QSR1830/485-486

Prosecution of Stephen Peck by William Hills of Kempston, labourer, for stealing clothes. Information of William Hills and Joseph Newman, and examination of Stephen Peck.

October 1830

From: 1830 To: 1830

William Hills: left Kempston to look for work on 15th August. Returning on 17th November to his former lodging, the Quart Pot at Kempston, found that his box had been broken open and many articles of clothing had been stolen from it. He found from John Dudley, the landlord, and his wife Sarah, that Sephen Peck had been one person who lodged in the house and had left at 4am one morning. Samuel Atterbury of Kempston, a calf dealer, told him that on Old Michaelmas Day a man had been selling clothes at (he thought) the White Bear at Woburn, and from a description given him he believed it was Stephen Peck. Hills charged Peck with stealing the clothes and selling them. Peck agreed that he sold clothes answering the description, but said that he bought them from a man from London called Brown, between Kempston and Lidlington. He sold the clothes at the White Bear, Woburn, to a baker. The landlady at the White Bear remembered Peck selling the clothes to Newman the baker of Husborne Crawley. Newman brought a pair of "Kerseymere" breeches and a pair of boots to the White Bear, which Hills identified as his. Joseph Newman: took a loaf to the White Bear on 11 October. The prisoner William Peck was offering for sale the breeches and boots now produced. Bought them for (?) 26 shillings, paid and took them away. Returned them to William Hills that day. Stephen Peck: sold the clothes to Newman, but they were given to him between Millbrook and Lidlington by Abraham Brown of Whites Alley, Belt & Pin Court, Chancery Lane, London, tailor.

item

Peck, Stephen,
Hills, William,
Newman, Joseph,
Dudley, John,
Dudley, Sarah,
Atterbury, Samuel,
Brown, Abraham

KEMPSTON, WOBURN, Holborn Chancery Lane, Kempston Quart Pot, Woburn White Bear, tailor, stealing, clothing