Reference
QSR1822/314
Title
Examinations and depositions. Examination of John Campbell of Blunham, esquire.
Date free text
1822
Production date
From: 1822 To: 1822
Scope and Content
He went to the public house in Blunham and saw in custody of the constable of Blunham two men, John Adams and John Thomas - there was kept also the cart and the horse ..... on that cart was found a tin painted with the name if John Thomas, fishmonger, Castle Street, Clerkenwell No.148130. The cart had an inclosed body with two small trap doors opening with hinges, holes that would let in a free current of air and upon metallic springs, perfectly adapted for conveying live pigeons - the trap doors calculated apparently for putting in any small animal alive. Upon the cart there was a flatt or basket containing live pigeons ....The body of the cart seemed filled with live pigeons, the number since ascertained to be about eighteen dozens.
He then went with the cart to Thomas Bennett's farm at Tempsford and carried out examination of cart tracks and footmarks [as in QSR1822/312]. He then accompanied the cart to a place in .... Sandy about equidistant nearly a mile from Mr Clarkson's and Mr Bennett's dovecotes - 'there are in the neighbourhood a great many dovecotes...'
After marking the birds and letting them fly [as in QSR1822/312], he was returning home by Mr Clarkson's farm about a quater of an hour afterwards when he saw 'a pigeon with the paper on its leg pitch and drink at the watering place and then fly up and go into a hole at the end of the barn' ... he ... saw several pigeons come out and walk on the roof of the dovecote with the paper on their legs.
He saw again the next day 'several .... pigeons about the yard with the paper on their leg and perfectly domesticated. He has no doubt that they were Mr Clarkson's property.
Reference
Level of description
item