Page:Showell's Dictionary of Birmingham.djvu/180

168 5th—Samuel Palmer and Thomas Silk Churchwardens. Tenor.—Thomas Kettle and William Jervaise did contrive To make us six that were but five.

Notable Offences.—In olden days very heavy punishments were dealt out for what we now think but secondary offences, three men being sentenced to death at the Assizes, held March 31, 1742, one Anstey for burglary, Townsend for sheep-stealing, and Wilmot for highway robbery. The laws also took cognisance of what to us are strange crimes, a woman in 1790 being imprisoned here for selling almanacks without the Government stamp on them; sundry tradesmen also being heavily fined for dealing in covered buttons. The following are a few ether notable offences that have been chronicled for reference:—

Bigamy.—The Rev. Thomas Morris Hughes was, Nov. 15, 1883, sentenced to seven years' penal servitude for this offence. He had been previously punished for making a false registration of the birth of a child, the mother of which was his own stepdaughter.

Burglary.—On Christmas eve, 1800, five men broke into the counting-house at Soho, stealing therefrom 150 guineas and a lot of silver, hut Matthew Boulton captured four of them, who were transported.—The National School at Hands worth, was broken into and robbed for the fifth time Sept. 5, 1827.—A warehouse in Bradford Street was robbed Jan. 9, 1856, of an iron safe, weighing nearly 4cwt., and containing £140 in cash.—A burglary was committed in the Bull Ring, July 5, 1862, tor which seven persons were convicted.

Coining.—Booth, the noted coiner and forger, was captured at Perry Barr, March 28, 1812, his house being surrounded by constables and soldiers. In addition to a number of forged notes and £600 in counterfeit silver, the captors found 200 guineas in gold and nearly £3,000 in good notes, but they did not save Booth from being hanged. Booth had many hidingplaces for his peculiar productions, parcels of spurious coins having several rimes been found in hedgerow banks and elsewhere; the latest find (in April, 1884) consisted of engraved copper-plates for Bank of England £1 and £2 notes.—There have been hundreds of coiners punished since his day. The latest trick is getting really good dies for sovereigns, for which Ingram Belborough, an old man of three score and six, got seven years' penal servitude, Nov, 15 1883.

Deserters.— On 24 July, 1742, a soldier deserted from his regiment in this town. Followed, and resisting, he was shot at Tettenhall Wood.—A sergeant of the Coldstream Guards was shot here while trying to capture a deserter, September 13, 1796.

Dynamite making.—One of the most serious offences committed in Birmingham was discovered when Alfred Whitehead was arrested April 5, 1883, on the charge of manufacturing nitroglycerine, or dynamite, at 123, Ledsam Street. Whitehead was one of the Irish-American or American-Irish party of the Land Leaguers or Home Rulers, who entertain the idea that by committing horrible outrages in England. they will succeed in making Ireland "free from the galling yoke of Saxon tyranny" and every Irishman independent of everybody and everything everywhere. Well supplied with funds from New York, Whitehead quietly arranged his little manufactory, buying glycerine from one firm and nitric and sulphuric acids from others, certain members of the conspiracy coming from London to take away the stuff when it was completely mixed. The deliveries of the peculiar ingredients attracted the attention of Mr, Gilbert Pritchard, whose chemical knowledge led him to guess what they were required for; he informed his friend, Sergeant Price, of his suspicions; Price and his superior officers made nightly visits to Ledsam Street, getting into the premises, and taking samples for examination; and on the morning named Whitehead's game was over, though not before he had been watched in sending off two lots of