arrow The Times arrow 1811 - 1820 arrow Aug 17 1818 Carlisle Assizes #10 - Bank Prosecutions
Aug 17 1818 Carlisle Assizes #10 - Bank Prosecutions Print E-mail



The Times, Monday, Aug 17, 1818; pg. 3; Issue 10437; col C


                              CUMBERLAND ASSIZES.
                                          --------------
                         CARLISLE, MONDAY, AUG. 10.     [continued]
                                        CROWN SIDE.

                               BANK PROSECUTIONS.

Elizabeth MITCHELL, aged 37, was charged with uttering a forged Bank of England
note to Jane ELLIOTT, shopkeeper in Whitehaven, knowing it to be forged.

Mr. RAINE conducted the prosecution in this and the two succeeding cases; Mr.
COURTENAY was with him. The prisoners had no Counsel.

Jane ELLIOTT and Benjamin SMITH proved the receipt of the note from the
prisoner, and its identity when now exhibited. The prisoner had bought a pint of
rum and 2 ounces of tea, and received 17s. 3d. in change as balance.

Jane MITCHELL (no relation of the prisoner's) stated, that the prisoner,
Margaret M'DERMID, Mary HEYLIN, and Sarah TODD, had come to her house, and
obtained the use of a room. The prisoner borrowed a bottle from her to fetch
some rum in it. On her return she made her a present of two ounces of tea. Mary
HEYLIN had also gone out, and on her return a great noise was heard among the
party. Witness went to learn the cause. All of them were scolding Mary HEYLIN
for coming into that house, since the police officers were in pursuit of her,
and said, she should rather have gone a mile out of the way. The prisoner said
to her, "Why did you not swallow the note?"

HEYWOOD, clerk to the magistrates, and superintendent of police, had followed
Mary HEYLIN through several streets in Whitehaven, and afterwards with KISSUCK
traced her to Jane MITCHELL's. In Jackson TODD's privy, in Workington, between
the wall and the slate, he had found 40 1L. notes of the Bank of England, which
were now produced.

KISSUCK supplied his part of the evidence.

John LEES, (who has accompanied the court all the way from York) professed
himself to be an inspector of bank-notes, and well able to say whether notes
were forged or not. The note uttered by the prisoner, and the other 40 notes
were all forged. This appeared from the paper, the plate, the watermark, and the
signature.

The jury after consulting for a few minutes in the box, retired, and three
quarters of an hour afterwards returned with a verdict of Guilty. The prisoner,
on hearing this verdict, screamed and plunged in the most violent manner, and
continued to do so till she was removed out of Court. She is a married woman,
very tall, and rather good looking.
 
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