QSR1846/2/5/2/a

Depositions - James Waller charged with killing a sheep belonging to James Kidman and stealing part of the carcass.

23 March 1846

From: 1846 To: 1846

James Kidman of Biscott in the parish of Luton, farmer – he sold 100 sheep to Mr Crawley and was to deliver them ten a week. He marked 100 of the flock for his own convenience. Mr Crawley had had 40 of them. The sheep which was stolen was one of the remainder. He did not sell those particular 100 sheep, Crawley was just to have 100 – one of the marked sheep died and he made it good. William Bass of Biscott, shepherd – he is shepherd to James Kidman. On Friday 30 July the sheep were in a turnip pen in Wardon Hill Field. He had counted them on the previous Wednesday. On Saturday morning he found part of a sheep in the turnip pen – the forepart and the hind part and part of the skin were gone. The sheep had been cut in two. He took the forequarters home and showed them to his master. He took them into the wood barn and left them there. There were 100 sheep marked with red ochre as is the skin produced. He marked them himself. John Wilding of Limbury, labourer – on Tuesday 27 January he was working for Mr Thomas Smith of Bramingham. James Waller was working with him, taking in a pea stack. Mr Kidman’s sheep were near by. Waller asked whose sheep they were, and which were fat and which were stores. He told him he did not know. John Crawley was there at the time. John Crawley of Streatley, labourer – on Tuesday 27 January he was working for Mr Smith of Bramingham helping to take in some peas. He heard Waller ask Wilding whose sheep they were. He has worked for Mr Smith for some time, and Waller was thrashing with him on Friday 30 January. They were in the habit of going home together to Streatley, but on that night Waller did not go with him. The next morning he asked Waller why – he said he went to get some turnip tops but did not get any and went the other way home for fear his master should see him. John Millard of Luton, police constable – on 31 Jan he traced footmarks from Mr Kidman’s sheep fold. He saw a quantity of blood with several footmarks around it. He traced them along the Barton road on the green sward by the side of the road to the Streatley turn but could not trace them any further. He went into the field and took an impression of one of the footmarks. When Waller was in custody for an assault on his wife on 2 March he examined his shoes, which exactly correspond with the impression he took of the footmarks. William Warner of Harlington, labourer – he recollects that on 1st March he was at Mr Payne’s public house at Upper Sundon. He saw Waller there. Waller said he had given his wife a thrashing because she let people search his house one Saturday night while he was gone to Luton. He asked Waller what they searched for. Waller said it was for Mr Kidman’s sheep and that they had not found it. He said he heard that a man who lived near the Rabbit at Luton had it and that he had told of himself. Waller said it was no such thing but it would be found out because the bloody fool would tell. When they were talking about searching the house Waller said why the hell did they not look in the garden, they would have found it there. William Payne of Sundon, butcher – he keeps a public house at Upper Sundon. On Sunday 1st March Waller was there. He heard Waller say what fools the policemen were, and that if they had searched the garden they would have found the mutton. When Waller and Warner were talking Mr Kidman’s name was mentioned. Charles Kitchener of Barton, police constable - From information he received he searched Waller’s garden at Streatley on Monday 2 March. He found nearly the whole of one leg of mutton and 3 pieces of the loin buried in the ground, in different parts of the garden. He found part of a skin in a close just behind the garden, which is in the occupation of Waller’s father. The skin was also buried in the ground. One piece of skin matches exactly with the leg found in the garden. He also matched it with the skin that was left in the turnip pen and it agreed exactly. Thomas Kidman of Biscott in Luton, farmer – he is James Kidman’s son. He remembers William Bass the shepherd bringing the two forequarters of a sheep home on Saturday 31 January. They were put into the wood barn. George Nole took it out of the wood barn in his presence and hung it up in the granary. He was there when Maffey the policeman came and took the skin off. It was the same which George Nole took out of the wood barn. Charles Maffey of Luton, police constable – he saw the part of the skin now produced in Mr Kidman’s granary on Tuesday Feb 10. The 2 forequarters were hanging up with the skin on them. He took the skin off and marked it. The part now produced is the one he marked. He is a butcher by trade. John Crawley of Luton, butcher – he fetched some skins from Mr James Kidman’s. Among them was part of skin which Kidman said he may as well take. On 2 March he sold that part of a skin with some others to Mr Whiting, a feltmonger of Hitchin. Joseph Whiting of Hitchin, feltmonger (affirmed as a Quaker) – on 2 March he bought some sheep skins from John Crawley which included a part of a skin. The piece produced is the one he bought. PC Kitchener called for it the day after he bought it and took it away with him.

item

Waller, James,
Kidman, James,
Bass, William,
Wilding, John,
Crawley, John,
Millard, John,
Warner, William,
Payne, William,
Kidman, Thomas,
Nole, George,
Maffey, Charles,
Whiting, Joseph

LUTON, Biscot, Bramingham, STREATLEY, HARLINGTON, Upper Sundon, Barton, Hitchin, stealing animals, sheep, farmer, shepherd, farm labourer, police constable, threshing, peas, domestic violence, Luton Rabbit, butcher, feltmonger