QSR1864/3/5/3c,4b

Depositions of Frederick William Partridge, farmer of Leagrave. John Wheelding of shepherd of Leagrave. Thomas Snoxall, shepherd of Leagrave. Thomas Bradshaw, police constable of Leagrave. George James, police constable of Luton. George Smith, police sergeant of Luton. Samuel Pope, superintendent of police of Luton. Benjamin George, police sergeant of Toddington. In the case of Thomas Marlow & James Muskett accused of stealing 2 sheep, the value of £7.

2 May 1864

From: 1864 To: 1864

Frederick William Partridge: a farmer of Leagrave in partnership with his mother, Ann Partridge. From information received he went on Sunday 17 April to Winter’s Hill Field, which was in their occupation and was by the side of the Leagrave Marsh Road. He tracked the marks of 2 sheep and 2 men from the pen to a style leading into the Leagrave Marsh Road. There were marks in the road as if the sheep and been laid down and had their legs tied. There were also marks of men’s feet where a horse and cart had been. It had gone in the direction of Luton. On the same afternoon his shepherd brought 2 sheep to the farm which belonged to him. There were 103 in the flock before he had lost them. His shepherd put a private mark on them and he also did so when they were brought back. John Wheelding: he was a shepherd working for Mr Partridge. On the morning of 17 April he missed one three-parts bred teg and one half bred teg, from a pen in Winter’s Hill Field. He counted them on Friday Monday and there were 103. On counting on Sunday he found there to be 101. He told his master of the loss and afterward went with Thomas Snoxell, shepherd to Mr Anstee to a field of his masters in Houghton Regis road. There were about 12 score of sheep of Mr Anstees’s there. He found his master’s sheep amongst them. He left them there until afternoon and then fetched them home. He had missed the brown faced half bred one as he had used to come and feed out of the scuttle when he cut up the turnips but had not come that morning. The other sheep was the only of its type in the flock. He marked the sheep and took them to his master. Thomas Snoxall: he was a shepherd working for Mr John Anstee of Lewsey. On the morning of Sunday 17 April he went to a field of his masters on the side of Houghton Regis road. He found 2 tegs there among his own. He knew they weren’t theirs. He looked around the pen. It had been raining and he went to the gate into the road. He could see where a cart had stopped. He tracked some footsteps and sheep’s footlings from there to the pen. He informed Mr Partridge and Wheelding, the shepherd. Wheelding came down and identified the sheep. PC Thomas Bradshaw: on the morning of Sunday 17 April about 4am he was on duty near a house called the Crystal Palace about a mile and half from Luton on the Dunstable Road. There was another road leading to Leagrave Marsh which was nearly parallel with the Dunstable Road. The 2 roads joined at Bury Farm. He heard a horse and cart going along the Leagrave Marsh Road towards Luton and met it at where the roads joined. Marlow was driving and Muskett sitting with him. They stopped and Marlow asked if he had seen a ped. They turned the horse and went towards Leagrave Marsh. He asked them what they had in their cart and Marlow replied some sacks. He put his hand over the cart and felt a sheep. The wool was wet and he felt the sheep move. He got on the cart shaft and Marlow knocked him off and they fell to the ground together. A struggle took place and Marlow said to Muskett while we were on the ground, “come on, come on”. Muskett came and struck him with the butt end of a whip over the head several times. Marlow got his staff and beat him about the head with it. He saw a handcuff on Muskett’s hand whilst he was beating him. After some time Muskett left him and turned the horse towards Dunstable. Marlow left too. Bradshaw got out of the ditch and went towards the cart with his lamp in his hand which he believed he threw at Marlow. Marlow turned around and said “blast your eyes” and struck him a violent blow on his forehead with the staff. It knocked him insensible. The next thing he remembered was seeing a man drawing coke at the Gas House. He sent the man to get Mr Pope. Mr Pope came and he told him as best he could what had happened. He had been under medical treatment since. On Saturday 23 April he was shown a horse and cart at his house in Leagrave. The cart was the same as the prisoner had that morning when he was hurt. The prisoners were the men that were in the cart at the time. He was still suffering from the attack and unable to do any duty. He could not tell how Muskett got the handcuff but guessed he had put it there. He described the cart to Mr Pope as a blue one and he believed it a heavy one. PC George James: between 4am and 5am on the morning of Sunday 17 April he was ordered by Superintendent Pope to follow him with a horse and cart. He followed the tracks of Mr Pope’s cart, through Houghton Regis to Toddington and to the prisoner Thomas Marlow’s house. He found James Muskett in the loft over the stable there concealed amongst some hay. On examining Muskett he found his shoes and clothes were wet and dirty and some dry blood was on one of his hands. He took him into custody and charged him with the assault of PC Bradshaw and being concerned in sheep stealing. Muskett said he had not been away from Toddington all night and had gone to bed at 9pm. He did not find the handcuff or the staff. The cart was very dirty and appeared to have been painted blue. Sergeant George Smith: he went in the company of Mr Pope to a point where the Leagrave Marsh and Dunstable roads join. There were marks of a struggle there. He found a brass tip there marked “G Simpson & Co. 314 Oxford Street London warranted”. There had been a little rain. He got into the cart with Mr Pope and they could see the track of a horse and cart very plainly. It was the track of a heavy cart with about a 2 ½ inch tire. They followed the track towards Houghton Regis and, near Mr Anstee’s sheep, they could see the cart had stopped. He found the footmarks of men and some sheep dung. They followed the track on to Toddington and a beerhouse at Dropshort. William Marlow, father of Thomas, lived there. They traced the cart into the yard and saw it had turned and gone out again and they traced it to Tebworth and back by another road to Toddington where it had turned through a gate into a field. They found the cart there with some sacks of soot in it. In the field they saw where the horse had been turned around and followed the tracks to a meadow in Toddington and down into Marlow’s stable. They found the horse there and it was wet and had dirty feet. They found a whip there which had blood on the handle and it had not brass butt. The brass he had found fitted it. He took the horse and cart to Luton and whilst on the Leagrave Marsh road they saw the marks of where the cart had turned. They followed marks into the Mr Partridge’s field. They had not heard that this was where the sheep had been stolen from. They kept the horse and cart at the station for some time until Bradshaw was well enough to see it. On 23 April he drove it to Bradshaw’s and he identified it. Superintendent Samuel Pope: he received information just after 4am on 17 April that PC Bradshaw was at the Gas House and very much injured. He went to the Gas House and found Bradshaw there, bleeding a great deal. From information given to him, he went with Sergeant Smith to the turning of the Dunstable Road leading to Leagrave and saw signs of a desperate struggle and a quantity of blood. He saw the track of a horse and cart. They followed the tracks. The information given in Smith’s statement was correct. On the morning of 21 April, Muskett came to the guard room at Luton Police Station and said “I told you a lie on Sunday morning last. It was not William Marlow that brought the horse home. I took it home myself”. Muskett said he had gone with Thomas Marlow to a field near Leagrave and they took a sheep a piece into the cart and went towards Luton. Muskett continued that when they got to the turn the policeman stopped them and got into the cart and said he would take them to Luton. The policeman handcuffed him but Thomas caught hold of the policeman and they fell together, with the policeman falling on top. Muskett said Tom got on top of the policeman and took the staff from him and that he had hit the policeman 2 or 3 times with the stock of the whip. Muskett said he took the horse and cart a little way and on turning back saw Tom with the staff and stick. Marlow got into the cart as they went into Mr Anstee’s field. Muskett said they told the sheep from the cart and took them into Mr Anstee’s pen of sheep. They went on to Tom’s father’s house at Dropshort and loaded the cart with soot and took the name from the cart and broke it to pieces. They then went round Tebworth and left it in Thomas Marlow’s father’s field. He left Tom in his father’s yard and saw no more of him. Pope wrote down Muskett’s statement and read it to him in Marlow’s presence. Muskett made his cross on it. Marlow made no remark. The statement was made voluntarily. Sergeant Benjamin George: on 17 April he went with Mr Pope to Dropshort where the father of Thomas Marlow lived. His attention was drawn to a track of a cart leading into the yard and then out again. He measured the footmarks of the horse and the width of the cart wheel. He saw the cart of Thomas Marlow in a filed belonging to his father and he measured the wheels of the cart. He also measured the feet of the horse in Thomas Marlow’s stable. He found they agreed with the measurement he had taken at Dropshort. He saw 7 sheep in the building adjoining the prisoner’s stable. On 19 April he apprehended Thomas Marlow at Toddington. On being charged Marlow said he had the sheep and had put them in Mr Anstee’s pen. On being charged with the assault of the policeman, the prisoner said the policeman had hit him first as he had got on the cart and wanted to put handcuffs on him. Marlow said the constable had struck him with his staff and knocked him out of the cart. They had fallen together and the police man had landed on top of him. Marlow said Muskett had then struck the policeman a couple of times with the whip and he had told Muskett to go on in the cart. Marlow said he picked up the policeman’s hat and gave it to him and the policeman had told him to stop a minute and made a grab for his throat. Marlow said it scratched his neck and he bolshed him up and fetched him 3 or 4 more good cuts on the head with the staff and then he threw it over the hedge. They put the sheep in Anstee’s pen and put soot in the cart at his father’s yard. They didn’t know what to do. He told Muskett to take the horse and art and empty the soot on his father’s land and then to leave the cart there and take the horse home. Statements of the accused: Muskett – nothing Marlow – not guilty

item

Marlow, Thomas,
Muskett, James,
Musket, James,
Partridge, Frederick William,
Wheelding, John,
Snoxall, Thomas,
Bradshaw, Thomas,
James, George,
Smith, George,
Pope, Samuel,
George, Benjamin,
Marlow, William,
Anstee, John

LEAGRAVE, LUTON, TODDINGTON, farmer, shepherd, stealing animals, sheep, assault, policeman