QSR1847/2/5/12

Depositions and examination - George Line of Ridgmont, charged wtih breaking and entering the house of William Francis at Ridgmont on 28 March 1847 and stealing one shilling, 5 sixpences, 12 pennies, 12 halfpennies and 12 farthings

30 March 1847

From: 1847 To: 1847

William Francis of Ridgmont, grocer – on Sundy night (March 28) he went to bed about 9pm. He was the last – the only others living there are his wife and child. He had seen all the doors and windows fastened. A little before 12 he was woken by the sound of copper money rattling downstairs. He got up and ran downstairs. He did not see anyone. He found a till which was kept in the shop had been moved into the kitchen and was on a table under the window. The window was open. It did not have a shutter and was fastened at night by a common window catch opening on the inside only. A pane of glass had been taken out of one of the windows close to the window catch. Only a few farthings were left in the till. He knows Line who he has employed occasionally to fetch water. Line has been to the shop to be paid and he has taken money from the till in his presence to pay him. Joseph Wilshire of Ridgmont, labourer – on Sunday night he got up about 12am due to an alarm from Mrs Francis. He took a light in a lantern and looked round the premises. He saw the kitchen window open. He saw a footmark some distance from the window of a clog worn by a woman and of a little boy’s foot, but they were not fresh marks. He saw a fresh man’s foot mark close under the kitchen window and another like it about 30 yards away going from the house and another very near it coming towards the house. Everywhere else the ground was quite hard and he could see traces of a foot, but no perfect. This morning he was present when Kitchener and Mallery patterned some shoes with the marks, which seemed to match exactly. The marks had been covered over with tiles. Thomas Mallery, parish constable at Ridgmont – his garden adjoins that of Francis. He was not informed of the robbery until after 8am. Looking at the ground near the kitchen window he saw one footmark more distinct than others, and some of the same pattern against the back door. He traced the same footmarks along the footpath up to his garden hedge, 20 or 30 yards. He saw the person had gone over the hedge into his garden and saw the same marks across his garden. In Francis’s garden there were many other footmarks, but only the one set of marks in his. He traced them across two more gardens, then the person apparently went on to a sward field that leads in the direction of a barn of William Line, the prisoner’s father. He has shown the footmarks to PC Kitchener and helped him to compare the marks with a pair of shoes. The shoes are nailed in a peculiar manner not done by a shoemaker. He is a shoemaker and described the peculiarity of the nailing to Kitchener before he saw the shoes. The shoes matched the marks. John Kitchener, police constable stationed at Ridgmont – he examined the footmarks pointed out to him by Mallery. They appeared to match Line's shoes. He took Line into custody and compared the shoes with the marks. They corresponded exactly. He searched Line and found on him three pence and the blade of a knife. He asked where Line had slept the previous night. Line said he had slept in Mr Gosling’s cow shed from 9pm until the morning. Line denied being near Francis’s house, and said that after 6am he went to his father’s barn for some sticks to light a fire and gave his sister 6 1/2d to get him some breakfast. He searched Line’s father’s barn and found on a beam in the barn in 3 separate places 2 shillings worth of copper money, one shilling and 2 sixpences in silver. The knife blade he found on Line is one that might be used to remove the lead in a glass window. George Line - they were not his boots. He was never there. He had nothing more to say. He earned the 3d water fetching. Gosling's barn is about 40 yards from his father's.

item

Line, George,
Francis, William,
Wilshire, Joseph,
Mallery, Thomas,
Kitchener, John,
Gosling

RIDGMONT, breaking & entering, stealing, money, grocer, parish constable, police constable, shoemaker, shoes