QSR1848/1/5/9-10

Depositions and examinations - James Boxford and Joseph Fisher charged with stealing a quantity of onions from the Guardians of the Luton Union

11 November 1847

From: 1847 To: 1848

John Peat, inmate of the Luton Union Workhouse – on Friday 5 November he went to the store room for some onions. He locked the door after himself and gave Mrs Gardner the key. The door fastens with a padlock and staple. The staple was then quite light. On Saturday morning 6 November he went again and found the staple was drawn. He went in and saw that about ½ peck of the silver skinned onions were gone. William Room, inmate of the Luton Union Workhouse – on Friday 5th he was in a room with several others in the able bodied ward in Luton Workhouse. Boxford and Fisher were there. They went out and returned about 10 or 15 minutes later. Both of them had onions. Fisher had some under his frock and Boxford had some in his hand. Both of them went into a corner of the room and cut the tops off the onions. Boxford gave some skins to Punter, and he put them on the fire. Boxford gave an onion to a man named Abrahams and some pieces to several others. They took the tops out of the room. Boxford and Fisher ate 2 or 3 onions. The onions appeared to be the same sort as those produced by PC Millard. On Saturday morning he saw some pieces of onion peel under Boxford’s bed after he had made it. William Bigg, inmate of Luton Union Workhouse – on 5 Nov after supper he went into the sitting room of the able bodied men’s ward and found Fisher eating onions. All the men in there were eating onions. Boxford came and said “you have not saved one for m have you”. They said “no”. Boxford said “then I’ll go and fetch some”. Boxford went out and came back with 3 or 4 onions just like those now produced. He never saw any of the same sort in his life before. Boxford has threatened to give him a good hiding for telling about it. John Gardner, Master of the Luton Union Workhouse – on Saturday 6 November John Peat told him the staple of the store room was drawn and some onions missing. He suspected some of the able bodied men. He searched their ward and found some pieces of onion peel among the ashes in their room. The peel seemed to be of the same kind as the onions he had lost. He went to the store room and found the staple was drawn. On Tuesday 9 November he inspected the door of the store room with PC Millard and gave him the onions and peel now produced. He saw Millard try a poker which was in the able bodied men’s ward and fit it to the staple. It exactly corresponded with the marks. He heard Boxford say yesterday that if it had not been for Bigg he would not have known where the onions were. John Millard of Luton, police constable – on Tuesday 9th Nov he went to the Luton Union Workhouse. Mr Gardner showed him a room where the staple had been drawn from the door post and from which some onions had been stolen. He found the staple had been drawn with a flat blunt instrument. He received a poker from the room where the able bodied men were. It fitted into the stable and exactly corresponded with the marks. He also examined an iron painted post which supports the gallery outside the room and which stands in the able bodied men’s ward. He could see some one had recently been up it by the paint being knocked off. He tried another poker besides the one produced but it would not fit into the staple and did not correspond with the marks. Boxford, who was standing in the yard, said “it was not done with that”.

item

Boxford, James,
Fisher, Joseph,
Peat, John,
Room, William,
Bigg, William,
Gardner, John,
Millard, John

LUTON, stealing, onions, Poor Law Union Workhouses, Luton Poor Law Union, Master of the workhouse, police constable