QSR1855/3/5/23

Depositions of George Valentine, labourer of Eversholt and Henry Martindale, blacksmith of Eversholt. In the case of Elizabeth Goodman, wife of John Goodman, labourer of Eversholt, accused of stealing half a peck of potatoes.

19 May 1855

From: 1855 To: 1855

George Valentine: in the employment of William Daniels a farmer at Eversholt. On the morning of 17 May he was setting potatoes in one of the fields in Eversholt. He had the potatoes in a sack. He left them to have his breakfast between 8 and 9am. On his return he missed some out of the sack, about half a peck. Before he had left the potatoes he had seen the prisoner in the field and she passed by him. He saw nobody else about. He left a little boy, Charles Millard, in charge of the potatoes but on his return the child had gone. He saw Millard a few minutes later and asked him how he came to leave the potatoes, but he did not reply. He had been at breakfast for about half an hour. Henry Martindale: a blacksmith in the parish of Eversholt. On 17 May he had been returning home close to one of Mr Daniels field and he saw the prisoner, who he knew well, in the field. She was coming from the far side of the field and she stopped at the gate leading to the road. He had a conversation with her. He rather suspected from her character she was about something that might not be right. He left her. On returning back he saw her in the field near a wheelbarrow, in which was a sack. He watched her from behind a tree and she seemed to be fumbling in the sack. She had nothing about her when he met her at the gate but when she had been to the sack she had something in her apron. She left the field and went up the road. When she had gone he examined the sack and saw potatoes inside. As the prisoner came out the gate she saw him but they did not speak. He watched her and she had evidently been watching him when he went to the sack and she returned to where he was standing. She came with 3 or 4 yards of him and she had nothing in her apron. She had a jug in one hand a spoon in the other. He turned towards home and then turned again and watched her go up the road. She picked something up from the side of the road and then went on. When he had first seen the prisoner in the field there had been nobody else there. He had then seen Charles Millard who examined the sack with him. He told Millard he had seen Betty Goodman against the sack and the boy said “an old devil she had had some of my potatoes then.” Statement of the accused: she never had the potatoes.

item

Goodman, Elizabeth,
Goodman, John,
Valentine, George,
Martindale, Henry,
Millard, Charles,
Daniels, William

EVERSHOLT, stealing, potatoes, blacksmith, farmer