QSR1836/4/5/4

Depositions and examination - John Yeates charged with stealing beans and peas from Hattil Foll

27 July 1836

From: 1836 To: 1836

William Smith of Thorn in the parish of Houghton Regis, labourer – he is a labourer of Mr Hattil Foll of Dusntable. On Saturday 30 April about 3pm as he was coming home from the field he saw Yeates coming out of Mr Foll’s yard with something in a sack he was carrying on his back. Yeates kept walking along the back street. He went up the yard and into the loft where Yeates should have been at work cutting chaff. There was a heap of beans and peas in one corner of the loft. He examined the heap and discovered some beans and peas had been taken, he thinks about ½ bushel. He then went after Yeates along the back street. He went into a stable belonging to the Shoulder of Mutton and found behind a corn bin a sack containing about 2 pecks of beans and peas. He took the sack and its contents to the lower farm. About 5 minutes later Yeates came to him and said “I hope you will forgive me, I have taken them back again”. He said “you have not as I have got them locked up”. He said he could not forgive Yeates but his master might if he pleased. Yeates said he would give him his week’s pay or 10s a pound or what I desired to say nothing about it, but he refused. Yeates said he wished he would shoot them back again. He said Yeates might if he liked but he would not. He unlocked the door, Yeates took the sack and carried them back to the loft. The sack belonged to his master and had his name on it. He told his master what had happened when he came home and his master made a memorandum in his book. Hattil Foll of Dunstable – William Smith is a labourer of his. On returning home in the evening on Saturday 30 April he was informed by Smith that Yeates had stolen about 2 pecks of beans and peas from his loft at the Upper Farm, which he had found in a sack in the Shoulder of Mutton stable. He made a memorandum of the circumstances and the date. William Impey of Dunstable, butcher – on Satuday about 10 or 12 weeks ago he saw Yeates about 2 or 3pm with a sack on his back going into the Shoulder of Mutton yard. About 2 or 3 minutes later he saw Yeates come out of the stable without a sack. John Yeates – “There is no man can give me a bad character in the Town. This is my first offence. I have working on the Farm 9 years. I was quite tipsey when I took the beans. I received my wages the day before I got tipsey and spent it.”

item

Yeates, John,
Smith, William,
Foll, Hattil,
Impey, William

Thorn, HOUGHTON REGIS, DUNSTABLE, stealing, beans, peas, farm labourer, drunkenness, Dunstable Shoulder of Mutton