QSR1855/4/5/8

Depositions of Alice Boston, wife of Thomas of Wilshamstead, Eliza Boston, spinster and Dorothy Keech, wife of John Keech of Wilshamstead. In the case of Elizabeth Green, accused of stealing money and a purse.

14 August 1855

From: 1855 To: 1855

Alice Boston: she lost a purse on the evening of Sunday 8 July. She had it in her pocket when she entered Wilshamstead Chapel. She entered the chapel about 6pm. There was half a sovereign, 8 shillings and sixpence in the purse. On the Monday about 4am she missed the purse and money. The prisoner sat on her right hand side in the chapel. The money was in a pocket on the right hand side of her dress. She went to the prisoner’s house and asked if she had found the purse. The prisoner said she had found the purse with half a sovereign in it. Boston said it had more money in it and the prisoner replied it had not. The prisoner’s mother, in the presence of the prisoner, gave her the purse and the half sovereign. The prisoner said she had picked it up in Mr MacDonalds Green. The Green was a few yards from the chapel. The prisoner said she found the purse on the Green near the lodge. She had not been near the lodge. The prisoner had left in the middle of the service. Eliza Boston: Alice Boston was her aunt. She came across the Green with Elizabeth Green on the night of Sunday 8 July. It was light. She had left the chapel with Elizabeth Green before the service had finished. She walked with her from the Green to the road. Green did not pick anything up whilst they were together. It was about half an hour from them leaving the chapel to the time she separated from the prisoner. She saw the prisoner take out a purse from her pocket whilst on the Green. It was the one produced and looked almost full. The prisoner took sixpence or a shilling out of the purse whilst ion the Green. Statement of the accused: she gave a boy sixpence in the lane. She never took a purse from her pocket. Eliza Boston did not cross the Green with her the first time she went. She came out of the chapel and went straight across the Green. She found the purse near the road gate. It was laid open on the grass and not tied up. The rings were not by the ends and for that reason she thought it empty. She turned it over with her foot 2 or 3 times before picking it up. She put it in her pocket and went back to chapel and sat in the vestry. She went across the Green again with Eliza Boston and gave a boy sixpence.

item

Green, Elizabeth,
Boston, Alice,
Boston, Thomas,
Boston, Eliza,
Keech, Dorothy,
Keech, John

WILSHAMSTEAD, stealing, money