QSR1842/4/5/34

Depositions and examination - Joseph Foxley

6 and 9 September 1842

From: 1842 To: 1842

[Pencil note at bottom of page - "Foxley was gardener to prosecutor & had access to the house"] John Vaux Moore, clerk - on Thursday 1 September about noon he went from home. During the morning he had used a bureau in his sitting room on the first floor of his house in Aspley. He believes he left it locked. On the previous night he had placed two £5 Leighton notes, some sovereigns and some silver in the bureau. The notes and sovereigns were in a purse in a bag. He did not sleep at home that night. On Friday he was informed he had locked his bureau aside. On Saturday morning he was informed his bureau had been broken open and was not mislocked as supposed. He went home and saw the lock had been nearly wrenched off. He found the bag in the place he had left it but nearly inside out and and purse and its contents were gone. He had obtained the two notes from Bassetts Newport Bank on the previous Tuesday. He has since obtained the numbers of the notes which are 13499 and 13539. The steel now produced belongs to him and is usually hanging in the kitchen. He had a number of old coins, some gold and some silver, in a glass case on a table in his drawing room. That room opens into the garden. They were of the description of those now produced. They are nearly all gone. He does not know when as he had not missed them. The purse now produced is the purse in which he had put the notes and the gold. Frances Anne Moore - she resides with her brother at Aspley. He went from home on Thursday. On Friday morning about 8am she was told by Mary Massey the housemaid that her master had locked his bureau aside. She looked at it and saw the bolt was shot but was outside. She just opened it but did not notice anything particularly. She did not see the lock was wrenched. She saw a bag lying nearly inside out, but did not know he had put money in it. In the afternoon at her brother's direction she was going to put tape and seals on the bureau and discovered it had been broken open as the lock fell. When she went out on the Friday and the bureau was unfastenedshe locked the door of the room and left the key with Mary Massey the housemaid. She believes the old coins now produced are her brother's which were in a glass case on a table in the drawing room. She had not noticed them for some time. James Fanch - he lives at Woburn and knows Foxley. Foxley came to his house between 7 and 8pm on Sunday and said he was gonig to change some notes. Foxley showed him two notes and asked him to read them as he did not know if they were good ones. He saw they were both £5 notes of the Leighton Bank. He asked Foxley who he was going to change them for and he said "for a woman in Aspley". Foxley called again in about an hour and had a bundle with him. Foxley did not say if he had changed the money. He said he had stopped rather long and had been at the Black Horse. Foxley bought a basket from his wife and gave her 2 shillings for it. John Slinn of Woburn, linen draper - on Friday evening Foxley came to his shop and asked for change for a £5 note. It was a Leighton Buzzard note and he gave him 5 sovereigns for it. He gave the same note on Saturday morning to Mr Edward Heighington's shopman, named Mumby. He knows it to thbe same as it was on the top of his cash box. After he gave him change Foxley bought a pair of trousers, a stock for the neck, a gown piece (he said that was for an old lady), a small shawl for a woman, 3 pairs of men's stockings large enough for himself, and he thinks some other things. There was a white counterpane. The amount altogether was about £2.2s.0d. Foxley had the change before he said anything about buying. He knew Foxley by sight. He had no suspicion of anything wrong. It was about 8pm. Charles Mumby - he is shopman to Edward Heighington. On Saturday he obtained a £5 Leighton Buzzard note from John Slinn. He enclosed the note in a parcel with other notes and money and gave it to Mr Heighington. He does not know what he did with it. He does not know the number of the note. Edward Heighington - on Saturday he recieved from Charles Mumby a quantity of notes, gold and silver amounting to £70. He took the parcel to Mr Barnard, banker of Bedford without opening. it. He gave it to Mr Barnard's clerk Jones. Robert Turle, superintendent of police - he went to Mr Moore's house on Saturday. he examined the boxes of Hannah Hares the cook, of Mary Massey the housemaid and of an old servant Jane Butcher. They all consented willingly and he did not find anything which appeared to be other than their own. He examined the premises and was satisfied there was no entry from without. He examined the bureau and saw it had been broken open, apparently with the steel now produced. Mr Moore informed him he had lost two £5 notes and some sovereigns. On Saturday night he was given the paper containing the numbers of the notes. He has traced one of the notes into the hands of Sir Charles Price and Co, Bankers, London, and obtained it that morning. The number is 13539 and it has a mark on the back in red ink "Hei 3/9". He was informed by Mr Barnard, banker at Bedford that a note he had received from Mr Heighington was so marked and had been sent Price and Co. He took Foxley into custody on Monday morning and cautioned him that anything he said would be used, After that Foxley said that on Friday he went to the cook for a basket about 7pm and she said she had not got one. He then asked Mary the housemaid for one, and she said there was not one in the Green Room. Mary asked him if he was going to Woburn and he said he was to get his hair cut. She said she wanted some errands in Woburn and gave him a £5 note with Leighton Buzzard on it and asked him to bring some things for her. He changed the note at Mr Slinn's draper in Woburn and bought a pair of trousers, a handkerchief, 3 pairs of stockings, a counterpane, a black stock, a pair of gloves and a four piece. He gave the change of £2.18s.0d to her on Saturday morning. Yesterday he searched the house in Aspley where the cook had removed to and her boxes, but did not find any of the things mentioned or any suspicious articles. He also searched Foxley's mother's house but did not find anything. On Tuesday the 6th Foxley went with him to Aspley at his own request. Foxley took him to a house kept by a woman named Smith. Foxley asked her for a bundle he had left at her house. She bought the bundle he now produces. It contained a pair of trousers, a stock, a gown piece, one pair of hose and a white counterpane. He then went with Foxley to his mother's house. Foxley took him into the privy and took a purse from the rafters, which Moore identified. In the purse was a note of the Leighton Bank number 13499 and three sovereigns. Foxley then took him to a hedge at the back of the house and took out the parcel he now produces. It contained 11 old crown pieces, 13 half crowns and one two shilling piece and 2 seven shillings pices in gold. Foxley said he received these coins from the cook. Before they went to Aspley Foxley said he must go himself as nobody else could find them. James Wild, P.C. No.36 - [6th September] on Monday evening Foxley was given into his charge. Foxley's mother came to see him. She fretted very much. After she left Foxley began to fret - he walked across the room and said he had told nothing but lies to Mr Turle against the housemaid, for she had not given him a note at all. He cautioned Foxley that anything he said would be given in evidence. Foxley then said it was the cook who gave him the two £5 notes on Friday evening between 5 and 6pm. The cook told him to buy a counterpane, a pair of trousers, a silk stock , 2 pairs of brown thread stockings, a piece of black and white ribbon, a woman's silk handkerchief and a pair of kid gloves. On the Saturday morning he gave the cook the parcel between 6 and 7am with £2 18s 0d and the other £5 note. At about 8am Maddox came from his milking and went into the scullery with the cook. Foxley saw the cook give Maddox the £5 and some more money. She told Maddox there was only one changed. Foxley left them there but they told him not to say anything about it or that might blame him. Maddox took the money away with him. In the afternoon after dinner as he was coming down the lane from home Foxley saw Maddox by the corner of the Bell and he said "Here is half a sovereign to say nothing about it for the policeman has been here." The cook and Maddox said to Foxley that if anything was found out about the things to clap it on Mary's back as she was "a good for nothing hussy". Foxley was in the strawberry garden beside the road that morning about 10am when Maddox was going toward the wood to do some work. Maddox asked if anything was found out about the money and Foxley said not that he knew of. On Sunday cook said the stock and trousers and gloves were for her son. He [Wild] read this statement over to Foxley and Foxley agreed it was right. That morning he searched Maddox's house and found in a drawer upstairs 2 sovereigns and £2 10s 6d in silver and 8s in a box, but he did not find any of the things mentioned as purchased at Mr Slinn's or any suspicious articles. [9th September] On Wednesday the day after the former examination a boy named Norman came to his house and said he had been sent by Foxley's mother with a parcel she said she had picked up outside her door. He took it and found the parcel contained a piece of black stuff, a piece of black and white ribbon, a pair of kid gloves, a pair of stockings and a silk handkerchief (now produced). The piece of black stuff was in Foxley's mother's hosue when they searched it, and he thinks also the piece of ribbon. The stuff was upstairs in a box in a bedroom and the ribbon was also upstairs. He looked at the stuff to find a private mark which is the reason he knows it now. James Parrott, PC No.37 [deposition crossed through in pencil] - Foxley was in his custody on Monday while Mr Turle was searching. He asked Foxley if he went to Woburn on Friday. Foxley said he did. Foxley said he went to Pearson's to have his hair cut. Foxley said he did not go to any other shop. He denied going to Mr Slinn's and purchasing trousers. James Norman - he is 15 years old and lives at Aspley. On Wednesday morning about 8am he was coming to Woburn and Foxley's mother asked him to carry a bundle for her to the policeman in Duck Lane, Woburn. She said she found it outside the gate after the policeman went away the night before. She said he was to tell the policeman so. He did not know what was in the bundle. Jane Butcher [deposition crossed through in pencil] - she lives at Mr Moore's at Aspley. She did not go into the Green Room where the bureau is on Thursday evening. The housemaid sleeps in her room and came to bed about 10pm and went down about 6am the next morning. She is sure the housemaid did not go out of the room in the night. Joseph Foxley - he did not know the bureau was broken open until Saturday morning. The cook gave him two notes on Friday evening to get changed, and told him what he was to buy for her. He went to Douns's shop first to get one changed, but did not. He then went to Slinn's and got one changed and bought the things the cook told him to buy. He gave her the bundle of things and the other £5 on Saturday evening. The basket he bought from Fanch was for himself, bought with his own money. He did not think the notes had been stolen until Saturday morning when he heard master say he had been robbed. He told the cook so - he may as well tell the truth - and the cook gave him the bundle of clothes back again and 3 or 4 sovereigns. She came to him in the garden and said "master is sent for and it will be found out". He did not know before that anything was wrong. He took the bundle and the sovereigns and hid them. Nobody saw her give them back to him. The other note and the sovereings were hidden in one place and the bundle in another place.

item

Foxley, Joseph,
Moore, John Vaux,
Moore, Frances Anne,
Massey, Mary,
Fanch, James,
Slinn, John,
Heighington, Edward,
Mumby, Charles,
Hares, Hannah,
Butcher, Jane,
Wild, James,
Parrott, James,
Norman, James,
Maddox

ASPLEY GUISE, WOBURN, Woburn Duck Lane, stealing, money, gardener, cook, housemaid, bank notes, Bassetts Bank, Woburn Black Horse, Aspley Guise Bell, linen draper, clothing, Barnard's Bank