QSR1842/4/5/31/a

Depositions - Mary Ann Reynolds, wife of John Reynolds of Pertenhall

30 August 1842

From: 1842 To: 1842

Hannah, wife of George Holyoak of Pertenhall, labourer - on Saturday 20th August she was gleaning wheat in a field in Pertenhall. Mary Ann Reynolds and many others were in the same field. She laid some of her gleans down in the field near her bonnet as is usual. About half an hour later she missed one of the gleans. She went to one of Mary Ann Reynolds' children and accused her of having taken it, and accused the mother of having it in her possession. They both denied it. She went to tell the policeman, Dale, and when she got home found she had lost 2 gleans. She went with Dale to Reynolds' house and found her two gleans mixed with Reynolds', lying in the garden. She knows hers from the peculiar manner in which they were tied. She had previously told Reynolds she would go for the police. Charles Dale of Pertenahll, one of the rural police of Bedfordshire - he accompanied Mrs Holyoak to Mrs Reynolds' house to enquire about the gleans. He found all that she had taken that morning on the garden rail drying. Amongst them Mrs Holyoak discovered the two gleans she said she had lost. They were tied differently from any belonging to Mrs Reynolds, and frmo any others he has seen. Hannah Holyoak - when she charged Mrs Reynolds with having her gleans Mrs Reynolds let her see what she had got in the field but she was not with her. She saw one of her gleans with Mrs Reynolds'. She knew it before she took it up. Mary Pack was with her. She told Mrs Reynolds it was hers - she said she might have it if it was, but that she had no more than her number and she should not have it.

item

Reynolds, Mary Ann,
Reynolds, John,
Holyoak, Hannah,
Holyoak, George,
Dale, Charles,
Peck, Mary

PERTENHALL, stealing, wheat, gleaning