[list-cumbria] Carlisle Patriot, 10 Apr 1824 - A Wholesale Swindler (3)

[Petra Mitchinson]

Saturday 10 Apr 1824   (p. 3, col. 3-5)

 

A WHOLESALE SWINDLER. 

 

[continued] 

 

On the 1st of April, a respectable law firm in Wisbech, to whom Mr. SAUL's letter had been handed over, thus writes:— 

 

"We find by the parish Register that Samuel CAVE was married to Charlotte BINGHAM, spinster, on the 3d July, 1820, and on comparing
the hand-writing contained in your letter with the writing in the parish Register, there is no doubt of their being the same, with
the addition of Charles in your letter. We also find, that in consequence of some disputes between CAVE and his wife, she left him
and went to reside at a village in Peterborough with her mother, where she was confined; we have not at present been able to
ascertain the name of the village, but have put the matter in a train to obtain that information. Samuel CAVE is well known to Mr.
——, who attended him several times relative to a fraudulent transaction on the part of CAVE with the late Mr. Thos. COX, of this
place, who advanced him a large sum of money when he was a cooper in this town, and which never was repaid." 

 

In consequence of certain papers found upon the prisoner, several persons residing in Chichester have been written to—among others,
a respectable Butcher who, under date of "Chichester, April 4," replies as follows:— 

 

"A person calling himself Chas. CAVE, in every respect answering the description in your letter, left Chichester about the 20th of
Feb. last, after swindling me and all my neighbours. He came here in April 1823, as a journeyman cooper, and worked for a Mr.
BIFFIN, a respectable cooper and timber merchant of this city, nearly up to Christmas last, about which time Messrs. HIARD and
CUTTEN, coachmakers here, wished to dissolve partnership, and it was agreed that CUTTEN should have the business, when CAVE, who
lived in part of CUTTEN's house, agreed to lend him £1100 for seven years, which sum he said he had ready, as, he asserted, he had a
considerable property; and a little while before the business was to be settled, he borrowed of CUTTEN at different times £60. While
this was going on, he agreed to purchase some houses and building ground of a Mr. ARTON. Attorneys were employed, building materials
bought, his own house furnished, a treat given to his acquaintances, when I had the honour to supply meat for the table to the
amount of 41s. 6d., for which I never was paid. However, a day was fixed when the houses were to be paid for, and the money lent to
CUTTEN; on the Sunday before he borrowed £20 of a Mr. CARTER, a builder, whom he had employed to build his houses, and then
disappeared; and as far as I can learn, cheated the people here to the amount of £250 or £300 besides expence of writings, &c. He
left his wife behind, who was taken away by her father, a Mr. John NATLEY, maltster at Uphurstbourne, near Andover, Hants; she was a
widow, in business as a cooper at Whitchurch in that county, where CAVE went to work as a journeyman. He there married her,
representing himself as having property—soon failed in business, and came to Chichester for work. Before he lived with Mrs. KENT
(for that was her name) he worked at Basingstoke, Hants. He is a native of Thorney, Cambridgeshire, where his mother lives with a
Mr. WATSON, of Thorney Abbey. He has been married before he married Mrs. KENT, and said his wife was dead: he had a child or two by
his first wife—one was left at Chichester by his wife when he ran away, and has since been sent for by Mrs. CAVE, &c." 

 

The Mr. CUTTEN, mentioned in this letter, also writes, confirming the whole of its contents. He expresses surprise that he should
have been so deadly taken in, and says the effect was so great upon him that he has been laid up in the gout ever since. CAVE's
pretence for borrowing money of him was, that he had two £500 notes in the house, and did not wish to change them. A list of debts
owing to various persons at Chichester shews that he had swindled them to the amount of £156 : 17 : 6, among which is a sum for
preparing a will by an attorney; so that, it seems, the "dangerous pain of the heart" which so alarmed him here, is not altogether a
new disease. He told Mr. CUTTEN that an old rich uncle of his died in February last, leaving him and his family £50,000, of which,
he said, he had 12 or £14,000, independently of £2,600 which he already possessed, when, in fact, observes Mr. CUTTEN, "not one of
the family was ever worth £5." "He offered to lend me £1100, (Mr. C. continues), for which I got security to his and his attorney's
satisfaction, and the different papers necessary were drawn up. They were to have been executed at 10 o'clock on Monday the 16th of
Feb., on which morning, at six, he went, from here on foot to Midhurst, 12 miles, got on the coach, went to London, and had not been
heard of till your inquiries were made." Altogether, Mr. CUTTEN says he is minus about £100, sixty of which, in cash, were obtained
under pretence of going to look after his property. The widow whom he married engaged him to manage her business. In six weeks he
took possession of her bed as her husband; and in twelve months spent all she had, and failed. 

 

Another letter, dated "Chichester, April 4, 1824," says: 

 

"Samuel CAVE absconded from this City about two months ago, leaving a wife and three children here, whom her father fetched away; he
is one of the greatest swindlers ever heard of. Under the plea of having had a sum of money left him, he pretended to buy houses of
Mr. ARTON, and had the conveyance prepared, &c." 

 

On Wednesday last, the imposter was brought up at the Public-Office where all these documents were read, He put a bold face upon the
matter, and declined saying more than that he had no wife but Miss CAPE. He is detained, of course, under a charge of Bigamy; as it
will probably turn out that the whole of his three wives are living. 

 

His effrontery is equal to his cunning. Even after he was in gaol, he persisted in his assertion, that he had a servant on his way
from Yorkshire with one of the finest hunter's the kingdom could produce, &c. 

 

It is hardly necessary to observe that CAVE never deposited any money with Messrs. FORSTER. Mr. SAUL knew nothing of this pretence;
and the money which the knave obtained from him was represented to Mr. DONALD as cash drawn out of the Bank! Miss CAPE will not be
21 years of age till October next. We sincerely condole with her: but cannot forget that she might have prevented the most
aggravated feature of the case by a little common caution. It is fortunate for her, however, that her deceiver has prior claims upon
him; for she will thereby save her fortune, and herself, probably, from a worse fate than has already befallen her, painful as it
is. 

 

In giving the details of this transaction, we have gone straight-forward, mincing neither names nor circumstances; for as the whole
thing "will out," the story may as well be told now as at any given time hence. 

 

 

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