QSR1848/1/5/47-48

Depositions - William Hawkins charged with stealing 2 linen sheets from Rev Edward Bullock Webster and one pair of stays from William Dalton; Charles Maddocks charged with receiving

4 January 1848

From: 1848 To: 1848

Mary How of Luton - she is servant to Rev Edward Bullock Webster. On 28 Dec she gave a pair of sheets to be washed to Susan Worsley. The sheets now produced by PC Evans are the same pair. Susan Worsley of Luton, singlewoman - on 28 Dec Mary How, the housemaid at Rev Webster’s gave her some clothes including a pair of sheets. On 1 January she hung the sheets out in the drying ground joining the house where she lives. The drying ground is a grass field next to a lane which goes up to Mr Ames. The clothes were all on the lines at 11.30am. At 1.40pm she found Rev Webster’s sheets and a pair of stay she had from William Dalton’s were gone. She called James Oakley and they tracked a man over the hedge from the lane into the field and back into the lane. The sheets and stays produced by PC Evans are the ones she lost. James Oakley of Luton, labourer - on Saturday 1 Jan between 12 and 1pm he saw Wiliam Hawkins in a lane outside the meadow where the clothes were hanging. He was at work in a barn in a homestead joining the meadow. Soon afterwards Susan Worsley came and told him she had lost the sheets and stays. He went with her and could see where some one had got over the hedge from the lane where he saw Hawkins and back into the lane. Thomas Evans of Harpenden (Herts), police constable - on 1 Jan he heard that some sheets and a pair of stays had been stolen from Susan Worsley’s at New Mill End. He apprehended Hawkins and found the stays in his pocket. He searched Maddocks’ house the same night and found the sheets in a chair. Susan Worsley identified them as the sheets and stays she had lost. Mary How identified the sheets and Mrs Webster’s property. Hawkins said some one else had the sheets and he had the stays from home. Hannah Parrott, wife of Thomas Parrott of Wheathampstead (Herts) - her husband keeps a beer shop. On 1 Jan William Hawkins came to her husband’s house and offered 2 sheets and a pair of stays for sale. About 1½ hours later Hawkins came back to her husband’s house with Maddocks. They are in the habit of coming there together. John Millard of Luton, police constable - on Sunady afternoon 2 Jan about 2pm he went to the cage where Hawkins was locked up. Hawkins told him he was at New Mill End against the Leather Bottle and saw a pair of sheets hanging on the hedge which he took. He asked if he had taken anything else. Hawkins said he had taken a pair of stays. He went to Maddocks who said the sheets were found at his house but he did not know anything at all about them - that he found them in his house when he went home at night and his brother in law had bought them for old rags. Hawkins said Maddocks knew as much about them as he did, and though he was not with him when he stole them, Maddocks was not far off.

item

Hawkins, William,
Maddocks, Charles,
Webster, Edward Bullock,
Dalton, William,
How, Mary,
Worsley, Susan,
Oakley, James,
Evans, Thomas,
Parrott, Hannah,
Parrott, Thomas,
Millard, John

LUTON, Harpenden, New Mill End, stealing, receiving stolen goods, household goods, domestic servant, housemaid, washerwoman, police constable, beer retailer, beer houses, parish cages