Reference
QSR1822/367-368
Title
Examinations and depositions. Information of Thomas Gregory and his wife Elizabeth and deposition of Charles Coombs, relating to the theft of 4 turkeys from Thomas Gregory.
Date free text
1822
Production date
From: 1822 To: 1822
Scope and Content
Information of Thomas Gregory of Stagsden, farmer and butcher. He lost 4 turkeys which were later found in a sack at Mr Coombs house at Bedford.Information of Elizabeth, wife of Thomas Gregory. After making enquiries about the 4 turkeys she heard that 4 had been found in a sack marked 'M. Golding, Biddenham' at Bedford. She sent a lad to Mr Golding to ask if he had lost any turkeys but as he had not she went to the house of Mr Coombs at Bedford and there saw 4 turkeys hanging up in the brewhouse. She then went to the constable of Bedford and asked him to go to Stagsden to arrest some persons whom she suspected of the theft.Deposition of Charles Coombs of Bedford, brick and lime burner. 'I was at the Star public house in Bedford on Friday evening ... between 8 and 9 o'clock. Two young men came into the public house and after some time a little girl came in for some beer and tumbled over a sack which was lying in the passage. She spilt the beer and began to cry. I went to her and felt the sack; a man by name of [Richard] Stokes said "stand out of the way" - I went away and sat down. He brought the sack into the tap room; while it was near me I felt it and thought hares were in it. I said to ... John Moore, a brewer, "they have got some hares in that sack"; he said they were not, I offered to lay a shilling that they were ... Moore went after Stokes to examine the bag and came back and said "you are very much mistaken"
... I went out of the Star and was going up to my stable when I saw a man with a sack in the middle of the High Street; I followed him to a rick of hay and beans belonging to Mr Brown on the Clapham Road. I went up to it and saw a sack tied in the middle close to it. I help'd untie the sack and found there were 4 black turkeys .... I found the name of M Golding.
I went over to Mr Golding the next morn to know if he had lost any turkeys. He at first said yes, oh stop says he, I don;t know. He called to a man to know if his turkeys were right, the man said yes. He then asked him if he had counted them - he said no: how then do you know says he that they are right? He told him to go and count them, which he did, and said the were right. Perhaps I may have lost some at Stagsden. I said they were not at my house but in a barn and I will go back, take them out of the sack and hang them up, which I did, but never heard he had lost any.
On Sunday afternoon returning from church ... my mother told me some young men had come after the turkeys ... a man and a boy said Mr Gregory had sent them for some turkeys ... but I refused to give them up.
On Monday Mrs Gregory herself came and said she could swear to the turkeys, but I would not give them up without going to a magistrate. I went with the Bedford constable to Stagsden to Mr Gregory's and from thence to Mr Fenwickes at Kempston.
Reference
Level of description
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