QSR1853/4/5/20c

Depositions of William Mitton, barber of Leighton Buzzard, Matlida, his wife, and Thomas Worsley, police constable of Leighton Buzzard. In the case of Martha Lovell accused of stealing an imitation Meerschaum pipe.

13 October 1853

From: 1853 To: 1853

Matlida Mitton: wife of William who kept a hair dressing shop at Leighton. On 11 October, the prisoner came to the shop and asked for an ounce of tobacco, she was served and she left. Soon after her husband asked her if she had seen a pipe which he had left on the counter. She told him she had seen it before the prisoner came in but not since and nobody else had been in the shop. She suspected the young lady had taken it. William Mitton: keeper of a hair dresser shop which also sold tobacco and pipes. On the 11 October, he had shown the pipe to a customer and left it on the counter when that customer left. He later missed the pipe and asked his wife of its whereabouts. His wife said she did not know where it was and no one had been in the shop since the young woman. Thomas Worsley: had taken the prisoner into custody on another charge. On searching her bag, he found a pipe. The prosecutor’s wife advised him of its loss from her husbands shop. The prisoner acknowledged having been at the shop but said she knew nothing of the pipe.

item

Lovell, Martha,
Mitton, William,
Mitton, Matilda,
Worsley, Thomas

stealing, barber, LEIGHTON BUZZARD