QSR1845/1/5/4

Depositions - Susan Owen charged with fraudulently obtaining a pound of biscuits.

9 November 1844

From: 1844 To: 1845

Jane Turner of Biggleswade – she attends to the shop of her brother James Turner, baker. On Friday 8 November Owen came into the shop and asked for a pound of mixed biscuits for Mrs Crouch. She served her with the biscuits on Mrs Crouch’s credit. She went into the bakehouse and told her brother what had happened and he came out to make enquiry about it. James Turner – yesterday his sister Jane told him she wanted the pound weight to weigh a pound of biscuits for someone who had come for them in Mrs Crouch’s name. His sister said she did not think the person (who she did not know) was going to pay for them. He came out to see if he knew her but she was a stranger to him. It was the prisoner now present (Owen). He heard her tell his sister the biscuits were to be set down to Mrs Crouch. He asked who she was as he did not believe Mrs Crouch had sent for goods on trust as she always pays ready money. Owen refused to give her name but said she was Mrs Crouch’s servant and had lived with her for about a week. He desired his sister to let Owen go until he had been to enquire at Mr Crouch’s. He went there and found as he expected that Owen was not Mr Crouch’s servant and and had not been sent by Mrs Crouch. He came home and told Owen this. Owen then said if he would forgive her this time she would never do it again. He replied that he could not overlook it. James Crouch of Biggleswade – he is the husband of Mrs Crouch. Susan Owen also lives at Biggleswade and he had seen her there occasionally but did not know her name. She was never employed by himself or his wife.

item

Owen, Susan,
Turner, Jane,
Turner, James,
Crouch, James

BIGGLESWADE, false pretences, biscuits, baker