Victorian Brecon - the case of the missing geese

Brecon and district
Crime and punishment

	The case of the missing geese	Glossary
	On the 18th of October 1841 a young man was brought out of Brecon gaol where had been awaiting trial, and brought before the Justices of the Peace. The court records tell us who this young man was... As we can see from this extract from the list of men brought to trial that day, he was Thomas Arthur. (The Neither in this extract means he could not read or write.) From other old records from the court we can piece together how it was that this young man ended up in such trouble.	Justices of the Peace - educated and property-owning men who ran the affairs of a county for the Queen.

	In the July that year a man called David Williams of Merthyr Cynog went to feed his geese one morning and found eleven of them missing. He reported the crime to the authorities and later gave a statement to the Justices. An extract from this is shown below.

	It reads: "I had geese on the Eppynt Hill in the parish of Merthyr Cynog in the month of June last. I saw them on the Friday and Saturday before Brecon July Fair last - and missed eleven of them the week after the Fair. From information I received, my son and myself accompanied James Phillips and his son to Modrydd and there found the eleven geese I had lost..." The man who had Mr Williams' geese said that he had bought them at the July Fair at Brecon, from Thomas Arthur.