Bedfordshire Archives Service Catalogue
  • Reference
    QSR1870/1/5/1-2/a
  • Title
    Depositions – Caleb Jackson and William Houghton
  • Date free text
    27 October 1869
  • Production date
    From: 1869 To: 1870
  • Scope and Content
    Thomas Clark the Younger of Arlesey, fishmonger and greengrocer – he lives with his father who is a fishmonger and greengrocer. On Saturday 23 October about 8pm he went into his father’s warehouse to fetch a bag. The warehouse joins the house of William Kitchiner, not their own house. He heard a noise and saw someone on a table standing under the window. He heard the window break and the person ran up the street. He returned to the house, put down the lantern, unlocked the front door and ran after the person. He followed him to Trustram’s rick yard and round two ricks. When he got close to him he buried his head in the rick. He identified him as Caleb Jackson. When he got nearly back to the house he saw William Houghton standing on the path. He said “I dare say you are his mate”. Houghton answered “whose”. The warehouse is used as a shop. The person had to go round by the gate after getting out of the window. Thomas Clark [recalled] – when he went home he went into the warehouse and saw the basket with nuts in he now produces. It was standing against the leg of the table near the window. The nuts had been taken from a bag of half a bushel of nuts in the warehouse. At 4pm everything in the warehouse appeared safe. The warehouse door was locked and the window fastened with a trap catch inside. It could not be opened from the outside. He does not know how admission was obtained. The window looks out on the high road. Thomas Pay of Arlesey, police constable – from information received on Monday 25th October he apprehended Caleb Jackson and charged him with housebreaking. Asked if he had anything to say against it he said “no, it’s the truth”. The same afternoon he apprehended William Houghton, who said he knew nothing about it. George Smith of Biggleswade, superintendent of police – on Monday 25th the two prisoners were in custody. Jackson said Houghton was with him when he committed the robbery and that Houghton stayed outside to watch while he went into the shop. Houghton asked him to steal two wrappers as well as the nuts. Houghton said “well you asked me to go with you or I should not have gone”. Jackson said to Houghton “you first asked me to go”. Jackson said he stole some nuts and a basket from there a week last Saturday night, and this time he heard someone coming, got out of the window and left the basket behind. The basket was the one he stole the other Saturday night.
  • Level of description
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