'Another robbery by Taylor': George Pittingale's (Pickingill's) jacket, Southend Standard, 25 August 1887

Southend Standard and Essex Weekly Advertiser, Thursday 25 August 1887, page 8. Rochford Petty Sessions: James Taylor, "of no home", is charged with stealing a jacket and a pair of leather gloves, valued at 4s., from George Pittingale at Canewdon on 17 August. This is the fullest of the three reports and the only one to give Pickingill's own evidence: he "left the jacket in a field at Canewdon Hall, where he was at work; in the pocket were a pair of gloves." P.c. Freeman found them on the prisoner, who was committed for trial. In August 1887 George Pickingill, then about seventy and still working in the fields at Canewdon Hall, had his jacket and a pair of leather gloves stolen while he worked. Three cuttings follow the case from the petty sessions to the sentence. George Pickingill (1816-1909), farm labourer of Canewdon, Essex, was remembered in the village as a cunning man, and Eric Maple's writing in the 1960s made him the best-known figure of the Canewdon witch traditions. The newspapers of his lifetime spell the name Pittingale, Pettingale and Pickingale. One of a set of documents on him found by William Wallworth. The small crop is the paragraph itself; the full page follows. How to cite: 'Rochford Petty Sessions. Canewdon. Another robbery by Taylor', Southend Standard and Essex Weekly Advertiser, 25 August 1887, p. 8 (British Newspaper Archive). Alexandrian Witchcraft Timeline & Archive.

ROCHFORD PETTY SESSIONS. CANEWDON. ANOTHER ROBBERY BY TAYLOR. --- James Taylor, of no home, was charged with stealing a jacket and a pair of leather gloves, valued at 4s, the property of George Pittingale, at Canewdon, on the 17th August. Complainant said he left the jacket in a field at Canewdon Hall, where he was at work; in the pocket were a pair of gloves. He gave information to P.c. Freeman, who found the property in prisoner's possession. Committed for trial.