to be taken to the City Hall, corner Wall and Nassua Streets.  On the 4th of March the justices met at the City Hall.  In the mean while John Hughson and his wife had been arrested for receiving stolen goods.  They were now examined in the presence of Mary Burton.  Hughson admitted that some goods had been brought to his house, produced them, and turned them over to the court.  It appears from the testimony of the Burton girl that another party, dwelling in the house of the Hughson’s, had taken part in receiving the stolen articles.  She was a girl of bad character, called Margaret Sorubiero, alias Solinburgh, alias Kerry, but commonly called Peggy Carey.  This woman had lived in the home of the Hughsons for about ten months, but at one time during this period had remained a short while at the house of John Rommes, near the new Battery, but had returned to Hughson’s again.  The testimony of Mary Burton went to show that a Negro by the name of Caesar Varick, but called Quin, on the night in which the burglary was committed, entered Peggy’s room through the window.  The next morning Mary Burton saw “speckled linen” in Peggy’s room, and that the man Varick gave the deponent two pieces of silver.  She further testified that Varick drank two mugs of punch, and bought of Hughson a pair of stockings, giving him a lump of silver; and that Hughson and his wife received and hid away the linen.[245] Mr. John Varick (it was spelled Vaarck then), a baker, the owner of Caesar, occupied a house near the new Battery, the kitchen of which adjoined the yard of John Romme’s house.  He found some of Robert Hogg’s property under his kitchen floor, and delivered it to the mayor.  Upon this revelation Romme fled to New Jersey, but was subsequently captured at Brunswick.  He had followed shoemaking and tavern-keeping, and was, withal, a very suspicious character.

Up to this time nothing had been said about a Negro plot.  It was simply a case of burglary.  Hughson had admitted receiving certain articles, and restored them; Mr. Varick had found others, and delivered them to the mayor.

The reader will remember that the burglary took place on the 28th of February; that the justices arraigned the Hughsons, Mary Burton, and Peggy Carey on the 4th of March; that the first fire broke out on the 18th, the second on the 25th, of March, the third on the 1st of April, and the fourth and fifth on the 4th of April; that on the 5th of April coals were found disposed so as to burn a haystack, and that the day following two houses were discovered to be on fire.

On the 11th of April the Common Council met.  The following gentlemen were present:  John Cruger, Esq., mayor; the recorder, Daniel Horsemanden; aldermen, Gerardus Stuyvesant, William Romaine, Simon Johnson, John Moore, Christopher Banker, John Pintard, John Marshall; assistants, Henry Bogert, Isaac Stoutenburgh, Philip Minthorne, George Brinckerhoff, Robert Benson, and Samuel Lawrence.  Recorder Horsemanden suggested