QSR1848/4/5/7

Depositions and examination - Jesse Fisher of West Bromwich (Staffs)

15 August 1848

From: 1848 To: 1848

William Byers Graham of Sharnbrook, police superintendent - on Sunday 13 August about 3pm he was walking on the highway from Sharnbrook to the Kettering road and saw Fisher walking from the direction of Bedford on the turnpike road. When Fisher got to the corner of the road on which he was he saw Fisher leading a horse by its foretop, with another horse following him. Fisher was then about 50 or 60 yards from him. He went up inside a field adjoining the road to watch Fisher and got in front of him. Fisher soon got on the horse he had been leading, with no halter or bridle. He saw Mr William Smith of Sharnbrook meet him in a cart. He heard Smith say “boy, what are you going to do with that horse”. Fisher replied "it belongs to a man over the hill there - he has sent me for it and I am taking it to him”. He beckoned to Mr Smith to pass on. He ran on by the hedge inside the field to the top of the hill, up which Fisher was urging the horse. Fisher was guiding him by a stick. He got over the gate and called to Fisher, asking where he was going with the horse. Fisher replied that he was taking it to a farm house up there, where a man at the bottom of the hill had told him to take it. He told Fisher there was no farm house there. Fisher turned the horse round, jumped off and ran away. He then knew Fisher had taken a mare belonging to Mr John Edis, baker of Sharnbrook. He took Fisher into custody. Fisher said it was the first time he had done such a thing and begged him to let him go. Fisher said the man who told him to take the horse was a mile or two on the road. He took Fisher to Mr Edis’s and told Mr Edis he had caught Fisher stealing his horse. Fisher said “how could I be stealing it, when I was only taking it home?” He said Mr Edis was the owner of the horse. Fisher said “then I am done”. Fisher had ridden the mare about 1/2 mile. John Edis of Sharnbrook, baker - last Sunday a bay mare belonging to him was in his yard. The gates were left open and he believes it strayed up a lane towards the Kettering Turnpike Road. He had not sent anyone after the mare. About 4pm Mr Graham brought Fisher to his house on a charge of stealing it. He heard Fisher say to Mr Graham “then I am done”. The value of the mare is about £7. Jesse Fisher, aged 18, labourer, of West Bromwich (Staffs) - a man met him coming from Bedford and asked him to take the horse to a farm a little further on, and said he might give him a penny or two for his trouble.

item

Fisher, Jesse,
Graham, William Byers,
Smith, William,
Edis, John

SHARNBROOK, West Bromwich, horse theft, horses, police superintendents, bakers