George & Joseph Weston

 

Page: 1 Page: 2 Page: 3

 

BROTHERS IN CRIME - Continued. Page: 4

 

Clarke cautiously entered the hotel and began to question the proprietress; her evasive answers soon convinced him that the brothers were probably still on the premises. Hurrying to the door, he got a passer-by to run to Bow Street for reinforcements and then returned to the hotel lobby in case the Westons were warned and attempted to escape. Within a few minutes his surmise was endorsed. George and Joseph walked down the stairs, hands placed ominously in their pockets, and Clarke, realizing this was no bluff and that they were almost certainly armed, did not attempt to detain them.

He permitted the fugitives to walk out of the door, but followed closely behind. Once the brothers got a hundred yards up the street, Clarke began to shout, 'Stop, thief!' at the top of his voice. George Weston spun round and fired a pistol at the Runner, and a chase then began through the narrow streets. Other officers joined Clarke, and although the brothers fired several more shots at their pursuers they succeeded only in hitting a butcher's boy, who was slightly wounded.

Within a few minutes they had been caught and overpowered. Taken to Bow Street for examination, both brothers acted with the greatest impudence, but this did not help them. George was sent to the New Prison and Joseph to the Bridewell, both having been committed for trial on Wednesday, 15 May.

 

The two young milliners were also arrested and examined, but it became apparent that they knew nothing of the attack on the Bristol Mail. The magistrate accepted their stories that they believed Mr Johnson and Mr Watson had made their fortunes overseas, and had returned to purchase estates in Yorkshire. After thorough questioning the girls were set free and their first act was to visit both prisons to see George and Joseph. It was obvious to all that the young women were greatly distressed at the plight of their beaux.

The brothers still had plenty of money, and when they made their first appearance at the Old Bailey on 15 May 1782 they might have been taken for aristocratic young bloods. Both had had their hair shampooed and curled, and they were attired in fine new clothes - George in rich dark cloth, and Joseph in a handsome red coat. Counsel for the Crown had good news for them. He told the Judge that the prosecution's principal witness, Samuel Walker, postboy with the Bristol Mail, had died suddenly.

The Judge granted an application for a remand until the first Wednesday in July, and to the delight of the brothers ordered that they both be detained in Newgate until the trial. George and Joseph had been most unhappy about their separation. In Newgate they were able to pay for all the privileges, and although chained and fettered, they wined and dined as well as any gentlemen outside and received as many visitors as they wished.

They had not been together many days, however, before determining to make a bid for freedom. In return for bribes, their gaolers removed their irons when they had visitors so that they could drink in the Lodge. It was therefore decided to make the attempt when their young mistresses visited them on the morning of Tuesday, 2 July, the day before their trial. When the milliners arrived, the Westons passed over the usual tip and were allowed to go into the Lodge to drink with them. After they had all been there for some time, one of the women asked for pen and paper, and Joseph sat down to write a letter. When it was finished, the girls told the watching turnkey that they were in a hurry, gave him money and asked him to call a coach.

The gaoler went to the prison gates, but as he could not see a cab on the rank near by, walked down the road with the women following him. He then hailed a passing hackney, and the girls drove off. While the turnkey was absent, George and Joseph, with two other prisoners named Lapierre and Francis Nichols, made a desperate bid to escape. Stealthily making their way towards the prison gate they met the turnkey's assistant, John Owen, who was sweeping a corridor. When he saw them coming towards him he realized they were trying to make a break, ran towards the gate and tried to push it shut with his broom. He failed and, as the four men were close on top of him, turned and struck with the

broom at Lapierre, who was nearest, only succeeding in breaking off the handle.

By this time George and Joseph were outside the prison gate with Nichols. The assistant turnkey ran out after the elder Weston and grappled with him until assistance came and George was overpowered. Joseph was by this time running hard towards St Sepulchre's church, and as he neared the end of Cock Lane, a broker coming from Fleet Street Market made an unsuccessful attempt to stop him. A few yards along the road, a porter named John Davis was walking along carrying a bag of peas on his head.

 

He dropped the sack and made a brave attempt to stop Joseph, who had managed to obtain a pistol while he was in prison and was now holding it in his hand. Joseph, finding his way blocked, threatened to shoot Davis if he did not get out of the way, but the porter tried to hold on to him and Joseph fired. Davis reeled back with gaping wounds in his neck and chin, but by this time Joseph too had been overtaken and was recaptured.

Of the four prisoners who made the street, three were back in their cells within an hour, only Francis Nichols remaining at large; what eventually happened to him no chronicler has thought fit to record. It is a sad fact, however, that if the escape attempt had not been made Joseph at least might have escaped the gallows.

The trial of the Weston brothers opened at the Old Bailey on Saturday, 6 July 1782 and they were charged with robbing the Bristol Mail cart at Cranford Bridge on 29 January 1781. Evidence of arrest was given by Runner John Clarke, who said that when Joseph was searched, bank post bills totalling more than £200 and a lottery ticket numbered 28,257, were found on him.

 

A clerk at Maidenhead post office, Joseph Lee, testified that he had seen the Bristol Mail leave his office on the crucial night with all the mail bags securely tied, and the Hounslow postmaster told how he awaited the mail cart long after it was due, only to see the postboy walk in exhausted with news of the hold-up.

The next witness was a Nottingham hairdresser, George Turton, who said he recognized George Weston as a man to whom he was called at the Blackamoor's Head in Nottingham during the first days of February of the previous year. While he was dressing this man's hair, he sent out a waiter to a local banker to change a bill. The waiter returned with the bill and said the banker had refused to cash it, whereupon the prisoner asked about other bankers in the town. Told of a man named Wright, he said he would go to him himself when his toilet was complete.

John Wright, partner in a Nottingham banking firm, was then called and identified George Weston as the man for whom he changed a bill for £100. Asked by the Judge how it was that he remembered one of many transactions over a long period, Wright said that when the prisoner was told he would have to pay five shillings per cent, he objected and at first refused to pay the charge. Wright added that only when he realized he could not change the bill unless he agreed, did Weston complete the transaction. The banker said such a fee was a usual charge, and this fact made him pay particular attention to his customer, who was dressed in naval uniform with white lapels.

An innkeeper at Enfield also identified George Weston as a man wearing naval uniform and travelling in a chaise and four whom he had seen at his inn on 12 February. The bill which George was alleged to have changed with Mr Wright at Nottingham was then identified by a partner in the firm of Cam and Whitehead, of Bath, as one of forty-four posted just before the robbery to Messrs Boldero, Carter and Co. of London. The witness said that none of the bills had arrived, but he was sure that the one cashed by the prisoner was one of them, although the number on it had been changed from 1063 to 1060.

Thomas Aldridge, clerk in a lottery office in Holborn, testified that he sold ticket No. 28,257 to Joseph Weston the previous autumn, and that he took particular note of the sale because the prisoner tendered a bill for £100 and he had had to go to his employer to get three £25 notes to make up the change. William Lee, a Hackney shopkeeper, gave evidence that George Weston had purchased goods worth seven pounds and about twelve shillings at

his shop, tendering a £40 bill in payment. As he did not know his customer, he asked him to endorse the bill with his name and address. This was done by the prisoner, who wrote 'John Ward, of The Dun Horse, Borough'.

The Judge at the trial was Mr Justice Buller, who - despite the strong circumstantial evidence against the prisoners - was very conscious that he was the only person in court who could defend them. His Lordship seemed troubled by the fact that the post-boy had died and that there was not a scrap of proof that the brothers had actually committed the robbery, which was the only charge against them. This anxiety was reflected in the Judge's summing up, and the jury endorsed it, bringing in a verdict of 'Not Guilty'.

The brothers' elation was short-lived, however, for they were at once taken back to Newgate while fresh charges were prepared to be preferred against them at the next sessions. When they next came before the court, George was charged with forging a bill for £40 at Hackney, and Joseph with firing at, and unlawfully wounding John Davis while attempting to escape from Newgate Prison. The first charge heard was the one against George, and upon the evidence of William Lee, the shopkeeper who testified at the previous trial, George was convicted, although he swore that he had never been to Hackney.

He was at once sentenced to death. There was little or no evidence that Joseph had been implicated in the mail robbery, and he would almost certainly have escaped death if he had bided his time in Newgate while awaiting trial. No doubt it was simply loyalty to his brother which led to the escape attempt and to his downfall. Principal witness to the charge against the younger brother was the broker, Mr Wallace, who had tried to stop him near Cock Lane. After Wallace had given a clear eye-witness account of the shooting of the porter, Joseph was also convicted and sentenced to die.

In the Condemned Hold at Newgate the brothers had no further chance to attempt a break. They were fettered twenty-four hours a day, and constantly watched over by relays of turnkeys. They refused to receive the Ordinary, declaring that they were Roman Catholics. In those times the prisoners of that persuasion were not given an opportunity of spiritual consolation - even if they felt in need of it.

On the day of the execution, Tuesday, 3 September 1782, the brothers rose early and dressed themselves carefully in mourning clothes which they had ordered specially for the occasion. Their gaolers thought them remarkably composed. When they left the prison in the grim cart, they carried on an animated conversation all the way to the gallows at Tyburn. At the gibbet they continued to talk for a few more minutes, and then signalled that they were ready. As the hangman adjusted the nooses around their necks, they made a last request that they be 'turned off' simultaneously.

When the moment came they clasped hands tightly, and were dropped. For a few seconds they swung together, hand in hand, united in the moment of death as they had been throughout their lives.

 

Eye-witnesses described it as one of the most pathetic scenes they had ever beheld.

 

 

Page: 1 Page: 2 Page: 3

 

 

 

 

 

Top of Page       main page:  www.yeoldesussexpages.com