Anyone else found criminals?

[andrewalston]

This week I've been looking at the Criminal Registers just added on Ancestry. It explains why one of my 1st cousins 3 times removed was in prison at the 1891 cewnsus.

I'm glad he's not a direct ancestor. He got 12 years for rape. I went to the library and read the Lancaster Guardian for the court reports. I find myself in awe of the woman who stood up in court three times and told her story. "The statement of the prosecutrix was not materially shaken by the cross-examination to which she was subjected by the counsel for the defence". Good on her!

The people in court were surprised at the length of sentence handed down by the judge. The same day a chap up for malicious wounding was bound over to keep the peace, because his victim gave him a character reference. This judge was obviously an enlightened chap.

Anyone else found criminals in their tree and sided with the victims?

[millymcb]

I found  a newspaper report for someone I believe to be one of mine - being done for ticket fare evasion on a bus!   And then there was my great aunt who was in trouble for serving after hours in her pub....  But fortunately no real villians

Milly

[mosiefish]

Hi,

I had a look as on my husbands tree there was supposedly a murderer, but no first name was ever mentioned.  I reckon I have found him as he had a family surname as his middle name just like his brother   Bit of a let down really as he was aquitted of the crime of killing and slaying a certain person.  Still wondering whats the difference is between killing and slaying??     I too think I need the Lancaster Guardian as I can only find details of the aquittal in the online newspapers.

Mo

[Hibee]

Worse, I have a politician, in Phoenix, AZ.

Hibee

[Gillg]

I have a 9 year old relative who was convicted in 1876 of stealing some fruit and bread and was sentenced to 21 days hard labour and 4 years reform school.   It happened just before Christmas, and his father had already been in jail for neglecting his family, so I guess the lad was trying to look after his family.

http://vcp.e2bn.org/prisoners/2043-1811-dennis-fairey.html

Gillg

p.s.  I know he wasn't a Lancastrian, but I am.

[gingernut1]

How sad - did he serve his full term?

Ginger

[Gillg]

Haven't been able to find out, but he was back home with his family in time for the 1881 census. 

Gillg

[kooky]

Like GillG I am a Lancastrian, but the relative I found was b. Birmingham. He was Samuel Hyatt alias Clulo. He was my gt gr father's cousin. He was imprisoned for stealing a table cloth! July 1869.
I found the court case in one of the free Newspaper sites, sorry cant remember now
He was imprisoned for 4 months.
It does not say when he was released.
He did have a difficult time.... His father died when he was in his early teens. His mother re-married, then also died. He took his stepfather's name. His stepfather married his mother's sister, then died too!.This all happened before he was 18.
I never could find his birth, a marriage or a death or an entry in a census after the 1861!
Kooky
There is a lengthy thread about him in the Warwickshire board.
Sorry I still dont know how to link threads

[andrewalston]

My chap's uncle had also been in court, over 20 years earlier, charged with stealing two ducks.

The verdict then - NO BILL.