QSR1851/1/5/34/a

Depositions of George Cheney, police constable of Kempston and Mary Lovell, grocer of Wootton, in the case of Daniel Robinson accused of passing a counterfeit coin to purchase tobacco and sweetmeats.

11 December 1850

From: 1850 To: 1851

Mary Lovell: was a widow running a grocer shop in Wootton. On 9 December the prisoner came into the shop and asked for an ounce of tobacco. He laid down a piece of metal and said "half a sovereign". She said she could not give him and change, and he asked her to send out for some. The prisoner told her he had taken the half sovereign off Miss Payne. Mrs Lovell sent her niece, who was living with her, to get change and she came back and gave her 2 half crowns and 5 shillings for what the prisoner had called a half sovereign. Her niece told her she had been to 3 places to get change and had got it from Mrs Boyle. Mrs Lovell gave the accused the tobacco, the price of which was a penny and 3 farthings, and a farthings worth of lollipops. She gave him the 2 half crowns, 4 shillings and a sixpence and 4 pennyworth of cooper. About half an hour later, Mrs Boyle came and told her the half sovereign was not a good one. She found the accused in the Cock public house, and challenged him. He left the public house and ran away. George Cheney: he was given the piece of metal by Mrs Lovell on 10 December. She told him that Daniel Robinson had been to her shop the night before and had some tobacco and tended the metal to her as a half sovereign. The accused told Mr Jebbett, in the hearing of Cheney, that he had brought the metal from John Mobbs for halfpenny.

item

Robinson, Daniel,
Cheney, George,
Lovell, Mary,
Boyle,
Payne,
Mobbs, John

WOOTTON, passing counterfeit coin, false pretences, grocer, tobacco, coins, Wootton Cock, women's history