QSR1836/1/5/32

Depositions and examination - Alfred Broad (alias Frederick Johnson)

December 1835

From: 1835 To: 1836

8 December 1835 --------------------------- Thomas Parsons of Dunstable, publican – he went yesterday to Toddington Fair, taking with him a grey cart horse which he wished to exchange. He saw a man on the road as he was going who said his name was Johnson and that he wanted to exchange the horse he was riding for a cob. They went together to the fair and bargained. He was to give £11 10s and his horse for his if he liked him after he had tried him. Johnson gave different accounts as to his residence and he suspected he had not come fairly by the horse. They agreed to leave the horse in Mr Marshall’s stable until next morning when he was to try him. He desired Johnson to give his address and the address of his uncle (from whom he said he had the horse) to Mr Marshall. William Marshall of Dunstable, innkeeper – Johnson and Thomas Parsons came to his house (the Red Lion at Dunstable) yesterday afternoon and brought with them a chestnut horse they wished to leave there all night, which he understood Parsons had been bargaining for. He is of the opinion that the horse, if sound, is worth £20. George Oakley of Dunstable, police constable – yesterday he heard a chestnut horse was in the Red Lion Stables which had been brought there under suspicious circumstances by a man calling himself Frederick Johnson. He went to the stables and looked at the horse. Mr Marshall told him of a conversation that passed between him and Parsons in Johnson’s presence, who gave his address as the King & Queen, St Albans and said he was known there. He went to St Albans and enquired for the King & Queen but could find no such house. He then went to the posting houses and other likely places to enquire but could hear nothing of Johnson or any person answering his description. He returned to Dunstable and apprehended Johnson, who said he got the horse from his uncle about 2 months ago. Johnson said his uncle was living at Barnet as a horse dealer and was called John Johnson. Johnson said he himself was known at the King and Queen at St Albans which was a regular public house and not a beer shop, but he did not know the name of the person who keeps it. He told Johnson he would take him into custody on suspicion of horse stealing. John resisted but he secured him. He believes (though is not absolutely certain) that he has had him in custody before. Johnson said his uncle bought the horse from a dealer named Baker and that he had taken it to Toddington Fair with the view of exchanging it for a cob. Frederick Johnson [alias of Alfred Broad] of 7 Breams Buildings, Chancery Lane, London - he has been a groom but has not been in service the last year and a half. He last lived with Mr Purser in Southampton Row, wine merchant, for 6 months, and before that with Mr Casswall, 18 Woburn Place, a medical gentleman. He bought the horse he offered to Mr Parsons at Newbury about 2 months ago from a man named Baker. He does not know where Baker lives but he has seen him before. He gave £10 for the horse, which was lame in the near foreleg in the fetlock joint. He has been dealing in old horses for the last 6 months. Just before he bought this horse he had sold one to a man named Cox for £5. From Newbury he went to Reading, then to Maidenhead. He put up at the Crown at Reading and the Castle at Maidenhead. He stayed at Maidenhead 3 day. He then stayed one night at Brentford, then went to Kensington where he stayed at a public house. He went to London, to Staceys Livery Stables, Southampton Row, Russell Square. He went to his lodging in Breams Buildings (Smiths) where his wife was. He stayed in London about a month and the horse remained at Staceys Stables. He occasionally rode the horse out to try to sell him. He came to Barnet on Sunday evening, to the White Hart, then on to St Albans. He thinks he stopped at the King & Queen – it is on the right hand side as you enter the town from London. He fed his horse there. He came on to Dunstable to the Swan with 2 Necks last Sunday night where he slept and where he put the horse up. Yesterday he went to Toddington Fair to sell the horse on exchange. He wished to get a cob. He bargained with Mr Parsons to exchange his horse for his and £11 10s. He values his horse at £4 and his own at £16. Mr Parsons’ horse is not a cob but a cart horse. He paid the livery stable keeper (Stacey) 16s a week for 4 weeks. The horse has recovered from his lameness. His grandmother died a year ago and left him £10. She lived at Cricklade. He bought two old horses with the money and has been living since by what he got from horse dealing. His grandmother’s name was Hockwell. He has been helping at Stacey’s and is well known there by the name of Frederick Johnson. He has also helped at Kents Stables. The robbery at Mr Casswalls was about a fortnight before he went there to live. His uncle’s name is John Johnson and they live in the same house. He never heard of the robbery at Mr Powers. 15 December 1835 -------------------------- Robert Blake the younger of the parish of St Samsons in the borough of Cricklade (Wilts) – he is the son of Robert Blake who keeps the King’s Head public house and farms about 60 or 70 acres of land. He lives with his father and assists him in managing his farm and public house. His father permits him to keep a horse to go to work on the farm and to sell it again to get a pound or two for himself. About 2 years ago he bought a brown mare at Brampton which was used in his father’s business until about a week after last Stow Fair when he exchanged the mare and £7 for a chestnut horse. He took the horse to his father’s where it was turned into a field. About 7 or 8 weeks later the horse was stolen. He went down to Bristol in search of it. In his absence his father published a hand bill with his consent describing the horse and offering a £10 reward. [Detailed description of the horse]. He heard nothing about the horse until last Sunday morning when Mr Skinner, a medical apprentice to Mr Taylor the mayor of Cricklade, brought him a letter addressed to the mayor by Mr Cartwright of Dunstable informing him that a horse answering the description of the one he had lost was detained there. The mayor sent a message that he should take the letter to Dunstable which would show that he came by the mayor’s authority. He arrived at Dunstable on Monday evening and saw the horse which he declares to be his property. He knows Alfred Broad who is a native of Cricklade. Broad’s wife’s maiden name was Johnson. From the description he was given of the person who was detained at Dunstable and had the horse in his possession (and who he has been informed escaped from the cage there) he believes it was Alfred Broad. 19 December 1835 ------------------------- Robert Blake the elder of the parish of St Samsons in the borough of Cricklade (Wilts), innkeeper – on the night between 1 and 2 Dec 1835 a chestnut gelding was stolen from a close in the parish of St Samsons. The horse had been purchased by his son Robert Blake jr with his pocket money. He permitted his son to keep the horse as an encouragement to him. He caused handbills to be printed and circulated throughout the neighbourhood describing the horse and offering a reward of £10 to anyone who would give information which might lead to the conviction of the thief. He heard no tidings of the horse until last Sunday when Mr Skinner, a medical apprentice of the mayor of Cricklade brought him a letter which the mayor had received from Mr Cartwright of Dunstable describing a horse detained there on suspicion of having been stolen. He came to Dunstable last night and identified the horse detained at the Red Lion Inn as his property. He knows the horse by the white hind legs, a knob on the off knee, white face and various other marks. 24 December 1835 ------------------------- Alfred Broad – declines to say anything as he things it will do him no good.

item

Broad, Alfred,
Blake, Robert,
Johnson, Frederick,
Parsons, Thomas,
Marshall, William,
Johnson, John

DUNSTABLE, Cricklade, London, TODDINGTON, Newbury, Maidenhead, Reading, Brentford, Kensington, Barnet, St Albans, horse theft, stealing animals, horses, innkeeper, publican, groom, horse dealer, Dunstable Red Lion, Dunstable Swan With Two Necks, fairs