QSR1851/4/5/8

Depositions of John Morris, tailor of Chapel Street, Woburn, and John Quilty, police constable of Woburn. In the case of Eli Smith accused of stealing a pair of boots, 2 cloth coats and a cloth waistcoat.

20 September 1851

From: 1851 To: 1851

John Morris: a tailor of Woburn. In July, out of charity, he took the prisoner in to a room in Chapel Street so that he did not need to live on the street. He had known his friends for some time and so took compassion on him. He remained about a week or ten days and then left on 31 July, without saying he was doing so. The next day Morris missed some boots, which had been in his room the previous day. On searching the drawers in his room he found 2 cloth coats and a cloth waistcoat missing. The waistcoat of another man, which had been left in the room, was also missing. The room had been locked and no stranger had been to the room between the times the prisoner left and the time he missed the clothes. The prisoner had often been in the room and seen the clothes. They were his Sunday clothes. When the prisoner departed, a pair of boots were left behind. Morris knew them to belong to the prisoner. A Holland waistcoat of the prisoners was also left behind. John Quilty: on 9 September he took the prisoner into custody , and immediately the prisoner said that he had heard he had something against him and he had come to give himself up. The prisoner also said that a man had told his brother that the prisoner was in the Hue & Cry and to mind what he was about. Quilty advised the prisoner of the charge. He knew the prisoner to have been absent from Woburn since the 1 August, the day he received information about the robbery.Statement of the accused: nothing to say but he denied the charge.

item

Smith, Eli.,
Morris, John,
Quilty, John

WOBURN, Woburn Chapel Street, stealing, waistcoat, boots, clothing, tailor