Smuggling & Smugglers in Sussex - online book

An Account of a notorious Smuggling gang in the early 18th Century

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164                            SUSSEX SMUGGLERS.
he was doing when they whistled at his door, said he was churning.
Francis Doe, an accomplice in the said robbery, being sworn, deposed that he, John Mills, alias Smoker (who was convicted for the murder of Hawkins), and the two prisoners at the bar, agreed to go and rob the prosecutor's house. That on the 2nd of November they all four, with their faces covered with crape, came to his house, and whistled at the door ; that when the prosecutor came out, they seized him and demanded his money ; that the prosecutor gave them eleven shillings and sixpence out of his pocket; that they then went into the house, and Lawrence Kemp, one of the prisoners, stood sentry over the prosecutor, whilst he, this witness, with Mills and Thomas Kemp, the other prisoners, went upstairs, forced open two doors, two-trunks and a box, and took thereout several pieces of gold and silver, to the amount of five or six and thirty pounds, together with some rings, spoons and a watch. That when they came downstairs, they took the prosecutor with them to where their horses stood, and threatened they would carry him away with them unless he would discover where the rest of his money was, for they were sure he had more in the house. That upon his declaring he had no more, they let him go home, mounted their horses, and rode away. Upon shifting, that is, sharing the money, he had eight or nine pounds for his share. That Lawrence Kemp, one of the prisoners at the bar, was to sell the watch, rings, &c, and to divide the money between them, but he never did as he knew.
Jacob Pring deposed that he went down to Bristol to meet with and bring up John Mills, otherwise Smoker. That when he was there he met with the two prisoners
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