came to live in Yorkshire.” The magistrates not being satisfied with the tale, commissioned the clerk of the peace to write into Lincolnshire to make the necessary inquiries respecting the supposed John Palmer. The letter was carried by a special messenger, who brought an answer from a magistrate in the neighbourhood of Long Sutton, importing that John Palmer was well known, though he had never carried on trade there; that he had been accused of sleep-stealing, for which he had been in custody, but had made his escape from the peace officers; and that there were several informations lodged against him for horse-stealing. The magistrates thereupon thought it prudent to remove him to York Castle, where he had not been more than a month, when two persons from Lincolnshire came and claimed a mare and foal, and a horse, which he had stolen in that county.
After he had been about four months in prison, he wrote the following letter to his brother in Essex.
“York, Feb. 6, 1739.
“Dear Brother— I am sorry to acquaint you, that I am now under confinement in York Castle, for horse-stealing. If I could procure an evidence from London to give me a character, that would go a great way towards my being accquitted. I had not been long in this county before my being apprehended, so that it would pass off the readier. For Heaven’s sake, dear brother, do not
