QSR1843/2/5/8-10

Depositions and examinations - Odell Webb, James Rowe and James Jellis

22 March 1843

From: 1843 To: 1843

Clements Francis of Houghton Conquest, farmer - he has some sheep in the parish of Flitwick, eating off some turnips on the land of Mr Brooks. He employs Odell Webb to shepherd them and to servet them each day with half a bushel of beans. The beans are deposited in a house on the farm. It was his duty to go to the house and fetch the beans Richard Woodin - he is a labourer in the service of Mr Franklin of Marston Mortaine. His master has some sheep eating off some turnips in the same field with Francis. On Tuesday March 14 he was with his sheep which were penned next to Mr Francis's. Odell Webb was very near him. James Jellis came and asked Webb to sell him some beans. Webb went to the house and fetched about a peck for which Jellis gave him 4d. He saw Webb empty the beans from a scuttle into a bag or into Jellis's smock. They must then have been about 60 yards from him. He saw that Webb had beans in the scuttle before he met Jellis. On the following Thursday morning Jellis came again and asked Webb for some more beans. He saw Webb go to the house and fetch about a peck. Webb told him Jellis had given him 6d for them. On Friday James Rowe came and went with Webb towards the house where the beans are kept. Rowe did not go in. Webb fetched the sack out and gave it to Rowe. He then went and fetched the scuttle. They then went into the next field. From behind the hedge he saw them shoot the beans out of the bag into the scuttle and from that into a bag which Rowe had. He thinks there was about a bushel of beans. Rowe had a cart and a donkey which had gone on. Rowe followed with the beans on his shoulder. Webb then gave the sheep a few beans which were left in the sack and told him Rowe was to give him 1s 10d for the beans, that he had given him 4d and was to pay the rest when he returned from Luton on Saturday night. On Monday 20th March Webb told him Rowe had not paid him as promised, and that Rowe had said that as he was carrying the beans away on the Friday he thought he saw Mr Francis and that he shot the beans in some grass, covered them over and could not find them when he returned, so on that account would not pay him. On Sunday March 19 James Jellis came and asked Webb to fetch him some more. Webb went to fetch them and he saw Webb return with the scuttle on his shoulder. He did not see the beans but saw Jellis take something from the scuttle at the top of Mr Francis's pen. Webb said Jellis had given him 6d for them. He asked Webb what he thought would become of him if they found him out. He said "you will not tell will you if any one asks you?" He said yes. When he went home to Marston he told his master Mr Franklin. James Bates superintendent of police - he apprehended Webb on Tuesday March 21st. He told him he was taken for stealing his master's beans and selling them to Rowe and Jellis. He replied "I should not have done it but they teased me so". Odell Webb - nothing to say. James Rowe - he never had no beans. He went by the place on Friday with a donkey and cart on his way to Toddington. James Jellis - he never went near there last Thursday. A young woman in the turnip field called to him as he went by in the road. Last Sunday he went into the field and stopped a bit and then went home.

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Webb, Odell,
Rowe, James,
Jellis, James,
Francis, Clements,
Woodin, Richard,
Bates, James

HOUGHTON CONQUEST, FLITWICK, MARSTON MORETAINE, stealing, beans, sheep, turnips, farmer, shepherd