Bedfordshire Archives Service Catalogue
  • Reference
    QSR1844/4/5/11
  • Title
    Depositions - David Bliss (alias Bligh)
  • Date free text
    2 September 1844
  • Production date
    From: 1844 To: 1844
  • Scope and Content
    Samuel Hill of Barton, labourer – on Sunday morning 25 August he put a sovereign in a little box in the coffer in his bedroom. There were 9 sovereigns and 5 half sovereigns in the box before which he counted on the Sunday morning. He went to church about 2pm. He locked the house door. He came back between 4 and 5pm. He went to chapel about 6pm that evening and looked the door. He returned about 8pm. He did not go out any more that evening. On Monday he got up between 3 and 4am and left the house to go to work. He locked the door and did not return until about 8pm. On Tuesday morning he got up about 5.30am and looked at the window of his bedroom. He saw about ½ a pane of glass broken out just where the latch was. He did not see it so on Sunday or Monday nights. The latch of the window was undone. He looked in the coffer for his money and found it gone. The window had no shutter to it. The box was gone as well as the money. William Hill of Barton, labourer – one day the week before last he was coming with Bliss from gleaning over Mr Wright’s green in the direction from the house of his cousin Samuel Hill. Bliss asked whether Samuel Hill lived there. He told him he did. Bliss asked if anyone lived with him. He told him no. Bliss then said he should not wonder if Samuel Hill had a few pounds by him. He [William Hill] said he should not wonder if he had 10 or a dozen pounds. He heard last Tuesday that Samuel had been robbed. On Tuesday night he said to Bliss “then you went and fetched that money out of Samuel’s house yesterday morning”. Bliss said “what money”. He said “you have no occasion to make strange of it. You were not there five minutes before me. I went down after my brother’s [horse?]”. Bliss then said he took them money. Bliss said he fetched a ladder from Mr Herrington’s garden and had taken a pane out of the window. Bliss asked if he had got work – he said he had. Bliss asked him to go with him to Luton the next day, and said if he would he would give him a sovereign. He said he would not go. In the course of their conversation he told Bliss there was £12 10s. Bliss said he had bought a lot of clothes, he did not say where, and that he had left them at the shop where he bought them. He slept with Bliss at his house on Sunday night having given his bed to some friends who had come to see him. They got up together on Monday morning at 3am. He asked Bliss his reason for getting up so soon. Bliss had no answer. Vincent Doggett of Clophill, gardener – on Wednesday 28 August a few minutes before 10pm he was at the Crown and Anchor at Luton. He was going with a cart horse. He was in the tap room when Bliss came in and asked if there was any cart going to Barton. He said he was going. Bliss asked if he could ride – he agreed. He asked Bliss where he had been – Bliss said he could not tell exactly, he had been to so many places after work. Bliss asked him to drink with him and he did. They went a little way along the road. Bliss pulled out his purse and offered him 6d which he refused. He did not like Bliss so close to him and asked him to sit in another part of the cart. Bliss took out a tin box and put it in his mouth. He asked Bliss if he was taking pills. Bliss said no and put the box in his pocket again and kept his hand under his frock in the pocket holes. Bliss said he had a funny little thing in his pocket. He asked if he had a pistol. Bliss said it was a funny little thing and pulled it out. He asked Bliss to let him look at it. He laid hold of it as quick as he could. He turned it downwards and something fell from it. He told Bliss to get out of the cart. Bliss said he would if he gave him the pistol. He said he would give him the pistol if he would get out of the cart. Bliss got out and stood on the step of the cart and asked for the pistol. He said he would leave it with the policeman at Barton and Bliss could fetch it the next morning. He went a little further then turned back to Luton and gave the pistol to the police. He went to Barton with the police constable and another person and remained at the Coach and Horses until 2am. He went to Bliss's mother's house and shook the door. She asked if it was David. He said it was not. She asked where he had left him. He said between there and Luton. The next morning he found 2 caps in teh cart. The pistol was not loaded. It was quite new. John Tutte of Dunstable, police constable – on Thursday 29 August about 11.30am he saw Bliss go into Mark Lewis’ shop with a large bundle tied in a blue handkerchief. He followed him in. Bliss was purchasing a jacket. He asked what Bliss had in his bundle. Bliss said he had some things he had bought at Harrow Hill or Harrow Weald which he had fetched from the shop last Saturday. Bliss said he had been at work at Hampstead. He searched the bundle. It contained a new smock frock, 3 new waistcoats, a new velveteen jacket, a pair of new breeches, a pair of new trousers, a new pair of leggings, a pair of braces, 2 pairs of new stockings, a new shirt, a new jacket and 3 new handkerchiefs. He took the shop tickets produced from the clothes then let him go. Bliss said his name was James Grace. From information received he went in pursuit of the prisoner. And traced him to Totternhoe but did not meet with him. On Friday morning he traced him to Leighton and discovered he had slept at the Cross Keys. He went to the railway station where the clerk said a person like the prisoner had taken a 3rd class train to Brirmingham. He went by the 2nd class train and overtook Bliss at Roade. He apprehended him and searched him and his bundle. He found 4 sovereigns tied up in 2 pieces of rag in his watch fog, and 8s 3d, a new knife and an old purse in his trousers pocket. In his bundle Bliss had not nearly the quantity of things he had had the previous day – he said he had left the other things at his aunt’s in Totternhoe. He took Bliss to his aunt’s. She said she did not know where the things were but would look for them. With the help of her son she got a spade and dug up a sack buried about a foot deep between 2 rows of peas. It contained most of the things he had seen in Bliss’s bundle the day before. He noticed the leggings had a few spots of ink on them. John Boutword of Luton, shopman – he is shopman to Mr Jordan, draper at Luton. On Monday 26 August Bliss came tot eh shop and bought all the things mentioned in the bill of parcels produced amounting to £4 12s 8d. There were a pair of trousers, a pair of small clothes, a frock, a jacket, a pair of gaiters from which he deducted 3d on account of the ink, a shirt, 2 pairs of stockings, a coat, 3 handkerchiefs and 3 vests. Excluding the coat and one of the vests he paid £2 17s 8d in gold. He gave him change. Bliss later bought a coat for 25s and a vest for 10s. He also paid for them in gold. Bliss said he would have them the next Saturday, but came on Thursday morning and said he could not wait as he was going into the country. He took the things away. Mark Lewis of Dunstable, clothesman – on Thursday 29th August Bliss came to his shop and asked if he had got a shirt slop. He said he had not but had a [??] frock. He asked the price and said he would have it. PC Tutte came in as Bliss was trying it on. Bliss paid him with half a sovereign and he gave him 4s 6d out of the till in the shop. Bliss put on the frock and took it away with him. George Cain of Luton, whitesmith – on Wednesday 28 August he sold the pistol produced to Bliss. The name “Swain” is on the pistol. He has not sold one for 2 years. It is their own work. He sold it for 8s and Bliss paid with a half sovereign. Bliss also bought half a box of caps in a tin box for 15d, for which he paid with one shilling and sixpence. The caps produced are like the ones Bliss bought. They were one size to big and he told Bliss to bite them to make them fit. Charles Walters of Luton, police constable – he received the pistol from Vincent Doggett. He later gave it to Supt. Ashton. William Ashton of Luton, police superintendent – he received the pistol from Charles Walters and it has been in his custody ever since. He received the shop tickets and the clothes from John Tutte.
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