QSR1845/3/5/14

Depositions and examination - Fanny Church (singlewoman) charged with stealing one brass weight value 6d from James Bransom at Leighton Buzzard on 7 June 1845

9 June 1845

From: 1845 To: 1845

Mary Bransom, wife of James Bransom of Leighton Buzzard, shopkeeper – she and her husband keep a small grocer’s shop in Leighton Buzzard. She knows Church. Between 4 and 5pm on 7 June Church came into the shop and asked for a halfpennyworth of tape. She showed Church 2 bits which she said were not wide enough. She went upstairs to fetch a wider piece. When she came back she saw Church had her hand full of figs. There was a basket of figs in the window. Church laid them down when she saw her. She gave Church the tape and she went away. Church came again in about 5 or 10 minutes and brought a quarter of a pound brass weight. Church said she had been at their shop in the morning for ½ oz of tobacco and she had given her the weight instead of the change for 5 shillings. Church had not been in the shop in the morning. The weight was theirs. Church laid it down and she [Bransom] kept it. Church put her hand in her pocket to take out some change as she said to show she had not given it to her and she saw Church had figs like those in the basket in her hand. She charged Church with stealing the weight and the figs. Church persisted in demanding the change she said she had not received. She had used the brass weight about 3pm that afternoon. It was about 4.30 when she left Church in the shop to get the tape. She is sure Church had not been in the shop in between those times. James Bransom – he keeps a shop at Leighton. He asked the constable to take Church into custody. Before the constable did so she came to him and said she knew she was wrong and asked him to make it up. She offered him a crown if he would do so. Thomas Forth – he is parish constable of Leighton. He took Church into custody and took some figs from her. He asked how she came by them and she said she had them from Bransom’s. He asked if she had taken up the brass weight and the figs. She only said she had it from Bransom’s. Fanny Church – she does not know anything about the weight.

item

Church, Fanny,
Bransom, James,
Bransom, Mary,
Forth, Thomas

LEIGHTON BUZZARD, stealing, weights and measures, figs, grocers, shopkeeper, tobacco, parish constables