QSR1857/4/5/1

Depositions of Edmund Dear, tailor of Biggleswade and Elizabeth Barley, wife of John, a labourer of Biggleswade. In the case of Edward Barley accused of obtaining a cap, a waistcoat, a handkerchief and a pair of stockings by false pretences.

13 July 1857

From: 1857 To: 1857

Edmund Dear: on 24 July, Edward Barley came to the shop and asked if he had any ready made clothes which would fit him. He told him he had not. Barley said his grandmother had sent him as he was going to be apprenticed to Mr Gibbs of Potton and that his grandmother was going to spend £5 on clothes for him. He asked who the prisoner’s grandmother was and was told Mrs Barley who lived beyond the Red Lion. He knew the family and so was not afraid to trust the prisoner. There was a cloth cap lying in the shop which the prisoner took up and put on. It fitted him and he said he would take it. He allowed the prisoner to take it. It was worth 2 shillings. There was a waistcoat also in the shop which the prisoner tried on and said it fitted and he instructed Dear to finish it and he would call for it the following morning. The prisoner did so and also had a pair of stockings and a handkerchief. From circumstance which later took place, he went to the prisoner’s grandmother and ascertained that she had given Barley no instructions to obtain the clothes. Mrs Barley brought the cap back to him. Elizabeth Barley: the prisoner was her grandson and lived with her. On 25 July her grandson came home with a new cap and she asked him where he had got it from. He said it had been given to him. She had not instructed hi to purchase clothes from Mr Dear or anyone else. Statement of the accused: nothing to say.

item

Barley, Edward,
Dear, Edmund,
Barley, Elizabeth

BIGGLESWADE, false pretences, cap, waistcoat, handkerchief, stockings, tailor