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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[ ] ■nnrnculantythe man being dreiTed fo particular, and unlike perfons that call upon inch errands, ftruck her ob!crvacion, and (he will fwear to the identity of the perlbn. I'liereis yet, behind, one more circutnftance, that places it beyond the polubility of fulpition; the bundle that I told you of, could not be found; for Mrs. Boxell, where he adfuaily did lodge, nor any body there, could hear of any other lodging that he had taken fne remembered that fhe had feen fuch a bundle, that the prifoner had with him the firft day; but what was become of the bundle, and ■where he had left it, or whether he took it away with him, God Almighty knew ! nobody could give an account. At lall, after great fearch and enquiry, the bundle was found in the poiTefiion of another woman, whofe lodgings he had taken, and who had no fufpicion about what the man was; flie wondered that he had not re¬ turned, and kept the bundle unopened, expecting him to call every day for it. Upon opening the bundle, there were the very things he had deferibed; an Englifh Juftin, Ovid’s Metamorphofes, a Treatife on the Art of War and of making fire works, and there was this perfon’s pafTport from the French Government; all thefe ■things were found juft exadly as he had deferibed them to Mr. Baldwin ; and you will have iikewife an account, that in that bundle are a pair of buckles, belonging io the prifoner, whom a witnefs will be produced to you to prove that he has feen, fas far as he can remem.ber, that pair of buckles in the fhoes of the prifoner. Gentlemen, there is yet one more circumftance-, you will have the woman that took him up in her cart, and flie will Iwear to the very man, to the bringing him two -miles in her cart, and while they were juft at parting the blaze of the fire at the -Rope-houfe burft out. Now, when you have all thefe circumftances proved to you in evidence, will not you fay that I was well warranted in inlifting that it was impoftible fox Mr. Baldwin to have invented this ftory? for thefe difeoveries were made in confe- quence of Baldwin’s relation ; not that Baldwin’s relation was after the difeoveries, for it was,the relation of Baldwin from the mouth of the prifoner that led to a difeovery of all the particulars which I have now mentioned to you ; the tenth part of thefe circumftances, which I have opened, would ferve, 1 (hould think, to decide the fate cf any man ftanding in the prifoner’s fituation ; but it is the willi of the public, it is the wifti of Government, that all the World fhould know the infamy of this tranf- adion, and that they Ibould know to whom they are indebted for the forrows they have felt, and how much they owe to the providence of God, that America has not been able totally to deftroy this country, and to make it bow'its neck, not only to the yoke of America-, but. to the moft petty fovereignin Europe ; for let the Englilh navy be deftroyed,,and here was a hand ready to effeeft it; let but the Englifh navy be de- ftroyed, and there is an end of all we hold dear and valuable; the importance of the fubjed, the magnitude, the extraordinary nature of the thing calls for a more par¬ ticular inveftigation, than any other fubjed of what kind foe ver could demand; and therefore I need, I hope, make no apology for having defeended lb particularly into thefe minute, ifany of them can be called minute, -particulars of this ftory -; we lhall prove all thefe circumftances to the full, and furely there can be no doubt what (hall be done with the man. I lhall be glad to hear what he has to fay for himfelf, and V lhall be glad if he is able to lay this guilt at any body’s door befides thofe to ^yhorn he has laid it. I wilh Mr. Silas Deane were here, a time may come, perhaps, when he and Dr.Franklin may be here. Prifoner, He is the honefteft man in the world. I

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