QSR1835/4/5/9,10

The depositions of Ann Huckett, widow of Dunstable; Brice Stimpson, cordwainer of Dunstable; Maria Huckett, singlewoman of Dunstable; and voluntary statements of Charles Sapwell and Joseph Mattock In the case against Charles Sapwell and Joseph Mattock charged with breaking into the house of Ann Huckett in Dunstable and stealing a timepiece, the property of Maria Huckett

10 August 1835

From: 1835 To: 1835

Ann Huckett said that she is a housekeeper at Dunstable in the said County that her daughter Maria Huckett lodges with her in the same house, that she knows her daughter Maria Huckett had a time piece that it usually stood on the shelf over the fire place. She went to bed about five minutes before her daughter Maria on the night of Saturday the eighth instant. All the windows and doors were shut when she went upstairs – she got up about a quarter before seven on the morning of Sunday the ninth instant – She found the back door unbolted and the cellar shutter taken down and the fastenings appeared to have been wrenched out, that she missed her daughter’s time piece and about eight pence halfpence that she had left on the mantelpiece when she went to bed and that she knows the time piece now produced by Brice Stimpson to be the property of her daughter Maria Huckett. Brice Stimpson said that in consequence of hearing a report that Mrs Huckett’s house had been broken into and a time piece taken he went into the fields to search for it. He went into Mr Gutteridge’s wheat field in the Parish of Dunstable aforesaid – called Hangmans Ash – he saw there the prisoner Charles Sapwell in the standing corn about fifty yards from the hedge – he was lifting up the wheat and appeared to be looking under it. The other prisoner Joseph Mattock was standing in the lane near the gate looking towards the other prisoner Charles Sapwell. He sat down under the hedge with them (the prisoners) and conversed with them. He left them and went in the direction for his own home – he heard a rustling in the wheat near the place where he had left the prisoners and turned back and saw both the prisoners Charles Sapwell and Joseph Mattock in the standing wheat at the spot where he had seen Sapwell looking under the wheat at first – he saw them Charles Sapwell and Joseph Mattock both stoop down in the wheat, they were then close together and Charles Sapwell took up a parcel in his hand, something tied up in a piece brown wrapper cloth. He saw both the prisoners put the parcel to their ears. Sapwell then put the parcel under his frock as if to hide it and they both walked off together in the direction of the HalfMoon and Kensworth – he pursued the prisoners and came up with them just as Sapwell was hiding the parcel in the hedge. He seized the parcel from Sapwell before he had time to put it into the hedge and said this is what I wanted, he made no answer – that he took the parcel to the Wagon and Horses in Dunstable and opened it in the presence of Mr Crawley and found it to contain a time piece which he now produces – and that the cloth he now produces is that in which it was wrapped up. In reply to a question put by the prisoner Joseph Mattock he the informant says he is sure he saw Mattock put the parcel to his ear Maria Huckett said that she was possessed of a time piece which was in the house of her mother Ann Huckett (with whom she lives) situate in Dunstable in the said County. that on Saturday night last she left the said time piece on the shelf over the fireplace at the time of her going to bed about eleven o’clock, she was last person in the house who went to bed – that the time piece now produced by Brice Stimpson she knows to be her property she knows it more in particularly from a piece of paper it has got in the frame of the glass and that it is of the value of twenty shillings – and that the doors and windows of the house and cellar were all fastened previous to her going to bed. In the voluntary statement of Charles Sapwell he said: I was at the Fox along with another person and had a pint of beer, we left together about eleven – went to the White Hart Stables and slept got up at half past five went down Church Street across Englands Lane, down Periwinkle Lane – as we went along down Mr Gutteridge’s piece I found this parcel I saw the parcel in the hedge and was just going to pick it up when Brice Stimpson snatched it up and said this is what I have been looking for – he took the parcel away. In the voluntary statement of Joseph Mattock he said: I know nothing about it – I know he (Sapwell) found it as he was going down the hedgeside. He further said that on Saturday evening he went to the Fox Beerhouse in Dunstable and had a pint of beer – he left between ten and eleven o’clock went to his sister’s, her door was locked and he could not get in, went to the White Hart Stable and slept all night. He got up at half past five, took a walk into the fields down Church Street, cross Englands Lane and down Periwinkle Lane – Sapwell and he were together at the Fox and continued together all night and the next morning till Sapwell found the parcel in Mr Gutteridge’s wheatfield - called Hangmans Ash.

5 pages

item

Huckett, Ann,
Stimpson, Brice,
Huckett, Maria,
Sapwell, Charles,
Mattock, Joseph

DUNSTABLE, KENSWORTH, cordwainer, housekeeper, breaking & entering, stealing, watch