From the Dover Telegraph and Cinque Ports General Advertiser, Saturday 27 May, 1843. Price 5d.

CAPTURE OF A LONDON THIEF

Monday: A person who gave his name as John Davis, was brought before the Magistrates by superintendent Corrall, who had apprehended him under the following circumstances:- It appeared that Corrall having information on Sunday morning, that a person in a state of intoxication who seemed to have some money about him, was in the company of certain well-known loose characters, proceeded to the (late "Morning Star") beer-shop, in New Street, where he found the prisoner very drunk, and very properly took him to the Station-house in order that he might be protected from the tender mercies of his friends. At the Station-house, Corrall asked him what money he had about him, when he produced twenty-one sovereigns, and stated that he was travelling for a linendraper and was lodging at the "British Lion" public house in Bulwark Street, to which place he took him and left him in the care of the landlord. During the afternoon Corrall happened to be perusing the Hue and Cry to compare the description with a suspicious character he had seen in the town, when his eye glanced over the exact "portraiture" of our hero, with rather an awkward account of his exploits annexed, describing him as having on the 17th instant, absconded from the service of his master, T. Stevenson Esq., surgeon, 24, Edgeware road, London, and having taken with him a cask-box containing 35 sovereigns, 2 wedding rings, 2 table spoons, a salt spoon, and a gold seal. Corrall immediately re-traced his steps to the "British Lion," where he found him asleep with his head on the table, still in a state of intoxication, and upon searching him, he found upon him 20 sovereigns, and articles exactly answering the description above enumerated, upon which he reintroduced him to the Station-house. Upon being called upon for his defence, prisoner denied any knowledge of Mr. Stevenson or the robbery; he was, however, remanded for the purpose of communicating with Mr. Stevenson, until yesterday when he was again placed at the bar.

John Grinhey, servant to Mr. Stevenson, who stated that the prisoner's real name was Morgan, and identified the spoons and seal as those stolen from his master's custody, by whom the prisoner was employed as a dispensing assistant, at a salary of £100 per annum. The witness further said, that the property belonged to his master as the executor of a lady named Williams, and had been stolen from a cupboard in the surgery, which had been broken open.

It appeared that the prisoner had politely returned the cash-box, carriage-paid, by the London parcels delivery company, on the day after he absconded, containing a bundle of Bank of England receipts (which he had no doubt mistaken for notes of the same establishment), and other papers.

The prisoner who still stoutly denied any knowledge of Mr. Stevenson, or the robbery, was remanded to the custody of Corrall, for the purpose of being transmitted to London for examination.