Crime and punishment
An unlicensed seller of ale !
The document from the records of the Quarter Sessions shown on this page is an example of one of the less serious offences dealt with by the courts.
The records contain many papers dealing with the regular licensing of inns and alehouses, and in this case it seems that one Tobias Davies of Hay-on-Wye was caught selling ale without authority to do so in 1777. The penalty of forty shillings was a significant sum of money for the time.
Breconshire
Quarter Sessions
Easter 1777
Powys
County Archives
B/Q/SR
"County of Brecon}
Be it remembered that on this fourteenth Day of April in the year one thousand seven hundred and seventy seven Tobias Davies of the Town of Hay in the said County yeoman was duly convicted before me John Hughes Clerk one of his Majesty's Justices of the Peace for the County of Brecon for selling ale without being duly licensed so to do, according to the statutes in such case made and provided whereby he hath forfeited the sum of forty shillings this being the first offence. Given under my Hand and Seal the Day and Year above written
J Hughes"
