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

When he had read the letter, and examined the draught and bill it contained, having no fufpicion of forgery, as the fimilitude was very great, he immediately fet about obeying Mr. Partridge's orders. It was now about near the time when bankers fhut up their fhops; for expedition's fake, therefore, Kello directed a blank cover to Mr. Rous, with which Cotton ran to Mr. Amyand's, taking with him the dratt and bill: he happened to find Mr. Mercer, one of the partners, who expreffed fome furprise at his coming fo late, but however gave him a bank-note of 1000l. in exchange for the draft.

This bank-note he inclofed in the cover directed by Jofeph Kello, and borrowing a wafer in the fhop, fealed it, and went himself with it to Sam's coffee-house, in Exchangealley, being well acquainted with a gentleman whofe name was Rous, who lived at Hackney, and for whom he fuppofed the bank-note was intended by Mr. Partridge.

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

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 coffee-house, in Pope's-head alley. It was there agreed that John should fend a verbal meffage by a chairman to Cotton, from the Antigallican, defiring him to deliver to him the letter that was to have been left at Sam's for Mr. Rous.

Kello then hafted back again to Cotton, and foon after the chairman came for the letter.

Mr. Cotton faid he would go along with him, and fee the gentleman to whom the letter was to be delivered; he did fo; and the miftrefs 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 houfe, but to watch the porter's return, and fee whether he came alone.

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

At his return, he found Jofeph Kello ftill waiting, who afked, if he had left the parcel: he faid No. Why, fays Kello, Mr. Partridge will be very angry; you don't know the confequence of not leaving it. Cotton, however, ftill continued firm in his intention of carrying it himfelf to Hackney in the morning, and immediately wrote a letter to Mr. Partridge, telling him what hẹ had done, and what he intended to do; with which he and Kello both

ing paft twelve, Cotton gave fix pence to have it received.

Jof. Kello lay with Cotton that night; and in the morning he got up before fix, 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 fhould be written to Mr. Cotton as from Mr. Partridge, to acquaint him that he had learned by exprefs, that he (Cotton) had not acted agreeable to the direction in the first letter, and defiring that he would leave the note at Sam's without delay.

Jofeph Kello leaving his brother to write and fend the letter, returned to Cotton, whom he found fetting out for Hackney, and fet out with him, in order, if poffible, to find fome means of delay. Mr. Cotton had propofed 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 excufe 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 ftill was, to whom he might deliver it.

This ftratagem produced the defired effect. Mr. Cotton, upon reading the contents, carried the letter with the bank note in it to the coffee-houfe, and returned to Aldermanbury to Kello, fhewing 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 Jofeph, Jofeph took care to destroy

it, and after dining with Mr. Cotton, he went and acquainted John, that the note was left at the coffeehoufe, and that he might now receive it. This he prefently did, and then both went into the fields by Sadler's-wells, where they opened the letter, and found the note. About fix they agreed to meet at John's lodgings, at the Crown coffee-houfe, Peter-ftreet, Bloomsbury, and there they talked of different ways of getting it exchanged. At length it was concluded that the prifoner fhould go to Bristol as the most eligible place, but, having no money, Jofeph borrowed ten guineas of a relation, and on Tuesday morning the prifoner fet out in a poft-chaife for Bristol.

On Friday, Sept. 3, Mr. Cluverwell, the landlord of the King's Head, at Bridgewater, applied to Mr. Baker, clerk to the general receiver for the county of Somerfet, for money for 1000l. bank-note, and Mr. Baker told out 888 guineas, and zs. which, together with three fmall notes, one of 30l. one of 25 1. and one of 101. made the fum of 9971 10 s. and 5 s. per hundred, to wit, 21. 10s. for exchange, completed the whole fum of a 1000l. Mr. Culverwell examined the cafh, and the prifoner appeared as the owner of the note, and received the money as it was retold. Mr. Baker afked the prifoner his name, that he might enter it in his book; and he said, John Hyndman.

The prifoner having now fucceeded to his with, instead of endeavouring to make his efcape, as he probably might have done from Bristol, returned to Westminster, to the houfe where one Phoebe Laskard lives, in Wood - flrect. To this woman he gave both the money

and

and the bills; the money, fealed up in a bag, he pretended to be halfpence to the amount of about 51. and the bills, he faid, were foreign bills, of no ufe to any body but himself: the bills the afterwards delivered to a porter. that was fent for them, and the money was carelefsly laid about, at one time on the dreffer, and at another time in the window, till at length Sir John Fielding, having got fome information where the prisoner might be found, caufed him to be apprehended.

The conftable who found him, found alfo 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

returned to London, and carried on a kind of commercial correfpondence with fome perfons there, that produced but little profit; and having rather a turn for pleasure than bufinefs, his friends had long expected fome unlucky iffue to his affairs, tho' not fo fatal as to affect his life. He was about 26 years of age, and, in many refpects, what is commonly called a clever fellow.

A fummary account of the proceedings in regard to fome strange noises, heard the beginning of the year at a houfe in Cock-lane, Weft Smithfield.

to throw the whole blame upon the brother, and appealed to the court which had the appearance of moft guilt. The maller of the coffeehouse where he lived, gave him the character of an extreme fober man, but the jury paid no regard to his former character, but brought in their verdict, Guilty, death.

He was foon afterwards executed at Tyburn, pursuant to his fentence. He behaved during his confinement, with great obftinacy and indecorum, making little account of religion, and the comforts of a chriftian faith. He faid, he had fome particular opinions of his own, that he fhould never quit in this life, nor after it. He is faid to have been the fon of a merchant in Houndfditch, who gave him a liberal education, and left him about 300l. with which he equipped himself for Virginia, and having refided there fome time,

of St. Sepulchre's, obferving 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 houfe, which was accepted of. Some time after, in the absence of the gentleman, who was in the country, Mr. Parfon's daughter, a child of 11 years of age, being taken by Mifs Fanny (the name the gentlewoman went by) to her bed, Mifs Fanny complained one morning to the family, of both having been greatly disturbed by violent noifes. Mrs. P, at a loss to account for this, bethought herself of a neighbouring induftrious fhoemaker, whom they concluded to be the cause of this difturbance. Soon after, on a Sunday night, Mifs Fanny, getting out of bed,

called

called out to Mrs. P, "Pray, does your fhoemaker work so hard on Sunday nights too?" to which being answered in the negative, Mrs. P, &c. were defired to come into the chamber, and be themselves witneffes to the truth of the affertion. At this time feveral perfons were invited to affit, and among the reft the late reverend Mr. Linden, but he excufed himfelf; and the gentleman and lady removing into the neighbourhood of Clerkenwell (where the foon after died) the noife difcontinued at the house of P, from the time of their leaving it to the firft of January, 1762, or thereabouts, the fpace of above a year and a half; and then began this fecond vifitation, as, for diftinction's fake, we may venture to call it.

In this vifitation, then, the child, upon certain knockings and scratchings, which feemed to proceed from beneath her bedstead, was fometimes thrown into violent fits and agitations, and a woman attendant, or the father, Mr.- put questions to the spirit or ghoft, as it was fuppofed by the credulous to be, and they had alfo dictated how many knocks fhould ferve for an answer, either in the affirmative or negative; and though these fcratchings and knockings disturbed Fanny before her death, it was now fuppofed to be her fpirit, which thus harraffed the poor family. In this manner of converse the charged one Mr.

-, whofe first wife was her fifter, and with whom the afterwards lived in fornication, with having poisoned her, by putting arfenick in purl, and adminiftering it to her, when ill of the fmall-pox. Numbers of perfons, of fortune and character,

and feveral clergymen, affifted at the vagaries of the invisible knocker and fcratcher, and though no difcovery could be made, by the feveral removals of the girl to other houfes, where the noises ftill followed her, (the fuppofed ghoft protesting the would follow her wherever he went) though wainscots and floorings were torn away to facilitate: a detection of any impotture, to no purpose; yet the rational part of the town could not be brought to believe, but that there was fome fraud in the affair, confidering the known faculty many people, called Ventriloqui, have had of uttering ftrange noifes, and making them appear to come from any place they thought proper, without any visible motion of their lips; and this fufpicion was confirmed by the atteftations of the clergymen, and fome gentlemen of the faculty, who visited the deceased in her illness, and of fome other perfons of unquestionable credit; and the guilt of the impofture, in fome measure, fixed upon the parents, and their friends, by fome facts contained in the following advertisement :

To the public.-We, whofe names are underwritten, thought it proper, upon the approbation of the lord-mayor, received on Saturday laft in the afternoon, to fee Mr. Pyesterday, and to ask him in refpect of the time when his child fhould be brought to Clerkenwell. He replied in thefe words: That he confented to the examination propofed, provided that fome per fons connected with the girl might be permitted to be there to divert her in the day-time." This was refufed, being contrary to the plan. He then mentioned a woś

man,