QSR1848/2/5/16

Depositions and examination - William Mace of Potton charged with stealing 3 bushels of wheat (value 15s) from John Skinner

1 April1 1848

From: 1848 To: 1848

John Shaw of Potton, police constable – on 30 March he searched the house of William Mace and found about 4 bushels of wheat. Mace’s wife said it was their own. He took the sample now produced. He later went to the Bull public house at Potton and showed the sample to John Skinner, but it was too dark to see it. He showed Skinner and Redman (who had put the wheat up for Skinner) the sample again the next morning. He had previously searched Mace’s house in October and December 1847 and there was no wheat there either time. Mace kept his onions in a loft adjoining that in which Skinner’s wheat was kept, and a board was broken out of the partition so that a person might easily get through. Thomas Redman of Potton, labourer – he is a sack carrier. On 17 March he took in 38 bushels of wheat for Skinner and put it into his shop. Yesterday morning PC Shaw showed him a sample of wheat which he compared with Skinner’s and he could not tell the difference. John Skinner of Gransden – the wheat produced exactly resembles the wheat he lost. Jonathan Baldwin of Girtford – on Thursday 30 March he took 34 bushels of wheat out of Mr Skinner’s shop. He saw the waggoner measure it. He took the keys out of the house an unlocked the loft where the wheat was lying. William Mace – he grew the wheat and it has been in his kitchen since soon after harvest when he took it from the field to Mr Brewer’s to be thrashed. It lay there about a fortnight then he took it to his own house where it has been standing in a sack near his chimney in the kitchen ever since. He sold 2 loads of wheat to Mr Payne through David Bowness, ostler at the Swan at Potton. The barley which was in the sack with the wheat was the gleanings which his little girls picked up last harvest. John Shaw [further information] – he searched Mace’s house about 4 months ago for some wheat. He searched diligently and is sure there was none there. John Payne of Potton – about 3 weeks before Michaelmas he bought 2 loads for wheat from David Bowness. A few days later he bought a 3rd load from William Mace. He did not see the 3rd load, but the first two did not resemble the wheat now produced – they had more white wheat in them. John Skinner of Potton the younger – on the morning after the wheat was measured to go away he observed one board broken out of the partition between his loft and that in which Mace kept his onions. He is sure it was not broken a day or two before. John Brewer of Everton – summoned to give evidence but not yet examined. Believed that he can prove when Mace thrashed the wheat in his barn.

item

Mace, William,
Skinner, John,
Shaw, John,
Redman, Thomas,
Baldwin, Jonathan,
Bowness, David,
Payne, John,
Brewer, John

POTTON, Girtford, EVERTON, stealing, wheat, police constable, waggoner, shopkeeper, gleaning, barley, ostler, Potton Bull, Potton Swan Inn