Bedfordshire Archives Service Catalogue
  • Reference
    QSR1842/4/5/14/a
  • Title
    Depositions - Sarah Ann Sanderson and George Ekins, charged with stealing a pair of shoes from Frederick Butts
  • Date free text
    30 July 1842
  • Production date
    From: 1842 To: 1842
  • Scope and Content
    Frederick Butt of Newport Pagnell (Bucks), coachmaker - he had been an inmate of the Bedford Infirmary for the last 6 weeks and had been confined to his bed with a broken leg. Five weeks last Sunday was the day he came in and on that day his shoes were taken off and put in the custody of Dinah Elliott the day nurse. He had not been able to wear any shoes until today. He asked Mrs Elliott for them and she found they were gone. The shoes now produced by Mr Coombs are the ones he lost. Dinah Elliott of St Mary Bedford, nurse at the Bedford Infirmary - she is day nurse at Bedford Infirmary. She recollects Frederick Butt coming into the Infirmary. It is her duty to take care of any clothes the patients are not using. On the evening in question she took a pair of shoes from Frederick Butt's bed and locked them in a closet where she puts the things of patients confined to their beds. It is always kept locked and the key is put into her room. Sanderson was allowed to go to the closet as well as herself if things were required during the night. No other person has ever been to it to her knowledge, except one of the patients, John Spakes, and no one has any right to go to it. The shoes now produced are similar to those she took from Frederick Butts. [Response to the prisoner] She does not recollect any of the patients going to the closet except John Spakes who went in to put up some pads. She saw him come out. He had no shoes in his hands at that time. Yesterday morning she went to the closet for the shoes but could not find them. She had never noticed them since she put them in. Mary Ann Field of St Paul Bedford, spinster - a fortnight last Monday she recollects Sarah Ann Sanderson coming to her [Sanderson's] son, who lodges at her [Field's] mother's, with a pair of shoes in a basket. Sanderson's son was not at home. Sanderson left the shoes and came again about dinner time when he was home. He tried the shoes on and said they were rather too large. Sanderson said she thought not as "the man had got a small foot". The shoes now produced are of the same description as those Sanderson brought. She had seen Sanderson's son every day since and he never wore any shoes other than those his mother brought him until today when he was taken into custody. William Coombs, chief constable of Borough of Bedford - from information received that afternoon he apprended George Ekins on suspicion of stealing a pair of shoes. He took the shoes now produced from Ekins foot. Frederick Butts identified them as his property.
  • Level of description
    item
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