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![handle is hein.slavery/ssactsengr0589 and id is 1 raw text is: 2 CAR. & K. 283. REGINA V. WORTLEY 117
fore void. A- to the prisoner's being allowed to visit taverns, and go from place to
place, I do not think that the jailer was bound to keep him in inconvenient custody-
to hinder him, for example, from dining in a coffee-house, or to confine him to a single
room: he was to keep him in safe, as distinguished from close custody. Even in a
case in Lord Coke's time, greater liberty appears to me to have been allowed than has
been permitted in this instance. On the whole, therefore, I think this action cannot
be sustained.
The learned Judge, however, ultimately reserved the points, and left it to the jury
to say what damages the plaintiff had sustained in case he were entitled to recover
any.
Verdict for plaintiff-Damages id.
Channell, Serjt., and Pearson, for the plaintiff.
M. Chambers and V. Williams, for the defendant.
[Attornies-Sweetland, and Porter.]
[283] MIDLAND SPRING CIRCUIT, 1846.
Northampton Assizes (Crown Side), before Lord Chief Justice Tindal and Mr Coltman.
REGINA V ROBERT WORTLEY AND JOHN ALLEN.
(Money was stolen from an ancient poor's box fixed up in a church :-Held, that, in
an indictment for stealing it, the property would be properly laid in the vicar
and churchwardens, and that an indictment in which the property was stated
to be that of J. N. and others, J. N. being the vicar, was correct, without
alleging J. N. to be the vicar, or the others to be the churchwardens.)
[Subsequent proceedings, 1 Den. 162.]
Sacrilege.-The prisoners were indicted for feloniously and sacrilegiously breaking
and entering the parish church of Oundle, and stealing therein a box, and a quantity
of silver and copper coin, which was specified in the indictment.
The property in the box and coin was laid in the first count in Charles Thomas
Wilson and another ; in the second count, in Joshua Nussey and others ; and
in the third count, in Samuel Tibbetts and others.
It appeared that the box was a very ancient box, firmly fixed, by two screws at
the back, to the outside of a pew in the centre aisle of the church of Oundle ; and by
a third screw at the bottom, to a supporter beneath ; and over this box was an ancient
board, with an inscription painted thereon, Remember the Poor. There were
two locks to the box, but no evidence was given to shew in whose custody the keys
of such locks were kept; nor was there any evidence that money had ever been taken
out of it by the church-[284]-wardens or any other persons, for the purpose of being
distributed, although it was proved that both silver and copper had from time to
time been dropped into the box ; and it was also proved that Mr. Charles Thomas
Wilson was one of the two churchwardens of the parish; and that the Rev. Joshua
Nussey was the vicar of the parish, and that Mr. Samuel Tibbetts was one of many
of the parishioners.
Flood, for the prisoners, objected, first, that the box was fixed to the freehold of
the church, and formed part. of the freehold, and that there was no count in the indict-
ment properly framed, under the stat. 7 & 8 Geo. 4, c. 29, s. 44, to warrant a conviction
for stealing a fixture fixed in or to any building ; and, further, that the box, being
a fixture to the church, formed part of the freehold of the church, and there was no
count stating the property to be in the vicar or rector, in whom the freehold of the
church was vested by law. And, secondly, with respect to the property, he submitted,
that the churchwardens could have no property as churchwardens in this money;
that, in no view of the case, could the vicar and any others have the property ; and
that, even if it belonged to the parishioners, which he submitted could not be in any
view of the case, such property should have been laid in them by the description of
parishioners.
Tindal, C. J., reserved the case for the opinion of the fifteen Judges.
Verdict-Not guilty of breaking and entering into the church, but guilty of the
stealing only.
Mellor, for the prosecution.
Flood, for the prisoners.
[285] Before Lord Denman, C. J. ; Tindal, C. J. ; Pollock, C. B. ; Parke, B. ; Patteson, J.;
Williams, J. ; Coltman, J. ; Rolfe, B. ; Cresswell, J. ; Erle, J. ; and Platt, B.
Flood, for the prisoners.-I submit that this indictment is insufficient, as it does](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.slavery/ssactsengr0589&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)