John Lake, a 21 year old cowman from Chatham was indicted for stealing a cow valued at 9 shillings from John Salter.

John Salter was a respectable farmer from Notting Barns in Kensington who had placed his cow and its calf safely in one of his fields in the Harrow Road on 15 January 1835. This was the last he had seen of the cow. On the 19th January, John Lake and his accomplice, Francis Davis aged 15 took the animal to Mr. Barker, a salesman in Smithfield, saying that a Mr. Westbrook had requested Barker to dispose of the cow. They left the cow with Barker for the afternoon and in the evening returned to find that the cow had not yet been sold. They decided to take the cow and leave in at the green yard at Paddington. Here they claimed that it was a stray cow and therefore claimed a reward for taking care of it. The keeper of the yard refused to reward them however did give them 1 shilling. For this Lake abused the keeper and told him if they had taken it to Kensington they would have got 5 shillings for it. This led to the two thieves' undoing as it led to the discovery of the owner.  Lake and Davis were subsequently taken in to custody and on the 2nd February 1835 were placed before the bar at the Old Bailey. Francis Davis managed to produce several people who could give him a good character. This worked very much in his favour as he was acquitted of the charge, the jury believing him to have been in the dupe of the older Lake.