QSR1840/1/5/19/h

Deposition of Robert Scott of Totternhoe, victualler - Samuel Gatward and John Barratt charged with felony

22 November 1839

From: 1839 To: 1840

He keeps the Bell Public House at Totternhoe. On Monday 14 October 3 persons from Luton came to his house a little after 7am and asked for a pint of beer. They then asked for another which he drew for them - he has to draw his beer in the cellar. When he brought the 2nd pint one of the 3 persons was coming out of the parlour. They sat in the kitchen to drink their beer. His wife came downstairs and one of them asked "what do you think of us mistress?" She said "I think you are 3 blackguards by the discourse which I have heard whilst getting up". They said it was "very hard for customers to be called blackguards, we'll go". Before his wife came downstairs they had a 3rd pint of beer. As he brought it up he saw another of the three men, a short man, a bricklayer, coming out of the parlour (not the same man he had seen coming out before). He thought by their discourse they were bad characters and were looking to see how they could break in another time. Soon after, the man he saw brought out of the cage today (who was the man he first saw coming out of the parlour) and the bricklayer went out of the house together. They returned in about 10 minutes and finished the beer. All three left the house together. At about 10pm he went to bed and heard his wife accusing the servant girl with the loss of some spoons. His wife had lost 5 spoons and a pair of sugar tongs out of the parlour. He told her not to accuse the girl as two of the bricklayer chaps had been in. They had said they were going to Slapton for work, and as he was going to Leighton the next morning he would look after them. He found Bradshaw and the tally man at Slapton at work at the canal. He accused Bradshaw of taking his spoons. He denied it. On 20 November at the Red Lion at Dunstable he saw a person from Luton named Bland who told him there were some men in the cage at Luton and in consequence of this conversation he came to Luton and saw Mr Lees the policemen who showed him 5 teaspoons and a pair of sugar tongs and a table spoon - the teaspoons and tongs were his property, the tablespoon was not. They are called German silver. Samuel Gatward is the same man he saw coming out of his parlour as he was coming out of the cellar with the 2nd pint of beer.

item

Gatward, Samuel,
Barratt, John,
Scott, Robert,
Bradshaw, James

LUTON, TOTTERNHOE, Slapton [Buckinghamshire], theft, silver, cutlery, Totternhoe Bell, Dunstable Red Lion