The trial (at large) of James Hill; otherwise James Hind; otherwise, James Actzen: for feloniously, wilfully, and maliciously, setting fire to the rope-house, in His Majesty's dock-yard at Portsmouth. Tried at the Assize, at Winchester, on Thursday, March 6, 1777. Before the honorable Sir William Henry Ashhurst, knt. ... and Sir Beaumont Hotham, knt. ... / Taken in short-hand ... by Joseph Gurney. And published by permission of the judges.

John the Painter

Date:: [1777?]

Credit: The trial (at large) of James Hill; otherwise James Hind; otherwise, James Actzen: for feloniously, wilfully, and maliciously, setting fire to the rope-house, in His Majesty's dock-yard at Portsmouth. Tried at the Assize, at Winchester, on Thursday, March 6, 1777. Before the honorable Sir William Henry Ashhurst, knt. ... and Sir Beaumont Hotham, knt. ... / Taken in short-hand ... by Joseph Gurney. And published by permission of the judges. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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[ ,3+ ] Edward Carey, a fhipwright, fays, he was at P.pptrinouth. the day before foe fire*, and that night he remembers a perlon being fhut up in the rope-houfe; he heard a perfon making a noife in the rope-houfe, who faid he wa§ locked in, and defired hirn to Jet him out; the witnefs faid he could not, and Went away •, fo that little circum- flance too, mentioned by Baldwin, you fee is confirmed by this witnefs; he remembers a perfon being locked up in the rope-houfe, but you will cbferve that he does not pretend to fay that perfon was the Prifoner. Then Ann Hopkins is called. She is'the woman that drove the cart that day from Portfmouth, into which you recolledl he told Baldwin th^it he got,, fays Ihe faw -the Prifoner the day that the Dock was on fire at about four or half an hour paft foi^r in the afternoon. At that time foe Was comingfrom'tlie market foe faw him firll be¬ tween the Bull and Kingfton, fire did not fee him till he came up clofe toher;, he Hopped her and afoed her where llie was going ? She faid, a little way 5 he faid he would give her any thing to give him a lift, for he was going to Petersfield that night, and was afraid he foould be belated •, and entreated her to drive as fall as foe could. When he came into the cart, foe obferved he was much out of breath; foe told him foe was to Hop to buy a pair of pattens; foe did accordingly Hop at a foop ; foe was to pay a (hilling for them •, the Prifoner threw down fixpence, and then he faid, he wifoed he could get a returned chaife ; and when foe flopped a little before foe came to her ow;i houfe to give her horfe fome drink, he jumped out, and ran away along the London road. Now, with refpedl to this evidence, to be fure, any perfon, totally uncon¬ cerned in any guilty deed, might be anxious to get to Petersfield ; might be afraid of being benighted ; might wifo her to drive very faft; all that might happen very na¬ turally without any imputation upon the party ; but, as I faid before, you are to take this cafe with all its circumltances together; and every little circumftance weighs fome- thing; and if you foould trace the Prifoner to the very place, almoft to the moment of the fire, if you trace him leaving the place immediately after, and being in this ftate, out of breath, eager to get ofo preffing the woman to drive on, anxious to get a returned chaife, jumping out, and running forward when foe Hopped ; laying thefe cir- cumHances together, with all the others, to be fure you will be juHified if you enter¬ tain fome fufpicions about his motive. But all this you will weigh, together with the many various circumflances of the cafe. Elizabeth Gentell fays, foe lives on- Portfmouth Common. Shejfaw the Prifoner at her houfe the day before the fire; he came there and afked her for a halfpenny worth of matches. That you fee, gentlemen, is another circumHance that has been proved to you, as coming from himfelf to Baldwin; that he boyght a halfpenny worth of matches of a woman at Portfmouth. She fays he afked particularly if the matches would take quick ? He took a bundle and tried one or two of them, and then he fook out fome money, and paid her a halfpenny. She fays foe is fure he is the fame per¬ fon. Now, upon this evidence, it is for your confideration whether a man, going to buy matches, would or would not foew fuch an anxiety about their being particularly w’ell made; and there is' one more obfervation, which I would make to you, that the man who goes to buy a halfpenny worth of matches for his own ufe, is hardly fuch a man as could afford to exprefs a defire of meeting with a poH-chaife to carry him to Petersfield. The next witnefs is John Illenden, who is a furgeon and apothecary. He fays, that as far as human poffibility can go, the Prifoner is the perfon whom he faw at Canter¬ bury, three or four days before or after the twentieth of November; and that he is par¬ ticularly clear that he is the man, becaufe he came to his foop to buy two ounces of fpirits of turpentine, and a quarter of a pound of faltpetre. , Now, gentlemen, thefc things you will feel a man might innocently buy, at the time you are recollefting that thefe materials have been found upon the fpot, and that they are materials neceffary for combuHion. Mary Bijhop fays, that the Prifoner was at her houfe at Canterbury, between Mi¬ chaelmas and ChriHmas; fo that foe fpeaks very vaguely about the time; foe cannot be pofitive when it was, but foe remembers one circumHance (believing it to be the Prifoner) that he told her he had been interrupted by, that is, that he had had a quar- 1 r«]

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