QSR1841/4/5/7-8/a

Depositions and examinations - Peter Jolly and John Wilmer

20 July 1841

From: 1841 To: 1841

William Clarke of Poddington, bailiff to Richard Longuet Orlebar of Hinwick House - on Saturday 17 July he ordered Thomas Partridge, a labourer on the farm, to put up a sack containing a bushel of wheat in a barn at the Manor Farm. He had looked at the wheat and tied the sack with a piece of tar cord. The barn was then closed. Several men were at work at the hayrick yard about 15 yards from the barn door, including Jolly and Wilmer. About 2pm he missed the sack of wheat. He found the sack on the Sunday morning in a hedge about 300 yards from the barn. He told the police officer Willam Green. The sack and wheat now produced are those he lost out of the barn and are the property of Mr Orlebar. The wheat is worth 8s and the sack about 1s 6d. Jolly and Wilmer work for Mr Orlebar earning not less than 10s per week each. He suspected Jolly and Wilmer knew something about the wheat as they did not go home from dinner out of the rickyard with the other men. When he first missed the wheat he saw a very fresh footmark leading from the direction fo the back door towards where the wheat was found. William Green, police constable at Poddington - on hearing from Mr Clarke on Saturday evening of the loss of the sack and wheat he watched the whole of that night on the premises. When Mr Clarke showed him on Sunday where the sack was he watched there until that morning about 4.30am when he saw Peter Jolly take it out of the hedge. He had been told Jolly was suspected of stealing the property. He met him that morning soon after 4am near Wymington going in the direction oft he wheat. He watched him and saw Jolly watching Mr Orlebar's horsekeeper who was in a field nearby. He then went to the wheat and took it. There is no footpath to lead Jolly to his work that way, and a person walking by the hedge would not discover the sack. He saw Jolly with the sack in his arms. He went up to him and Jolly threw it down again. He took him into custody. Jolly said he had been taking up his [Green's] cape, which he had placed at the back of the sack. There is a back door to the barn opening into the field in the hedge of which the sack and wheat were found. His attention was called by Mr Clarke to a footmark leading from the back door. He compared the footmark with Wilmer's shoe and they corresponded. Thomas Jones of Poddington, labourer - he was working with the other men at Mr Orlebar's haymaking at the manor farm. When he went to take his dinner at the end of the rick ,John Wilmer got up and went into the barn. He was gone about 10 minutes. He does not know what he went for and Wilmer did not say anything to him. He went in at the great doors which were open. He had previously seen the back door open. He did not see Peter Jolly at dinner. Peter Jolly of Poddington - he knows nothing about it. He was working at a distance from the barn and did not come down to dinner at the rick yard but went to Thomas Manning's at Poddington. That morning when he met Green, he called to him and told him where the sack and wheat were lying. John Wilmer of Poddington - a day or two before they had been talking about chaff cutting machines, and at dinner time on Saturday he went into the barn on purpose to look at the machine there. He turned it round 2 or 3 times and came back again to the men at dinner. He knew nothing about the wheat.

item

Jolly, Peter,
Wilmer, John,
Clarke, William,
Green, William,
Partridge, Thomas,
Orlebar, Richard Longuet,
Jones, Thomas

PODINGTON, Hinwick House, WYMINGTON, stealing, wheat