Note
Although Samson is referred to here as Samuel, a am quite sure that this is him as the age of him and his brother Edward correspond with my records.
READING MERCURY, OXFORD GAZETTE, NEWBURY HERALD, AND BERKS COUNTY PAPER, SATURDAY , APRIL 10, 1886
Page , 5th column under the heading “SECOND COURT”
STEALING FOWLS AT SANDHURST
(Before W.G. Mount, Esq., M.P., Vice-Chairman.)
Edward Grainger, aged 24, and SAMUEL (SAMSON??) GRAINGER, aged 18 (on bail) were indicted for having stolen four fowls, value 10s., the property of John Sampson Gregory, at Sandhurst, on the 20th February last.
They pleaded not guilty.
Mr Nash was counsel for the prosecution; the prisoners were undefended.
The prosecutor said he was a schoolmaster. On the 20th February he had a number of fowls in a house at the bottom of the garden. The next morning he missed four of them. He noticed a great disturbance of feathers in the fowl-house, and he noticed foot prints on the ground. On the 22nd February, in company with the police, he compared the foot-prints with the prisoners’ boots, and they exactly corresponded.
P.c. Goddard, stationed at Sandhurst, said he received information of the robbery on the 21st February and examined Mr. Gregory’s premises. He subsequently examined some foot-prints, which corresponded in every detail with the prisoners’ boots. There were foot-prints of three persons. He traced the foot-prints from the prosecutor’s house across a ploughed field to a brook, there being a quantity of feathers along the route. He traced some feathers into a grass field, on to the South-Eastern Railway and into a wood, the foot tracks being visible up to within 300 yards of a house occupied by a man named Lyford. Witness subsequently went to Samuel Grainger’s house at Yateley, and he gave up his boots to witness. He afterwards apprehended the two Graingers and Lyford, but Lyford was discharged by the magistrates. Samuel Grainger, in answer to the charge, said, “I suppose you will have the other two that was with me –Patsey Lyford and my brother Ted.” There were peculiarities in the boots belonging to both prisoners, and the foot-marks on the ground were very plain.
P.c. Deane gave evidence with regard to the examination of the footprints and the comparison of the boots with them.
Augustus Blimott, son of the landlord of the “Railway Tavern,” ) which is near the prosecutor’s house) at Sandhurst, said both prisoners left that house about ten o’clock on the night of the 20th February.
The prisoners said they know nothing of the robber; they did not go on to the prosecutor’s premises.
The Vice-chairman carefully summed up the cast to the jury,pointing out that the evidence was circumstantial.
The jury asked the prosecutor several questions, and in reply Mr. Gregory said that on the 20th February the ground was quite damp. The feathers produced corresponded with the feathers of his birds. He had not been able to trace the fowls.
After a brief deliberation, the jury convicted the prisoners, and they were each sentenced to three months’ imprisonment with hard labour. They were removed protesting their innocence.
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