QSR1838/3/5/24-25

Depositions and examination - John Smith of Shefford charged wtih stealing 8 lbs of horse hair from Robert Gresham, and John Taylor charged wtih receiving it knowing it to be stolen.

19 June 1838

From: 1838 To: 1838

James Odell of Ampthill, chimney sweep – he is a dealer in horsehair. On a Thursday early in February a man very much like Taylor came to his house and offered a quantity of horse tail hair and cow tail hair mixed. He found it weighed 8 lbs and bought it from him for 4s 6d. Benjamin Batten of Hitchin (Herts), yeoman – he is constable of Hitchin and had a warrant against Taylor. He apprehended him on 16 June at London. Taylor confessed he had taken the hair to Ampthill and said that when he got before the magistrates he would tell them all about it. John Taylor – at night about 6pm he was in Mr Gresham’s close at Shefford and saw John Smith and Barnard Dimsey there. They told him they had got some horse hair, and they tried to hide it in a hayrick close by, but could not make a hole big enough to hide it. They then persuaded him to have it. UHe put it under his smock and took it home. It was a lot of horse’s and cow’s docks with the hair on. They said they would come for it the next morning but they did not. He took it on the Thursday and sold it to Odell. He helped to cut the hair of the docks and James Devereux helped him. John Stevens – he is a labouring man and works in the tan yard of Mr Robert Gresham at Shefford. On Tuesday morning 6 February he missed 35 or 36 tails of horses and cows hung on a long pole to dry. The river runs to one side of the yard and at this time it was frozen so that people could walk over it. He found the pole on which they were hung behind the shed. Last Sunday morning Mrs Smith of Shefford sent for him and called up her son John Smith and told him to tell the truth. John Smith told him he was one of those who stole the hair and that John Taylor and Barnard Dimsey were the other two, that they carried it to Taylor’s house and there cut off the hair from the docks, and that Taylor then went to Ampthill and sold it. The hair is worth about 6d a pound.

item

Smith, John,
Taylor, John,
Gresham, Robert,
Odell, James,
Batten, Benjamin,
Dimsey, Barnard,
Devereux, James,
Stevens, John

AMPTHILL, SHEFFORD, Hitchin, stealing, receiving stolen goods, chimney sweep, constable, ice, weather, tanner, tanning