Bedfordshire Archives Service Catalogue
  • Reference
    QSR1841/1/5/27/a
  • Title
    Depositions and examination - James Laing of Warden
  • Date free text
    15 December 1840
  • Production date
    From: 1840 To: 1841
  • Scope and Content
    William Roberts of Warden, labourer - he works in Lord Ongley's garden and usually sleeps in a cottage in the garden. During the month of November he did not sleep there as he was at home ill. On Sunday 22 November he was at the cottage and left the drinking cup now produced and a gun in a cupboard in his sleeping room. The cupboard was locked, the window was fastened inside and he locked the outer door and took the key. The next morning he found a pane had been taken out of the window, the window was ajar, the bolt of the lock was shot back and the cupboard was broken open. He missed the cup and the gun. He found the gun standing within the garden but never saw the cup again until Whitteridge brought it to him the previous Friday. James Whitteridge of Warden, constable - on Thursday 10 December he enquired of John Harmer whether he had got a horn which he had received from Laing. He said he had. He went with Harmer to his lodgings in Hitchin and Harmer gave him the cup. John Harmer of Hitchin (Herts), blacksmith - on Monday 23 November James Laing came to him as he was working in Lanes shop in Hitchin. He went with him to the Half Moon and treated him with some beer and supper. Laing asked if he could get lodgings for him. He did so. When he came back Laing gave him the drinking cup. James Burrage of Warden, labourer - on Thursday 3 December he was in a public house in Old Quaker Street in London and James Laing came in. He asked Laing to drink and they got into conversation. He told Laing about the cottage in Lord Ongley's garden having been broken open. Laing told him it was he who had broken into the cottage. Laing said he had taken the horn out of the cottage and given it to Jack Harmer. James Laing - he gave Harmer the horn. He found it in some fir trees in the middle of Warden village. He doesn't know what he told Burrage. "In talking and smoking together I might have told him a thousand things".
  • Level of description
    item
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