QSR1865/4/5/3

Depositions of Frederica Furniss, mistress of the National School at Colmworth. Jane Day, widow of Colmworth. Emily Berrill, wife of Joseph a labourer of Colmworth. Reverend John Cox Edwards, clerk of Colmworth. In the case of Josiah Berrill accused of stealing £1 2s 6d and a hand bell.

8 August 1865

From: 1865 To: 1865

Frederica Furniss: on 27 July she left the School House at Colmworth at about 9.30am in a secure state. The windows were fastened and the doors locked. She left an ottoman in the front room, which was not fastened. It contained 3 missionary boxes. Each box contained money but she was not sure of the amount. She went to London that day and returned to Colmworth on 7 August. She found only 1 missionary box in the room. Mr Edwards, the curate of Colmworth, showed her the other 2 boxes. Both had been broken open. She also missed a small hand bell, a flat ruler and some wax tapers from the room. She had since seen the hand bell and wax tapers at Mr Edwards and the flat ruler in the possession of PC Sturgess. Jane Day: she knew the prisoner. She was returning from church service about 4pm on 30 July and saw the prisoner in the garden of the National School. He was near the window. She asked him what he was doing and told him he had no business there. The prisoner made use of a very vulgar expression. She said no more to him. The prisoner did not have on a waistcoat, coat or cap. Emily Berrill: she was the mother of the prisoner. On Sunday 30 July, about 6pm she met her son on Colmworth Street and he said to her “mother I have got some halfpence. I have found them in a ditch”. He gave her the money in a pocket handkerchief. She took the money home and saw there to be silver among the half pence. She took the money and her boy to Mr Edwards, the curate. Her son had told her he had taken the money from the school house. He son said the same thing to Mr Edwards. She took the bell from her son’s pocket. John Cox Edwards: the resident curate at Colmworth. On 30 July the prisoner was brought to him by his mother. She brought with her the money amounting to £1 2s 6d and later brought him another 2d. She told him her boy had taken the money to her in a handkerchief saying he had found it in a ditch. He went with Mrs Berrill and the prisoner to the school house and there found 2 of the missionary boxes, which were kept in the lower front door, to have been broken open. He took possession of them. The boy said he had broken the boxes open and given the money to his mother. The boy had broken some panes in the back window to get into the house. He told the boy to take them to the room from which he had taken the money and the boy took them to the front room and pointed at the ottoman. He had opened the ottoman and found the 2 boxes. Statement of the accused: nothing.

item

Furniss, Frederica,
Day, Jane,
Berrill, Emily,
Berrill, Joseph,
Berrill, Josiah,
Edwards, John Cox

COLMWORTH, stealing, money, Colmworth School, schoolmistress, Clerk in Holy Orders, breaking & entering