Hay - Crime and punishment
Six lashes in 1756
of Quarter Sessions
records of this type
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Crime and punishment
The brief entry shown here records the punishment to be inflicted upon a woman from Hay, as decreed during a meeting of the Breconshire Quarter Sessions held in Brecon in 1756.
At that time it was a routine practice for convicted felons, male and female, to be stripped to the waist and whipped on the bare back in public. This was invariably done in a prominent place in town and on market day, when large numbers of people would be able to view the spectacle. A rather harsh early interpretation of justice 'being seen to be done', perhaps.
Breconshire
Quarter Sessions,
Midsummer 1756
Powys
County Archives
B/QS/O/4
"Hay - It is ordered that Ann Edward convicted at this Session for buying goods knowing that they were stolen, that she be stripped at the Conduit the next Market day and receive six lashes and then to be Discharged".
