QSR1844/4/5/15

Depositions and examination - Joseph Staples charged with stealing 42lbs of pork and a linen cloth value £1 from William Rush at Leighton Buzzard on 24 September 18444

27 September 1844

From: 1844 To: 1844

William Rush of Eversholt, labourer – on Tuesday 24 September he went to Leighton Buzzard. He went to a butcher stall in the market and purchased a fore quarter of pork weighing 42lbs for which he paid 21s. The butcher brought the pork for him to the Greyhound where his wife tied it up in a cloth. He left it there in a brewhouse kitchen. He left the place for about an hour. When he returned the pork had been taken. He enquired of a woman who saw him leave the pork what had become of it. She said she did not know. He made various enquiries and had it cried round the town by the crier that if it had been taken by mistake and was brought back he would pay the person for his trouble. Thomas Dimmock of Wing (Bucks), carrier – he was at Leighton Buzzard market on 24 Sept. Between 3 and 4pm Staples came to him in the market and asked if he could carry a pit of pork home for him. He agreed. Staples left, then returned and said he had put the pork in his [Dimmock’s] cart. He went to his cart with Staples, who pointed out the pork in a bag. Staples told him to take it to his [Dimmock’s] house. Staples said he would fetch it and pay the carriage. He set off with the bag in the cart and after about a mile a police constable caught him and enquired if he had any pork in the cart. His son said he had. His son took the bag out of the cart and gave it to the policeman. Staples was present at this time. He saw Staples give his son some money on account of the carriage which he said was 2½d. Thomas Gilbert of Leighton Buzzard – he lives with his father who keeps the Peacock public house in Leighton. He remembers seeing Staples come to his father’s on Tuesday. Staples asked him to lend him a knife which he did. He went with Staples to a back parlour. Staples went to a parcel lying there and untied the cloth. He saw a forequarter of pork. Staples put the cloth into his pocket and cut the pork across nearly in two. Staples also cut a small piece off the quarter and put the remainder into a bag. The piece he cut off he put into a blue handkerchief with some white stripes on it. He noticed that the handkerchief had a patch on it and believes it to be the one now produced by the policeman. He did not particularly notice the bag. Staples returned his knife and went away with the pork. Eliza Rush, wife of William Rush – she was with her husband when he purchased the pork. She went with her husband and the butcher to the Greyhound where she tied the pork up in the cloth now produced by the policeman. The cloth is one of her own making. She believes the meat produced is the meat her husband bought. When she said in the presence of Staples that the cloth was hers he said “if I had known you to have found the meat I’d have got rid of the cloth”. Charles Pryor of Leighton Buzzard – he lives at the Greyhound at Leighton and was present when Eliza Rush said the cloth was hers and Staples answered as above. He also heard Staples say to the police constable that he gave 17s 6d for the pork and later heard him say he gave £1 6d for it. Thomas Grace of Stewkley (Bucks), butcher – on Tuesday 24th he was at Leighton market and sold the forequarter of pork to Rush and his wife. He took the pork to the Greyhound and laid it in the brewhouse or kitchen. He did not see the pork again until the policeman showed it to him. He knows it by a small notch in the rind near the middle of the side of the best end of it. John Chapman of Leighton Buzzard, police constable – from information received that some pork had been lost and that it was suspected Staples had stolen it he went to Staples' lodgings at Wing. There was no one home. He returned towards Leighton and met the prisoner and asked what he had done with the pork he had cut in two at the Peacock. Staples said he had sent it home to Wing in Dimmock’s cart. Charles Pryor who was with him went to stop the cart. He and Staples followed. He asked Staples where he bought the pork – he said from a butcher out Stewkley way but he did not know his name. He then asked where the cloth was that the meat was tied up in. Staples said he had got it in his pocket. He asked Staples to show it to him. Staples did so and said there was about 45lbs of pork and that he gave 17s 6d for it. Staples later said he gave £1 0s 6d for it and that he had fetched it out of the back house of the Greyhound where he supposed the butcher had taken it, and if it was not his pork someone else had got his. When they got to the cart he asked Dimmock’s son if they had any pork on the cart belonging to Staples and they said they had. They gave him the bag with the pork (now produced). He, Staples and Pryor went back to Leighton, with Pryor carrying the pork. They met Rush in the street and went with him to the Greyhound where they showed him the pork and he stated it was his. He also showed Rush and his wife the cloth which Rush’s wife identified as her husband’s property. On opening the pork the blade bone was missing and Staples gave him the blue and white handkerchief not produced which contained a blade bone of pork which exactly corresponded to make up the quarter. He weighed meat which weights 41¾lbs. Joseph Staples – he bought a forequarter of pork in the market. He does not know the butcher, who stands below the market house. It weighed 45lbs and he gave 5½d a pound for it. He paid £1 6d for it. He told the butcher to tie it up and take it to the Greyhound and he would fetch it. If he had stolen it he would have made away with the cloth and handkerchief. He has seen the butcher before.

item

Staples, Joseph,
Rush, William,
Dimmock, Thomas,
Chapman, John,
Gilbert, Thomas,
Rush, Eliza,
Grace, Thomas,
Pryor, Charles

LEIGHTON BUZZARD, EVERSHOLT, Wing, Stewkley, stealing, pork, butcher, carrier, police constable, Town Crier, markets, Leighton Buzzard Greyhound, Leighton Buzzard Peacock