QSR1851/4/5/14/a

Depositions of Daniel Potts, blacksmith of Toddington, William Godfrey, labourer of Houghton Regis, William Cumberland, labourer of Houghton Regis, and John Keating, police constable of Houghton Regis. In the case of Abraham Short accused of stealing a blacksmith's vice.

8 September 1851

From: 1851 To: 1851

William Godfrey: saw Abraham Short on 18 June standing plaiting opposite Thomas Piggott's house in Houghton Regis. Short came up the town and there was 5 or 6 of them stood talking. Short said he had a vice and asked where he had got it from said from Pott's shop at Chalton. He offered to sell it for half a crown. Godfrey went with him to look at it at John Cook’s barn. John Cook was a carpenter. Conversation continued about the quality of the vice and how new it was. Short suggested Cook was planning to buy it but was worried what his brother in law William Brandman would say. Short and Godfrey were together on 19 June haymaking at Kentish Town. The prisoner said to his brother that he would not come home any more and that his brother, James, should look for the vice on his return. He told him to search the second furrow before the stile opposite a green bush in the wheat field of Mr John Cook, a farmer (not the carpenter), called Twelve Acres. The prisoner later came to Godfrey and told him he'd been unable to find the vice again. Godfrey knew the date when the prisoner first mention it to him as it was 2 days after Joseph Brown had been convicted of assault. Godfrey could identify the vice as the one shown to him by Short. William Cumberland: worked for John Cook, a farmer of Houghton. Whilst cutting wheat in a field called twelve Acres on 11 August, with 3 other men, they found a vice. He saw the prisoner come to the field about 7 o'clock that evening and stood about for half and hour and said what a bad job they had made of reaping. He visited again next day. On finding the vice they left it until light and then took it to their master, who put it in his barn. The young master was in the field when they found it. David Potts: a blacksmith with a shop in Charlton. He could identify the vice as his property and had not worked with it for a year and a half. He had not missed it. He also had a shop in Toddington, and lived there, only going to Charlton occasionally. John Keating: went with Cumberland to Mr Cook's wood barn on 30 August and was shown the vice. Cumberland showed him where it was found. He took the prisoner into custody.

item

Short, Abraham,
Potts, Daniel,
Godfrey, William,
Cumberland, William,
Keating, John,
Piggott, Thomas,
Cook, John,
Brown, Joseph

TODDINGTON, Kentish Town, HOUGHTON REGIS, Charlton, blacksmith, stealing, tools, straw plaiting