QSR1848/3/5/19

Depositions - Joseph Seabrook

12 May 1848

From: 1848 To: 1848

William Pratt of Dunstable, straw plait dealer – on Thursday 11 May he stopped at the Bell public house at Studham with Daniel Palmer on their way home from Hempstead market. Palmer bought some plait and asked him to lend him some silver to pay for it. They were sitting in the yard when Palmer bought the plait. Seabrook was there at the time. He took out his purse to give Palmer some silver but found that apart from 1 shilling he only had 5 ½ or 6 sovereigns in gold. Soon afterwards he wanted his purse to pay for what he had had and it was missing. The purse was a yellow canvas one which had got brown from wear, with the sovereigns in a little bag inside it. [Further deposition] There were several other people in the yard. Seabrook was playing skittles and did not sit or stand near him. He made known his loss as soon as he knew it. Seabrook was playing at skittles or passing backwards and forwards watching the game, and had several times been close to him. Frederick Scott of Studham, labourer – he saw Pratt, Palmer and Seabrook at the Bell. He saw Seabrook pick up a purse close to where Mr Pratt was sitting and seemed to put it in his pocket. Seabrook then went away to the skittle ground. He was fetched back to the Bell a little later and asked which was the man that picked up the purse – he pointed out Seabrook. It was a brown looking purse. [Further deposition] He said it was a purse and not a pocket handkerchief. He was very close to Seabrook when he picked it up. He and Mr Pratt were both in the skittle ground. There was no one in the screen when Seabrook picked up the purse. It was a kind of a bag purse. Seabrook was playing at skittles just before he picked it up. Mr Pratt was not far from the place where the purse was picked up.

item

Seabrook, Joseph,
Pratt, William,
Palmer, Daniel,
Scott, Frederick

DUNSTABLE, STUDHAM, Hemel Hempstead, stealing, money, straw plait dealer, markets, Studham Bell, skittles