| Transported beyond the seas |
Glossary
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The images on this page are from the records of a case which came to the court at Presteigne in 1844. The blue ink has faded to brown over the years and the ink is showing through from the other side of the paper making it difficult to read. The story told in these lines of old writing is very real though. It is the story of John Edwards of Llanbadarn Fynydd. |
Feloniously - against the law. | |
| In early Victorian times sentences for crimes were much more severe than today. Theft of animals was punished very severely. This is perhaps not surprising as most of the Justices of the Peace who decided punishment were landowners, and the men on the jury were mainly farmers! |
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extract above tells us that John Edwards was accused of - "Feloniously stealing one wether sheep of the value of ten shillings the goods and chattels of one John Arthur..." |
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Ten shillings is 50p although the money was worth a lot more in Victorian times. This next extract records his punishment. |
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reads: "that the said John Edwards be transported to such place beyond the seas as Her Majesty with the advice of her Privy Council shall direct for the term of Seven years" This legal language means that the Queen's advisers would decide where he went. At this time prisoners were sent to penal colonies in Australia, where they would be forced to work in the fields under guard. Here they could be whipped and forced to work on the treadmill if they did not behave. After seven years of this John Edwards would have been turned loose with no means of getting back to Wales. . |
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