Kent Gazette, 11 July 1778.

To be sold by auction, at the "White Hart," in Hythe, between the hours of 3 and 5 in the afternoon on Thursday, the 2nd instant.

All that Messuage called the "Dukes Head" on Sellinge Leeze, with the Barn, Stable and Buildings, in very good Repair, and 1 Orchard, Yard, Garden, and several Pieces of exceedingly rich, Arable, Meadow, and Pasture land; situate, lying and being, in Sellinge in Kent, and late in the occupation of Mr. William Baker, deceased.

There are also for sale on the said premises, about 40 or 50 Tons of good Hay and Clover, of the Growth of last year, in 3 several Stacks, which are well thatched.

For further particulars enquire of Mr. John Histed, of Monks Horton, who will show the Premises; or of Mr. Robert Turnay, Attorney, at Hythe.

From the Kentish Gazette, 10 July 1838.

EAST KENT QUARTER SESSIONS.

UTTERING OF COUNTERFEIT COIN.

James Rogers, John Williams, and James Kelly, were charged with uttering a counterfeit shilling on the 7th of June last, and having in their possession four other counterfeits, at the parish of Sellinge.

The prosecution was at the instance of the Mint, and was conducted by Messrs. Bodkin and Espinasse; Mr. Perry defended the prisoners.

Mrs. Eliza Dunk was the first witness called. She said that early in the morning of the 7th of June, the prisoners, Rogers and Williams, entered the house of her husband, the "Duke's Head," at Sellinge, and called for a pot of beer. She received from one of them a shilling in payment, and gave them the change. They sat down a moment, and then went to the door and called in two persons who appeared to be their companions—one was the prisoner Kelly, the other a woman. They had some bread and cheese after this, for which they paid out of the change she had given them. Her brother, who had been at work in the yard, came in, and she showed him the shilling. Me went out, and the prisoners shortly after got up and went away.

The brother of Mrs. Dunk stated that he was in the yard which adjoins the road, and saw four persons pass, and two enter the house. He then went in-doors. Two remained outside at first, sitting down on the bank by the hedge. They were called in by their companions. I saw on examination that the shilling was a bad one, and I set off to fetch a constable. I was returning with Mr. Amos, son of the constable, when we met the prisoners and a woman on the road loading from the "Duke’s Head," and about forty rods from it. On seeing us, one of them stepped to the side of the road and leaned over the hedge. We took them into custody.

Amos said, after having secured the prisoners he accompanied John Dunk, the last witness, to that part of the hedge where they had observed one of the men leaning over. Before touching the hedge they cleared away the grass underneath it. There was no money on the ground. They then shook the hedge, and four counterfeit shillings fell from it.

The money having been produced in court, Mr. Powell, junior, solicitor and inspector of the Mint, was called, and having looked at the coins, said they were all counterfeit. Those which fell from the hedge, and that which was paid away to Mrs. Dunk, were cast in the same mould.

This closed the case for the prosecution.

Mr. Perry made an ingenious defence for the prisoners, and strongly contended that no proof of guilt had been adduced against Kelly, upon whom no bad money had been found, and who was not in the house when the counterfeit shilling was paid away.

The prisoners were attired in tattered uniforms of the Spanish Legion. The woman is incarcerated in Hythe gaol upon another charge.

The Chairman ably summed up the case.

The jury, after a brief consultation, returned a verdict of "Guilty" against all the prisoners.

Three other indictments were then withdrawn.

The Chairman, in passing sentence, observed that they had all been found guilty upon strong evidence, and by an attentive jury. He quite coincided with the verdict, and felt little doubt that they were part of a gang who, for weeks past, had infested the rural districts of the county, passing counterfeit coin. The parts where they practised their nefarious arts were such as were less likely in possess facilities for their detection and capture than others. He hoped that the judgment the Court would pass upon them would lead to their relinquishment of their illegal and disreputable practices; for a time it would, at least, relieve the public from their impositions.

They were then severally sentenced to "twelve months’ imprisonment in the House of Correction to hard labour, the last fortnight to solitary confinement.”