Evidence Type: Newspaper Report
29 February 1840
SYDNEY QUARTER SESSIONS
SATURDAY.—Before W. H. KERR, and GERRARD GERRARD Esqrs.. J. P.
MARY LONG was indicted for stealing, one tea kettle, the property of EDWARD ROBINSON. The prisoner, who is a notorious common pilferer, on passing the prosecutor’s shop of “all sorts” of ironmongery, &c., on the Brickfield-hill, on the day laid in the indictment, deliberately took up the tea-kettle from outside the shop, and put it under her shawl. She was seen doing this both by the prosecutor and his servant, JOHN BRIDE, and a constable being at hand, she was given in charge, the constable taking the kettle from under her arm. The prisoner said at the time, that she had only taken the kettle out of “a lark.” Notwithstanding the conclusive evidence against her, the prisoner, with the utmost effrontery, denied that she ever had the kettle in her possession, saying that it was all spits against her, on account of her cousin “POLL M’CARTHY” having got the prosecutor sentence of death, in Cork, for a combination in the leather breeches and glove trade. The prosecutor said the statement was altogether false, and that he never was in such a trade upon which the prisoner replied, “you know you kept a glove-shop in Cork—you used to cut the legs off the breeches—and its many a shilling I gave you for leather breeches.” The auditory was convulsed with laughter at the amusing effrontery of the prisoner, and manifest astonishment of the prosecutor. Guilty—To be confined in the third class of the Factory for twelve calendar months, and to pass every fourth week of that period in solitary confinement.
CITATION
Female Factory Online, (femalefactoryonline.org), “Law Report of MARY LONG,” https://femalefactoryonline.org/law-reports/p18400229/, accessed [insert current date].
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