MOSES MORAVIA AND JOHN MANOURY
Convicted at the Old Bailey, 27th of June, 1752, for sinking a Ship and swindling Insurers
SHIP-INSURERS were about this time greatly defrauded by conspiracies of villains to sink vessels, in order to swindle the underwriters, and the utmost difficulty was always experienced in bringing the crimes home to them.
It was usual for those who practised the imposition upon ship-insurers to purchase goods, pay for them, get them on board, and in the night-time take them clandestinely out of the ship and dispose of them for what they would bring.
Thus when they had sunk the ship they could produce receipts for the goods, and the shipping papers for the same; upon which the insurers were compelled to pay the amount.
This was precisely the crime proved upon these Jews, who, conspiring with one Samuel Wilson, who died before his trial came on, and Captain Misson, commander of the ship Elizabeth and Martha, sunk that fine ship at sea, in order to defraud the underwriters. Misson absconded, and a reward of fifty pounds was offered for apprehending him, but he was never brought to justice.
Moravia and Manoury were arraigned for this offence at the bar of the Old Bailey, on the 27th of June, 1752, and, after a long trial, found guilty. Solomon Carolina, another Jew, was tried with them, as an accomplice; but, the proof not fully reaching him, he was acquitted.
They were sentenced to a year's imprisonment in Newgate, and in that time to stand in the pillory, once on Tower Hill and once at the Royal Exchange; to pay a fine of twenty pounds each, and to find securities for their good behavior for five years, themselves in two hundred pounds each, and such other securities as the Court might require.