QSR1869/1/5/1

Depositions of Ebenezer Sanderson, labourer of Stotfold. Charles Dear, labourer of Stotfold. George Smith, superintendent of police at Biggleswade. In the case of Jacob Brown accused of unlawfully and maliciously killing a sheep.

28 October 1868

From: 1868 To: 1869

Ebenezer Sanderson: he was shepherd to Mr Vaughan. On the night of Friday 16 October he put his master’s sheep into the fold in a field near his master’s house. The following morning about 7am he went to the fold and found a ewe belonging to his master dead, and quite cold, in the corner of the fold. The ewe was lying on its side and behind it was a quantity of blood. About 10 yards off he found a stake which he was able to produce. The stake was smothered with fresh blood and fat from one end to the other. He skinned and dressed the sheep the same morning and could trace where something had been forced up the hind parts. The fresh was torn from the kidneys and a quantity of blood was lodged there. Inside the sheep he found 2 pieces of bark which compared with the bark on the stake. The prisoner was a labourer on his master’s for about a month. Superintendent George Smith: on Sunday 18 October he went to Stotfold in consequence of information he had received. He went to the house of James Brown, father of the prisoner and the house at which the prisoner lodged. He saw the prisoner and asked him for the trousers he had worn the previous day. The prisoner brought him a pair. He examined them and found blood, fat and some sheep dung, all of which was fresh. He took the prisoner into custody on the charge of maliciously killing a sheep. The prisoner said he had not killed it. He took the prisoner to the police station at Biggleswade and after some time the prisoner said he wanted to tell him about the sheep. He cautioned the prisoner that he would be obliged to repeat what he said before a magistrate and the prisoner asked him to write a letter for him to his master. The prisoner dictated: “Sir, I do not want to be locked up here. Will you allow me to have bail. I shall be glad if you will be kind enough to do so. Sir, I will tell you all about your sheep. I know I had had too much beer. I am sorry for what I have done. On Friday night the sixteenth of October instant I left the beer house at Stotfold kept by James Goodwin about half past eight o’clock. I went up Chapel Yard into Mr Vaughan’s field where his sheep were then in a fold. I went round the fold five or six times. I went away and then went back again. I got into the fold to the sheep. I caught one and laid it down in the fold. I got a stake and pushed it into the sheep’s belly I pushed it up and pulled it down several times. The time the sheep was on the ground. I was in the fold about ten minutes when I left the sheep was standing up – I threw the stake away and went home and I am sorry now for what I have done. I hope Mr Vaughan will not be hard with me for the sake of my mother, my father, my grandmother and all the family” He produced the stake he received from Mr Vaughan and it was the same the shepherd had identified. He all produced the trousers. Charles Dear: he was a labourer and worked on Mr Vaughan’s farm at Stotfold. On the night of Friday 16 October he had been at Goodwin’s beer house at Stotfold. The prisoner was there. Three of them had 2 pints between them and another pint ‘in’. The prisoner left a little after 8pm before he had finished the beer. They thought he was coming back as he had not wished them a good night. The stopped until nearly 10pm but the prisoner did not come back. The prisoner was not drunk Statement of the accused: nothing to say.

item

Brown, Jacob,
Sanderson, Ebenezer,
Dear, Charles,
Smith, George,
Vaughan, William,
Goodwin, James

STOTFOLD, stealing animals, sheep