Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 10.djvu/519

12S.X. JUNES, 1922;] NOTES AND QUERIES. 425 Rigby, one of the principal surgeons here who was imposed (upon) by him as he had formerly seen { him at Warrington as a French tutor to the Academy there. Mr. Rigby with myself and Mr. Brown (who was also deceived by Mara's plausible ; story and entertained him very hospitably) are very willing (though with the greatest incon- venience to them) to come over to Oxford, to see , you and the public justice if he should be taken, which, from his singularity of person, I think there an be no doubt of. If the handbill sent by Sir John Fielding, dated Public Office, Bow Street, . February 7th, 1776, had fortunately been sent to Norwich immediately, we should have seen it i before Mara left Norwich, for he had the impudence to stay here three days and appear in all public places, he went away on the 10th, and at the concert on the Friday night wore on his neck a chain (I never saw) he had the impudence to go ' with that, many people saw him at the concert, j (Art. by Mr. H. S. Ashbee, author of ' Marat en : Angleterre,' The Academy, July, 1893, pp. 14-15. j The original of the above letter is preserved in the : Ashmolean Museum.) On March 9, Jackson's Oxford Journal announces that : - All the medals stolen by Le Maitre, now a j prisoner in Dublin, will be recovered by paying what they were sold for to the different persons who pxirchased them. Nothing further appears to have been heard of Le Maitre until Sept. 9 of the same year, when the last-named journal chronicles that : John Peter le Maitre, alias Mara, was brought to our castle in custody of a King's Messenger from Newgate in Dublin by virtue of a writ of Habeas Corpus directed to the Mayor of that City. And on Monday last the prisoner was brought before the Rev. Dr. Fothergill, V.C. of this University, and re-committed to take his trial at the next Assizes . . . for feloniously stealing the goods of the University. Finally, Jackson's Oxford Journal for Saturday, March 8, 17J7, gives the details result of the trial as follows : On Thursday (the 6th of March, 1777), the business of the Crown Bar was opened before Mr. Baron Eyre, by the trial of John Peter le Maitre, alias Matra, alias Mara, upon a Bill found by the Grand Jury at our last Assizes, and in consequence of which the prisoner was removed by Habeas Corpus from Newgate in Dublin, in which city he was apprehended, for robbing the Ashmolean Museum of this University of divers gold medals, a Queen Anne's five-guinea piece, and two gold chains, together intrinsically worth upwards of two hundred pounds. Previous to the examina- tion of evidence, Le Maitre harangued the Court for a considerable time upon his own situation (with considerable ability and no small degree of confidence), praying his Lordship to indulge him with pen, ink and paper ; not to be offended at his ignorance of the laws of this country, being himself a foreigner ; expressing the hopes that he should have the assistance and protection of the Court ; and, having no Counsel, be permitted to cross-examine the evidence. The use of pen, ink and paper was readily granted. The Trial then proceeded and the first evidence deposed, that between the 3rd and 5th of February, 1776, the Museum of which this witness had the care under the keeper, was robbed of gold medaJs, in number from thirteen to sixteen, and likewise two gold chains. A silversmith from Norwich was next called, who produced two medals and a couple of gold chains purchased by him of the prisoner, upon the 8th, 9th and 10th of February, 1776. The Lord Mayor of the City of Dublin for the year preceding, who voluntarily attended this Trial, was next sworn, and deposed, that- having received letters from the late Vice-Chan- cellor of Oxford, and from Sir John Fielding, signifying the loss sustained by the University, describing the prisoner, and giving information that he had embarked for Ireland with some part of the property, due attention was had, and in consequence thereof the prisoner soon after his arrival was apprehended, and brought to the Mansion House, where he was familiarly accosted by his Lordship on his first appearance, with " How do you do, Mr. Mara ? " to which he replied^ That is not my name my name is Matiheics. At this Examination, nothing satisfactory being found upon Le Maitre, his Lordship went in person to search his lodgings, where he found two of the medals concealed in the private drawers of a bureau of which Le Maitre had the use. Upon the evidence of this discovery his Lordship com- mitted the prisoner to Newgate ; but finding from his landlady that a third medal had been seen in Le Maitre's custody, his Lordship went to the Prison and found the other medal buttoned under his waistcoat, upon a blue ribbon round his neck. This medal, with those found in the bureau, the chains and medals purchased at Norwich, and two other medals sold in Oxford, being severally delivered into Court, were afterwards all positively proved to be the identical pieces stolen from the Museum ; and here the evidence closed for the Crown. The prisoner, in his defence, occasioned the examination of two or three witnesses, in no wise j to his advantage ; and dwelt for a considerable I time upon the following circumstances. That ! the indictment was laid for his having committed I the robbery between the 3rd and 5th of February ; whereas it had appeared to the Court and Jury that two of the Medals had indisputably been dis- posed of prior to the time the whole were sworn to have been stolen ; and this he hoped would totally invalidate the charge with the Jury. The prisoner was then informed by the Court, that he must not rely upon evasive quibbles ; that the only rational means of serving himself with the Court and Jury would be to show that he came honestly by the things thus found in his possession, and to account for quitting Oxford at so critical a junc- ture. In attempting this, many embarrassing difficulties were apparent, which the prisoner at- I tempted to remove by alleging that a person who | wanted him to assign a legacy had discovered his I residence by an application to our Post Office ; i because he refused to execute the deed unless proper compensation was made to him, that his creditors were to be let loose upon him, &c., &c., and to authenticate this narrative he desired i Mr. Oliver Parsons might be called, who, xipon