JOHN MINTER HART. TRANSPORTED FOR FORGERY.

The name of this person was long notorious in London, antecedent to the period of his conviction. He was well known as an advertising moneylender; and the schemes to which he resorted for the purpose of preying upon the unwary were as ingenious as they were iniquitous.

The offence of which Minter Hart was convicted was that of forgery. He was indicted at the Central Criminal Court on Thursday, the 16th of December, 1836, for feloniously forging and counterfeiting a bill of exchange for 500l., with intent to defraud the Rev. Charles Herbert Jenner.

It appeared that, in the previous month of July, the Rev. Charles Herbert Jenner, of Wenvoe, near Cardiff, Glamorganshire, saw an advertisement in the “Morning Post,” offering to lend money, with a reference to Mr. Blake, 44, Haymarket. Wanting money, he directed a letter to Mr. Blake, and had an interview with the prisoner, who met him at Chislehurst, in Kent, where he was residing. He told him he wanted 200l., on personal security, for twelve months. The prisoner agreed to let him have it at five per cent. on his bill. He met him the next day at the house of his father (Sir Herbert Jenner), in Chesterfield-street, when the prisoner produced a stamp, at the same time showing what appeared to him to be a Bank-of-England check. The prisoner asked Mr. Jenner to write across the stamp, “Accepted—Charles Jenner;” but before he signed it, he saw the prisoner write something at the left-hand corner; he did not notice what, but subsequently saw it was figures denoting 200l. The prisoner then took away the stamp, and said he would return with the money in half an hour. By desire of the prisoner, he made the bill payable at the Bank of England. On the bill being now produced, the figures 500l. appeared to have been substituted for those of 200l. He did not again see the prisoner, nor get any money, although he received several letters.—A Mr. John William Edwards proved that he had received the bill in question from the prisoner, having agreed to purchase it at 5s. in the pound. It was then only a blank acceptance, but there was a stain at the corner. The prisoner said it was as he had received it. He said it had been obtained from Mr. Jenner by a person named Elliott, and that he had offered it for sale to a Mr. Pook, who would only give 100l. for it. If the bill was paid, he, Edwards, was to give 50l. additional. The bargain was finally settled at a public-house at the corner of a court in Jermyn-street, and witness received the blank acceptance, and kept it in his possession for a week, when it was given to the prisoner to be drawn and endorsed. He returned it regularly drawn and endorsed with the name of “C. Taylor.”

Other witnesses proved a fact which exhibited the boldness and ingenuity with which the prisoner had effected his object. It appeared, upon a chemical examination of the paper on which the bill was drawn, that that part of it on which, according to Mr. Jenner’s statement, the figures “200l.” had been written, had been subjected to the action of a strong acid, the effect of which had been to remove all trace of the ink. The new figures, “500l.,” had then been written in their stead, and the bill had been put in circulation as a security for that amount.

An objection was taken to the indictment on the ground that the facts proved did not show that any forgery had been committed, although it was admitted that there had been a fraud; but the learned judge gave it as his opinion, that the indictment was sustained, and the prisoner was found “Guilty.”

His case subsequently formed the subject of discussion before the fifteen judges in the Court of Exchequer Chamber, when the conviction was declared to be good, and on Tuesday, the 7th of February, 1837, Hart was sentenced to be transported for life.

The prisoner, as we have already stated, had been long known in London as a successful cheat. The instance above referred to is not the only one in which, by his acts, he got himself into a situation of difficulty.

On the 14th of October, 1833, a coadjutor and agent of his, named Henry Palmer, was indicted at the Middlesex Sessions, charged with receiving ten bills of exchange for 500l. each, accepted by D. Astley, Esq., well knowing them to have been stolen. Mr. Adolphus stated the circumstances as follows:—

Mr. Dugdale Astley was the prosecutor; he was the eldest son of Sir J. Astley, M.P. for Wiltshire, and married the daughter of Sir T. Lethbridge, by whom he would be entitled, at some future day, to a large fortune; he was also the heir to an extensive property in his own person. Mr. Astley, the previous July, saw an advertisement in the “Morning Post,” stating that a gentleman retiring from business had a sum of 20,000l. to lend at four-and-a-half per cent. interest to gentlemen of known property, or on bills of exchange at a short date. Application to be made to Mr. T. Morton, 35, University-street, St. Pancras. He (Mr. Adolphus) should have thought that this was almost too vulgar to attract notice, but it caught the attention of Mr. Astley; and he being in want of a temporary advance of money, applied for the loan of 5000l., at the same time describing his own and his wife’s family connexions. Mr. Astley, at the time of making this application, was at his country house, Basing Park, Wiltshire, and shortly afterwards he received a letter, signed “J. Morton,” but by a person whose real name would turn out to be Minter Hart, stating that he (Morton) would visit Mr. A. in the country, which he had accordingly done. A great deal of discussion ensued between them as to the terms on which the money was to be advanced; it was ultimately arranged that Mr. Astley should give his acceptance at short dates, which were to be renewed from time to time on the payment of six per cent interest. Hart, calculating on the success of the plot, had provided himself with ten six-shilling stamps, which he requested Mr. Astley to accept for 500l. each. This he simply and foolishly acceded to, and wrote across them—“Accepted; payable at Messrs. Praed and Co., bankers, 195, Fleet-street.” Hart, overjoyed at his success, put the bills into his pocket, and immediately started, assuring the prosecutor that the money would be forthcoming in a few days. When he (Hart) had got home, he found that the prosecutor had not signed his name to the bills. He accordingly wrote him a letter, requesting a second interview, as there was an irregularity. This was granted, and day after day passed away, but no money was forthcoming. Nothing was heard of Mr. Hart or the bills. At length a letter was received, stating that the business could not be completed for a short time. Some days after this a letter was received from the prisoner (which first introduced him into the transaction), dated Hertford-street, May Fair, Aug. 16, and was to the following effect:—

“Sir,—I have received in payment your acceptance for 500l., and have also been requested to discount another for the same amount, which, from the respectability of your family, I am inclined to do. Perhaps, therefore, you will have the goodness to inform me if the bills are all regular and right.

“I am, &c., “Henry Palmer.

“D. Astley, Esq.”

This letter Mr. Astley fortunately did not answer, but it raised his suspicions that all was not right; he accordingly made inquiries, and it was discovered that Hart and the prisoner were old friends—labourers in the same vineyard. This trick having failed, the prisoner then resorted to another; he thought that Mr. Astley would naturally wish to conceal the transaction from his own and his wife’s family; he therefore sent him a copy of a letter which he (Palmer) said he intended to send to his (Mr. Astley’s) father, and Sir Thomas Lethbridge, his father-in-law. The letter was to the following effect:—

“Sir,—Your son, Mr. Dugdale Astley, has, to my own knowledge, accepted bills to the amount of 5,000l., without receiving one penny value for them; part of them are in circulation, and the others shortly will be; but, from the circumstances that have come to my knowledge, they might be all bought up for a small sum, and thereby prevent an exposure of the transaction in a court of justice. If you think this proposal worthy your notice, and will put an advertisement in ‘The Morning Chronicle,’ addressed to O. P. Q., you shall hear from me.

“Yours, &c. “Henry Palmer.”

This not being noticed immediately, the letters were addressed to Sir J. Astley and Sir T. Lethbridge. These letters, it would be proved were in the handwriting of the prisoner. An advertisement was subsequently put into “The Morning Chronicle,” requesting O. P. Q,. to meet the parties at the office of their solicitors, Messrs. Henson and Co., which he accordingly did, and had an interview. Mr. Henson asked the prisoner what he expected to receive by giving up the bills?—Palmer replied, with the greatest effrontery, “Twenty shillings in the pound; they are worth every farthing of it.” This, of course, was indignantly refused, and he went away. The following day the solicitor of the prisoner called upon Mr. Henson, and asked if Mr. Astley would give 10s. in the pound for the bills? This was refused. He then offered to take 5s., but this offer was also refused, and the negotiation dropped.

To support this case, a clear and connected chain of evidence was produced, showing the connexion of the prisoner with Hart, and leaving no doubt as to the conspiracy which had been formed to rob the prosecutor. The prisoner conducted his own defence, and cross-examined both the prosecutor and the other witnesses; and from the answers of the former it appeared that he had become acquainted with Mr. Smart, of Bridges-street, Covent Garden, and other persons not strictly creditable. The main facts of the charge were, however, not shaken, and the prisoner was found guilty, and sentenced to be transported for fourteen years—a sentence which so shook his nerves, that he fell in a fit, and was removed from the bar in a state of insensibility.

Hart, it will be perceived, was intimately connected with the case to which we have referred, and he too was shortly afterwards apprehended upon the charge of his participation in the offence, of which his agent had been found guilty. Having undergone several examinations before the magistrates, he was committed for trial; but upon application to the Court of King’s Bench, the indictment was removed by certiorari from the Middlesex Sessions to the Old Bailey. On Monday, the 2nd of December, 1833, Hart was put upon his trial; but an objection being taken to the indictment, upon the ground that there was no felony proved, by reason of there having been nothing stolen which was the property of Mr. Astley, a verdict of “Not guilty” was returned upon the direction of the learned judge. Hart was then discharged; and Palmer, whose conviction, it followed, had been illegal, was also subsequently liberated.

Having detailed the circumstances of these two cases, it is unnecessary that we should go into any further description of the habits and practices of Hart and his associates, because their proceedings were always so much of the same character, that their statement would be a mere repetition of the facts which we have related. Hart was, in pursuance of his sentence, carried to Van Diemen’s Land; but a short residence in that colony, aided, doubtless, by change of habit and situation, brought him to the grave.

We regret that we are not able to present our readers with any minute account of the early life of this notorious person. At the time of his conviction he was thirty-two years of age, and he described himself as a solicitor. There is, we believe, good ground for supposing, that this description of his situation in life was a correct one, and that he had been actually educated for the legal profession, and admitted a member of the body of attornies. The nest of swindlers, with whom he was associated, was almost entirely broken up by his conviction. Their tricks and cheats had often been the subject of remark; and, considering the notoriety which their schemes had obtained, it is surprising that they should have been so long successful.