AT the Admiralty sessions, held on the 11th of November, 1784, these men were tried for the wilful murder of John M‘Nier, one of the mariners belonging to his majesty’s cutter the Nimble, in the service of the Customs.
On the trial it appeared that on the night of the 30th of April last, it being clear moonlight, a vessel was observed at about two miles distance from Deal, hovering or standing in towards the shore, which was supposed to be a smuggler. Lieutenant Bray, commander of the Nimble, being acquainted with the fact, manned three boats, and proceeded to speak to her, and, coming within hail, told them his name and business, which was to board and search her. He was answered by many voices with imprecations, bidding him keep off; and a volley was instantly fired into his boat, whereby M‘Nier, one of the crew, received a shot in his right breast, near the pap, of which he instantly died. Lieutenant Bray then proceeded to board the vessel, which proved to be the Juliet lugger, of Deal, (laden with about four hundred tubs or half-ankers of spirits,) but he received another volley: he however persisted, and boarded the lugger, when an engagement began, in which some men fell. North leaped overboard, but was taken, and Harris was found concealed in the hold. He said that he was only a passenger, and had been waiter at the assembly-house at Margate, where he was then going; but unluckily for him he had on a pair of trousers and a seaman’s jacket, in the pockets of which were found several musket and pistol balls.
On this evidence the prisoners were found guilty; and on the morning of the 13th, two days after conviction, they were taken from the cells of Newgate, put into a cart, and conveyed to the gallows, which was erected on a platform at Execution Dock, and there executed.
CHARLES PRICE.
CHARGED WITH FORGERY.
THE subject of this narrative was born about the year 1730, in London—his father lived in Monmouth-street, and carried on the trade of a salesman in old clothes, and there he died, in the year 1752, of a broken heart, occasioned, it is said, by the bad conduct of his children.
In early life Price exhibited those traits of duplicity, which were manifested in his subsequent career, frequently defrauding his father, and disposing of the property, which he carried off to the Jews, disguised in his brother’s clothes. By this means his brother was occasionally chastised in his place, while he escaped unpunished.
The following anecdote of his ingenuity is highly characteristic of his disposition. His father, tired of his tricks and knaveries, put him apprentice to a hosier in St. James’s-street, but even here he was unable to restrain his appetite for fraud. Having managed, on the occasion of one of his visits to his home, to carry off a suit of clothes of elegant workmanship, he dressed himself with becoming taste, and, thus disguised, proceeded to his master’s shop. Calling himself the Hon. Mr. Bolingbroke, he selected a variety of silk stockings of beautiful texture, undiscovered by his employer, and on quitting the house, he desired that the goods should be sent to him at Hanover House in an hour’s time, when he promised that he would pay for them. Being perfectly aware that it would be his duty to carry home the goods, Price immediately stripped himself of his disguise, and, returning to his master’s residence, was directed to convey the parcel to Hanover House. He soon came back declaring that Mr. Bolingbroke was out, and that he had left the stockings with the bill; but it being speedily ascertained that they had been lodged with a pawnbroker instead of the supposed customer, and his ingenious scheme being discovered, he was dismissed from his employment.
He had not been long at liberty, before he sailed for Holland, and there assuming the name of Johnson, he obtained a situation as clerk in the counting-house of a merchant, by means of a forged letter of introduction. Having debauched his master’s daughter, and carried off a considerable sum of money, he thought it prudent to return to England; but having there soon expended the proceeds of his fraud in dissipation, he was again thrown upon the world.
His wits, however, were not exhausted, nor did they ever slumber long. He determined upon a trial to establish a brewery, by obtaining a partner with money; and as a first step towards it, in the year 1775, he issued the following curious advertisement:—