REMARKABLE FORGERY TRIALS
Trials—William Hale—The Perreaus—Caroline Rudd—Dr. Dodd—Whalley Will Case—Pilcher, etc.
The evidence given at the trial of William Hale, in 1728, at the Old Bailey has many points of interest. The accused was charged with forging a promissory note for £6,400.
At this time it was customary for certain privileged persons to frank letters by merely signing their names upon them and adding the word “free.”
In this case the forged promissory note bore the words “for myself and partners” followed by the signature, and the Attorney-General pointed out in his speech for the prosecution that this had been done by erasing the two “e’s” of “free,” inserting an “o” between the “f” and “r,” and then adding the additional words.
It was also alleged that the ink in the stroke of the beginning of the letter “m” in the word “my” was in an older kind of ink, and probably originally formed part of one of the “e’s” in the word “free.”
The old creases in the paper were also such as might have been produced by the folding of the cover of a letter.
Philip Booth denied the authenticity of the handwriting, and was then questioned further:—
“Are they in the same ink?”
To which he replied, “I take them to be of a different ink.”