QSR1847/1/5/15/b

Depositions and examination - Samuel Hawkins of Staploe

8 December 1846

From: 1846 To: 1847

Joseph Topham of Staploe in the parish of Eaton Socon, farmer - on 27 November he missed one of his sheep. On 30 November his son Thomas Topham found the skin and his servant John Partridge brought it to him. It is the skin now produced. Hawkins lives near his farm and worked for him last summer Thomas Topham of Staploe in Eaton Socon, farmer - on Friday 27 November he heard of the loss of the sheep. The next Monday he was looking for it and his dog found a sheep’s entrails buried in an adjoining field by his father’s farm. A short distance from it he found the skin, also buried. He knew it to be the skin of the lost sheep by the brand. It was a ewe sheep. He could not find the place where the sheep had been killed. The sheep was taken from a sheep yard not far from his father’s house, within 20 yards of Hawkins’ house. John Partridge of Eaton Socon, labourer - he is servant to Mr Topham and lives in his house. He looks after the sheep. There were 142 ewes and 2 tups in one flock, which he put into a sheep yard every night. On the evening of 25 November they were all safe. The next night he missed one of the ewes. The skin found by Mr Thomas Topham belongs to the the sheep that was lost. William Nicol of Eaton Socon, one of the rural police - on 1 December he searched two houses at Staploe near where the skin was found. In Hawkins’ house he found about 20lbs of mutton in a pickle in a jar in the bedroom. He later apprehended Hawkins at a public house in Bushmead and asked how he came by the mutton. Hawkins said he had bought it from Mr Brown at St Neots. The next morning he searched Hawkins and found 2 pocket knives, one with dry blood on it. Hawkins said the blood came from cutting up the mutton. He asked Hawkins what mutton. Hawkins said as he was coming from Little Staughton Fire he saw two men in a field near his house, who ran away when they saw him. He saw a sheep had been killed and cut it up and took it home. Henry Ison Jebbutt of Bedford, police superintendent - on Wednesday 2 December he went to eaton and examined a skin to which the head was still attached and the mutton produced by PC Nicol. The mutton consisted of parts of the shoulder, neck, breast and loins. The legs were not there. It had been mangled and not cut up by any butcher. He found that the meat fitted to the skin. Hawkins repeated the same answer he had given to Nicol and added that he had buried the skin to prevent a bother. He asked Hawkins if anyone assisted him, and he said he did it all himself at about 3am. Samuel Hawkins - he told Nicol he bought 2 or 3s worth of mutton from Brown, but he did not say that that was the mutton. What he has heard said since he has been here is right enough.

item

Hawkins, Samuel,
Topham, Joseph,
Topham, Thomas,
Partridge, Joseph,
Nicol, William,
Jebbett, Henry Ison

STAPLOE, EATON SOCON, stealing animals, sheep, farmers, farm labourer, shepherds, police constables, police superintendents