QSR1864/4/5/3

Depositions of Thomas Durrant, farmer of Soulbury, Buckinghamshire. William Knight Clough, superintendent of police of Leighton Buzzard. George Wootton Davie, bank cashier of Linslade. In the case of Thomas Ridgway accused obtaining 4 promissory notes, of £10 each, a sovereign and 2 half sovereigns by false pretences.

2 August 1864

From: 1864 To: 1864

Thomas Durrant: he was at Leighton Buzzard Fair on 26 July and he saw the prisoner there with anther man unknown to him. The prisoner asked him how he did and Durrant replied he did not know him. The prisoner said that he must know him and that his name was Johnson and he lived at Hockcliffe and rented a farm adjoining Mr Inwards. Durrant asked if it was under Colonel Gilpin and the prisoner replied it was. The prisoner said he had been buying 3 beasts from the other man and the price was 40 guineas but when he sent his man for the beast he only offered £41 and stopped at sovereign, so the man would not let him have the beast. The other man said he was only the bailiff and had sold them for his employer. He asked the other man where he came from and it was a Park the name of which he could not recollect and that the man’s master was called Woodcock. He told the man he knew a Woodcock who was a banker at Aylesbury and the man said that was his master’s brother. The man said his master was a curious gentleman and would not let the prisoner have the beast at all. The prisoner wanted the beast but the money must not cross between them. They walked together to the Swan. The prisoner held some papers in his hand which he took to be notes. The prisoner asked him to pay £42, the price of the beasts, to the other man as it could not be said to come from his hand. The prisoner told him to go to the bank and as soon as he did he would pay him the money. He went to the bank with the other man and drew a cheque for £40, cashed it and took 4 £10 notes to Messrs Bassett & Co’s bank. He gave the other man, whilst in the bank, the 4 notes, a sovereign and 2 half sovereigns and he went away saying he should not go to the Swan with him to see Ridgway as he should know nothing of it. He went to the Swan and found the prisoner gone. He saw nothing of the prisoner until he was in the custody of the police. He had parted with his money solely from the fact that Ridgway was a tenant of Colonel Gilpin and occupied a farm at Hockcliffe. Superintendent William Knight Clough: from information he received from Mr Durrant and from other information, he went to Bletchley railway station and saw the prisoner there. He went to him and said good evening to Ridgway and said he had seen him in Leighton the previous Thursday. Ridgway replied he had not as he had not been there. Clough said he knew him to be one of the 2 men that obtained £40 from a farmer at Leighton. Clough said he would take Ridgway to Leighton and Ridgway agreed. Clough said they would have to wait until after 9pm and so they had better go to a hotel. The prisoner said to him that he was the man and what good would it do Clough if he got 6 months imprisonment? Ridgway asked would a £10 note not do Clough better? Clough said he could not consent to that and that he had brought one of his officers down with him. PC Carver came in and in Carver’s presence the prisoner made the same offer again. He declined. Clough told the prisoner he wanted to see what he had about him and the prisoner refused to be searched. He told Ridgway that if he would be searched even if it meant using violence. On searching they found a £10 note of Messrs Bassett & Cos Bank and 3 flash notes and 40 pieces intended to represent sovereigns. They also found good money of 12 sovereigns and 15s 7d ½ in silver and bronze and a silver watch and chain. The prisoner said he had bought the pieces representing sovereigns for his children to play with. He had known Hockcliffe for 24 years and all the farmers in the parish there. There was nobody by the name of Johnson and the prisoner was not a tenant of Colonel Gilpin. George Wootton Davie: a cashier at Messrs Bassett & Cos Bank at Leighton Buzzard. On 26 July Thomas Durrant came into the bank, followed by another man. Durrant came up to him at the counter and asked to draw £40. He filled up a cheque for the amount which Durrant signed. He paid Durrant the money in 4 notes for the bank at £10 each. Each note was numbered and note B7810 was one of them. Statement of the accused: he did not wish to say anything.

item

Ridgway, Thomas,
Durrant, Thomas,
Clough, William Knight,
Davie, George Wootton,
Gilpin

Soulbury, LEIGHTON BUZZARD, LINSLADE, Hockcliffe, false pretences, fraud, farmer, bank cashier, money, Leighton Buzzard Market, Bassett & Company, Leighton Buzzard Swan