QSR1865/1/5/11

Depositions of Susanna Houghton, wife of Joseph of Little Staughton and formerly Susanna Sanders, widow. Thomas Sanders, son of Susanna aged 17 years. Thomas Sturgess, police constable of Keysoe. Mrs Ann Augusta Griffin, 2 Adelaide Place, Bedford, a widow. In the case of Sarah Whittimore accused of stealing a pair of cotton sheets, a pillowcase, a tea cloth, and a pair of pattens.

27 December 1864

From: 1864 To: 1865

Susanna Houghton: she had married the previous day to Joseph Houghton of Little Staughton. Until her marriage she was a market carrier and on 17 December she went with her horse and cart to Bedford. She was bringing home several things that day for her customers and amongst them she had a pair of cotton sheets, a pillow case and a teacloth. She had been given them by Mrs Ann Augusta Griffin to take to Little Staughton. She also had a pair of pattens bought that day in Bedford. The sheets, pillow case and tea cloth were tied in one bundle and the pattens in another. She passed through Bolnhurst and Keysoe on her way home. When she got there the 2 packets were not in the van. She had seen them safe at Bolnhurst and when enquiring of her son, she found he missed them at Keysoe. She believed that tea cloth produced, since made into a pinafore, was the same one she had tied up the sheets and pillowcase in. The pattens produced were the same as those she bought at Bedford. The 2 bundles had been covered up in a basket which was placed in the tail ladder of the van. Thomas Sanders: on 17 December he accompanied his mother in her cart to and from Bedford. He saw the bundle of linen and the pattens in a basket in the cart. He saw them at Bolnhurst but missed them at Keysoe. He did not mention it to his mother until they got to Little Staughton as he thought she had removed them. The bundles could not have been shaken out by the action of the van on the journey. PC Thomas Sturgess: on hearing of the loss he enquired at Keysoe and Monday 20 December he searched the house of Joseph Whittamore. He found one the bed, in the house, the pair of sheets and he found the pattens in the clothes box in the same room. When he found the sheets on the bed Mrs Whittimore said she had found them in a bundle with a pillowcase and a tea cloth on the road near her house. She had found the pattens a little way from the bundle. She said she had kept the things and said nothing about them as she thought there was no harm in doing so. She had made a pinafore out of the tea cloth and had cut up the pillow and sent it to her mother to be made it into something else. When he first went to the house Mr Whittimore was not home. Mrs Whittimore had asked to be allowed to go upstairs to put her room in order before he went up. He had not allowed her to do so. He took her into custody. Ann Augustus Griffin: she knew the sheets as one still had her mark on. She couldn’t identify the pillowcase or the teacloth as they had been altered. On 17 December she had given the sheets, pillowcase and tea cloth to Mrs Sanders, who was the aunt of her servant, to take to wash for her. They were worth 7 shillings. Statement of the accused: not guilty.

item

Whittimore, Sarah,
Houghton, Susanna,
Houghton, Joseph,
Sanders, Susanna,
Sanders, Thomas,
Sturgess, Thomas,
Griffin, Ann Augusta

Little Staughton, KEYSOE, Bedford Adelaide Place, stealing, linen, pattens, specific marriages, carrier