QSR1848/2/5/5-6

Depositions and examinations - Daniel Crute and William Jenkyns charged with stealing 5 oranges (value 3d) from Thomas Lewis

18 March 1848

From: 1848 To: 1848

Sally Lewis of Aspley Guise – she is the wife of Thomas Lewis. They live at the Swan public house in Aspley Guise. They sell oranges and other small articles. When they went to bed about 10.15pm the previous night (March 17) there were 5 oranges in the bar window. Soon after they got upstairs some men came to the door and said they wanted something to eat and drink. She opened the window and saw Jenkyns and 3 others. She said she would not let them in at that time of night. They persisted and asked her to let them have some beer in a bottle to take away. She opened the window again and saw Jenkyns in front of her bedroom window. Another man was standing near the bar window and she could not see the other two. She remembered she had not taken the oranges out of the window as usual and went downstairs to do so. In the bar she found a pane of glass broken and all the oranges gone. She then called her husband who went outdoors. The light was put out before they came the second time. She lit it again before she went to the window. The bar window is easily reached from the ground. Jenkyns was 3 or 4 yards from the bar window when she saw him. She believes the 4 oranges produced are those taken. Thomas Lewis of Aspley Guise, victualler – he went to bed soon after 10pm. At about 10.30 his wife told him about the glass and the oranges. He went outdoors and saw the window was broken and the boards taken off the cellar window. He went down to the village and saw Crute standing in Woodin’s Yard. He spoke to Crute and Jenkyns came. He collared Jenkyns who denied breaking the window and stealing the oranges. He told his lodger who was with him to call the constable. The constable came and he gave Jenkyns and Crute into custody. Jenkyns said the other two had gone home, and that they were his brother David and William Keech. He picked up 3 oranges close to where Crute was standing and saw one on the hedge near the gate. That morning he found the peel of another orange fresh gnawed close to the same place. William Keech of Husborne Crawley, labourer – he was with Jenkyns and Crute when they went to Lewis’s public house. He waited there about 5 or 10 minutes, then he and David Jenkyns left as Mrs Lewis would not let them in. Wm Jenkyns and Crute were standing against the bar window. Crute had a knife and was cutting the lead of the window. David Jenkyns saw it and said to him “come on and go home we won’t have anything to do with that”. [Cross-examined] He did not see any oranges in the window. He did not hear them say what they were going to do. Crute had the knife in his hands. Wm Jenkyns stood close to him. He did not see Wm Jenkyns do anything. David Jenkyns of Woburn Sands, labourer – he was with the other three. When the Lewises refused to let them in he waited a few minutes. Crute said “if they won’t let us have some beer I’ll have some oranges”. Crute then put his hand in his pocket and went up to the bar window, with his brother following. He and Keech left. He did not see a knife or anything else in Crute’s hand. They had not got far when he heard the window break. After he got further he heard one of them call out again to Lewis for some beer. When he saw what they were about he called to Keech and said they should leave. William Jenkyns – he went to the [Bill?] to inquire after his father. They then went to Lewis’s and called at the window. Mrs Lewis would not give them any and they left, but he thought he saw a light as if someone was coming down so he and Crute went back. He thinks Keech and his brother did not follow. Mrs Lewis said she would not come down. He went away and Crute followed after a minute or so. He went to Woodin’s beer shop and stayed a minute but did not have any beer. He left and saw Lewis and Crute in the yard. Lewis collared him and accused him of stealing the oranges. It is all false. He never went near the bar window. The knife Mr Young has is his. Young took it from him. Daniel Crute – Lewis says he found the oranges just where he stood. If so, he found them in the middle of the path for that is where he was. He did not steal or meddle with any oranges. When Keech says he saw him under the window he went there to make water. He has not got a knife.

item

Crute, Daniel,
Jenkyns, William,
Lewis, Thomas,
Lewis, Sally,
Keech, William,
Jenkyns, David,
Woodin

ASPLEY GUISE, HUSBORNE CRAWLEY, WOBURN SANDS, stealing, oranges, victualler, Aspley Guise Swan