Bedfordshire Archives Service Catalogue
  • Reference
    QSR1845/1/5/1
  • Title
    Depositions and examination - William Smith
  • Date free text
    24 October 1844
  • Production date
    From: 1844 To: 1845
  • Scope and Content
    Charles Baker of Luton, bricklayer – he lodges at Mr Everitts at the Crown and Anchor. Last Saturday 19 October he saw Smith there. On Sunday morning when he was getting up he missed a frock coat, waistcoat, trousers, two silk handkerchiefs, a scarf, a cap and a pair of gloves. They were kept in a box in his bedroom. The box was not locked. Joseph Gutteridge, Joseph Beck and another man slept in the same room. He went to bed on Saturday before 8.30pm. Mr Ashton showed him his clothes that morning. Joseph Beck of Luton, labourer – he lodges at Mr Everitt’s. On Sunday morning 20 October he missed a hat. It had been on the washhand stand in his bedroom. He last saw it on Saturday morning and did not notice it on Saturday night. He went to bed between 11 and 12. The hat produced is his. Joseph Gutteridge of Luton, labourer – he lodges at Mr Everitt’s. On 20 October he missed a waistcoat which had been on the chair in his bedroom. The waistcoat produced is his. Maria Harris of Luton, single woman – she is servant at the Crown and Anchor. She saw Smith there on Saturday. He came in about 2pm and said he was very ill. He sat there till a little before 5 then asked if he could have a bed. She said yes. He gave her 4d for the bed and said he was going up the street and would be back in half an hour, which he did. About 7.40 he said he would go to bed. She showed him into his bedroom and about 5 minutes later he came down again. He said he wanted a piece of paper to write a direction. Mistress would not let him have the paper and he went upstairs again. The room he slept in was near the room where Baker, Gutteridge and Beck slept, just across the passage. She went up about 11pm to show another person to bed and missed Smith. He had never been in his bed at all. She sent and searched the other rooms. She never saw any more of him. Mary Ann Field wife of Joseph Field of Luton, labourer – she and her husband lodge at Mr Hirst’s in Luton. On Saturday night between 10 and 11pm Smith came into their room. She and her husband were in bed. It was a two bedded room. Smith pulled off one coat, then pulled off another. He then pulled off two waistcoats and said he was obliged to put on the best and the worst because people would not give him anything if he put the best on the outside. Smith had 2 pairs of trousers on, a very good pair and an old pair. He had a blue and white scarf, a silk handkerchief with the oddfellows coat of arms, and a maid handkerchief. On Sunday morning he asked her if 5d was dear for the handkerchief and said if he took it down the landlady might buy it of him. He put on a waistcoat with red stars on it. The waistcoat produced is the one he put on. She saw him with a cap with a velvet band and a yellow button. Thomas Fleet of Tring (Herts), parish constable – from information received from Mr Ashton he went up the town on Tuesday morning and met Smith standing in the street with a bugle. Smith ran away. He pursued him and caught him at Berkhampstead. He found a bundle tied up in a handkerchief in his possession containing a coat, waistcoat, par of gloves, striped blue and white handkerchief, and some pieces of leather. The waistcoat was blue with red spots. He marked the things and gave them to Mr Ashton. William Ashton of Luton, police superintendent – when he brought the prisoner from Tring to Luton he had on the hat now produced which has been sworn to by Joseph Beck. The other hat he found at the Crown and Anchor that morning, which Smith acknowledged was his hat that he had left there when he had been given the other hat by a man whose name he did not know. Smith said the man had given him the hat and the bundle of clothes. William Smith – the man gave him the bundle when he went up to his room at the Crown and Anchor for the second time and said if he would carry it to the Cross Keys and wait there for him he would give him 6d. The man gave him a fourpenny bit and two pence. He went to the Cross Keys and did not see the man there. He then went to another public house near the market house and could not find the man. He asked something if they had seen the man but they had not, and said he might be at the lodging house. He went there and asked a traveler if he had seen such a person. The traveller said he had, and that the man had asked for a bed there. He said he said he would stop there in case the man came. Before the man who gave him the bundle went away he gave him the hat, which he said was too small for him. When he went to bed he opened the bundle and found the frock coat, 2 waistcoats, a handkerchief, a scarf and the gloves in it. The blue handkerchief they were tied in was his own, as was the other which is torn.
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