QSR1846/3/5/28

Depositions - John Sharp, charged with stealing 3 quarts of beer from John Gray

4 June 1846

From: 1846 To: 1846

John Gray of Luton, brewer – on Wednesday 3 June he came downstairs about 4.45am and went into the kitchen to put on his shoes. He saw the window was propped open wide enough to allow a man to put his arm in. he saw that the keys of the brewhouse which had been hanging up the night before had been taken down and one key was gone. He went into his yard and met John Sharp, a sawyer he employed, coming from the brewhouse with his hand behind him. He asked what Sharp had got. Sharp first said “nothing”, then said he had picked up the key of the brewhouse as he was coming across the yard. He took the key from Sharp. He went to the saw-pit where Sharp was working and found a watering pot containing 3 or 4 quarts of beer which appeared to be fresh drawn from a tap as it had a fine head. He can swear to the beer as his property. He locked the beer up in his counting house and delivered it to PC Millard. He brews his own beer and is not aware of anyone else in the neighbourhood who brews beer which is so pale. Sharp had been at work with Olney. Robert Clark of Luton, labourer – he works for John Gray in his brewhouse. On Tuesday 2 June about 7pm he locked the brewhouse and hung the keys in the kitchen, on a hook by the side of the window. On 3 June Gray sent for him and told him that Sharp had been stealing beer from the brewhouse and showed him some beer in a watering pot. He believes the beer to have been taken from a vat in the brewhouse. It is rather thick, and from that he knew which vat it had come from. He tasted the beer in the vat and the beer in the watering pot and they tasted exactly the same. There were only two vats with the keys in the taps – Mr Gray had the keys of the others. One of the vats contained a brighter beer and the other beer which was rather thick. George Birchmore of Luton, labourer – he works for John Gray, taking care of his horses. On Wednesday 3 June he was in the stable about 5am and saw Sharp pass as if coming from the house. Ann Reading of Luton – she lives with John Gray as servant. When she went to bed on the night of Tuesday 2 June the kitchen window was closed and the keys of the brewhouse were hanging up on the side of it. On Wednesday morning she found the window propped open with a piece of stick. The fastenings of the window were broken so that she could not fasten it. John Millard of Luton, police constable – on 3 June he took John Sharp into custody. Sharp told him he got through a hole in the iron rails next to the gate and showed him the hole. Sharp said he was walking across the yard to Olney, who was sharpening his saw, when he found the key of the brewhouse on the ground and had been no nearer the house on that morning. Later that morning he took Matthew Olney into custody. Olney said that Sharp picked up the key about ¼ hour after he had been in the yard. He produces the watering pot nearly full of beer and two bottles of beer, one filled from the vat and the other from the beer in the watering pot.

item

Sharp, John,
Gray, John,
Sharp, Robert,
Birchmore, George,
Reading, Ann,
Millard, John,
Olney, Matthew

LUTON, stealing, beer, brewer, sawyer, horsekeeper, domestic servant, police constable