James Wintle---Catch me if you can.

[dognose]

On the 17th. February 1813 George Wintle (Grimwade 923-6) was indicted at the Old Bailey on a charge of Counterfeiting Hallmarks, although there was very strong evidence against him he was surprisingly aquitted, his defence was that he rarely attended his business and left the running of it to his son James Wintle (Grimwade 1750,1860).
James Wintle appears never to have been charged, despite his name cropping up in subsequent court cases.
Was he that skillful? It would seem that he was for the next we hear of him is in another court case where he appears for the prosecution as Inspector for the Commissioner of Stamps! So like the Frank Abagnale character in the film "Catch Me If You Can" it does take one to catch one.
James Wintle also continued his career as a silversmith entering eleven marks over the course of twenty six years.
As a side note the Lion Passant, Date punch and the Leopard's Head are supplied by Goldsmith's Hall and the Duty punch by the Commissioner of Stamps.
Trev. (Source Old Bailey Court Records).
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[admin]

Trev,
Thanks for bringing attention to the Old Bailey court records. I've read a number of the transcripts relating to silversmithing and they are not only historically fascinating, but more importantly, a remarkeable resource for information on assay rules & methods, marking law, and the related evasions. Along with first hand accounts of silversmithing techniques and related arcana. Great stuff.

I've just added the transcript of the George Wintle "duty dodging" trial to the website. It is the first to series of trial testimonies. It is located at ->
http://www.925-1000.com/a_OB_Wintle1813.html
or can be accessed from the Articles menu.

Regards, Tom
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[admin]

Hi All,
Trev has generously contributed his time to writing an accompaniment to the Wintle trial transcript that provides good background on the characters and an interesting interpretation of the events.
Check it out at
http://www.925-1000.com/a_OB_Wintle1813.html
Regards, Tom
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