QSR1842/3/5/20

Depositions and examination - James Axam and John Keep charged with burglary, John Keep charged with stealing a sack from Henry Checkley [annotated "Axam committed on another charge but discharged in this case". Calendar of prisoners QSR1842/3/3/1 indicates that Axam was to be tried at the Assizes for burgling the house of Samuel Keep.]

29 April 1842

From: 1842 To: 1842

Henry Checkley of Marston Moretaine - he knows the prisoners. Keep worked for him at the time of his apprehensions. He had worked for him about a week before his first apprehension. He remembers hearing of the burglary at Samuel Keep's house at Wootton in the night of 12 April. At that time John Keep was at work hoeing wheat for him in a ploughed field called Sheep Walk near the spinney where the prosecutor's property was later found. He remembers seeing Keep on Wednesday 13th a little before 5am - he generally went to work at 6am. He did not say anything to him about being so early. Keep was in the field by himself. About 3 months ago he missed a sack from his barn at Marston. He saw 2 parts of a sack he believes to be the one he missed in the possession of George Cheney. His sack was marked "H.R.Chickley" - his name is properly spelt Checkley, and he only had two sacks so marked. In the parts now produced the name has been cut away, but on one part there is a dot he has no doubt is the dot of the letter "i" from the wrongly spelt surname. He believes the sack parts also show the top of the final letter "y" and the tail of the "y". The sack also shows indications of the letters from the word "Marston" on the reverse side. John Keep - says the sack was his wife's father's, was never on Checkley's ground, and that Checkley never had such a sack. Henry Checkley - he believes it to be his sack. George Cheney, constable - he found the several parts of the sack now produced rolled together between the sacking and the bed in the bedroom of the prisoner's house at Marston. He found them on Wednesday 13 April when he was searching Keep's house. One long quarter of the sack was cut into 4 squares corresponding in size to a square he found in Samuel Keep's shop. He has since connected the 4 squares. After he apprehended the prisoner on the charge of burglary he asked Keep to give account of the pieces of sacking. Keep said he had had them a good while but could not say how long.

item

Axam, James,
Keep, John,
Checkley, Henry,
Cheney, George,
Keep, Samuel

MARSTON MORETAINE, burglary