Reference
QSR1824/384-385
Title
Examinations and depositions relating to William Basin of Cardington, labourer, accused of theft of a watch.
Date free text
1824
Production date
From: 1824 To: 1824
Scope and Content
Information of James Gore of Cardington, labourer. He was returning home from Bedford about 10 p.m. ‘I had been drinking, and I had smoked two pipes which made me very queer. I laid down under a hedge in the high road, near Mother’s house at Fenlake … several young and one woman came up to me …’ He recognised William Sletcher and James Chappell. They all left him and went into Sletcher’s house and he eventually got up and walked on. At this time he had a watch and two £1 notes in his pockets. He walked about another quarter of a mile and then laid down again. After about twenty minutes William Basin, William Sletcher and James Purser came up to him, helped him up, and Basin and Sletcher took an arm each and helped him along, Purser was wheeling a barrow with a cask in it. They all left him at the bottom of Harrowden Hill. About a quarter of an hour afterwards he found that the watch and money were gone. On reaching home he told his mother of his loss and then went straight to bed. Next morning at 7 a.m. he went to Purser’s house but he knew nothing about the things he had lost. ‘I then went to the Wise Man at St.Neots, and could get no assistance from him …’ he afterwards saw the watch at Mr Joyce’s at Bedford.
Information of Joseph Joyce of Bedford, watchmaker and silversmith. He bought an old watch with ‘a shagreen outside case’ from Mr Basin for 8/-. Later a woman came into the shop and identified it as her brother’s property and sent her brother to look at it, and he claimed it as his.
Information of James Purser of Cardington, labourer. Similar to evidence of James Gore. He told Basin afterwards that ‘Gore had been to the Wise Man and that Gore had lost his watch.’
Information of Stephen Prior of Bedford, constable. He helped to search Sletcher and found £1 3s 6d on him, which he said he had earned since he left prison, and professed he was innocent of the charge; he said Basin could also prove him innocent, it he would.
Reference
Level of description
item