Some Known Journeymen Silversmiths and Other Employees

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J.W. BENSON

London


William Francis Vallat - (Assistant)


SHOW-CASE ROBBERY

Charles Richards, a labourer, with no home, but who was dressed in a canvas jacket and trowsers which are usually given to vagrants who tear up their own clothes while seeking nightly shelter in the casual wards of the unions, was placed at the bar at Guildhall, before Mr. Alderman Besley, charged with wilfully breaking a large pane of plate-glass in a show-case belonging to Mr. Benson, watchmaker and jeweller, of Ludgate-hill, and stealing therefrom a pair of plated spoons, value 12s. William Francis Vallat, assistant to Mr. Benson, said that about half-past eleven o'clock that morning he heard a smash of glass outside the shop, and went to see what damage had been done. He found that a sheet of plate-glass in the show-case, value 22s., had been smashed, and two plated spoons had been taken from the case. Shortly afterwards the police-constable same up with the missing spoons, and the prisoner in custody. The spoons produced were his employer's property, and their value was 12s. The prisoner was remanded.

Source: The Brecon County Times - 6th February 1869

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BELLINGER, ALTSHULER & Co.

London


L. Cohen - (Diamond Mounter)

See: viewtopic.php?f=38&t=30091&p=173974&hilit=BELLINGER#p173974

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CRICHTON BROS.

London


Albert Charles Lowles - (Jeweller's Assistant)

RUINED BY GAMBLING

At Clerkenwell, London, Albert Charles Lowles, 38. jewellers' assistant, pleaded guilty to stealing various articles, valued at £176. the property of Messrs. Crichton Bros., jewellers, Old Bond-street, and was sentenced to four years' penal servitude. In 1892 Lowles was convicted of stealing jewellery from his then employer, and on his release was helped by friends and kept steady for three years. Horse-racing again attracted his attention, and, to cover looses, he committed thefts.

Source: Evening Express - 8th September 1898

See: viewtopic.php?f=38&t=53398&p=174866#p174866

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THE ALEXANDER CLARK MANUFACTURING COMPANY

London


Arthur Flowers - (Manager)

See: viewtopic.php?f=38&t=51381&p=174819&sid=6da12a69e4366d096c7e3b6cdc167dd8#p174819

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CHANDLER & SON

London


James Smith - (Traveller and Clerk)


STEALING £200 WORTH OF JEWELLERY

At Marlborough-street Police-court, London, yesterday, James Smith, 35, a traveller and clerk, living at Drayton-gardens, West Ealing, and until recently in the employ of Messrs. Chandler and Son, jewellers. No. 12, Newman-street, Oxford-street, surrendered to bail before Mr. Plowden to answer the charge of stealing jewellery worth £200 belonging to that firm.— It appeared that the prisoner, who was entrusted with quantities of jewellery to show the customers, pledged seventeen gold rings, two brooches, and two bracelets, instead of leaving them with firms on approbation. Becoming worried over the offence he had committed, he got drunk, in order that he might be taken in charge and confess his crime. He was arrested, as he had anticipated, and told Detective-sergeant Tomblin what he had done. —After the jewellery had been produced by pawnbrokers, Mr. Lewis stated that the prosecutors desired the magistrate to decide the case at this court.—Mr. Horwood said Smith would plead guilty, and pointed out that this was the only offence he had committed during thirteen years, and that a gentleman was prepared to give him employment after his term of punishment was served.—Mr. Plowden said this was a case of persistent theft, and the prisoner, seeing how serious the matter was, ought to be thankful he was not going for trial, where a much heavier sentence than the one to be inflicted would, doubtless, be passed. He would have to go to prison for six months, with hard labour.

Source: Evening Express and Evening Mail - 11th September 1902

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CHARLES DALGLEISH (DALGLIESH)

Edinburgh


Charles Dalgleish was known to have taken the following apprentices:

John Sutter: apprentice indentures booked: 4th September 1815
James Allison: apprentice indentures booked: 1815
James Edward: apprentice indentures booked: 21st November 1817
George Letham: apprentice indentures booked: 21st November 1817
John Bone: apprentice indentures booked: 21st November 1817(?)
Alexander Dick: apprenticeship transferred from James McKenzie: 24th November 1818
John Gilbert II: apprentice indentures booked: 23rd January 1819

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BREWIS & HIGGINS

London


Henry Russell - (Apprentice)


EXTRAORDINARY CONDUCT OF A YOUTH

RESULT OF READING ROMANCES

At the Central Criminal Court on Wednesday, before Mr. Justice Grantham, Henry Russell, 17, was indicted for having attempted to commit incendiarism on the premises of Messrs. Brewis and Higgins, silversmiths; also for stealing two bags of polishings, their property: and there was a further count charging him with having caused wilful damage exceeding £5. - At first the prisoner pleaded not guilty generally, but he subsequently admitted his guilt as to the wilful damage. — Mr. Gill, who prosecuted, stated that the case was a peculiar one. The accused had for three years been apprenticed to the prosecutors, and he had taken an extraordinary dislike to one of them. On the night of June 27 he was to have slept in the house, Mr. Brewis and a clerk being also on the premises. The prisoner appeared to have prepared an elaborate plan for the purpose of leading his employers to suppose that the place had been broken into by burglars, and that he had got wounded in frustrating their attempts to set fire to the house. In carrying out his scheme he collected a quantity of shavings, and poured four gallons of oil and turpentine upon them, broke the locks of several doors, and smashed the glass of a number of windows. He fired twice with a revolver into the shavings, presumably with the view of setting the shaving on fire, also wounding himself on the hand and leg with the same weapon. After his arrest inquiries were made, and it was quite evident that he had not slept in his bed at all on the night of the offence. While accepting the plea of guilty on the minor count, the prosecutors desired to be protected from the accused, who had made some extraordinary threats against them, and had a revolver with which he might at any moment carry out his threats. — Mr. Besley, who defended, said the prisoner was a total abstainer, and the son of respectable parents, who could only account for his conduct by supposing that his imagination had become excited by the reading of romances.—Mr. Justice Grantham remarked that he would not be doing his duty if he did not inflict such punishment as would make the accused feel personally the enormity of the crime he had committed. He would, therefore, be sentenced to three months' imprisonment with hard labour.

Source: Western Mail - 16th September 1887

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SYDENHAM

Birmingham


George Shepherd - (Managing Clerk)

George Shepherd, managing clerk to Mr. Sydenham, manufacturing jeweller, Birmingham, has been sentenced to six months' imprisonment for stealing a number of gold brooches, gold rings, bracelets, neck-lets, &c., belong to his employer. Prisoner, who recently retired from the army on a pension, which he will now lose, presented most of the stolen articles to a young woman, representing that he was a partner of the prosecutor.

Source: The North Wales Express - 14th September 1883

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HAWKSWORTH, EYRE & Co.

Sheffield


Francis Owen - (Occupation unknown)


Deaths

Owen. - Oct. 2. Mr. Francis Owen, aged 74 years; for 62 years an employee of the firm of Hawksworth, Eyre & Co., Silversmiths, of this town.

Source: Sheffield and Rotherham Independent - 4th October 1869

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UNITE & SON

Birmingham


George Vernon - (Silversmith)


BIRMINGHAM POLICE COURT

YESTERDAY

Before Mr. T.C.S. Kynnersley, Mr. Westley Richards, and Dr. Melson

ROBBING AN EMPLOYER. - A youth named George Vernon, a silversmith, residing in Regent Place was charged with having stolen several pieces of silver, the property of his masters, Messrs. Unite & Son, silversmiths, Caroline Street. The prisoner pleaded guilty, and was committed to the House of Correction, with hard labour, for six months.

Source: The Birmingham Daily Post - 3rd September 1863

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HALTON & SLOCOMBE

London


Frederick Harrison - (Porter)


Wanted.–A reward of £200 has been offered for the apprehension of Frederick Harrison, a jewellers' porter at Messrs. Halton and Slocombe's, jewellers, of Moorgate Street, who on April 10 decamped with over £2,000 worth of jewellery.

Source: The Watchmaker, Jeweller and Silversmith - 2nd June 1890

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CHARLES DAY

London


Joseph Burt - (Apprentice)


Guildhall. — Joseph Burt, a young man, who had been articled with Mr. Day, a silver-spoon-maker in Lilypot-lane, near Falcon-square, was brought before Mr. Alderman Ansley yesterday, charged with stealing about five ounces of silver cuttings and shavings.

It appeared that he offered this refuse silver for sale at Mr. Sirrell's, a refiner, in Barbican, on Friday last, and gave his address as "Mr. Smith, 13, Marylebone-street." The shopman declined paying him until the following day, that he might satisfy himself that the prisoner had given a true account of himself. Upon inquiry, it proved that this address was fictitious, and that the prisoner omitted to call for his money. Mr. Sirrell then sent the silver round among the spoon makers, and among others to Messrs. Eley, of Paternoster-row, who partly identified it, and exhibited it to Mr. Day, one of their outdoor workers, by whom it was at once recognized. The prisoner was then sent to Mr. Sirrell's on an errand, and being identified as the person who called himself Mr. Smith, was shortly afterwards apprehended.

Mr. Day said he had missed a considerable quantity of such silver, and the prisoner had been eight months in his service.

The prisoner, under the advice of his solicitor, did not attempt any defence, and was committed.

Source: The Standard - 22nd November 1827

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M. EVANS

Birmingham


Joseph Slater - (Jeweller's clerk)


Robbing an Employer. — Joseph Slater, jeweller's clerk, living at the back of 33, Spencer Street, Birmingham, was placed in the dock last month, on a charge of stealing four gold bracelets, three pairs of earrings, one brooch, three pins, and a cross, of the value of £15, the property of his employer, Mr. M. Evans, manufacturing jeweller, 64, Northampton Street. The prosecutor stated that he had lately missed articles of jewellery of the value of upwards of £50. He gave information to the police, with the result that Detective-inspector Ore arrested the accused. The whole of the articles were found to have been pledged at various pawn-shops in the town. Prisoner pleaded guilty. Mr. Evans said that he had employed the prisoner since February last. He' then bore an exceedingly good character. His parents were respectable people, and the accused had had a good example set him. Prisoner said that he had to superintend a funeral, and to do this he had to borrow money to purchase various articles. The man who lent him the money had pressed him for it, and in order to repay him he gave way to the temptation offered him. The Stipendiary said he would impose the most lenient punishment he could — three month's imprisonment, with hard labour.

Source: The Watchmaker, Jeweller and Silversmith - 1st July 1889

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HENRY HIGHMAN

London


Guirk Aaronoff - (Assistant)

A sequel to the recent court case in which Henry Highman, Hatton Garden diamond merchant, obtained judgment against one of Lloyds underwriters under an insurance policy covering loss by robbery, has developed this week, Tyler & Co., the jewelry assessors, having announced a $5,000 reward on behalf of the underwriters for information in connection with the robbery of the diamond merchant’s assistant, Guirk Aaronoff. When the case was tried in the High Court the underwriters defended the action to recover some $32,000 due on a block policy of insurance on the grounds that the alleged robbery was a bogus one and the claim fraudulent. The case ended abruptly the third day when the underwriters withdrew the charges of fraud against Highman and agreed to judgment against them with costs. The Lord Chief Justice told the diamond merchant and his traveler, Aaronoff, that they left the court with no reflection on their honesty or integrity. Aaronoff was attacked and robbed of the gems he was carrying for the Hatton Garden diamond dealer not far from the latter’s office.

Source: The Jewelers' Circular - 22nd April 1925

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SAMUEL W. PRICE

London


Charles Gill - (Manager)

A Holborn, Eng., gold and silver refiner, Samuel W. Price, and his manager, Charles Gill, have been charged on eight counts with the receiving of stolen silver goods. At the Clerkenwell police court recently the prosecution said the silver in question is the proceeds of various burglaries carried out by another man. The silver, said the prosecution, was purchased from the third man. No receipts were given, and there were no books to show what went into the melting pot. Most of the silver articles had inscriptions and crests, said the prosecution. The man accused of the burglaries has made a statement to the police, which, they say, involves Price and his manager. The silver is estimated to be worth $3,000. Price has been in business for 30 years. The case is adjourned.

Source: The Jewelers' Circular - 12th December 1923

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CHARLES LUCAS & SONS

Birmingham


Albert Husselbee

Obituary

Mr. Albert Husselbee

An employee of Charles Lucas & Sons, Birmingham ringmakers, for 55 years, Mr. Albert Husselbee has died at the age of 83.

Source: Jeweller and Metalworker - 15th January 1972

See: viewtopic.php?f=38&t=14729&p=144071&hilit=lucas#p144071

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BRAVINGTONS

London


Percy N. Neale - (Manager)

The charge against a share broker, who, with two other men, were accused of conspiring to steal from an Indian merchant and shipowner pearls worth $60,000, was withdrawn by Magistrate Mead at the Marlborough St. court this week. Percy N. Neale, manager for Messrs. Bravington, the big London jewelers, said the two men arrested with the accused got a loan of $3,500 on the security of three bunches of pearls and 29 loose pearls, early last year. Later one of the men asked him to purchase the pearls, which he did, paying them the full market value of $9,000. According to the prosecution the shipowner from India was induced to part with the pearls on the statement that they were wanted as a present for Princess Mary’s wedding. Six months’ bills for $63,275 were given in exchange for the pearls. The bills were returned by the bank there being no funds there to meet them.

Source: The Jewelers' Circular - 8th August 1923

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