions were held at the Guildhall, before F. Boteler, Esq. (Recorder), E. Plummer, Esq. (Mayor), and other magistrates.

The following gentlemen were called on the Grand Jury:— F. Bellingham (Foreman), J. C. Abbott, C. Lee, C. Mason, H. West, G. Gambler, H. Smith, G. Smith, W. H. Trimnell, S. Cladish, J. Prier, R. Foord, G. Ash, G. Cooper, J. Clarke, D. Mathews, W. Paine, G. Castledcn, and T. F. Cozens.

Elizabeth Fuller, 49, and Ann, her daughter, aged 21, were charged upon four indictments with having stolen various articles belonging to linen drapers and others in this city.

The first charge was that of having stolen a gown piece and a boa, the property of Matthew Martin, which, as the parties could not identify it, the verdict was Not Guilty.

A second indictment charged them with having stolen ten yards of satin, a piece of brown holland, an apron, and some ribbon, the property of Mr. Budden.

J. C. Budden, son of the prosecutor, stated that on the 25th of March the prisoners went to his father’s shop and asked to look at some brown holland. They were shown a quantity, which they said was too coarse, upon which he reached other bundles, and whilst doing so, and waiting upon another person, the younger prisoner left the shop. On returning to the elder prisoner he missed a piece of the brown holland, and charged her with the theft. She denied all knowledge of it, and he searched her. He then accused her of giving it to the woman who had left the shop, but she denied all acquaintance with her. The brown holland and the other articles were all found in the prisoner’s house.

Police Inspector Plank stated that he found several of the articles at the residence of the prisoners, near the Gutteridge Toll Gate; and Policeman Epps said that he received a parcel of them from Mr. Bax, of the "Star Tap," in whose custody it appeared, by Mr. Bax’s statement, the elder prisoner had left them until she returned from the city on her way home.

Mr. Shee argued in defence that no charge of felony could be maintained against the prisoners simply from the circumstance of some of the goods being found in the younger prisoner’s lodging; and if the jury were not satisfied of her guilt upon any ther point, the crime could not be that of felony, but that of having received stolen goods. After commenting upon the serious points of evidence given by the younger Mr. Budden, and of the extreme carelessness of which most linen drapers were guilty, in this case as well as the last, in their not keeping regular entry of the goods sold, by which they might soon learn whether goods had been stolen, and before the time as stated in the two cases just heard, wherein most of the goods were not known to have been stolen until they were found by the policeman, Mr. Shee exhorted the jury to dismiss from their minds all prejudice which might have been raised against the prisoners, in consequence of their being charged upon several indictments with stealing.

The learned Recorder, in summing up, directed the attention of the jury to the particular circumstance of the goods being traced to the possession of the prisoners; and combated the assertion made by the counsel, that felony could not be maintained against them from this fact.

Verdict, Guilty.

Upon a third indictment they were charged with having stolen 10 3/4 yards of black silk serge, and a shawl, the property of George Payn, of All Saints.

Mr. Payn said he could swear to the block upon which the serge was rolled, from certain marks, but he could not swear to the shawl which the policeman produced.

Mr. Shee, in defence, said he could not think the jury could well find the younger prisoner guilty of felony, for it appeared that she adopted no means of converting into money the things reputed to have been stolen by her. It appeared to him that he had, doubtless, been the dupe of some designing villain, much more practised in theft than she appeared to be. After nine observations in extenuation of the punishment with which he ought to be visited under such circumstances, the jury proceeded to consider their verdict, and returned Elizabeth Fuller, Not Guilty; Ann, Guilty.

The fourth indictment, for stealing a table cloth and a piece of baize, the property of Stephen Marrell, of the "Angelo Castle," was not gone into.

The sentences were passed on Friday morning: Elizabeth Fuller to twelve months’ imprisonment in the House of Correction; Ann, to twelve months upon the first conviction, and three days upon the second, and to be kept to hard labour.

On receiving her sentence, the elder prisoner curtsied and asked the Court, with considerable nonchalance, if she might not be suffered to have certain duplicates of pawned property, which had not been claimed, delivered up to her.

From the Kentish Gazette, 7 February 1843.

CANTERBURY POLICE—Monday, Feb. 6.

James Baker was charged with stealing a sheep, the property of Mr. Robert Young, and Susan Milgate was charged as an accomplice.

It appeared by the evidence of Inspector Bradley, that from information be received he suspected the prisoners of the theft, and, accompanied by Policeman Spratt, found the male prisoner at the "City of London," and conveyed him to the Station-house. He afterwards went to the "Star Tap" where he found the female prisoner, and told her Mr. Young had lost a sheep, and he suspected it was at at her house. She denied all knowledge of it. He took her to her house in Fortune's passage, and found the sheep nearly whole, and also the skin. She then began to cry, and said, he (meaning the male prisoner) had brought her to it, and the sooner she was transported the better.

The skin was sworn to by Mr. Young's shepherd, to having marked it with a pitch mark R.Y. a short time before.

Another witness named Barton stated that he saw Baker on Friday evening come down Wincheap with a sack on his shoulder containing something heavy, but he did not know what it contained.

The prisoners, who had nothing to say in defence, were committed for trial.