Bedfordshire Archives Service Catalogue
  • Reference
    QSR1847/3/5/1/b
  • Title
    Depositions and examination - Henry Townsend
  • Date free text
    12 April 1847
  • Production date
    From: 1847 To: 1847
  • Scope and Content
    Charlotte Hart, wife of George Hart of Renhold, labourer – on Saturday 10 April about 2.15pm she left her house and went to a neighbour’s about 100 yards away. She locked the door and the back door was also locked. The windows were fastened. She returned about 2.30. When she came up the parlour door banged to. In her bedroom she saw a bundle lying on her bed. Harriet Kirby cried out “Here’s a man jumping out of the window”. She left the house immediately and saw Townsend running about 50 yards away. He jumped over the pales about 50 yards from her house. She followed him for some distance until she lost sight of him and then returned home. Inside the bundle she found one coat, one pair of trousers, 2 waistcoats, one shirt, 2 shawls, 2 silk handkerchiefs, one collar, and one pair of shoes, tied in a white pocket handkerchief. She found the coffer lid open. Just before she left the house she had laid a pair of stockings on the coffer lid. She came to Bedford to give information to the police and saw the stockings now produced on Townsend’s feet. They are the ones she left on the coffer lid and are her husband’s property. The seal and 2 watch keys now produced by the policeman are her husband’s property. She found a pane of glass broken in her window close to the fastening. Harriet Kirby of Renhold, spinster – on Saturday afternoon she walked with Charlotte Hart from the white bridge on the Barford Road to her house. She saw the parlour door bang through the glass in the front door. She saw Charlotte go round towards the back door. She went to meet Charlotte Hart the other way and saw Townsend jump out of the window. She saw his face. She called out to Mrs Hart. She ran to the pales of the Plantation by the side of the road. When she came back she noticed that a pane of glass was broken from the window and there was broken glass outside. A person could reach the fastening inside through the broken pane. Thomas Tillyard, one of the Beds Rural Police – he apprehended Townsend on 11 April in Bedford. He took the stockings now produced from Townsend’s feet in Charlotte Hart’s presence. He received the seal and watch keys from Mrs Carter wife of Jabez Carter this morning. Townsend said “If I had not had the stockings and the bundle I should have been all right and left Bedford in the morning”. Rebecca Holding, wife of Benjamin Holding, of St Paul Bedford, cabinet maker – Townsend brought the seal and two watch keys no produced on Saturday night and asked her to buy them. She refused. He said he was hard up and wanted some money to get over Sunday. He said he was a bookbinder.
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