Bedfordshire Archives Service Catalogue
  • Reference
    QSR1845/1/5/2/a
  • Title
    Deposition and examination - James Hunt charged with stealing a ewe sheep from Daniel Gutteridge
  • Date free text
    31 October 1844
  • Production date
    From: 1844 To: 1844
  • Scope and Content
    Daniel Gutteridge of Luton, farmer – James Hunt was his shepherd and left last Michaelmas. Before Hunt left he asked how many sheep there were. Hunt said 67. Hunt had the privilege of keeping a sheep but he sold it last April. When Hunt left his service he had no sheep. John Tomlin of Luton, shepherd – he is now shepherd to Mr Gutteridge. He went there the Saturday after Old Michaelmas. There were 66 sheep. They were kept in a field in Luton parish. On the Sunday morning a week after Michaelmas (October 13) Hunt came and took away one sheep and he [Tomlin] fetched back one which had strayed to Mr Davis. There were then 66 sheep again. One later died, making 65. About 3pm on 18 October Hunt came and fetched one of the sheep out of the field. Hunt put it into a cart and told him it was his sheep. The sheep was marked differently from the others and he told his master so. Mr Lawson, a butcher, was with Hunt when he fetched the sheep away. He [Tomlin] has no privilege to keep sheep. Hunt said he sold the sheep because it had done its lamb so bad. Mary Gutteridge, wife of Daniel Gutteridge – last April she bought a ewe and lamb from Hunt. They had been kept with her husband’s sheep. She paid Hunt 33s 6d for them. It was not removed from the flock. The sheep that was taken away by Lawson is not the same sheep she bought from Hunt, it is a younger sheep. The sheep she bought from him is still in the field. William Lawson of Caddignton (Herts), butcher – he bought a sheep from James Hunt a fortnight before Michaelmas. The sheep was with the rest of the flock in a field near Mr Gutteridge’s house. He bought it for 27s and was to let him have 2 more ewes for 12s each. Hunt was with him when he fetched the sheep and helped him put it in his cart. The other shepherd helped Hunt to catch it. The next day he supplied Hunt with the 2 ewes. James Hunt – he sold a sheep to Mrs Gutteridge in April. The one he sold to Lawson he bought at Luton Fair the same day. He did not know the man he bought it from, who was a skin man.
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