QSR1842/1/5/31-33/b

Depositions - James Cook, William Deacon and Joseph Burt, charged with stealing a sheep from William Eames

13 December 1841

From: 1841 To: 1842

Richard Janes of Houghton Regis, shepherd - he is shepherd to Mr Eames. On Saturday 11 December he missed a ewe sheep from his master's field. The skin produced is the skin of the sheep that was stolen. It was marked with an E and red on the rump. Joseph Abel, constable of Houghton Regis - on Saturday 11 December he went into Joseph Burt's house and saw a carcass of mutton hanging up in his cellar. Burt and Cook were both in the house. He pulled the cloth off and saw it was a ewe sheep without skin or feet that seemed to have been recently killed. That morning Deacon told him Joseph Cook and James Burt came to his house a little before 6pm and asked him to go along with them and get a sheep out of Mr John Cook's sheep yard. Cook said he would give Deacon 5s, or 7s if they got it home safely. Deacon said he would have nothing to do with it. They left and a few minutes later Deacon went to Burt's where he stayed until 9.30pm. Cook came in 2 or 3 times. They asked Deacon where he was at work - he said at Mr Barnard's on a piece of ground adjoining Tree Piece, draining. Deacon agreed it would be a good place to hide a skin if they got one. Deacon said he never saw the sheep or the skin. That morning Burt told him that Cook and Deacon told him they had got a sheep, and that he [Burt] took his donkey and cart and fetched it from Cook's house. Burt said Cook killed it at Burt's house about 5.30am, and that Deacon came in at the time he was pulling off the skin. Deacon fetched a bag from his house, put the skin in it and took it away. That morning he heard Cook say to Deacon that if Burt had not been in it, it would have been all right.

item

Cook, James,
Deacon, William,
Burt, Joseph,
Eames, William,
Janes, Richard,
Abel, Joseph

stealing animals, sheep, shepherd, HOUGHTON REGIS, Houghton Regis fields