QSR1873/2/5/4

Depositions and examination - Charlotte Lewis of Knotting, domestic servant, charged with stealing 2 pieces of embroidery value 4s and a piece of ribbon value 1s from Mary Elizabeth Drewry at Knotting on 18 March 1873

28 March 1873

From: 1873 To: 1873

Mary Elizabeth Drewry of Knotting, spinster – she resides with Mr George Hine of Knotting, farmer, as his housekeeper. Charlotte Lewis went into the service of Mr Hine last Michaelmas as cook. Since Lewis has been there she has at different times missed many articles. On 18 March she asked the prisoner to let her see her boxes. Lewis consented. She went upstairs and called the two servants. Lewis’s box was standing in the room. Lewis opened the box and moved some of the things. She saw an envelope, closed but not sealed. She asked what was in the envelope. Lewis said “nothing”. She told Lewis to open it, and it contained the piece of black ribbon produced which is her property. At the bottom of the box was an opened newspaper, with the two pieces of embroidery now produced under the paper. They are her property. The other servant was present as was Mr Adcock, the grandson of Mr Hine. When she pointed out the ribbon and embroidery to Lewis she said someone had put them into her box. The ribbon was kept in a drawer in her bedroom which was usually locked. She kept the key. She had seen the ribbon on 16 January and missed it on 17 January. The drawer was locked at that time and she kept the key in the key basket in the dining room. She also missed a sovereign at the same time from the same drawer. She made the embroidery herself. It was kept in the same drawer. She did not miss it until it was discovered in Lewis’s box. The four pieces of lace produced by Sgt King are her property. The lace was kept in a box of hers in the wardrobe in her bedroom. The box was not locked, but the wardrobe was and the key kept with the others. When she last saw the lace it was in one piece and wound round a card. [Cross-examined] She produces some other lace she found between the wardrobe and the bed in the servant’s room, crumpled up. She had lace of that pattern in her wardrobe. The other servant is Eliza Rowney who also came to Mr Hine’s last Michaelmas. She is housemaid. It was the housemaid’s duty principally to go into her room. Lewis had no business in her room except to make the bed with the other servant. She has never seen Lewis in her bedroom except when she was unwell and Lewis came in to wait upon her. Rowney was there every day, alone except when making the bed. She didn’t know she had left her keys in her bedroom. Se searched the box in consequence of something she was told by the housemaid. She had not been in the servants’ room until she called them upstairs. She told them she wanted to search each of their boxes. When they came upstairs the prisoner at once went and opened her box. The piece of flannel produced was rolled up and was on the top of all the things. The envelope lay under a box with a valentine in it. She asked the prisoner whether those things were hers. She said they were not, that someone had put them into the box. She does not know whether Lewis had lace on a jacket when she first came. On the Monday week before she enquired for Rowney, she was in the brewhouse. She asked what she was doing, but nothing resulted from it. The wardrobe in her room was kept locked. A small key which she gave to Sgt King fitted a small box of hers. She sent the key to Lewis after she had left. Rowney brough the key to her and said “this is the prisoner’s key”. She searched Lewis’s large box, but not the bonnet box. All Lewis’s things were left on the floor of the servants room when she left. Lewis left on the Wednesday and returned on the Friday for her clothes. When she came her clothes had been put in the box and brought downstairs. She and Rowney put the clothes in. Sgt King brought her some calico on the Friday which she had seen a few days previously. She trusted Rowney entirely to put the things in Lewis’s box. She did not see Rowney lay the calico in. Rowney seemed to put the things in separately. The calico that King brought her was about 3 yards. The lace produced is her lace. It is old fashioned and has been with her upwards of 9 years. She swears there has been no lace of that sort made for several years. She did not know that Rowney’s house had been searched. She has missed several things at different times - a silk pocket handkerchief, a piece of hardening, but nothing more was found in Lewis’s possession. On Wednesday 19th Lewis said either she [Drewry] or Rowney had put the things in her box. [2nd cross-examination] She had the boxes of both servants searched at the same time. She gave them no notice of her intention to do so. She found nothing in Rowney’s box. On 18th she missed a silk pocket handkerchief of Mr Hine’s. She spoke to Rowney about it at about 1 o’clock. The boxes were searched about 7 o’clock. Lewis opened the envelope taken from her box at her direction. It looked bulky. Lewis left that night. There is a work drawer in the kitchen in which they kept their work. She had not give the servants any calico. The calico produced is Mr Hine’s and is kept in a drawer in the kitchen which she keeps locked for her own purposes. The key is kept with the other keys in the basket. Lewis’s box was not locked when she went to examine them. The calico was not in Lewis’s box on the Tuesday. Frederick James Adcock of Knotting, farmer – he was at Mr Hine’s on Tuesday 18 March. That evening he went with Miss Drewry into the servants’ bedroom. He was there when the 2 servants came up. They both consented to have their boxes searched. Lewis began to turn over the things in her box. He also saw the envelope in her box. It contained a pin and a piece of black ribbon. At the bottom of the box was some embroidery. Lewis said someone had put them there. When Lewis was asked to open her box, she went at once to it. The box had a lock on it but was not locked. It was standing open in the room. John King, police sergeant stationed at Riseley – on Wednesday 19 March he went after the prisoner who was at her father’s house at Swineshead. He was given leave to search. He found nothing that he had reason to believe belonged to Drewry or Mr Hine. On Monday 24th he went again, and on a jacket sleeve he saw some lace. He asked her to take it off and she did so. It is the lace now produced. She said she had had it some time before she went to Mr Hine’s. His attention was directed to the lace as he had been informed some had been lost. [Cross-examination] On Friday he was at Knotting when Lewis took her box. He can’t say whether she said on that day she wished her box to be searched. It was searched and she took out the calico now produced. She said “that is not mine and I shall not have it”. She said someone had put it in while she was away. There was a picture taken out which she also said was not hers. Miss Drewry said the calico was hers and that part of it was gone. Rowney gave him a key and a pair of earrings. He took them to Lewis on 26th. She said the earrings were hers. Miss Drewry said that the key fitted her box and was the Lewis’s. Lewis told him it was not hers. Rowney told him it was not hers. After she saw the calico in the box Rowney told him she found the calico in the drawer in the kitchen with some other things belonging to Lewis and had put them altogether into Lewis’s box believing them to be her property. Mary Elizabeth Drewry (further evidence) – on Tuesday 18th March when the envelope was found it also contained the pin now produced in addition to the lace. The pin is the property of Mr Hine and was kept on the pin cushion in Mr Hine’s bedroom. The piece of flannel produced was rolled up on the top of the box and also belongs to Mr Hine. The flannel should have been in a drawer in Mr Hine’s bedroom. The drawer is usually kept locked. The key is kept in the key basked. She missed both pieces of flannel at Christmas. She did not mention its loss to the servants. She had spoken to Rowney about the ribbon when she missed it. She said she had missed something of greater value which she should investigate another day (alluding to the sovereign). Eliza Rowney of Knotting, domestic servant – she has been living with Mr Hine as housemaid since last Michaelmas. Lewis was living there at the same time as kitchen maid. [Cross-examined] Miss Drewry told her on 18 January that she had lost a ribbon and something of more consequence. Lewis kept her box in their room. It had a lock but was never locked. They had a slight quarrel. She spoke to Lewis afterwards but Lewis did not speak to her. This was from Monday until Wednesday dinner time. In the week before the boxes were searched her box was searched. She knew nothing about it. He box was kept locked. She and Lewis had always been good friend until the quarrel on the Monday. [Re-examined] On 18 January Miss Drewry did not say what it was she had lost that was of more value. Her mistress (Miss Drewry) had been away from 10th to 17th January .During that time the two of them were the only servants in the house. Charlotte Lewis – she reserves her defence.

item

Lewis, Charlotte,
Drewry, Mary Elizabeth,
Adcock, Frederick James,
King, John,
Rowney, Eliza,
Hine, George

KNOTTING, RISELEY, SWINESHEAD, stealing, needlework, farmer, police sergeant, domestic servant, housekeeper, cook