Cambridge Independent Press 10 Oct 1868: Thomas Lloyd charged with receiving stolen fowls

HAUXTON. — Moses Howe, a labourer of Little Shelford, was charged with stealing 9 fowls of the value of 10s., the property of James Lilley, Hauxton, on the 29th of March; and Thomas Lloyd, a labourer, of Trumpington, was charged with receiving them, knowing them to have been stolen. The prisoners were brought up on remand, and the following evidence was taken: — William Turpin: I am foreman to Mr. James Lilley, of Royston, on his farm at Hauxton. I recollect David Robinson and John Howe being apprehended some short time ago, before which I had missed some fowls off Mr. Lilley’s farm. The last lot we lost was about a fortnight before the apprehension of Robinson and Howe, and that was on a Sunday morning. We lost from 15 to 20 altogether: I can’t say how many. They were of different breed. Prisoners live at Little Shelford. The previous lot were missed in March. Howe and Robinson were captured on the 5th of April, when we missed the second lot of fowls. — George Wilson, a labourer, Trumpington: Sometime ago, about a week or a fortnight before Dopper Robinson and Chubby Howe were apprehended for stealing Mr. Lilley’s fowls. I was coming out of the yard where I live, when I saw on Sunday morning, about half-past seven o’clock, Moses Howe coming down the turnpike road from the direction of Hauxton. As I knew him and had worked for him, I walked for him to overtake me that I might speak to him. When he came up, we walked along together. He said he had some fowls to sell, I asked him where they were, and he said in the hedgerow between Mr. Wiles’ and Mr. Man’s fields. We walked on together, and had got as far as the coach ‘and horses’ gateway, and, as I knew that James Smith, who lived in part of the house, occasionally dealt in fowls, I took Howe to Smith’s gateway. I spoke to Smith and told him Howe had some fowls to sell. He asked whether they were alive. Howe replied, “No, they were all dead.” Smith said he did not deal in dead fowls, but in live ones. We then left Smith’s, and were coming away home, when Howe asked me if I would go up the road to look at them. I consented to do so, and we both walked up to the field he had named. I waited on the roadway, and he went into the field and fetched the fowls to me. They were in a guano bag, and he said will you look at them. I said I don’t mind. He turned them out and counted them, and said there were ten. They were a mixed lot, some of them rather fine ones. One was an old cockerel. I should say he was two years old by the look of him. Some of them appeared a mixture of the Cochin China breed, as they had yellow legs. After I had seen the fowls, I left him, and saying I would go to see Tom. Lloyd, to see if he would buy them. I went to Lloyd’s and told him a man had some fowls to sell, and asked him to come with me. We were returning to where I had left Howe, but we met him in the lane near Mr. Jones’ orchard. I told Lloyd that was the man who had the fowls to sell, and he knew him then as well as I did. John (sic) Lloyd asked him where the fowls were, and Howe said “you come along with me and I will show you”. We all came back to the Hauxton-road, and when we got to the railway bridge, Howe got over the fence, and said they are down here, and Lloyd followed him down the bank under the bridge. Howe went to some old sleepers and pulled out the bag that I had just before seen - the fowls were still in it. Howe asked Lloyd a shilling for each of them. Lloyd said, I have not as much money in my pockets, but I will pay you all I have, which was five shillings. Howe said take them away, and you may have the bag and all. Lloyd took them away towards his house down the Bedford-line. Howe and I then came to Shelford-road. He went that way home, and I came on towards my own house. Nothing had been said as to where the fowls came from, but after Lloyd had left us with the fowls, Howe said he fell off a tree and nearly broke his neck when he got them. I saw Lloyd at the Tally-ho on the Sunday evening after he had bought the fowls. He told me Tom. Neaves had plucked them for him, but there were only nine, not ten, as Howe had stated. — Thomas Neaves gave evidence of seeing 9 or 11 fowls in the possession of Lloyd, and he helped to pluck them. — P.c. Longstaff proved that, whilst making investigations in another case, he searched the house of the prisoner, and found some feathers produced, — Superintendent Stretton gave evidence, in the course of which, he said, the prisoner Lloyd made the following statement: — Some time ago this summer, it must have been three or four months, George Wilson came to me on a Sunday, and said here’s some fowls up the road. I asked him where they were, and he said, when he saw them, they were up Shelford-road, and the man has got them for sale; then he and I went up the lane and met Howe near Mr. Toller’s orchard. We all went up the lane to the Hauxton railway bridge; when we got under the bridge, and Howe took a guano bag off some sleepers, and showed me nine fowls that were in it. Some of them were very small: they were not all of a size. He asked me to give him 5s. for them, but I could not, as I had only 4s. 6d., and that I gave him. I took the fowls home in the bag. They were all dead. Tom. Neaves helped me to pluck them, and I had them to eat as I wanted them. The feathers were clipped up I think, but I don’t know what my misus did with them. — The Magistrates committed the prisoners for trial at the Sessions, and refused bail.