HENRY CLARKE
Convicted at the Old Bailey, 20th of February, 1810, for robbing a Mail-Coach, and sentenced to Death
HENRY CLARKE was charged with robbing the Bath mail-coach of bank-notes, of the Wootton-Basset bank, to the amount of one thousand, eight hundred and twenty-five pounds, the property of Messrs Large, bankers at Wootton-Basset.
It appeared from the statement of the counsel for the prosecution, Mr Gurney, that a parcel containing the said notes was sent from the banking-house of Messrs Cobb & Co., in Lombard Street, to the coach office of the Swan with two Necks, Lad Lane, on the 2nd of January, 1810, directed to Mr Large, at Bath, for the purpose of being sent by him to their house at Wootton-Basset, but that the parcel never came to hand.
The people at the coach office proved the booking of it there; but whether it had been stolen at their office, or out of the coach in the yard, or elsewhere, they could not say. It was proved, however, to have been seen on the counter in the office; and one of the witnesses went so far as to say that he was certain it had been put into the coach.
Three of the notes of ten pounds each were some time after traced to the prisoner, who was apprehended in consequence. His defence was that he found them, but of this he gave no proof; and, to rebut that, it was proved that in putting off one of the bills he had put a fictitious name on it instead of his own.
These facts were all proved, and the jury, without much hesitation, found him guilty, and sentence of death was passed.