QSR1834/4/5/21

Deposition of Francis Field, special constable of Luton. George Terry, Joseph Keeling, George Hollett and Thomas Butlin. Catherine Sibley, wife of Henry of Luton. Charles Austin of Luton. Elizabeth Lucas, cook and spinster of Luton. Richard Shehen, groom and footman of Luton. In the case of Henry Sibley, Robert Sibley, William Sibley and Thomas Sibley accused of 9 counts of assault including the violent assault of Catherine Sibley, wife of Henry and the firing of a pistol.

10 July 1834

From: 1834 To: 1834

Francis Field: he had a warrant for Henry Sibley for an assault on his wife. He went to Henry Sibley’s house but could not gain admittance. He got a ladder and got over the garden wall. He saw Henry Sibley and his 3 brother upstairs at a window. Henry Sibley was brandishing a blade and said he would stab anyone who made entry. He called to Mr Sibley that he had a warrant and read the warrant out to him. He then broke open the door. He tried to get in and Mr Sibley prevented him by brandishing the [?]. He knocked it down and he took Mr Sibley away. George Terry: he believed Francis Field’s deposition to be faithful and correct. Joseph Keeling: he believed Francis Field’s deposition to be faithful and correct. George Hollett: he believed Francis Field’s deposition to be faithful and correct. Thomas Butlin: he believed Francis Field’s deposition to be faithful and correct except he did not hear Mr Sibley make any threats. Catherine Sibley: between 2pm and 3pm she was sat in her bedroom eating her dinner. Her cook, Elizabeth Lucas was with her in the room and the footman came to tell the cook that the master wanted to speak to her. Lucas went down to him and came back directly and said that her husband wanted to speak to her in the dining room. She went immediately. Her husband called in his brother, Robert Sibley, and locked them in the room. Robert offered her £10 to leave the house to pay her expenses and that if she did not choose to go he had officers in the town ready to turn her out. Robert Sibley asked her where her bonnet was and she told him it was upstairs and she would go and fetch it. Her reason was that she would get upstairs and call for assistance. She went up to the top of the stairs and Robert Sibley and William Sibley pushed her down again riotously so that she would have fallen if it had not been for the banister. The street door was open and Thomas Sibley and her husband were standing in the passage. Robert Sibley and William Sibley then pushed her violently out of the door and upon the railing in front of the portico. She fell upon the pavement. Mr Austin picked her up and carried her to Mr Edward Chase. As she had been going upstairs her husband had said “Don’t let her get into her bedroom”. Robert was then upstairs. The dining room shutters were fastened and the room in darkness when she was locked in. Charles Austin: having received information that Mrs Sibley was to be turned out of her house he went there. As he passed the Cock public house he heard a loud scream and saw something thrown with violence from Mr Sibley’s front door and against the railing in front of the portico. He immediately ran to the spot and found Mrs Sibley on the paving in front of the door. He picked her up and carried her across the road to the house of Mr Edward Chase, a surgeon. The Sibley’s front door was shut and they were closing the shutter at the front of the house. Elizabeth Lucas: she was the cook to Mr Sibley. Her master sent for her about 3pm and she went to him in the breakfast room. Robert, Thomas and William Sibley, his brother, were with him. He told her to go upstairs and to tell the mistress he wanted to speak to her in the dining room. She did so and on her mistresses desire she stopped in the bedroom and fastened the door. After about 2 minutes she heard a loud scream. She went to the top of the stairs and there saw a scuffle. She went back again and locked herself in. She heard Robert Sibley say “you shall go out madam”. She looked out of the bedroom window and saw Mrs Sibley struggling and saw Robert Sibley push her violently against the iron rail in front of the house. Mr Austin came up the street and took Mrs Sibley to Mr Chase’s. Richard Shehen: he was the groom and footman to Mr Sibley. He had been hired by Mr Owen of New Bond Street, London to serve Mr Henry Sibley at Luton. He came down to Luton by coach on Monday evening and went to Mr Sibley’s house on Tuesday morning. Mr Sibley, Robert Sibley and Thomas Sibley were at the house and he saw Mrs Sibley in the course of the day. The master went away on Wednesday morning and returned on the Saturday, about 2pm, with William Sibley. The brothers all dined together in the breakfast room directly the master arrived. When they had dined his master sent him for cook and he went with her to them. Master desired the cook to tell the mistress to come down to the dining room. The mistress always dined upstairs. The mistress came down into the dining room, which was at the back of the house. His master, Robert and William went into the room with her and shut the door. Shortly after her heard the mistress scream violently and on going to see what was the matter he saw his mistress on the stairs. Robert Sibley was pulling her down by the waist and William was shoving her by the shoulders and his master was with them. They dragged her down and the master went to open the front door. Thomas Sibley was in the passage. The front door was opened and Robert and William Sibley thrust the mistress out into the street. The door was locked upon her and the key taken out. They shut all the shutters and fastened the doors. He then saw in their hands sticks and Thomas Sibley had a pistol in his hand. He took the kitchen poker in his hand for her was afraid something desperate was going to the happen, but he put it down again. He heard Mr Sibley called for from the yard several times. He was in the passage when they began to fight and saw Thomas Sibley load a pistol in his master’s bedroom before they broke in. Elizabeth Lucas [continued]: after Mrs Sibley had been turned out of the house she unfastened the door of the bedroom and heard the master and his brother coming up the stairs. She ran down the back stairs. Mr Robert Sibley went down and began to fasten the doors and the window shutters. Mr Robert Sibley came and took the kitchen poker and master took his turned stick and sword and stood at the back door adjoining the kitchen door with it. Before the door was broken open he heard the warrant being read and called to her master, who was upstairs, to tell him that if he did not come down and open the door it would be burst open. The master called to his brothers and they all ran to the back door. The master came down with the sword in his hand. Robert Sibley told him not to open the door but to keep quiet and fight it out. Thomas Sibley had a pistol in his hand and was standing on the stairs. When the door was fully forced open, he fired it off towards the door. The board at the top of the door showed the mark of the pistol ball. The constable and others rushed in and overpowered them. She afterwards saw the pistol in the store room and showed it to the constable, who took it away.

item

Sibley, Henry,
Sibley, Robert,
Sibley, William,
Sibley, Thomas,
Field, Francis,
Terry, George,
Keeling, Joseph,
Hollett, George,
Butlin, Thomas,
Sibley, Catherine,
Austin, Charles,
Lucas, Elizabeth,
Shehen, Richard,
Chase, Edward,
Owen

LUTON, assault, domestic violence, domestic servant, groom, footman, cook, eviction, constable, guns, swords