QSR1843/4/5/15

Depositions and examination - Thomas Gobby charged with stealing one wether lamb from Mary Fensom

6 September 1843

From: 1843 To: 1843

William Fensom of Toddington, labourer - his mother Mary Fensom occupies a farm in Chalton in the parish of Toddington. She is a widow and he manages the farm for her. Wiliam Hunt acts as shepherd. On Monday 4 September he heard a lamb was lost out of the fold in a field in Chalton adjoining the parish of Houghton Regis. He met the shepherd with the head and the skin of a lamb. He knew the head of the lamb as it was a lamb that had been ill from cutting and was often caught and dressed. It was a wether lamb. He gave the skin to PC Hornal. The head and skin were those now produced. The lamb was his mother's property. They do not usually mark the lambs until the autumn. William Hunt, age 17 - he works for Mrs Fensom looking after the sheep. He counted the sheep on Saturday evening. He missed one lamb when he let them out of the fold at 8.30am on Monday. Some men at work in the next field called out and asked if he had lost a lamb. He went to them and saw the head and skin of a lamb lying in the barley where the men had just mowed. They had not moved it. He saw the track of the skin as if it had been dragged from a gap in the hedge of his mistress's field. The flies had blowed it a little and it looked as if it had laid there at least a day. He knew it directly. It was a wether lamb he had caught many times to dress after it had been cut. There was no mark on the skin. He took the head and skin and showed it William Fensom. On Tuesday he gave the head to PC Hornal. Yesterday he was present at the house of PC Sinfield when some bone and meat were patterned to the head which appeared to agree. He did not see where the lamb had been killed. The barley was trodden about a good deal but he did not see any blood except where the skin lay. Samuel Hornal, police constable - he received information about the loss of the lamb on Monday. He received the skin from William Fensom and the head from William Hunt. On Tuesday he searched the house of Thomas Gobby at Chalton. He saw Gobby's wife making meat pasties. He said to her "you are making pork pasties". She said she was. He said it looked like mutton not pork. She said it was mutton she had bought and paid for. He saw a pail covered with a cloth in one corner of the room. She said it was a pail of water. He said he had come to search the house for a stolen lamb and asked her to bring him the pail to examine (there were 2 large dogs lying against it). She said again it was only water with the cloth over to keep it cool. She pulled up the cloth hastily and put it on again in a moment, saying "you see, there's nothing else but water in it". He again asked her to bring the pail to him. She whispered to her daughter and they both stooped down. He saw her put her hand in the pail and give something to her daughter. He asked the daughter what her mother had given her and she said "nothing". The daughter was stooping with one hand behind her under her petticoats. He insisted he would see. She rose up and he saw in her hand a large piece of lamb - several ribs with meat on them. He looked into the pail and saw 2 more pieces of lamb. He searched a cupboard in the same room and found a neck of lamb. All the meat was undressed. He asked Gobby's wife where she had the meat from. She said she bought it from William Fox of Toddington last Saturday. Yesterday afternoon he patterned the bones and meat with the head and it appeared to correspond. He took Gobby into custody. He said he did not know where the mutton came from, that his wife bought it somewhere. His wife said she had made a mistake saying she had bought it from Fox, but had found it by the side of the road where some gipsies had been camping. He gave the meat and the head into the care of PC Sinfield. Thomas Sinfield, police constable - he went to Gobby's house with PC Hornal. He saw the pail standing in the corner and heard Gobby's wife say it was only a pail of water. He saw her give her daughter something out of it and her daughter hide it under her petticoats. He saw when she rose up that it was a piece of the ribs of a sheep or lamb. He saw Hornal take a neck of lamb out of a cupboard. They were all given to him to keep as he has an empty place to keep them in and Hornal has not, and the smell was so very bad. He heard Gobby's wife say she had found the meat where some gipsies had been by the road side. The meat, head and skin now produced are the same shown to Henry Horley the butcher. Henry Horley of Toddington, butcher - yesterday he examined the parts of a lamb with the head and part of the skin. The head and neck correspond exactly. The back bone and ribs also match. He cannot pattern the skin with the meat as it is too cut about and torn and injured by the flies. The meat is the meat of a lamb of this year. Thomas Gobby - Hornal came to him in the field and took him prisoner for stealing a lamb from Mrs Fensom. He said he knew nothing of it. He did not know there was any meat in his house. His wife said to him when she brought him his breakfast into the field that perhaps she should bring him a bit of mutton for his dinner. She was in a hurry and did not tell him where the mutton was to come from and he did not ask her. He does not know how the meat came into his house and did not know it was there.

item

Gobby, Thomas,
Fensom, Mary,
Fensom, William,
Hunt, William,
Hornal, Samuel,
Sinfield, Thomas,
Horley, Henry,
Fox, William

TODDINGTON, Chalton, stealing animals, sheep, shepherd, police constable, butcher