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EXTRAORDINARY CAREER OF AN ACCOMPLISHED LADY SWINDLER.
At the Southampton police-court, on Saturday, a well-dressed, lady-like, and middle-aged female, who styles herself the Hon. Madeline Harcourt, Mrs. Colonel Douglas, and frequently indulges in other aristocratic titles, but whose real name is believed to be Sarah Westwood, was charged with obtaining a quantity of goods under false pretences from Mr. Axtell, of Prospect Road, Southampton. The court was crowded to excess by persons anxious to catch a glimpse of the accused, whose swindling propensities during the last ten years have made her familiar with the management of various prisons in the country. She has recently undergone a sentence of twelve months’ imprisonment in Lewes gaol, and within a few days of her discharge she resumed her dishonest occupation, which led to her being committed for trial at the recent Portsmouth quarter sessions, when, owing to a technical informality, she was fortunate enough to get acquitted. She did not, however, long remain idle, for she was next heard of in the Isle of Wight, where she “honoured” certain tradesmen with her orders; and, although she was taken before the magistrates at Newport, she managed to compromise the matter with the accusers, who refused to prosecute, and she was once more at liberty. It was only for a short time, however, as, under the false pretence of being the “Hon. Madeline Harcourt,” she succeeded in imposing upon Mr. Axtell, of Southampton; but, the fraud being discovered, she was given into custody. The prisoner, it appears, is most respectably connected, and has an income of two guineas per week. Her genteel manners and address are well calculated to deceive. Her modus operandi is to take expensive furnished apartments, and, under one of her aristocratic names, to levy her contributions upon the grocer, the butcher, the baker, and the wine merchant. As a proof of her respectability, she then invites the clergyman of the parish or the dissenting minister to take tea with her; but, when her dupes become pressing for their money, and further deception is impossible, she suddenly decamps to some other locality. Poole, a detective officer of the Portsmouth police, said he knew the prisoner as Miss Douglas and Sarah Westwood. He could not swear that she was not the wife of the “Hon. Colonel Harcourt.” (A laugh.) The prisoner had been living at 5, Dover Terrace, Southsea, under the name of Douglas. He became “acquainted” with her on the 17th of September, when she went by the same name. He had heard her answer to the name of Sarah Westwood when called in the Portsmouth police court on a charge of stealing twelve bottles of ale (laughter). In cross-examination, the officer said he had heard of persons having two names when coming into property, but to his knowledge honest people usually dropped one. (A laugh.) The accused, who treated the matter with the greatest nonchalance, was remanded for a week, in order that inquiries might be made as to the existence of the “Hon. Colonel Harcourt,” the alleged husband.
— Yorkshire Gazette, Saturday 17 November 1866 source
The Cheshire Observer, Saturday 17 November 1866 has the same text under the title “A FASHIONABLE LADY SWINDLER”, but adds an intriguing postscript: “Can the lady be Miss Trutch?”
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COMMITTAL OF THE HON. MADELINE HARCOURT.
SOUTHAMPTON, SATURDAY.
At the police-court this day the self-styled Hon. Madeline Harcourt, alias Mrs. Colonel Douglas, and a variety of other assumed aristocratic and fashionable titles, but whose real name is Sarah Westwood, was placed in the dock on remand (before Major-General Tryon and other magistrates) on the charge of obtaining goods by falsely pretending herself to be the wife of the Hon. Colonel Harcourt.
The extraordinary career of this accomplished lady swindler has previously been given in the columns of the Morning Advertiser, and, as on the former occasion, the court was crowded by persons anxious to catch a glimpse of so notorious a personage as the accused.
On being placed in the dock the Hon. Madeline Harcourt was as self-possessed as ever, and treated the charge with perfect indifference. She was dressed in a most faultless manner, and her bearing was in keeping with the aristocratic titles she had from time to time assumed.
Evidence was given to prove that the prisoner was not the wife of the Hon. Colonel Harcourt, upon which the accused, through her solicitor (Mr. Leigh, of Southampton), contended that the matter was nothing more than a debt, and that the prosecutor’s only remedy was in the county court. The magistrates, however, entertained a different opinion, and committed the prisoner for trial at the next quarter sessions.
— Morning Advertiser, Monday 19 November 1866 source
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CONVICTION OF A NOTORIOUS SWINDLER.
—At the Southampton Quarter Sessions on Monday, Madeline Harcourt, alias Westwood, who was in custody here some time since on charges of swindling, was indicted for having obtained goods from James Axtell by false pretences, on the 5th of November.
—The prisoner went to Mr. Axtell, a grocer, in Prospect-place, Southampton, and obtained certain goods of him, saying that she had taken Mr. Johns’s apartments, and was the wife of Colonel Harcourt, of the 44th Regiment, who was invalided home from India, and whom she left behind at Southsea, doing business with the Duke of Cambridge. He was coming to dine with her that day at six o’clock, and her father was the rector of a large parish. Believing what she stated to be true, he let her have goods to the value of about 25s. To negative her representations, the prosecution now called Detective Poole, of the Portsmouth police, who deposed that he knew the prisoner, who had been living at Southsea a short time as Mrs. Douglas. He knew no Colonel Harcourt, of the 44th Regiment, living at Southsea. The regiment had not been quartered there, at all events for some time.
—Prisoner had no defence to make, and the jury found her guilty.
—The Recorder then said that the court happened to know that there was only one such person as Colonel Harcourt in the army, and his wife was Lady Caroline Harcourt. That her story, therefore, was an untrue one, there was no doubt whatever. He was afraid that this was not the first time she had defrauded tradesmen by similar stories. It was not want that led her to these frauds, for she was a person of independent fortune, but that was a consideration that could not influence the court, which would pass the same sentence on her as it would on a poor person for such an offence—namely, six months’ hard labour.
— Portsmouth Times and Naval Gazette, Saturday 12 January 1867 source