Samuel Gilbert's Crime and his Trial
On the next day, 25th May, 1815, Mary Gilbert had two gentlemen visitors who arrived in their carriage. They were Inspectors from the Bank of England, and they told her that Sam was then in the clink. He had been found trying to sell twenty forged £1 Bank notes for £8, and he was caught and locked up. They had to tell her that he had been charged with forgery and the possession of the forged notes, and that she might not see him much longer, for forgers who were found guilty were being hanged all the time, and those who were caught with forged notes were sent out to Botany Bay for 14 years.
This was a dreadful shock to her for she would never have thought of doing anything so dishonest. And the men were there to search her two little rooms, looking for the tools which he night have used for engraving the plates for printing the bad notes. But they found nothing. Sam had already told them that he was only trying to do a good turn for his mate George Morris, who was forging notes, and who had to sell them or to get some fool, like Sam, to do the selling, and not to get caught.
Mary Gilbert's whole world had fallen in at once. She had almost no money, for they were living, week to week, on Sam's wages on the Docks. There was no pension or Social Welfare money in those days, either. But she had to tell someone, I think that Sam's mother and father might still have been living. We have not found the record of Sam's baptism, but we have them for Hannah Eliza, his sister, in 1785, Charlotte in 1790, Maria in 1795, Mary Ann in 1800 and Sarah in 1802, all baptized at St Leonard's Church in Shoreditch. Mary had three brothers and two sisters in the Shoreditch area as well, although her father had died in 1795. I feel that they all must have helped poor Mary in her troubles in paying her rent and feeding her four children. And she had to tell Samuel 8, John 7, and Mary Anne 3, that their Dad was not coming home any more. Charlotte was just 12 months old, so she hardly knew her father.
I feel that all of the ladies around her felt pity for Mary Gilbert in the dreadful tragedy which happened, but word was sent to a good friend of Sam's father, Samuel Gilbert, who had worked as a weaver with Richard Lea, years before. He became a big man in the London City Council, an Alderman and a Sheriff, and he was then retired. He looked after Mary and the children, and he and Mrs. Lea took little Mary Anne home to live with them. I am sure that he would have had a horse and carriage and that he would have taken Mary and her children to see their father in the Newgate Prison. He probably knew the Governor of the Prison and could have had some good turns done for Sam.
But, as soon as the Bank had collected the whole story on what Sam had been caught doing, he was taken before a Justice of the Peace to see if there was enough against him to put him up before a Judge and Jury in the big Court, the Old Bailey. All the story which was told would be sworn to be correct on the Bible by each witness and it would even be taken down in writing by the Clerk of the Court. Sam might even have told his story to the Justice of the Peace then, but I will come to that later. But the Justice of the Peace felt that there was enough told against Sam to put him up before the Old Bailey.
At this time, Sam was working out what he could do for himself and Mary and the children. Possibly, with the help of Mr. Lea, a conference was held between Sam and the men from the Bank of England and, in the end, it was agreed that, if Sam would say, at his trial, that he was guilty of being in possession of those bad notes and not guilty of forging them, the Bank would be satisfied to drop the forgery charge, and Sam would be sent out to New South Wales for 14 years. That was the best that he could do, for there was no evidence that Sam was the forger. He was George Morris. Sam was quite sure that Mary might come out with the children to Australia, on another ship. The wives of other convicts were often doing that.
So his Trial before a Judge and Jury was set down for Tuesday, 21st June, 1815 and, although we have no record of Mary going to the Old Bailey on that morning to see him tried, I feel that that was the first thing in her mind. Mr. Lea might have been there to take her and the children into London to the Court, or she might have walked there with her four children.
On her arrival there, she would have made herself known to someone, even a Barrister, who might have taken them in charge and showed them to seats in the balcony, from where they could have seen everything. It is possible that Mary had never been inside such a place before.
The Court was full of people, with many
Barristers among them, in their black gowns and with white wigs on their
heads. When there was a shout "Silence in Court", everybody
stood. Then the Judge, in his scarlet robes, with white fur trimmings,
entered to take his seat. And everybody then sat down.
Click the small photo, left, for a full page picture of the Old Bailey.
Then there were many long speeches, which meant nothing to Mary until the Clerk of the Court called "Put up Samuel Gilbert". Sam came up through the floor of the Court Dock from the cells below and stood before the Judge and Jury. "Are you Samuel Gilbert ?" "Yes. My Lord." He had no Barrister to plead for him, he was now on his own.
There were several charges read out to him, all stating that he had forged Bank notes in his possession, and another lot of charges regarding the same Bank notes, stating that he intended to defraud the Bank of England by disposing of such notes.
This is a drawing (half size) of one of the Bank notes which were shown to the Judge and Jury. Click on the image to view full page display.
He agreed that he was guilty of all those charges and, when charges of forging were read out, the Bank kept its promise, and their Barrister withdrew the charges of forgery.
After his pleas of "Guilty", the Jury found that the charges of possession of forged Bank notes had been proved, and the Judge sentenced Sam to transportation to the "Territory of New South Wales, or one of the Islands adjacent thereto for a term of fourteen years." Sam turned around in the Dock and waved to Mary and the four children before going down the stairway in the floor to the cells below the Court.
It was all over. Were they ever to see him again. What a long weary walk they had to their two little rooms in New Inn Yard at Shoreditch. And that night, before they said their prayers and went to bed, they all sat around the kitchen table in the glow of a candle, and Mary Gilbert did her best to cheer them up, telling them that, although their Dad was being sent away for fourteen long years 12,000 miles to the the other side of the World, she really hoped that, when he went, they could all go there as well to meet him there and to live together in the New Country. Sam 9, John 8, and Mary Anne 4, understood, but little Charlotte, 13 months, was just in a dream.
You should always remember that our Samuel Gilbert was tried at the Old Bailey on 21st June, 1815, three days after the big battle of Waterloo in Belgium on 18th June, I tried to find the story of his Trial in the London newspapers, like "The Times", but there was no space for it - for there were columns and columns of the names of thousands of British soldiers who had been killed in defeating the French under Napoleon.
