QSR1834/3/5/5

Depositions of William Bird of Aspley Guise. Thomas Perry of Aspley Guise. In the case of Edward Crute accused of unlawfully and maliciously cutting and wounding a horse.

6 April 1834

From: 1834 To: 1834

William Bird: Edward Crute had more than once threatened to do him some injury. Crute had also threatened to fire his premises and had said many times that he would do him some private mischief. That morning his man, John Quarry called him and told him a horse in the stale had been cut and injured. He went and saw the animal was cut in the thigh apparently by a knife. He sent for Powell, the horse doctor. Young Powell came and examined the house and found the horse cut in the thigh and worn upon the tongue with a knife. He asked Crute, the blacksmith, where his son Edward has been the previous night as he suspected him from his character and his previous threats. Crute said his son had been at home all night. He went to look for Edward Crute and found him in a ditch in a field occupied by Mr West at Aspley. He accused Edward Crute of cutting the horse and Crute immediately denied it. He searched Crute and took from him a knife which had been recently cleaned but had some remains of blood upon it. He showed Powell the knife and he had no doubt it was the blood from the wound. He took Crute to Aspley and left him in custody. He tried to trace some footmarks from the corner of the paling to within 2 yards of the stable door. He could not trace them nearer because his servant had been throwing some dung just by the stable. The footmarks were those of a man with one wooden leg. Edward Crute had a wooden leg and he did not believe any other person in Aspley had one. The stable door had been shut but not locked. Thomas Perry: he had been going to breakfast when he saw his master Mr Bird who told him his horse was cut and he wanted him to go with him to find Edward Crute. His master said a tract of a wooden leg in the village of Aspley near Carlings Public House which they followed and came to a grass field of Mr West, about a quarter of a mile from Carlings. There they fond Edward Crute just getting out of a ditch. They accused him of wounding the horse and took him back to Aspley. Crute could not give any account of how he had passed the night. He traced the marks of the same wooden leg or one exactly like it, from Mr Birds palings to the stable door.

item

Crute, Edward,
Bird, William,
Perry, Thomas,
Quarry, Thomas,
Powell

ASPLEY GUISE, wounding, horses, blacksmiths, disabilities