QSR1838/4/5/20

Depositions and examination - George Field

27 September 1838

From: 1838 To: 1838

Robert Lees of Dunstable, police constable - due to information he received yesterday (Tuesday 25 Sept) that David Batchelor of Whipsnade had lost 2 fowls and suspected George Field of Dunstable had stolen them, he apprehended Field and searched him. He found in Field’s jacket pocket a live fowl (now produced). Field said he had picked the fowl up in a field near Mr Bachelor’s house, but he did not know it belonged to him (Bachelor). Field said he had a dog with him and he thought the dog (which had run among the fowls) had killed it, and he picked it up and put it into his pocket. George Field - he was going from Mr Young’s at Whipsnade where he had been to carry a letter and was crossing a field. A dog that was with him ran after 2 or 3 fowls, one of which ran along the hedge. The dog caught hold of it. He took it away from the dog and put it in his pocket as he thought it was dead. He knew he would have to go to Mr Bachelor’s on Wednesday with a newspaper and meant to ask him then if he had lost any fowls, and if he had he would have restored it to him. William Parry of Hemel Hempstead (Herts), labourer - he works for Mr David Batchelor at his brick kiln. On the morning of Tuesday 26 Sept he was at work moving bricks. About 10am he saw a man with a light coloured jacket and trousers coming through the gate out of Mr Batchelor’s field called Church Croft in the parish of Whipsnade, into another field of Mr Batchelor’s called Long Close in Studham where the brick kiln is. The man was running fast and coming towards him [Parry], which was in the direction of the foot path. Instead of keeping along the path, when the man got within 130 yards of him he jumped over the hedge into another field and went in a different direction. About 1/2 hour before he had passed along the foot path through Church Croft to the brick kiln and did not see any feathers lying there then. About 1/4 hour after the man was gone his master fetched him to look at a quantity of light coloured feathers lying in the path in Church Croft field. He did not see anyone else pass that way. He remembered seeing several light coloured fowls in Church Croft when he first went to the brick kiln. George Field very much resembled in dress the man he saw, but he was not near enough to swear positively to him. Elizabeth Batchelor, wife of David Batchelor of Whipsnade, farmer and brickmaker - she had a brood of fowls consisting of 5 cocks and a hen. On Tuesday morning she missed a cock and a hen. She has since found the hen, which is now lame. She believes the fowl now produced is the one she lost. The brood of fowls was hatched in a hedge in the field near the house and they were in the habit of reverting to that field, which is called Church Croft.

item

Field, George,
Batchelor, David,
Lees, Robert,
Parry, William,
Batchelor, Sarah

WHIPSNADE, DUNSTABLE, Hemel Hempstead, Whipsnade fields, stealing, stealing animals, fowls, dogs, police constable, kiln, brickmaker, brickworker, brickmaking, farmer