QSR1842/1/5/7

Depositions and examination - Robert Appleby

22 July and 21 October 1841

From: 1841 To: 1842

July 22 ----------- Joseph Bottoms of Clophill, gardener - in the early part of June John Simpson, who was employed by Earl de Grey, came to him and said he had lost 2 rabbit traps. In the evening of the same day he was at work in the garden in front of his house. William Rust was standing in the road talking to him when Robert Appleby came up and asked if he knew anybody who wanted to buy two traps. He said he did not but asked what sort they were - Appleby said they were small like rabbit traps. He asked where they were - Appleby offered to get them but he said it was not worthwhile. The next day he told Simpson that he had been offered two traps. Simpson asked why he did not get hold of them and wished him to buy them or get hold of them. About a week later Appleby brought the traps to him. He took them and said he would not buy them but would see him another day. He was going with them to Simpson's the same evening when he saw some stock in one of his fields. He put the traps down in his field while he stayed to stop the gaps in the hedge. It got dark and he did not go to Simpson's. He saw Simpson the next morning and told him there wre two traps under a tree in his meadow and suggested he look to see if they were his. Simpson found them and said they were. He did not tell Simpson who he got the traps from. Simpson thought it was Appleby. October 21 ----------------- Joseph Bottoms - repeated previous evidence in the presence of Robert Appleby. Added that the two iron traps produced by John Simpson were the same ones he received from Appleby. He thinks it was in April that he had the traps from Appleby. John Simpson of Clophill - he is employed by Earl de Grey. He set the traps now produced on a Saturday in April. He saw them in the morning of Sunday 11 April and missed them that afternoon. There were set in the warren wood in Clophill. About a fortnight later Bottoms told him he had got the traps and had left them against the willow tree in his ground.. They were the two missing traps. Robert Appleby - Daniel Rust was the first to tell him about the traps. Rust told him one of them had a stoat in. He went with Rust when he killed the stoat. He took one of the traps and Rust brought the other one. Rust later gave him the second trap. He did not give him anything for it. He did not know whose they were. He is a blacksmith. Bottoms told him he wanted to buy two traps. When he showed them to Bottoms he offered 6d a piece for them, and then 1s 6d for the two. Bottoms gave him no money.

item

Bottoms, Joseph,
Simpson, John,
Appleby, Robert,
Rust, William,
Rust, Daniel,
Earl de Grey

CLOPHILL, stealing, gardener, blacksmith