QSR1847/4/5/10

Depositions - William Jones charged with stealing a wooden drawer and a quantity of coper half pence from Benjamin Brown

3 August 1847

From: 1847 To: 1847

Dan Osborn of Dunstable, shoemaker – on 3 August about 9am he saw Jones with another person near the Swan window at Dunstable taking handfuls of something he supposed to be money out of a till which Jones had in his hand and putting it into their pockets. They then poured the rest into a cap, took the till into the Swann yard and put it behind the corner of the house, then went away up the London Road. He took the till and showed it to William Gilbert, the landlord, who said he believed it belonged to Benjamin Brown. He took the till to Brown’s shop and showed it to his daughter who identified it as her father’s property. The prisoner is the boy he saw with the till in his hands. Esther Brown of Dunstable, single woman – on 3 August about 9am she went to give change in her father Benjamin Brown’s shop and found the half pence drawer was gone. On going to the shop door she saw Dan Osborn with it in his hand. Osborn said he had seen 2 boys with the till pocketing some of the money. She told her father and James Potter who went in pursuit of them. The drawer produced is her father’s, which she thinks contained between 10 and 12s. She can swear one of the half pence produced by PC Porter was her father’s – she remembers taking it out of the drawer the previous evening to give change, then put it back because she thought it was not a good one. James Potter of Dunstable – on 3 August about 9am he was in Benjamin Brown’s garden. Esther Brown came and said someone had taken the money out of the shop and gone up the road. She asked him to go after them. He went into the street, mounted his horse and rode after them. About ½ mile from Dunstable they turned into the field and began to run. They crossed a small grass field and ran up a turnip field under the hedge where he overtook them. They ran across the field and were met by the ploughman who helped him to catch Jones. The other one escaped. Under the hedge in the turnip field he and PC Porter found a pair of shoes, a knife and 5 or 6 parcels of half pence, lying as if thrown down by handfuls. Benjamin Brown of Dunstable – he can swear to one of the half pence now produced by PC Porter being his property. He received it two days ago from a Scotchman. Considering it was not passable he marked it in order to return it to him and left it in the drawer for that purpose. John Porter of Dunstable, police constable – from information he received on 3 August he went in search of Jones. He took him into custody in the London Road. After he locked Jones up he went back to the field near where he was taken and found 7s 10¾d in copper, a pair of shoes, a knife and a purse. He tried the shoes on the prisoner and they fitted exactly. The two half pence he now produces were among the ones he found in the field. The half pence were scattered in 5 or 6 different places under the hedge.

item

Jones, William,
Brown, Benjamin,
Osborn, Dan,
Brown, Esther,
Potter, James,
Porter, John

DUNSTABLE, stealing, money, shoemaker, ploughman, police constable, Dunstable Swan