why would you want a black sheep?

[groom]

I'm still looking for that elusive black sheep. The only thing I've found so far is that my great x3 grandfather was fined 20 shillings in 1850 for selling spirits at a fair without a licence. He was a licensed victualer at the time and claimed that he thought that licence covered him.

[jacquelineve]

    Shouldn't laugh really, my g.gran was given 14 days in prison for assaulting a pub manager
 with a pint "cup"  newspaper report said she was known as"a very violent woman" Her twin
brother had 31 convictions for being drunk & disorderly.

3x.g.grandparents chased a baliff out of their house with a poker!

2xg.grandad assaulted someone with his "billycock"

Just a few of my ancestors who have put a bit of meat on the bones!

Jackie

Jackie

[stormtroop]

Just what I was thinking, Giblet!

I wonder how I could search for them then??, oh you have got me started now!

[stormtroop]

And how could you not like a husband-and-wife team of serial blasphemers [my 8th g grandparents] who were both hauled into court repeatedly for diverse offenses against the public order, once for "swearing by the life of God & blood of Christ, & that hee was beyond God & above the heavens & the stars, at which tyme the sayd Andrews did seeme to have drunke too much & did at that tyme call those witnesses doggs, toads & hoores bird."

I think I fit that bill now!, no need to go back in my family tree. 

[stormtroop]

You just have to look at the actual crime and the severity of the punishment dished out for said crime. 1 I found, deportation for stealing half a loaf. There's the old saying, "Needs Must". If you were starving, then what's worst. The loaf or the colonies. At least with the loaf, there was a chance that you would not get caught. Some were "black sheep" just because they were caught. Others, just like today, had the wealth to bypass the legal system.

Regards

Malky

  excellent point especially during the " Bloody Code " era

[stormtroop]

I have just read the " Remittance man " post, now I appreciate this one. I was  vaguely aware that the upper classes dealt with errant sons and daughters  by sending sons abroad and daughters to Europe to be married off to minor aristocracy. I seem to remember that sons of aristocracy in the public arena were sent abroad if they got the lady's maid pregnant and the maid was sent away at the family's expence to some "aunt" somewhere to have the child. 

[stormtroop]

Altogether a great post , once again thank you for your informative replies, I have only just joined the forum. Your patience and replies are appreciated.

So, err, where would I start looking for these black sheep ancestors??.

[Erato]

So, err, where would I start looking for these black sheep ancestors??.

The newspapers, especially small local papers.

[Mike in Cumbria]

Reading some of the old court reports is fascinating and very distracting. Many of the assault cases sound exactly like the things you read in the local papers today, along the lines of "The witness saw the defendant staring at him in the pub and asked him who he was looking at and the defendant asked him who was asking and punched him in the face". Others are more specific to the times but have echoes of today's misdemeanours such as "furiously riding a horse along the high street".

One sad one that I found was of somone who slapped the rump of a horse carrying a drunk man home - the horse bolted and the man fell off, cracking his skull and later died. A random act of bravado that led to tragedy - like many of today's cases.