QSR1855/3/5/8

Depositions of Simon Cleaver, farmer of Toddington, William Anderson, glazier of Toddington and John Thorogood, police constable of Toddington. In the case of John Garner, labourer of Toddington, accused of stealing 4 bushels and 3 pecks of beans.

1 May 1855

From: 1855 To: 1855

Simon Cleaver: a farmer of Toddington and he had employed the prisoner to thresh some beans for him in a barn. There was a back way used by the prisoner from the barn to his house. He noticed the prisoner had not threshed the quantity other had and he said he was either lazy or he had done something with them. He used measure the prisoner’s days work every night and some days he was a bushel or more short. About 25 April he went to the barn where the prisoner was threshing and shifting beans. The prisoner was sat sifting beans in a sieve when he ought to be threshing. He asked the prisoner and he said he was getting the dust out. He told the prisoner he believed he was doing something with the beans and the prisoner asked what he thought he was doing a smacked down the beans. The prisoner continued threshing beans for him until the Saturday when he was paid in full and left. On 30 April he heard the prisoner had been offering beans for sale and advised the police constable. He went with PC Thorogood to the prisoner’s house. He was out. He saw some beans in a sack in an upstairs room. He patterned these beans with the others threshed and they corresponded exactly. He measured the beans found and there was 4 bushels and 3 pecks, to the value of 28 shillings. William Anderson: a glazier of Toddington who lived in the same yard as the prisoner. On 26 April, the day after the Toddington Fair, the prisoner asked if he wanted to buy any beans. He refused to purchase any. He suspected the prisoner as he knew he had no grounds on which to grow beans and could not have come by them honestly. PC John Thorogood: on the morning of 30 April he accompanied the prosecutor to the prisoner’s house. The prisoner was out but his wife said there was no corn of any description in the house and he should not search. He went upstairs and found a sack full of beans standing in the bedroom. He took samples from these beans and from the prosecutor. He took the prisoner into custody and told him he was charged with stealing beans. The prisoner said he found them down the road and took them home in a wheelbarrow and carried them upstairs. He later found the fence between the prosecutor’s barn and the prisoner’s house broken down. Statement of the accused: he found the beans on Sunday night on the Windmill Road in a ditch. He went and fetched them on the Monday morning.

item

Garner, John,
Cleaver, Simon,
Anderson, William,
Thorogood, John

TODDINGTON, farmer, glazier, stealing, beans