From the Richmond Dispatch, 7/19/1864, p.1, c 5

Mayor’s Court – the following business was transacted by the Mayor yesterday:

John J. Lindsey, charged with obtaining by false pretenses forty one bushels of Irish potatoes and forty pounds of butter, valued at $1,211, from Deane & Brown, was discharged. The case, as reported on Saturday, represented that Lindsey obtained the goods as an agent for Chimborazo Hospital, and afterwards sold the same on his own account, there being no business connection between himself and that institution. It was proved yesterday, however, that the facts had been perverted, and that Lindey’s operations were perfectly fair and honorable. His authority to purchase was fully shown, and all internalities in the case involved were satisfactorily cleared up.

Joseph Gussen, charged with stealing one set of chamber furniture, valued at $1000, the property of Smith & Harwood, was sent on for examination before the Hustings Court. Gussen claims to be a fourth partner in the furniture business of Smith & Harwood, and being unable to obtain a settlement he consulted with counsel as to the best mode to pursue. He was advised to take as much furniture as he thought himself entitled to, which he did, and was therefore arrested on the charge of stealing it. The Mayor reviewed the matter at some length, and gave it as his opinion that, as there had been no public announcement of the existence of a partnership between Messrs Smith & Harwood and J. Gussen, but simply a private arrangement, and moreover, as Gussen had taken the furniture from the store at an unreasonable hour in the morning, thereby implying that he knew he was acting wrong, he could not look upon it otherwise than in light of an offence against the laws of the Commonwealth. Hammond L. Wigand, charged with buying the same, knowing the manner in which the goods were obtained, was also sent on to the examining Court of Magistrates. Both parties were bailed in the sum of $5,000 each.

Mrs. Mary Stephens was charged with stealing one colored counterpane from Mrs. Susan Figie. Witnesses for the Commonwealth proved that the article in question was taken from the house of the complainant and afterwards found in Mrs. F’s house. The transaction occurred on Saturday last. The accused expects to prove that she has owned the counterpane claimed by Mrs Stephens for the last four years, and in order that she might have time to procure her witnesses the case was continued till this morning.

Mary, slave of Thomas Edwards, and Elizabeth, slave of Wm F Taylor, were charged with stealing a breastpin, valued at $3,000 from Mrs. John Johnson. The evidence not being sufficient to prove them guilty of the theft, they were discharged.

The following negroes were ordered to be whipped: Loudon, slave of E H Chalkley, charged with trespassing upon the previses of Samuel Tardy; Milton, slave of John Tabb, arrested on the streets after hours with no pass, and acting in a suspicious manner; and Frank, slave of Thos Totten, charged with being a runaway and having one bag of beets in his possession supposed to have been stolen. The latter was also committed to jail as a runaway.

Robert, slave of Mary McCarthy, charged with being a runaway, and John, slave of Wm W Jones, arrested as a runaway and for having a side of pork, supposed to have been stolen, were discharged.

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