Thomas Rogers, 1826 1
Frederick Garling, Crown Solicitor letter to William H Moore, A/Attorney General, 9 Nov 1826 2
1
Rex v. Rogers for Perjury
Dear Sir,
It has occurred to me that the best account I could give you of this case raised be to prepare at once the form of an information which may perhaps save you some trouble. I have run it over in much haste and it will most likely want necessary correction. Rogers so prevaricated at the trial and his evidence was so much at variance with the deposition made before the police that at length his testimony was taken down and the fact taken in the accompanied information being positively contradicted by Knox and Roche he was committed for perjury. I can prove the
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testimony he gave on the trial and those two men will prove the falsity of it the allegation I set forth in the only one that can be distinctly contradicted any day next week that you may appoint for the trial I will attend but tomorrow morning I am at the daybreak for the Hawkesbury from whence I shall return on Sunday.
Yours very truly
[Signed] F Garling
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[On the reverse of the above (1-2) is the following]
William Taylor and Thos McLean
Assaulting for Thos Rogers with intent to commit unnatural crime on 19th October 1826.
Rogers swore that when Taylor and McLean were taken into custody Rogers did not say that McLean had placed him at the window in order to commit an unnatural crime.
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To Thomas Rogers
TAKE NOTICE, that you are hereby required to be and appear in your own proper Person, before the Supreme Court, at Sydney, on Wednesday the fifteenth day of November [1826] next to answer to a certain charge to be then and there exhibited, on behalf of our Sovereign Lord the King, against you for wilful and corrupt perjury in a trial before the Court of Quarter Sessions The King against William Taylor and Thomas McLean.
[Signed] William Henry Moore [Acting AG] 11th November 1826.
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Depositions for Thomas Rogers 27 Nov 1826 Sydney trial
1
In the Seventh year of the Reign of our
Sovereign Lord George the Fourth by the
Grace of God of the United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Ireland King Defender
of the Faith
New South Wales
TO WIT }
Be it Remembered that William Henry Moore acting as His Majesty’s Attorney General for the Colony of New South Wales now here on the fifteenth twenty seventh day of November in the Year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and twenty six at Sydney in the Colony, aforesaid informs the said Court that at the general Quarter Sessions of the Peace holden in and for the Colony of New South Wales at the Courthouse in Castlereagh Street Sydney in the Colony aforesaid, on the sixth day of November in the Year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and twenty six and continued by adjournment until and after the eighth day of the said month of November before William Carter Esquire and Warham Jemmelt Browne Esquire and others their Fellows Justices of our said Lord the King assigned to keep the peace of our said Lord the King in and for the said Colony of New South Wales and also to hear and determine felonies trespasses and other
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misdemeanors [sic] in the said Colony committed William Taylor and Thomas McLean were in due form of law tried by a certain jury of the said Colony, then and there duly sworn and taken between our said Lord the King and the said William Taylor and Thomas McLean upon a certain indictment then and there defending in the said Colony against them the said William Taylor and Thomas McLean in and by which said indictment it was charged and alleged that the said William Taylor and Thomas McLean not having the fear of God before their eyes but being moved and seduced by the instigation of the devil on the 19th day of October in the Year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and twenty six with force and arms at Sydney aforesaid in the Colony aforesaid in an upon one Thomas Rogers in the peace of God and our said Lord the King then and there being did make an assault with an intent that most horrid detestable and sodomitical crimes (among Christians not to be named) called buggery with the said Thomas Rogers against the order of nature then and there feloniously wickedly and devilishly to commit and do to the great displeasure of Almighty God to the great damage of the said Thomas Rogers and against the peace of our said Lord the King his crown and dignity and the said William Henry Moore acting as his said Majesty’s Attorney General
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further gives the court here to understand and being be informed that upon the trial aforesaid the said Thomas Rogers late of Sydney aforesaid in the Colony aforesaid, Labourer did appear as a witness for and on behalf of our said Lord the King against the said William Taylor and Thomas McLean in support of the said indictment and that he the said Thomas Rogers did then and there in open court at the said courthouse before the said Justices of our said Lord the King to wit at Sydney aforesaid take his corporal oath and was duly sworn upon the holy Gospel of God to speak the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth touching and concerning the premises aforesaid they the said justices then and there having sufficient power and authority to administer the said oath to the said Thomas Rogers in that behalf and upon the trial of the said indictment it then and there became and was a material and necessary question whether at the time they the said William Taylor and Thomas McLean were taken into custody by John Knox and Alexander Roche two of the Constables of Sydney aforesaid he the said Thomas Rogers did not say that he the said Thomas McLean had then lately before placed him the said Thomas Rogers against the window and offered to commit an unnatural
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crime upon him in the inner room of the house wherein they the said William Taylor and Thomas McLean lived at Sydney aforesaid and the said Thomas Rogers being so sworn as aforesaid and not having the fear ofGod before his eyes but being moved and seduced by the instigation of the devil and wickedly devising and intending to pervert the course of Justice and Law did then and there to wit on the 8th day of November in the year aforesaid at Sydney aforesaid in the Colony aforesaid, before the said Justices of our said Lord the King in open court at the said courthouse falsely knowingly wickedly and corruptly by his own act and consent say compose and give in evidence to the jurors of our said Lord the King so sworn and taken between our said Lord the King and the said William Taylor and Thomas McLean as aforesaid that when and at the time they the said William Taylor and Thomas McLean were taken into custody by John Knox and Alexander Roche (two of the constables of Sydney aforesaid) charged with the offence aforesaid he the said Thomas Rogers did not say that he the said Thomas McLean had then lately before placed him the said Thomas Rogers against the window and offered to commit an unnatural crime upon him in the inner room of the house wherein they the said William Taylor and Thomas
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McLean lived in Sydney whereas in truth and in fact the said Thomas Rogers did say when and at the time they the said William Taylor and Thomas McLean were taken into custody as aforesaid that he the said Thomas McLean has then lately before placed him the said Thomas Rogers against the window and offered to commit an unnatural crime upon him in the inner room of the house wherein they the said William Taylor and Thomas McLean lived in Sydney and so the said William Henry Moore acting as His Majesty’s said Attorney General further gives the court here to understand and be informed that the said Thomas Rogers at and upon the said trial to wit on the 8th day of November aforesaid at the courthouse in Castlereagh Street in Sydney aforesaid before the said Justices of our said Lord the king they the said Justices then and there having such competent power and authority as aforesaid did in the manner and form aforesaid commit wilful [sic] and corrupt perjury to the great displeasure of Almighty God to the evil example of all others in the like case offending and against the peace of our said Lord the King his crown and dignity.
[Signed] William Henry Moore [Acting AG]
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[On the reverse of the above (1-5) is the following]
378
The King against Thomas Rogers
Information
Witnesses F Garling Esq, John Knox, Alex Roche, William Taylor.
[Signed] (Pucheridge ?)
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November 27th 1826
Thomas Rogers arranged – Plea Not Guilty – Adjudged Guilty Sentenced to stand in the Pillory in some public market place for one hour and to be Transported or the term of seven years.
[Signed] John Gurner [Clerk of the Supreme Court]
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The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser, Wed 29 Nov 1826 3
SUPREME CRIMINAL COURT
Monday 27 November [1826]
BEFORE MR JUSTICE STEPHEN 4
Thomas Rogers was indicted for wilful and corrupt perjury, committed before the last Court of Quarter Sessions, on the trial of Thomas McLean, for an unnatural crime. – Guilty. Sentenced to stand for one hour in the pillory, on a public market-day, at a place to be appointed, and afterwards to be transported to a penal settlement for the term of seven years.
1 This perjury case, Thomas Rogers, 1826, is in relation to William Taylor and Thomas McLean, 1826.
2 SRNSW: NRS880, [SC T24] 26/181, Supreme Court, Papers and depositions, 1826, No. 378. Emphasis added.
3 The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser, Wed 29 Nov 1826, p. 3.
4 Justice Stephen’s 1826 notebooks could not be located at SRNSW.