The murderers, however, remained undiscoverd for a considerable time till Daniel Isaacs, one of the gang, became the means of discovering his accomplices, in the following manner:—Isaacs, being touched with remorse of conscience, &c., sent for a friend and acknowledged himself to be one of the nine men concerned in the robbery and murder at Mrs. Hutchins’s, at Chelsea. He desired his friend to inform some magistrate of it; and having told him the names and places of abode of his accomplices, his friend went immediately to Sir John Fielding, at Bow Street, who sent the officers after them, by which means seven of them were taken. The cause of this confession and remorse of conduct, on the part of Isaacs, was distress. He applied for relief to the elders of the Jewish synagogue, but the treasurer refused him any immediate assistance, urging as a reason that he should not have left his native country, Holland, where he might have obtained probably an honest living. At that time a great number of Jews came to this country, and a selection of cases could only be relieved. Isaacs, in consequence of the refusal, became greatly distressed, and, in order to gain the reward, offered by the City of London, made the above confession.
Isaacs was admitted to give evidence against his accomplices, six of whom were soon apprehended, but the other made his escape. There appears to have been some discrepancy as regards the number of the gang, one account states eight, while another mentions nine.
At the Old Bailey Sessions, in December, 1771, Levi Weil, Asher Weil, Marcus Hartogh, Jacob Lazarus, Solomon Porter, Hyam Lazarus, and Abraham Linewill, (the man who had absconded) were indicted for the robbery and murder, when the two of the name of Weil, with Jacob Lazarus and Solomon Porter, were capitally convicted, and Marcus Hartogh and Hyam Lazarus were acquitted.
Mrs. Hutchins deposed on the trial, that about six weeks before her house was robbed, Hyam Lazarus came to it, inquiring for one Beetham, a weaver, when she said she knew no such person; that on the 11th of June, the night of the robbery she heard the dog bark, about ten o’clock at night, her men being then gone to bed; that she called to one of her two maid-servants to see what was the matter with the dog, and shortly after, hearing a noise, she ran herself to see, and found her maid, Mary Hodgkin, with her cap off, and some men using her extremely ill; that to the best of her remembrance, she recollected Levi Weil and Hyam Lazarus to be among these men; and though her fright was exceedingly great, she did her endeavour to assist her maid, but that Levi Weil (called the Doctor,) pushed her into a chair, and pulled her upper petticoat over her face, which hindered her seeing any of the rest. Hearing her cook cry very much, one of them said, “Cut her throat;” another, “If you don’t hold your tongue, I will cut your throat.” Then coming to her (Mrs. Hutchins) they offered to tie her legs, and she begged they would not, as she would not stir; whereupon they all went to another room, the door of which being locked, they said they would break it, if not immediately opened, and returned from it in about five minutes; that then going up stairs, she shortly after heard somebody cry “fire!” and after much swearing, heard also a pistol go off, and a man cried out, and begged they would not; that, endeavouring to get out at the back door, she was prevented by some men on the outside, who told her if they were not her friends they would blow her brains out; that then returning to her chair, she heard a very great noise above stairs, as if they were throwing the servant down, and a little while after she heard another pistol go off; that the wounded man, endeavouring to get down, came to her, and said, “How are you ma’am, for I am a dead man;” on which, turning short, he fell on the ground; that his shirt was on fire close to the wound just under the shoulder, which she put out, that he groaned very much, and complained of being cold; that the people in the house, running from room to room, came down to her, and Levi Weil, to the best of her knowledge, took the buckles out of her shoes, and two others attempted to put their hands into her pockets; she begged they would not, saying she would give them something worth their acceptance, and accordingly gave them her purse and watch; that asking where her plate was, she told them, and they took it out of the cupboard, and gave it to their companions at the back door. That going into the parlour, where there was a cupboard, they broke it open; and she following, told them there was nothing in it worth having but paper; but that one of them, a short, thick, elderly man, struck her on the face with a pistol, and would have shot her, had not the Doctor turned the pistol with his hand.
The Recorder prefaced the sentence with a judicious and just compliment to the principal Jews, for their very laudable conduct in the course of the prosecution, and hoped no person would stigmatize a whole nation for the villanies of a few.
These men, as was customary formerly in cases of murder, were tried on a Friday, and on the following day (the Jewish Sabbath) they were anathematized in the Synagogue.
As their execution was to take place on the following Monday, one of the Rabbies went to them in the press-room of Newgate, and delivered to each of them a Hebrew book, but declined attending them to the place of death, nor even prayed with them, at the time of his visit. Their wives and children were admitted to take their leave of them before they set out for Tyburn, where executions took place. [159]
An immense number of people attended the execution. They prayed together, sung an hymn in the Hebrew language, and soon afterwards were launched into eternity.
The following anecdote, in reference to this daring robbery, was very frequently related many years ago, and I do not remember that its veracity was ever questioned. Soon after the conviction of the Jews, the Queen paid a visit to Mrs. Hutchins, and, after expressing the deepest sympathy for her sufferings, desired to be informed whether she could advance the interests of any member of the family. A circumstance was mentioned to her Majesty, which resulted in one of the junior branches being ultimately educated at one of the Universities.
We will now briefly notice the King’s Road, as it was at the earlier part of the present century. At the entrance into Chelsea parish, at the eastern end of Sloane Square, the bridge, to which we have several times referred, was at that period probably about 14 or 16ft. wide, on both sides of which there was a wall of sufficient height to protect passengers from falling into the narrow rivulet which it spanned, and which belonged to the commissioners of sewers. There were two little cottages near to this stream, and immediately contiguous to them was Mr. Burgess’s premises, who carried on a very good business, as a coach builder, &c. The houses around Sloane Square were nearly the same as they are at the present time, but the square was an open space, simply enclosed by wooden posts, connected by iron chains, where boys frequently played at cricket, &c. Here, too, Queen Charlotte’s Royal Volunteers often assembled, and marched off in military order to Hyde Park, accompanied by an excellent band.