Charles Peace, or The Adventures of a Notorious Burglar

by Anonymous

The prisoner was then committed for trial.

Mrs. Peace was at this time plunged into a vortex of troubles, and doubtless she bitterly regretted having allied herself with so heartless and unscrupulous a miscreant.

Fain would we pass over in silence the troubles and perplexities with which she found herself surrounded, but it is requisite for the continuity of the story of “the Life of Charles Peace” that we are constrained to record all those events and circumstance which throw a light upon his dark doings and sinful career. His unhappy wife, as we have already intimated was committed to Newgate, and on Tuesday, January the 14th, 1879, Hannah Peace, aged fifty-eight, alleged to be the wife of Charles Peace, the notorious burglar, was indicted at the Old Bailey, London, before Mr. Commissioner Kerr, with feloniously receiving, in the county of Surrey, seven pocket-handkerchief, one nightdress, one pair of slippers, two scarves, and one pair of silk stockings, the property of the wife of Mr. William Gardner Shapley, Seymour Lodge, Peckham Rye, on the night of the 23rd September.

Several other indictments charged her with stealing divers other articles of property; and she was further indicted for harbouring the man Peace.

Mr. Douglas Straight and Mr. Tickell, instructed by Mr. Polland, solicitor to the Treasury, appeared for the prosecution; Mr. Forrest Fulton, instructed by Mr. Walter Beard, for the defence.

Mr. Straight said the case was one of some peculiarity. If a woman were married to a man, the law assumed that any offence like the present with which the prisoner was indicted was committed under his coercion. There was, however, another element in this case which had to be considered—​viz., whether there was such independent action on the part of the prisoner, in respect to the disposal of the stolen property, as would lead to the conclusion that the prisoner was to be held criminally responsible. The prisoner was indicted in the name of Hannah Peace, and answered to the indictment in that name. The responsibility, he contended, was thrown upon her to make out the marriage. Mr. Straight proceeded to detail the circumstances of the robbery at Mr. Shapley’s, and the course adopted by the prisoner in removing all the property from the house in the Evalina-road, after her husband had been taken into custody, and he remarked that there could be very little doubt that the property so removed by the prisoner was that which was afterwards found. They had made every possible inquiry, and could find no trace of a marriage having taken place.

Inspector Henry Phillips was then examined by Mr. Tickell, and said: In November last a man, named Charles Peace, was convicted of burglary and shooting at a constable with intent to murder. On the 5th November I went to a house, No. 4, Hazel-road, Darnall, when I saw Mrs. Peace, a young man, named Bolsover, who is her son-in-law, and his wife. On entering the house I saw a quantity of property which I knew, from the description, to have been stolen. I was accompanied by Inspector Twibell, of Sheffield. I said that the property on the floor had been stolen, and proceeded to take charge of it. The prisoner said, in reference to a clock belonging to Mrs. Dadson, “I did not know that it was stolen. A tall woman gave it to me about five weeks ago.” I told her that Peace had been convicted, to which she replied, “He has been a great trouble to me. He seems to harass my life out wherever I go.” I afterwards searched the house, and in the top room I found a silk dress, a set of studs, identified by Mr. Wood, two bracelets, some knives and forks, and other property, belonging to Mr. Hanley, Mr. Perry, Mr. Allen, Mr. Andred, and others. Inspector Twibell was about to open a box, when the prisoner said, “I know what you want; I will give it you.” She thereupon handed to the officer a parcel containing about forty pieces of plate, the majority of which has been identified. The prisoner was taken before the magistrates, and afterwards brought to London. On the 14th of November I again visited the house, when I found two sealskin jackets and the property identified by Mrs. Shapley. On the first occasion she gave the name of Hannah Peace, and said that she was married at St. George’s Church, Sheffield, or rather her son said so in her presence. I brought one of the boxes up to London, and showed it to a witness named Pickering, and to Mrs. Bellfitt, of Nottingham. When she said she had been married, I asked her for her certificate, which she said the “old man” had burned some time before.

Evidence was then given as to the robberies that had taken place and in recognition of stolen property.

Mr. Samuel Smith, builder, Peckham, said that in May, a Mr. and Mrs. Thompson, a Mrs. Ward, and a boy, who was called Willie Ward, called upon him in reference to the letting of the house, No. 5, Evalina-road, Peckham. Having satisfied himself of the respectability of these people by going to their residence at Greenwich, he let the house to them. In October, he found that the house had been deserted, and entering by the back way he took possession.

Mr. Henry Forsey Brion, geographical engineer and constructor of relievo maps, living at 22, Philip-road, Peckham, said that, on the 19th of May last he went to Peace’s house in the Evalina-road. In the breakfast room he saw Mr. and Mrs. Thompson, and the former, pointing to the latter, said “That is my wife.” The prisoner, who was present, made no remark. Between the months of May and August he constantly visited at the house. Mr. and Mrs. Thompson appeared to be living as man and wife. In consequence of a communication he received from Peace, in the name of John Ward, witness on the 1st of November called at Newgate to see the writer of the letter, in whom he at once recognised Mr. Thompson. He was previously asked if he knew anything of the prisoner, and declared that he knew neither the handwriting nor the name in the letter. Between May and August they came to witness’s house on one occasion. The woman known as Mrs. Thompson was introduced as the wife of Mr. Thompson, and Mrs. Ward was known by that name. In consequence of a communication, witness wrote to a Mrs. Bellfitt at Nottingham, and received from her a small red box.