Bedfordshire Archives Service Catalogue
  • Reference
    QSR1868/1/5/14
  • Title
    Depositions of Thomas Savage and William James Eaglestone, both stonemasons of Dunstable. Hannah Healey, wife of James, innkeeper at Woburn. James Fooks, bricklayer of Bow Brickhill, Buckinghamshire. Mary Hollier, wife of John Leeson Hollier, hay and corn dealer of Fenny Stratford, Buckinghamshire. In the case of Reuben Johnson, labourer late of Woburn, accused of stealing light coloured tweed cloth coat.
  • Date free text
    21 December 1867
  • Production date
    From: 1867 To: 1868
  • Scope and Content
    Thomas Savage: he was a stone mason and was living at Dunstable. On 14 November he was lodging at Mrs Healey’s at the Bell in Woburn with 2 other masons. They occupied one room. On the evening of that day Reuben Johnson came into the tap room in the uniform of a soldier. Johnson had a dark military cloak or coat with him. The landlady asked their permission that he might sleep in their room as she was full. They consented and all went up together between 9pm and 10pm. The next morning he and the other masons went to work about 6.30am. He left a light cloth coat in the bedroom on a chair where the prisoner’s clothes were. When he returned to breakfast at 8.30am he asked the landlady to go upstairs and get a handkerchief out of the coat pocket. She came back and said there was no coat there. He went up and checked and found his coat gone. It had a value of 24 shillings and was of the colour and shape of the one he was not wearing only much better. James Eaglestone: he was a stone mason and at present in lodgings in Dunstable. On 14 November he was lodging at the Bell Inn at Woburn with the prosecutor and another mason. He remembered the prisoner coming into the tap room and between 9pm and 10pm they all went up to bed together. He knew that the prosecutor had a light tweed cloth coat which he put on when he came from his work. When he went up to bed he saw the coat hanging on the back of a chair in the room. The prisoner put his clothes in the seat of the chair. He saw the coat on the chair the next morning when he and the other masons left the room. They left the prisoner in bed. When he and the prosecutor and the other mason returned to breakfast he heard that the coat had gone and the prisoner too. When the prisoner came in to the Bell he had a shell uniform jacket and a dark military cloak. Hannah Healey: she was the wife of James Healey, a publican and keeper of the Bell Inn at Woburn. On 14 November the prosecutor and 2 other masons were lodging at the house. Between 7pm and 8pm Reuben Johnson came to the house wanting a nights lodging. She told the prisoner that the house was full unless one of the masons would allow him part of his bed. The masons consented to Johnson sleeping in their room. They all went up to bed about 10pm. The next morning the 3 masons went to work about 6.30am and the prisoner came down about 7am and left the house. The prisoner was in uniform as a solider and had a knapsack. About 8.30am the prisoner returned for breakfast and the prosecutor asked her to go upstairs for his handkerchief. She could not find his coat. The prosecutor had 2 coats; one to work in and the other to put on when he came home. She had seen him with the coat on the previous evening and he had gone up to bed in it. The prisoner had no light coat when he came into the house but his solider coat and a great dark coat. Nobody went into the mason’s room between them leaving for work and them returning home for breakfast. James Fooks: he worked for his father as a bricklayer at Bow Brickhill. On the morning of 15 November he was at work at the Toll Bar at Fenny Stratford, which was about 4 and a half miles from Woburn. He saw the prisoner pass through the Toll bar. He had on a solder’s cap and soldiers trousers. He had one a dark coat on his arm and was wearing a light coat. Shortly afterwards a police constable came up and asked if he had seen a soldier pass through the Toll Bar. He told the PC he had and described the man and what he was wearing. The coat the solider was wearing was the colour and appearance for the one the prosecutor was now wearing. Mary Hollier: she was the wife of John Leeson Hollier and they lived at Fenny Stratford. He was a hay and corn dealer. On 15 November she saw a solider pass their house between 9am and 10am. She saw him pull his soldiers great coat or cloak off and he had a light coloured one on under it. She saw no more of him. The prisoner set his knapsack down when he pulled his cloak off. The coat the solider was wearing was of the colour and appearance of the coat now won by the prosecutor only it was better. Statement of the accused: he was not that way at all. He had been in Southampton and [?] there for Manchester. He reached his brother in laws house at about 12.30am that night.
  • Reference
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