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BOROUGH PETTY SESSIONS
Wednesday, September 17th
Before E. S. Wiles,
Esq. (in the chair), and T. Kinder, Esq.
CHARGE OF STEALING POTATOES.
James Stratton
and Joseph Stratton were charged with
stealing two bushels of potatoes, value 6s 6d, the property of Mr. James Peppercorn, in the parish of St Peter, on the 12th September.
Mr. Annesley
appeared for Joseph Stratton.
Police-constable Weeds
deposed: I was on night-duty on Thursday, the 11th September. About a quarter
past one o’clock on Friday morning, the 12th Sept., I was looking over the
wall near the Cricketers public house,
into Mr. Reynolds’ meadow, when I saw
some person at the bottom of the meadow. I got over the fence and saw a person
making for the direction of the Jolly Sailor
public-house. I went along the side of the fence, and when I got
about fifty yards I could see there were two persons; one was walking behind
the other in a line. I went towards the pond, and the two men went to the
other side of it. They had not apparently seen me at that time. I could see
that each of them had a bag laden with something on his back. I went towards
them, intending to meet them, and I went up to within ten yards of them, when
they dropped the bags and ran away. I called out to them, and ran away. I
called out to them, and ran after them. I caught the prisoner James Stratton. I called out after the other
prisoner, "You’ve no call to run, Stratton,
I know you." The man who ran away was Joseph
Stratton, a son of James Stratton.
It was a moonlight night, and I saw him distinctly. I brought the prisoner, James Stratton, after a good deal of struggling
and resistance, to the police-station. I called up a man in Snatchup-alley named Waller
to assist me in taking charge of the two bags, and with his assistance they
were conveyed to the police-station. The two sacks contain about two and a
half bushels of potatoes, of a value of 2s 6d a bushel. Between five and six o’clock
the same morning I and Police-constable Quint,
of the County Constabulary, in company with Mr. Peppercorn’s
foreman, Francis Wood, went to the potatoe
[sic] field …I traced the footmarks of two persons from the potatoe field
and across another ploughed field, towards the railway footbridge, and into
the meadow where the prisoners were found. – About half-past seven o’clock
on Sunday morning, the 14th Sept., I went to the prisoner Joseph Stratton’s house, at Stone-cross …
Police-constable Quint
(Herts Constabulary) said …
Francis Wood
said: I am foreman to Mr. James Peppercorn,
and reside at the farm, in St Peters
parish. My master has a field of potatoes near Sandpit-lane.
On the 11th September I was engaged in ploughing up the potatoes, and left
them on the land in rows for the night. …
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