QSR1842/3/5/36

Depositions and examination - Eliza Smith

24 May 1842

From: 1842 To: 1842

George Arnold of Aspley, tailor - on Sunday 15 May he put a small wooden box on the chest of drawers in his dwelling room. I contained money collected by and in aid of the Society for the Support of Christian Missions among the Heathen. He knows there were 3 sixpences and one fourpenny piece in silver and several shillings worth of copper money. He was answerable for the money. He first missed teh box last Saturday night. From information he had he suspected Eliza Smith who lives next door to him. That night she was charged in his presence with stealing the box. She denied it. He spoke to her again yesterday morning and she did not deny it, but said she did not know where the box was then. He asked her what was in the box and she said she did not count the money until she had spent some of it and then found 3s 6d. Yesterday he went to look for the box in Thomas Smith's yard. He is the prisoner's father and she lives with him. The prisoner's mother in law told him the box was hidden behind some wood in the yard. He did not find it but found the bit of paper now produced in the yard, which is part of the paper that was in the box. He has not spoken face to face with Thomas Smith about it. The paper was not wet when he found it. Elizabeth Arnold, daughter of George Arnold - on Monday 16 May she saw Eliza Smith coming into the house 2 or 3 times. Her father had gone to the Club at Woburn and her mother was out. Eliza Smith was in the the house alone while she went to get some wood to boil the kettle for tea. Smith went out very soon after that. After a while Smith brought the key of her father's house and said she was going to Woburn. She did not miss the Missionary Box until last Saturday night when she was dusting. She told her mother nobody had been in the house when they were out on Monday except Smith's daughter. Eliza Smith came in several times during the last week but she does not think she was in the house alone except on the Monday. John McHugh, police constable at Aspley - he took Smith into custody yesterday and told her what for. She began to cry. Her mother in law was present and said Smith did take the box and that if he had not come she would have gone to the superintendent about it. He cautioned Smith and took her to the Magistrate's house. As they were going Smith said she had the box, and that there was 3s 6d after she had spent some. She said there wre 3 sixpences, a fourpenny bit, 3 farthings and a good many halfpence. She was remanded into his custody until today. He warned her anything she said would have to be given in evidence against her - Smith said she didn't care, she would rather go to Gaol or be transported than live with her mother in law. She said she took the box on Monday. She broke the lid of the box - there was a bit of tin inside to separate the silver and the halfpence. On the outside was pasted a piece of paper with Missionary in print on it. The box was painted a pink colour. She buried the box. Her father found it - she did not know what he did with it. She spent some of the money. She changed the fourpenny bit on Tuesday at Mrs Westley's. She did not count the money until she went to Woburn. Coming from the White Horse to the Wheat Sheaf she said to Mary Peppitt who was with her that she would see what money she had and found it was 3s 6d. She had the money in her bosom. Sh took the 3 sixpences and the fourpenny bit and tied them in her handkerchief. She put the half pence in her bosom. When asked why she made this statement she said it was to save her father from any imputation. Eliza Smith - McHugh's account of what she said to him is true. She has nothing more to say.

item

Smith, Eliza,
Arnold, George,
Arnold, Elizabeth,
McHugh, John,
Smith, Thomas,
Peppitt, Mary

ASPLEY GUISE, WOBURN, stealing, money, overseas missions, charity, tailor, Woburn White Horse, Woburn Wheatsheaf