Bedfordshire Archives Service Catalogue
  • Reference
    QSR1880/1/5/1-2/b
  • Title
    Depositions of Mary Grove, widow of Tebworth, Amos Grove, carpenter of Tebworth, Joseph Hack, baker of Hockcliffe, Henry Quenby, police sergeant of Toddington and James Busby, police constable of Chalgarve. In the case of Alfred Ayres and John Fox accused of obtaining the sum of 7 shillings by false pretences.
  • Date free text
    12 September 1879
  • Production date
    From: 1879 To: 1880
  • Scope and Content
    Mary Grove: on the afternoon of 8 September Ayres went to her house. Fox went with him as far as the door. They had a cart. Ayres asked her if she wanted any bread and she said to him Mr Hack and he said yes. Mr Hack was her baker. She told hi to bring her a loaf. He asked her to take 2 but she only wanted one. He told her he was to take the money from her today, and she told him she would not pay that day. He told her Mr Hack had a large bill to make up and she told him that if that was the case she would give Mr Hack what should could. She gave Ayres 7 shillings. He left her 2 loaves but no receipt. She had owed Mr Hack a little over 7 shillings. She was deaf. She was sure he had said Hack not Nash. He told her that he had been with Hack for a fortnight. She used the work Hack to him and he had said yes. Both prisoners went off together in the cart. Amos Grove: on 8 September, due to what he had been told, he went to the Red Lion at Bidwell. He found the 2 prisoners there. They were sat together with beer. He told them he wanted the 7 shillings they had taken from an old woman in Tebworth in Mr Hack’s name. Ayres denied any knowledge. He told the prisoners if they did not give him the money he would call the police. Fox took various coins from his pocket and laid them on the table. Both men said they thought it must be a mistake. He left with the money. A bakers cart was standing outside. He told them he wanted 3 shillings for his trouble but they only had the 7 shillings. He did not tell them he would have 10 shillings and if they did not give it to him he would call the police. He was not the informer in the case but he was the prosecutor’s son. It was in consequence of the threat to call the police that the money was paid to him. Joseph Hack: a baker of Hockcliffe and Mary Grove was one of his customers. Neither of the prisoners had been in his employment and he had never given them instructions to call for money due. He did not know them. Henry Quenby: He apprehended Fox at his home in Dunstable early on the morning of 9 September. Fox said he did not have the money but the other prisoner had, and he had paid it back to avoid any bother. Ayres was present when this was said. James Busby: a police constable stationed at Chalgrave. He apprehended Ayres in Dunstable on the morning of 9 September. He was at the home of a baker called Nash, for who he worked. He was told the charge and said Mrs Grove had got her money back. Statement of the accused: Alfred Ayres – nothing to say John Fox – under the advice of his solicitor he reserved his defence.
  • Level of description
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