who gave it him in the street, and that it required no answer.

When he had read the letter, and examined the draught and bill it contained, having no suspicion of forgery, as the similitude was very great, he immediately set about obeying Mr. Partridge's orders. It was now about near the time when bankers shut up their shops; for expedition's sake, therefore, Kello directed a blank cover to Mr. Rous, with which Cotton ran to Mr. Amyand's, taking with him the draft and bill: he happened to find Mr. Mercer, one of the partners, who expressed some surprize at his coming so late; but however gave him a bank-note of 10001. in exchange for the draft.

Tins bank-note he inclosed in the cover directed by Joseph Kello, and borrowing a wafer in the shop, sealed it, and went himself with it to Sam's Coffee house, in Exchange Alley; being well acquainted with a gentleman whose name was Rous, who lived at Hackney, and for whom he supposed the bank-note was intended by Mr. Partridge.

He asked for the master or mistress of the house, but both were abroad; he then left the cover, with the note sealed up in it, at the bar, but did not leave the house.

Having waited there three hours, and nobody coming for the letter, he took it back from the waiter, and left a paper instead of it at the bar, on which he wrote, The letter for Mr. Rous is at J. Catton's, Aldermanbury he then went home, where he found Joseph Kello still waiting, for he would not venture to call or send for the letter till he knew Cotton was returned from the Coffee-house.

Kello asked him if he had left

the letter; and he said, No; he was afraid. Kello then went to his brother, who was waiting to know how matters went on, at Seymour's Cof. fee-house, in Pope's Head Alley. It was there agreed, that John should send a verbal message by a chairman to Cotton, from the Antigallican, desiring him to deliver to him the letter that was to have been left at Sam's for Mr. Rous.

Kello then hasted back again to Cotton; and soon after the chairman came for the letter.

Mr. Cotton said he would go along with him, and see the gentle. man to whom the letter was to be delivered: he did so; and the mistress of the house told him the gentleman was gone; but would return in ten minutes; for John Kello had the precaution not to stay in the house, but to watch the porter's return, and see whether he came alone.

Cotton then sat down, waiting the return of the gentleman; and having staid till near 12 o'clock, returned again back with the letter and note, leaving a billet at the coffee-house, purporting, that the letter should be delivered the next morning at Mr. Rous's at Hackney, by 10 o'clock.

At his return, he found Joseph Kello still waiting, who asked, if he had left the parcel: he said, No. Why, says Kello, Mr. Partridge will be very angry; you do not know the consequence of not leaving it. Colton, however, still continued firm in his intention of carrying it himself to Hackney in the morning, and immediately wrote a letter to Mr. Partridge, telling him what he had done, and what he intended to do; with which he and Kello both went to the Post Office; and it be

ing past twelve, Cotton gave sixpence to have it received.

Joseph Kello lay with Cotton that night; and in the morning he got up before six, and went to his brother John, and acquainted him with what had happened, and with Cotton's intention of carrying the note to Hackney.

It was then agreed, that another letter should be written to Mr. Cotton, as from Mr. Partridge, to acquaint him that he had learned by express, that he (Cotton) had not acted agreeable to the direction in the first letter, and desiring that he would leave the note at Sam's without delay.

Joseph Kello, leaving his brother to write and send the letter, returned to Cotton, whom he found setting out for Hackney, and set out with him, in order, if possible, to find some means of delay. Mr. Cotton had proposed to call at the Sun at London Wall; and while they were drinking a pot of beer, Kello pretended to have forgotten his handkerchief, and made an ex. cuse to go back and fetch it. In Aldermanbury he was told by Mr. Partridge's porter, that there was a letter left for Mr. Cotton; and he directed the porter to carry it to London Wall, where Cotton still was, to whom he might deliver it.

This stratagem produced the desired effect. Mr. Cotton, upon reading the contents, carried the letter, with the bank note in it, to the coffee-house; and returned to Aldermanbury to Kello, shewing him the letter he had received, and telling him what he had done.

As the body of the letter was written by John, and the name by Joseph, Joseph took care to destroy

it; and after dining with Mr. Cotton, he went and acquainted John, that the note was left at the coffeehouse, and that he might now receive it. This he presently did; and then both went into the fields by Sadler's Wells, where they opened the letter, and found the note. About six they agreed to meet at John's lodgings, at the Crown Coffee-house, Peter Street, Bloomsbury; and there they talked of different ways of getting it exchanged. At length it was concluded that the prisoner should go to Bristol, as the most eligible place; but, having no money, Joseph borrowed ten guineas of a relation; and on Tuesday morning the prisoner set out in a post-chaise for Bristol.

On Friday, Sept. 3, Mr. Culverwell, the landlord of the King's Head, at Bridgewater, applied to Mr. Baker, clerk to the general receiver for the county of Somerset, for money for 10001. bank note; and Mr. Baker told out 888 guineas and s. which, together with three small notes, one of 301. one of 251. and one of 101. made the sum of 9971. 10s.; and 5s. per hundred, viz. 21. 10s. for exchange, completed the whole sum of 1000 1. Mr. Culverwell examined the cash; and the prisoner appeared as the owner of the note, and received the money as it was retold. Mr. Baker asked the prisoner his name, that he might enter it in his book; and he said, John Hyndman.

The prisoner having now succeeded to his wish, instead of endeavouring to make his escape, as he probably might have done from Bristol, returned to Westminster, to the house where one Phoebe Laskard lives, in Wood Street. To this woman he gave both the money

and

and the bills; the money, sealed up in a bag, he pretended to be halfpence, to the amount of about 51. and the bills, he said, were foreign bills, of no use to any body but himself the bills she afterwards delivered to a porter that was sent for them; and the money was care lessly laid about, at one time on the dresser, and at another time in the window, till at length Sir John Fielding, having got some information where the prisoner might be found, caused him to be apprehended.

The constable who found him, found also the money in the bag; and when he was examined, the bills were found upon him. The particulars here related were all authentically proved upon his trial; and when he was called upon to make his defence, he endeavoured to throw the whole blame upon the brother, and appealed to the court which had the appearance of most guilt. The master of the coffeehouse where he lived, gave him the character of an extreme sober man; but the jury paid no regard to his former character, but brought in their verdict, Guilty,-Death.

He was soon afterwards executed at Tyburn, pursuant to his sentence. He behaved during his confinement with great obstinacy and indecorum, making little account of religion, and the comforts of a Christian faith: he said, he had some particular opinions of his own, that he should never quit in this life, nor after it. He is said to have been the son of a merchant in Houndsditch, who gave him a liberal education, and left him about 3001. with which he equipped himself for Virginia; and having resided there

some time, returned to London, and carried on a kind of commercial correspondence with some persons there, that produced but little profit: and having rather a turn for pleasure than business, his friends had long expected some unlucky issue to his affairs, though not so fatal as to affect his life. He was about 26 years of age, and, in many respects, what is commonly called a clever fellow.

A summary account of the proceedings in regard to some strange noises, heard the beginning of the year at a house in Cock Lane, West Smithfield.

Mr. P, the officiating clerk of St. Sepulchre's, observing one morning at early prayers a genteel couple standing in the aisle, ordered them into a pew; and being afterwards thanked for his civility by the gentleman, was asked if he could inform him of a lodging in the neighbourhood: P offered his own house, which was accepted of. Some time after, in the absence of the gentleman, who was in the country, Mr. Parsons's daughter, a child of 11 years of age, being taken by Miss Fanny (the name the gentlewoman went by) to her bed, Miss Fanny complained one morning to the family, of both having been greatly disturbed by violent noises. Mrs. P, at a loss to account for this, bethought herself of a neighbouring industrious shoemaker, whom they concluded to be the cause of this disturbance. Soon after, an a Sunday night, Miss Fanny, getting out of bed,

called

called out to Mrs. P, "Pray, does your shoemaker work so hard on Sunday nights ton?" to which being answered in the negative, Mrs, P, &c. were desired to come into the chamber, and be themselves witnesses to the truth of the assertion. At this time several persons were invited to assist, and among the rest, the late reverend Mr. Linden, but he excused himself; and the gentleman and lady removing into the neighbourhood of Clerkenwell (where she soon after died) the noise discontinued at the house of P, from the time of their leaving it to the first of January, 1762, or thereabouts, the space of above a year and a half; and then began this second visitation, as, for distinction's sake, we may venture to call it.

In this visitation, then, the child, upon certain knockings and scratchings, which seemed to proceed from -beneath her bedstead, was sometimes thrown into violent fits and agitations; and a woman attendant, or the father, Mr. , put questions to the spirit or ghost, as it was supposed by the credulous to be; and they had also dictated how many knocks should serve for an answer, either in the affirmative or negative; and though these scratchings and knockings disturbed Fanny before her death, it was now supposed to be her spirit which thus harrassed the poor family. In this manner of converse, she charged one Mr. whose first wife was her sister, and with whom she afterwards lived in fornication, with having poisoned her, by putting arsenic in purl, and administering it to her when iH of the small-pox. Numbers of persons, of fortune and character,

.

and several clergymen, assisted at the vagaries of the invisible knocker and scratcher; and though.no discovery could be made by the several removals of the girl to other houses, where the noises still followed her (the supposed ghost protesting she would follow her wherever she went) though wainscots and floorings were torn away to facilitate a detection of any imposture, to no purpose; yet the rational part of the town could not be brought to believe but that there was some fraud in the affair, considering the known faculty many people, called Ventriloqui, have had of uttering strange noises, and making them appear to come from any place they thought proper, without any visible motion of their lips; and this suspicion was confirmed by the attestations of the clergymen and some gentlemen of the faculty, who visited the deceased in her illness, and of some other persons of unquestionable credit; and the guilt of the imposture, in some measure, fixed upon the parents and their friends, by some facts contained in the following advertisement:

To the public. We, whose names are underwritten, thought it proper, upon the approbation of the lord-mayor, received on Saturday last in the afternoon, to see Mr.. P yesterday, and to ask him in respect of the time when his child should be brought to Clerkenwell. He replied in these words: "That he consented to the examination proposed, provided that some persons connected with the girl might be permitted to be there, to divert her in the day-time." This was refused, being contrary to the plan. He then mentioned a wo

man,

man, whom he affirmed to be unconnected, and not to have been with her. Upon being sent for, she came, and was a person well known by us to have been constantly with her, and very intimate with the familiar, as she is called. Upon this he, Mr. P, recommended an unexceptionable person, the daughter of a relation, who was a gentleman of fortune. After an inquiry into her character, he in formed us, that this unexceptionable person had disobliged her father, and was out at service. Upon this we answered," Mr. P, if you can procure any person or persons, of strict character and reputation, who are house-keepers, such will be with pleasure admitted." Upon this he required a little time to seek for such a person. Instead of coming, as he promised and we expected, one William Lloyd came by his direction, and said as follows:

"Mr. Parsons chuses first to consult with his friends, who are at present not in the way, before he gives a positive answer concerning the removal of his daughter to the Rev. Mr. Aldrich's."

Signed, WILL. LLOYD,

Brook-street, Holborn. Within three hours after, we received another message from Mr, Parsons by the same hand, to wit: "If the lord-mayor will give his approbation, the child shall be removed to the Rev. Mr. Aldrich's." The plan before mentioned was thus set forth in the public papers: the girl was to be brought to the house of the said clergyman, without any person whatever that had, or was supposed to have, the Jeast connection with her. The fa

ther was to be there; not suffered to be in the room, but in a parlour where there could be no sort of communication, attended with a proper person. A bed, without any furniture, was to be set in the middle of a large room, and the chairs to be placed round it. The persons to be present were some of the clergy, a physician, surgeon, apothecary, and a justice of the peace. The child was to be undressed, examined, and put to bed by a lady of character and fortune. Gentlemen of established character, both of clergy and laity (amongst whom was a noble lord, who de sired to attend) were to have been present at the examination. We have done, and still are ready to do every thing in our power to detect an imposture, if any, of the most unhappy tendency, both to the public and individuals.

STE. ALDRICH, Rector of St.John's, Clerkenwell; JAMES PENN,

Lecturer of St. Ann's, Aldersgate.. In pursuance of the above plan, many gentlemen, eminent for their rank and character, by the invitation of the Rev. Mr. Aldrich, of Clerkenwell, assembled at his house the 31st of January; and next day appeared the following account of what passed on the occasion:

"About ten at night the gentle. men met in the chamber in which the girl, supposed to be disturbed by a spirit, had, with proper caution, been put to bed by several ladies. They sat rather more than an hour; and hearing nothing, went down stairs, where they interrogated the father of the girl; who denied, in the strongest terms, any knowledge or belief of fraud..

As