QSR1857/1/5/13a

Depositions of Charles Dale, police sergeant of Houghton Regis, John Lambert, police constable of Dunstable, William Pratt, farmer of Totternhoe and Thomas Heley, labourer of Totternhoe. In the case of Henry Bliss accused of stealing 3 bushels of wheat.

5 January 1857

From: 1857 To: 1857

Sergeant Charles Dale: on 14 December he went in the company of PC Lambert and searched the prisoner’s house. He found a sack containing about 2 bushels of wheat. Asked where he had got it from, the prisoner said he had gleaned it last harvest. On 26 December he went again to the prisoner’s house and found the same sack full of about 4 bushels of wheat. He said to the prisoner that his wheat had increased and said the prisoner said he had gleaned the wheat. He took a sample of the wheat from a sack and compared it with that from Mr Pratt’s barn. It corresponded. PC John Lambert: on 14 December he assisted Sergeant Dale in searching the prisoner’s house. There was a sack in the house which contained about 2 bushels of wheat. On 29th he searched the house again and found a sack upstairs with about a bushel of wheat in it. It was not there when he had searched the house on the 14 December. William Pratt: he was a farmer at Totternhoe. He examined the wheat in the possession of Sgt Dale and compared it with a sample from his own barn. He remembered mixing 4 sorts of wheat in the barn and found the samples to match. The doors of his barn opened towards the road. The prisoner lived about a quarter of a mile from his premises. The sack produced had been on his premises about 7 year ago and he had seen it repeatedly until lately. There was no other sack on the premises with that name on it. He had never sold any wheat to the prisoner. Thomas Heley: a labourer employed by Mr Pratt. He examined the wheat in the possession of Sgt Dale and the sample from the barn. They were very much alike. There are several sorts of wheat in each sample. He had threshed the same sort of wheat in the barn which adjoined the road. He found the barn doors to sometimes fastened differently to how he had left them but not so lately. Statement of the accused: there had more wheat in the sack on the 14th than Sgt Dale said. He had never stolen a handful of corn in his life. He went gleaning twelve months last harvest and had the wheat threshed. He got 2 bushels. He put it in a sack, in a tub. When they came to search his house there were some carrots on the top of the sack on top of the tub. Dale asked what was in the tub and he said carrots. He went gleaning last harvest and got about 3 bushels. After they had searched the house he thought he would put it all in one sack and found it was about 4 bushels instead of 5. The sack would not hold it all and he set the other upstairs in the sack it was in.

item

Dale, Charles,
Bliss, Henry,
Lambert, John,
Pratt, William,
Heley, Thomas

DUNSTABLE, HOUGHTON REGIS, TOTTERNHOE, stealing, wheat