QSR1836/4/5/20-21

Depositions and examinations - Frederick Pointon, Charles Hill and Frederick Everitt, charged with stealing 8 dozen live tame pigeons, the property of James Pryor, at Luton

19 August 1836

From: 1836 To: 1836

19 August 1836 -------------------- James Pryor [affirmed as a Quaker] – he is a farmer living at Stopsley in the parish of Luton. At 10pm on Wednesday 17 August his dovehouse was quite safe. About 4am on 18 August he men came to him and told him his dovehouse had been broken open. He went there and found that an iron bar had been forced out of a lattice window, and another iron bar twisted round to admit a person and some bricks knocked down. The greater part of his pigeons had been taken away. His pigeons are of the common blue sort, exactly like those now produced by Alexander Munnro. When he was at the dovehouse on Thursday morning he saw perhaps 100 pigeons flying about that had not been taken. This morning (Friday 19th) he saw a good many more. He saw there were more pigeons about the dovehouse yesterday evening than there were in the morning. This morning he went to the dovehouse and frightened them out and is sure there more pigeons there than there were yesterday morning. Alexander Munro – he is gamekeeper to Lord Dacre and lives in the Hoo Park in the parish of Kimpton (Herts). Having received information that Frederick Pointon’s cart had gone out of Codicote with Charles Hill of Cockenhoe and Tom Pointon in it in the direction of Luton, he went to watch for the cart on its return at about 2am on Thursday 18th in the lane leading from Kimpton to Palmer Water. About 3.30am he saw a cart coming from the direction of Kimpton with three men it. He saw it was Frederick Pointon’s cart, with Frederick Pointon in it. He called out to he men who were watching with him to stop the cart, but the cart was driven so fast they were unable to do so. He ran after it in the direction of Palmer Water. Just as he got there he heard a pigeon fly out of the hedge. He crossed the river at Palmer Water and followed the cart in the direction of Codicote. As he ran pigeons kept flying out of the hedges on both sides of the road. About ¼ mile from the water he found a flat and a dead pigeon lying by it, and a little further on a young live pigeon which was injured which he caught and which died. He continued to run in the direction of Codicote and a good many pigeons got out of the hedges and off the road all the way. About ½ mile further on he found a cart with the wheels off and in the ditch close by the complete harness of a horse all wet and sweaty as if just taken off. In the cart he found several more flats. He opened the flats and in four of them found fresh pigeons' feathers. About 20 or 30 yards from the cart he found a dead pigeon and another in the hedge a little way back. The pigeons were all warm and of the blue sort. The flat he found in the road also had fresh pigeons’ feathers in it and was marked Goldby. One of the flats found in the cart was also marked Goldby and others were marked J Rodwell / Bierton, F.P., G.Young, and W.M.K. Frederick Pointon’s name was on the cart in two places, and the number of it was 62565. he also found in the cart a sack marked James Smith, Upper Thames Street, and an old brown smock frock smeared with paint. After they had examined the cart they went towards Codicote. About ¼ mile from the cart they met Tom Pointon coming towards them. They had some conversation with him. Pointon had on a long frock. William Saunders – he is a baker living at Whitewell in the parish of St Pauls, Walden (Herts) – on Thurday 18 August about 2.55am he was in his room upstairs which looks into the road and saw Charles Hill of Cockenhoe and 2 other men in a cart he believes belongs to Frederick Pointon, driving at a very fast rate through the village towards Codicote. He believes one of the other men to be Frederick Everett of Mangrove. 6 September 1836 ------------------------- Joseph Cannon – he lives at Mangrove in the parish of Lilley (Herts). His father keeps a beer shop there. On Thursday morning Frederick Pointon came to their house between 9 and 10am and had a pint of beer. Pointon asked whether he had seen Charles Hill and said that Hill and Frederick Everitt had fetched his cart away on the Wednesday evening, that he wondered where they were, and wished he could find them and the cart. Robert Crane – he keeps a beer house at Codicote. On Wednesday afternoon Charles Hill and Frederick Everitt were drinking in his house. Hill did not leave until nearly 5pm. At about 5pm he saw Hill drive up the yard in Frederick Pointon’s cart with Pointon’s black horse. Hill was wearing a dark coloured smock frock and drove down the road towards London. Frederick Pointon is his brother in law and lodges in his house and keeps his horse and cart in his yard. About ½ hour after Hill went Pointon came in and asked who had got his horse and cart. He told Pointon it was Hill. Pointon said “what the hell business has he with it”. Pointon did not sleep in the house that night. About 5.30am he saw the same black mare coming up the road by herself without any harness on. He went into the stable where he saw Pointon and told him. Pointon asked him whether anybody had got the bay mare as well. A man named Phillips was in his house on the Wednesday at the same time that Hill and Everitt were drinking there. Phillips had on a dark coloured waistcoat with sleeves such as he has seen Pointon wear. 13 September 1836 ------------------------- Frederick Everitt of Offley (Herts) – they had the pigeons. Hill brought the cart from Codicote and asked himself and Phillips to go with him. They got up between High Heath and Whitwell. They went through Whitwell and Breachwood Green. They went to Pryor’s house and got the pigeons out of the dovehouse. They went back the same way they came. They did not meet anybody until near Palmer Water where the keepers tried to stop them. When they had got by the keepers they cut the strings of the flats and let the pigeons fly. Soon after that the wheel came off the cart. They then took the harness off the mare and turned her up, and went away across the fields. The Pointons had nothing to do with it. Hill said he would call Frederick Pointon up and get his other horse and be off to London. He understood that Hill and Frederick Pointon were to go to London with the pigeons. John Orsman of Pauls Walden, shoemaker – he lives at Whitwell on the road between Codicote and Breachwood Green. On Wednesday 17 August he was sitting at work in his shop between 5 and 6pm and saw Charles Hill and Frederrick Everitt and another man he did not know driving by in a cart towards Breachwood Green. The cart and horse were the same as he has often seen Frederick Pointon drive. Hill was driving. Elizabeth Arnold, wife of William Arnold of Kings Walden, farmer – on Wednesday 17 August she happened to be at a beerhouse kept by her father at Breachwood Green. At about 6.30pm 3 men drove into the yard in a cart. Two of them were Charles Hill and Frederick Everitt. The third was a stranger to her but it was not Frederick Pointon. They came into the house and had some beer and something to eat. They stayed there about 2 hours and then left. Hill and Everitt each paid their share of the reckoning. Examinations ---------------------- Frederick Everitt – “I know nothing about the pigeons” Charles Hill – “I know nothing about the pigeons” Frederick Pointon – “Who says that I stole the pigeons? I was at home and asleep along with my brother.” 15 September 1836 ------------------------------ Frederick Everitt of Offley (Herts) – the second time that the dovehouse of Mr Smith at Bramingham was broken open he, Henry Pointon, Charles Hill and John Hibbett had the pigeons. They took out the door and frames. He and Hibbett were at Cadwell’s beerhouse at Cratchmore End in the parish of Offley. Henry Pointon and Hill came up in Frederick Pointon’s cart and took up himself and Hibbett. They drove straight to Bramingham and got there in about an hour. They fastened the horse and cart to the hedge in a wheat field near the road 200 or 300 yards from the house. They went together to the dovehouse. Hill and Henry Pointon forced the door out with a crow bar they had brought with them. The two of them went into the dovehouse and filled their smock frocks with pigeons and brought them out and put them into bags. He thinks they had about 20 dozen altogether. They then carried them to the cat and put them into some flats which were in the cart. Hill land Henry Pointon got into the cart and drove away towards Luton. He and Hibbett then walked across the fields to Mangrove where he lives. They didn’t get there until past midnight. The next day they went to Codicote and met Hill and Henry Pointon who gave them a sovereign each. Hill and Pointon had on light coloured jackets and he and Hibbett had on smock frocks. They changed dresses just before they went to the dovehouse and changed back again when they came away. They were all together at Crane’s at Codicote on the Tuesday. It was agreed they should go to Bramingham and he and Hibbett were to walk on to Cratchmore End. He knows Hill and Henry Pointon had been to the dovehouse at Bramingham before because he heard them say as they went along that they hoped they should have as good luck that time as they had before 27 September 1836 ------------------------------- Thomas Smith of Luton, yeoman – he lives at Great Bramingham in the parish of Luton and has a large flight of pigeons. The dovehouse is in the garden and is built of brick. The garden adjoins the house and is surrounded with a pale fence. The door is always kept locked. The pigeons are fed every morning. On Friday morning 24 June he was called up about 5am and found the door of the door frame had been pulled away from the brickwork and a great many pigeons had been stolen. He had the dovehouse repaired the same morning. On the night of Tuesday 28 July the same dovehouse was broken open again in the same way and the greater part of the remaining pigeons were taken. He should think about 30 dozen pigeons were stolen altogether, about an equal number each time. They are worth about 12s a dozen. He could see from the tracks of the wheels that a cart had come from Luton and had been drawn into a wheat field close to the road about ¼ mile from his house. By the feathers lying about it appeared that the pigeons had been loaded into the cart in that field.

item

Pointon, Frederick,
Hill, Charles,
Everitt, Frederick,
Pryor, James,
Munro, Alexander,
Pointon, Thomas,
Saunders, William,
Cannon, Joseph,
Pointon, Henry,
Hibbett, John

LUTON, STOPSLEY, Bramingham, Kimpton, Cockernhoe, Luton Hoo, St.Pauls Walden, Whitwell, Mangrove, Lilley, Codicote, Breachwood Green, stealing animals, pigeons, farmer, dovecotes, gamekeeper, baker, carts, Quakers, Society of Friends individuals, beerhouses