Punishment by whipping 3
Felonious stealing of a sheep
Another example of crime and punishment, briefly recorded in the Breconshire Quarter Sessions of 1737. The extract shown below records the fate of one David John. The reference to the property of a 'gentleman' is a reminder that the fate of those accused of stealing was often very much in the hands of the local farmers and landowners, because jury service was conditional upon the ownership of property.
Breconshire
Quarter Sessions
Epiphany 1737
Powys
County Archives
Brec/QS/O/2
This extract from the Order Books reads as follows:
"County Goal
David John indicted at this Sessions for the felonious stealing
of one weather sheep of the goods of David Williams gentleman
is upon his Tryal found Guilty and ordered to be publickly whipt
in the Town of Brecon Tomorrow morning between the Hours of Ten
and eleven of the Clock and after Such whiping to be discharged."
Perhaps David John may be regarded as fortunate, for one William Prichard was ordered to be transported for no less than seven years for sheep stealing at the very same sitting of the Quarter Sessions, as shown on one of the transportation pages.
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