Case Dismissed!

High Street, Sharnbrook, 1908 [Z1306/100/3/12]

Monday 9th November 1914: Miss Pepita Behrend of Sharnbrook appeared in court for the third time today. Her defending counsel stated that if it could be proved that she was born in this country then she was a naturalised subject. Her brother Michael Theodore Behrend, who had been a naturalised subject for 40 years, gave evidence on her behalf. He stated that he was born in 1852 and remembered 1864 when the whole of his family came to England. Pepita was born in 1865 at the residence of their grandmother in Seymour Street and subsequently lived at Clapham Common. His father returned to Germany only once, for a holiday in the 1870s, and lived in England until his death in 1890. He remembered his sister being baptised and believed the baptism certificate produced was hers. The Bench were satisfied with the evidence and the case was dismissed.

Source: Bedfordshire Times 13th November 1914