QSR1855/3/5/2a

Depositions of John Tompkins, beer retailer of Houghton Regis, his wife, Harriet Tompkins and James Bates, superintendent of police of Houghton Regis. In the case of George Stokes, accused of stealing 1 calico shirt.

9 April 1855

From: 1855 To: 1855

John Tompkins: keeper of a beer shop in Bidwell, Houghton Regis. The prisoner came to his house on Friday 30 March between 5 and 6pm and slept there that night and the 31 March. He left on the morning of 1 April between 7 and 8pm. On the Friday night he saw his wife put a sheet in the cooper which stood in the room where the prisoner slept. After the prisoner had gone on the Sunday it was missed. The prisoner had said someone would come and fetch him on the Sunday but he went away early on the Sunday morning without paying the bill. Harriet Tompkins: on Friday 30 March the prisoner came to the house and engaged a bed. The prisoner slept there for 2 nights and left on the Sunday morning. Later that day she examined the cooper, which was in the room where the prisoner had slept, and found all the things in it turned over. She missed one of her husband’s calico shirts. She had put the shirt in the cooper on the Friday night before she had gone to bed. There were no other lodgers in the house during the prisoners stay. She locked the bedroom door and kept the key in her pocket until the prisoner went to bed so that no person but the prisoner had been in the room. PC James Bates: the prisoner was apprehended on 2 April at Maulden and brought to Bates at Ampthill. He charged the prisoner was stealing a shirt from the Flowerpot at Bidwell. The prisoner said he did not know anything about it and did not know the place. The next day whilst conveying the prisoner between Toddington and Houghton Regis the prisoner asked if it was on Tuesday as he could prove where he had slept that night. Bates told the prisoner he had not mentioned a day and the prisoner said he did not recollect very much for all the beer. Statement of the accused: when he got up in the Sunday morning he was asked what the time was. He replied 7.25am. He went downstairs and put on his shoes. He had pint of beer and a pennyworth of tobacco and came out of the house about 8.10am. All he had seen in the room in which he had slept was a chair and the bed.

item

Stokes, George,
Tompkins, John,
Tompkins, Harriet,
Bates, James

HOUGHTON REGIS, stealing, shirt, calico