QSR1844/4/5/23-24

Depositions and examinations - Thomas Harris and Ann Reeves (alias Clark)

7 October 1844

From: 1844 To: 1844

James Young of Dunstable, labourer – he received a watch from Joseph Turner a week last Friday between 6 and 7pm. Turner called him across the road and said he had a watch to sell. Turner asked him to take it down to Mr Collings, a watchmaker at Dunstable. He asked Turner the price. Turner said 16s. Mr Collings did not want to buy a watch. He crossed the road into the Crow public house and showed it there. The parish constable was one of the first to look at it. While he was looking Tutte the police constable came in and took the watch into his possession. Joseph Turner of Dunstable, labourer – on Friday 27 September he bought the watch from Thomas Harris. They were both in the Black Horse at Dunstable. A man named Taylor asked him to buy the watch as he said he had got no money and thought the watch was very cheap. He said he had not bought a watch before and did not know the value. Taylor said it could not be too dear if he gave 8s 6d for it. He gave that amount to Harris and they had a pint of beer each. He said he must get back to his work – it was nearly 9am. He took the watch with him. On Friday night his wife was ill and he took the watch to James Young to sell for him. He asked 15s for the watch because a man who worked on the premises said the watch was as good as one he had bought from Mr Collins for a sovereign. James Smith of Graveley (Herts), labourer – on 23 September he was at Stevenage Fair. He was crossing the road between 8 and 9pm and met a woman (Ann Clark) who began to pull up his round frock and put her hands up it. About an hour later he missed his watch. She was with him about 3 or 4 minutes. He did not see the watch again until the police constable showed it to him yesterday. It had a piece of leather shoe string tied to it because he had broken the chain. The case is bent where he strained it 3 or 4 months ago and bit it with his teeth to make it catch. The watch produced is the one he lost. During the hour before he lost his watch he and another young man were walking up and down the fair but they did not go into any public house. He had seen Clark in a public house in Stevenage about 6pm on the same day. He is sure she was the same person – it was a bright, moonlit night. He saw Harris with her in the alehouse. John Tutte of Dunstable, police constable – on Friday evening 27 September between 6 and 7pm he saw Young and Turner talking together. He saw Young go to Mr Collins and then into the Crow. He followed and found Young was trying to sell a watch. Young said Turner had give it to him to sell for him. He took the watch and went to Turner, who said he had bought it from a man at the Black Horse for 8s 6d. Turner described the prisoner and he found he was gone to Market Street Statues. He went into the Black Horse the next morning and saw Harris and Clark preparing to leave. He asked Harris if he had sold a watch yesterday. Harris said he had. Harris said his father had left him the watch when he died, and he had had it about 3 years. He told Harris he suspected he had stolen the watch and took him into custody. From information received he went to Stevenage yesterday to a Mr Rogers, a watchmaker there. Rogers told him that Smith had lost a watch. Smith identified the watch as his and described the marks before it was shown to him. Smith described Clark to him as the person he suspected had stolen it. From the description he knew her to be the person who was with Harris at the Black Horse. Clark said she had never been at Stevenage in her life. John Millard of Luton, police constable – last night when he and Tutte took Clark to the cage after she was locked up he heard a conversation between her and Harris. Harris said “Poll is that you?”. She said it was. He said he should not have cared if she had not been there. She said “don’t fret – we can’t die but once”. He said “we are both safe to be lagged”. She said “if we are we can both live as well in another country as we can here”. She said “being the first time I think we shall get off for 12 months”. She said “if I get my liberty I will beg my bread from door to door before I carry on the Game I have done”. She said perhaps it was a very good thing they were taken this time. Harris said he thought it was a very good thing to make Christians of them. Harris said “what name did you give them Poll”. She said she had not given a name at all. He asked what name she meant to give. She said “my mother’s name”, which she said was Ann Clark. Harris said he knew he was done last Thursday as soon as he heard Stevenage mentioned before the magistrates, but he could not see her or he would have told her to get away, and that she should have gone down the country. Harris said it would have been a great deal better for him.

item

Harris, Thomas,
Reeves, Ann,
Clark, Ann,
Smith, James,
Turner, Joseph,
Young, James,
Tutte, John,
Millard, John,
Collings

DUNSTABLE, LUTON, Graveley [Hertfordshire], Stevenage, stealing, pickpocket, receiving stolen goods, watches, watchmaker, police constable, Dunstable Crow, Dunstable Black Horse, fairs and markets