QSR1855/1/5/26

Depositions of Luke Church, labourer of Holwell, his wife Elizabeth Church. George Cocksedge, police inspector of Hitchin and George Hubbard, police constable of Hitchin. In the case of Thomas Wilshere, labourer of Holwell, accused of stealing a sack.

19 December 1854

From: 1854 To: 1855

Luke Church: he lived at Pinchgut Hall in the parish of Holwell. On 5 December he had a sack in his barn and the barn was not locked. The sack was safe on the evening of 6 December and the next morning, about 5.15am, he found the door standing wide open. He knew he had shut it the night before. In the afternoon he observed the sack was gone. There was nothing else in the barn except some draining tools. The sack was like the one produced before him but he could not swear to it. Eliza Church: the sack produced was the same as they lost out of the barn. She had washed it and knew it by a mark where it had been mended with black thread. PC George Cocksedge: he went to the prisoner’s house in Hitchin and apprehended the prisoner on the charge of stealing potatoes from the garden at Hitchin Union. The prisoner was in bed. He found the sack lying on the bed. He asked the prisoner whether it was his and he said it was and that he had it for a long time. He handed the sack to PC Hubbard for him to try to find the owner. PC George Hubbard: he showed the sack to Luke Church and his wife at Pinchgut Hall. Statement of the accused: what he had to say he would not say here.

item

Church, Luke,
Wilshere, Thomas,
Church, Elizabeth,
Cocksedge, George,
Hubbard, George

HOLWELL, Hitchin, stealing, sack, Pinchgut Hall