QSR1839/1/5/1b

Deposition of Samuel Bent of Luton, labourer, in case of John White, charged with stealing potatoes.

18 October 1838

From: 1838 To: 1839

Deponent lives at the bottom of Hart Hill near the Waggon and Horses. He had about 10 or 12 bushels of potatoes in a pit in the garden - pink eyed champions together with about a bushel of the early thaw sort which had previously been in his house. Having been dug longer they had changed to a greenish colour in places. He had covered them over with barley straw and some potato tops and mould. Between 6 and 7 o'clock on Tuesday morning he missed the potatoes. He fetched the constable Mr King and they traced the potatoes which had been dropped on the way to within a few poles of Mr Goujon's rick yard. The track led to John White's house situated in the Old Bedford Road where they found a sack of potatoes standing in the back house. This contained 3 or 4 bushels of pink eyed champions with a few thaws mixed with them which had the same green colour as those he had put in the pit. There were no small champions in the sack, and were none in the pit as he had picked the small ones out before he put them in. He has no doubt that the potatoes in the sack were part of those taken out of the pit. "The pink eyed champion is not a common potatoe in this part of the country - I bought the seed as a curiosity. I never knew any being grown in this part of the country".

item

Bent, Samuel,
White, John,
King, John,
Goujon

LUTON, Luton Old Bedford Road, Hart Hill, potatoes, stealing, Luton Wagon & Horses