QSR1844/1/5/33

Depositions - Daniel Sapwell, charged with stealing fowls

26 December 1843

From: 1843 To: 1844

Richard Howes of Dunstable, farmer – on Thursday 21 December about 8am he went into his farm yard in Church Street in Dunstable. He saw some blood on his henhouse door sill and found the lock had been opened and hung on the door again. He counted his fowls and found he had lost 4 or 5. He gave information to PC Tutte. Last Saturday night Tutte brought 2 picked fowls to his house. He can swear one is his property (the fowl now produced). No one else in the town has any fowls of the same breed. He knows it by a peculiarity of the head. John Tutte of Dunstable, police constable – he examined Mr Howes’ premises and found the outer wall had been scaled into the farm yard. He then went to the henhouse and found the lock had been picked. He also found a quantity of feathers by the side of the wall in the field. On Saturday from information received he went to Daniel Parkins’s house in Dunstable and asked Mrs Parkins if her husband had bought some fowls. She said he had and produced them. He took the fowls to Mr Howe who said they were his property. He then went and found Daniel Parkins and asked who he bought the fowls from. Parkins said he bought them from James Young for 2s. He asked James young where he got the fowls. Young said he bought them from Sapwell for 1s 6d. Daniel Parkins of Dunstable, parish constable – on Saturday morning about 10am he was going up Back Street with Mr Nele. They met James Young with a basket. Young asked Mr Nele if he would buy a fowl – he refused. He asked Young the price. Young agreed to take a shilling each for them. He asked Young to take them to John Hills’ house. Young said the fowls were his own property. He suspected the fowls were two that had been stolen from Mr Howes. He then took them to PC Tutte’s house. Tutte was not at home but he saw Tutte’s wife. He then took the fowls to his own house. Sarah Parkins of Dunstable – on Saturday 23 December she was at work at Mr Samuel Collis’s. Her husband Daniel Parkins told her he had bought a couple of fowls from James Young. When she went home in the evening she found 2 picked fowls in a basket. PC Tutte came to her and asked about the fowls. James Ratt of Dunstable – on Saturday about 9am Sapwell brought a bundle tied in a blue apron and asked him to take care of it for James Young. He put it in the stable. About ½ hour later James Young came and asked if anything had been left for him. He told Young there was a bundle in the stable. A little later he saw Young in the yard with 2 dead fowls in his hand. Young asked him to help him to pick them which he did. One was black and the other speckled. The two produced are the same fowls. He also trussed the fowls for him. The fowls appeared to have been laying 3 or 4 days in their feathers. James Young of Dusntable – about 9am on Saturday he was looking for a gardener of the name of Clark in the town when Sapwell came up to him and asked if he would buy a couple of fowls. He said if he liked them he would buy them for 1s 6d. Sapwell said he would fetch them and show them to him and leave them at the Crow for him. About ½ hour later he went to the Crow and saw James Ratt, who said there was a parcel in the stable for him. He found the two fowls in the bundle and asked Ratt to help him pick them. He then went into town and sold them to Daniel Parkins for 2s.

item

Sapwell, Daniel,
Howes, Richard,
Parkins, Daniel,
Young, James,
Hills, John,
Parkins, Sarah,
Collis, Samuel,
Ratt, James

DUNSTABLE, Dunstable Church Street, Dunstable Back Street, stealing animals, fowls, farmer, police constable, parish constable, Dunstable Cock