1802 - Proceedings of the Old Bailey (1)

From International Robin Hood Bibliography
Record
Date 1802
Topic Cheating at cards at the Robin Hood, Charles II Street, near St James's Place
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Site of the Robin Hood, Charles II Street.

By Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2018-06-22. Revised by Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2021-01-08.

Record

[13 Jan. 1802:]
CUTHBERT KITCHEN sworn. - I am a farmer, near Bishop's Castle, in Shropshire; I came to town this day fortnight, and it will be a fortnight tomorrow since I lost my property; I was sitting in the parlour of my nephew, who is a cheesemonger, in Whitcomb-street, and a man came in and fetched him to decide a wager of a foot-race that was run at York some years back; he asked me to go with him, and I did; we went first to a public-house in the Haymarket that my nephew used, and there we had a pot of beer between us two and the man that fetched him; one man came, and said, if it was not decided by such a time, he would lose his wager; and my nephew went, and came back again to me, and then I went with him to the Robin-Hood, in Charles-street, St. James's-square. [...] JOHN BOLDERSON sworn. - I am a cheesemonger, No. 7. Whitcomb-street, Haymarket; Parker called upon me.

Q. How long have you known him? - A. I did not know any thing of him further than coming to my shop for cheese and butter: On Tuesday, the 6th of January, he called upon me, about eight o'clock at night, and asked me if I was busy; I told him I was; he said, he had betted a wager of a bowl of punch about a foot-race at York; and I told him I knew the man won his wager that he run for, but I could not tell what time it was to be done in; I told him I had an uncle from the country, if he would take him with me, I would go; we went first to the tap under the Opera, and there they said he was gone to the Talbot; then we went to the Talbot, and then a man came in with a note from the Robin-Hood, saying, that his bowl of punch would be forfeited, unless I came directly; I left my uncle, and went there; there was only one person in the back parlour, and he asked me what I knew about the wager, and I told him; he said, he was satisfied that he had lost, and called for a bowl of punch; I had a glass of punch, and a man came in, and said, Mr. Bolderon, how do you do? I was astonished at his knowing me, and he asked me to have some brandy and water; he said, he should like to smoke a pipe with me, and persuaded me to fetch my uncle; Parker went with me, and my uncle came; after we had sat down some time, a pack of cards was produced, and my uncle was asked to play; he said, he never did; we played for a bowl of liquor; I had a capital good hand, and they proposed to bet wagers as far as forty pounds; my uncle put down a thirty-pound note and two five-guinea notes; Parker took them up; and then my uncle, dreading something, said, John, you have brought me here to be robbed; I said, G - d bless you, no, we are all countrymen together; then there was a proposal to go to the tap under the Opera. [...]

Prisoner Parker. I wish to have the landlord of the Robin-Hood called.[1]

Source notes

IRHB has silently regularized the use of spaces before punctuation marks in the quotation and corrected the HTML text at Proceedings of the Old Bailey from the PDF of the original printed edition.

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