QSR1845/1/5/11

Depositions and examination - Charlotte Bond, wife of Charles Bond of Northampton, plumber and glazier. With covering letter.

22 November 1844

From: 1844 To: 1845

James Pearson of Pavenham, dealer – he lives in the same house at Pavenham with James Edey, a blacksmith, who has no family with him. On Sunday 17 November his niece Mrs Bond came to visit him. She stayed until Monday afternoon. About 9pm on Monday night Edey asked him to fetch a bottle of wine and a small box from his box upstairs. Edey gave him the key of the large box. He bought them to Edey. There was no key in the small box, which Edey said should be in it. Edey said the small box contained a £10 note of the Bedford Bank of Mr Barnard. He took the small box to the house of Stephen Hulatt, a carpenter at Pavenham. Hulatt broke it open and it contained only part of an old newspaper and some other loose papers. There was no bank note or money. He took the box back to Edey and then gave information to Neale the police constable. The next day he applied for a search warrant against Mrs Bond. When Edey gave him the key he took it out of his small clothes pocket – his small clothes were lying across the foot of his bed. On the Monday morning Mrs Bond laid a bundle on Edey’s bed and was looking about there for some time under pretence that she could not find her comb. She then went upstairs where the deal box was kept. She was gone 2 or 3 minutes. When she came down she again searched among the clothes on the bed and said she had found the comb. Joseph Neale of Harrold, police constable – on Tuesday morning he received a search warrant against Charlotte Bond on a charge of stealing a £10 and a small key from James Edey. He went to Northampton on Tuesday but could not discover anything. On Wednesday he search Mrs Bond and the house of Mr Bond. She had £8 in gold and some silver in her pockets. He also found a bunch of keys in her possession. He made enquires as to whether any female had been to change a £10 note of Barnard’s Bank. He received information from Mr Gray, a grocer, that a femail answer Mrs Bond’s description had changed a note on Monday night. He then went in pursuit of Mrs Bond who had gone back to Pavenham. He took her into custody at her uncle’s house. He asked her to let him look at the money in her pocket. She gave him £7 18s and a bunch of keys. One of the small keys on the bunch unlocked Edey’s small box. He asked her whether she had locks to all the keys at home. She hesitated then said “yes, all but one”, which belonged to a box that had been broken up and destroyed. He asked if that was the key that unlocked Edey’s box. She replied that on consideration that key was one which belonged to a clock which was taken from them 2 years ago by a sheriff’s officer. When he first saw her she said she had not had a bank note for months and that the money found on her was money she had saved unknown to her husband, a few shillings at a time. On Wednesday night he took her to Northampton to the County Station. The next morning he went with Mr Gray’s shopkeeper who immediately identified her as the female who had changed a £10 note. On the way to Northampton she said to him that she would give up the money to him and treat him well besides if he would say no more about it. Today Mrs Bond has said she considered that what was her uncle’s was her own, as she should have it, and that she had a great mind to take away a watch that was her uncle’s. She said with regard to the £10 note that she was not going to be such a fool as to convict herself. Charlotte Bond, wife of Charles Bond of Northampton – “I am innocent. I did not take the £10 note. I know nothing about it.”

item

Pearson, James,
Bond, Charlotte,
Bond, Charles,
Edey, James,
Hulatt, Stephen,
Neale, Joseph

PAVENHAM, HARROLD, Northampton, stealing, bank notes, plumber, glazier, dealer, blacksmith, carpenter, police constable, Bedford Bank, Barnard's Bank