Fauntleroy

Fauntleroy, HENRY, forger, was born in 1785, and at fifteen entered the London banking-house of Marsh, Sibbald & Co. His father had been one of the original founders, and on his death in 1807 the son became a partner, and ere long almost its sole manager. In 1824 it was discovered that the signatures of two trustees for a sum of £1000 had been forged four years before for the purpose of selling the stock, while Fauntleroy had been paying the dividends regularly ever since. Other and much larger transactions of the same nature were discovered, and Fauntleroy was put on trial (30th October) with seven separate indictments against him, the one on which the attorney-general most relied being a forged deed in his sister-in-law's name for a transfer of £5480. A paper in Fauntleroy's handwriting was produced in which he confessed to having forged powers of attorney in order to save the credit of the house. The prisoner was condemned to death. The case excited great interest, and many influential persons exerted themselves to procure a commutation of the penalty, but without success. Fauntleroy was hanged, 30th November 1824, in the presence of a vast multitude of spectators. See Griffith's Chronicles of Newgate (1884).