Stories of the Four Courts

Forgery near the Four Courts, Dublin, Ireland in 1803, when the very active Mr Justice Bell, who carried out many arrests of criminals in Dublin in the first decade of the 19th century, apprehended Mrs Kearns at her lodgings in Church Street in the early hours of the morning. A vast number of bank forgeries were found concealed in her bed. A family business, it seems; Mrs Kearns’ daughter was married to Thomas Shaughnessy, who ran a ‘bank-note manufactory’ near Chapelizod.

Clipping from the Hampshire Chronicle, 15 May 1803.