Gloucester Journal, 9th April 1864 – Robbery at an inn:
John Perkins, ostler, was charged with stealing and also with feloniously receiving a watch and chain, the property of Mr. J. J. Bennett, of Chaxhill.
Mr. Weightman prosecuted and stated that the property the prisoner was charged with stealing, was a silver watch and gold chain, lost so far back as 1859, and were not discovered until last month. The prosecutor, in the month of August 1859, went to the Bolt, his watch and chain being at the time safe; he fell asleep in the smoking room, and when he awoke his watch and chain were missing. The prisoner at the time was ostler at the inn, and it would be shown that shortly afterwards, certainly before the following November, and while the prisoner was in service at the inn, he sold the watch and chain to a person who retained possession of the property until the circumstances led the police to make enquiries, when the watch was given to the police.
Mr. Bennett was called and deposed to the foregoing facts. He was cross-examined by the prisoner, who said Mr. Bennett went down the yard of the inn with a young woman on the day the robbery; this Mr. Bennett denied but seemed to have but an imperfect recollection of circumstances attending the robbery.
Mr. John Dowding, who accompanied Mr, Bennett to the Bolt, said he left him asleep at the inn; at that time, he had the gold chain and watch; subsequently, the prosecutor complained that his watch and chain hail been stolen.
Mr. Jenkins, of the Talbot, who kept the Bolt at the time of the robbery, said a day or two after Mr. Bennett was at his house, he complained of having lost his watch and chain, but did not say he was robbed at the Bolt.
By the Judge: I always found the prisoner honest while in my service.
William Turk, chairmaker, of Norton, said while the prisoner, who was his brother in-law, lived at the Bolt Inn, he visited him at Norton, and brought a “white” watch and a “yellow” chain, and asked him to buy them; witness gave 2/. for the watch and chain. Witness retained the watch and chain until last month, when he gave them to P.S. Brown.
Mr. William Mann, jeweller, said he sold the watch produced to Mr. Legge of Chaxhill, in August 1856. He believed he sold the chain produced or a similar one to Mr. Bennett. The watch had a silver chain attached to it when sold. The price of the watch was 8l. 15s. and the price of the chain would be from 2l. 10s to 3l.
By the Judge: The watch and chain would be worth about 8l. in 1859 as second-hand articles.
Sergt. Brown said that Turk stated, in the presence of the prisoner, that he bought the watch and chain of the prisoner for 2l. about five years ago. Prisoner said: “I did sell him the watch and chain.” Prisoner, on being charged with stealing the watch and chain when ostler at the Bolt, said “I bought the watch and chain of chap that Sergt. Mackenzie enlisted when I was at the Bolt; I gave him 30s for them at the stable door.” Witness asked him how he accounted for the possession of the chain? He said he bought the chain for 5s attached to a pinchbeck watch, of a chap in Gloucester the same week he bought the watch. He added that he did not know the man he bought the chain of.
Mr. Jenkins was re-called, and in reply to the Judge said the prisoner’s business would not lead him into the smoking-room. He did not see Mr. Bennett with any female and did not remember seeing any one in the smoking room, except Mr. Dowding, while Mr. Bennett was there.
The prisoner was found guilty of stealing the watch.
Sergt. Brown said, in reply to the Judge, that he had heard nothing against the prisoner since 1859.
The Judge sentenced him three months’ hard labour.
Information and research kindly submitted by Dr. Martyn Beaufort.