QSR1848/1/5/28-30

Depositions and examination - Charles Green, Thomas Edwards and William Allen, charged with stealing 5 sausage rolls from Samuel Bartlett at Biggleswade

13 December 1847

From: 1847 To: 1848

Susannah, wife of Samuel Bartlett of Biggleswade, hairdresser – she keeps a confectioner’s shop. Last Saturday evening (11 Dec) between 7 and 8pm she was in the bakehouse which joins the shop and heard breaking glass. She ran out into the street and saw 3 men outside the door. There were 2 squares of glass broken. She asked what they had been doing and said she thought they were very impudent. She saw they were all eating, looked into the window and missed some pastry out of the dishes there, consisting of 5 sausage rolls and a bun or two. They said they were hungry and had been asking for relief at many places but could not obtain any, and seeing the food in the window they broke the glass and took it out. They said she was not to be afraid of them running away for the sooner they were locked up the better and that if they were not locked up they would get into further mischief. William Beaumont Francis, police constable – hearing Bartlett’s shop had been broken into he went there and met the 3 prisoners. They were eating. He asked what they had been doing. They said they had broken a window and taken out some pastry, and if he did not take them into custody they would have something more before they left the town. Charles Green – they broke the window and took what they could get because they were hungry. Thomas Edwards – they did it for hunger William Allen – it is quite correct. He has nothing to say against it.

item

Green, Charles,
Edwards, Thomas,
Allen, William,
Bartlett, Samuel,
Bartlett, Susannah,
Francis, William Beaumont

BIGGLESWADE, stealing, food, hairdresser, confectioners, police constable, general poverty, vagrancy