Crime & Punishment in 1888

'''Whether we know it or not, most of us have some criminal ancestry lurking in our past, awaiting discovery. If you are a family historian you may well have unearthed one or two.'''

Elsewhere we tell the story of Richard Bennett and his friend Thomas Mansell who were transported to Australia for the capital offence of stealing a sheep; they were not even successful! And they were not the only Cradley people to be transported for similar offences.

However, most crime was even more petty, and on this page we list some of the cases of Drunkeness and Assault that took place (allegedly) in Cradley during the single year of 1888.

The list came to light during a recent conversation between Jill Guest and Peter Barnsley, when Peter came up with some work he had done years ago, transcribing court cases from the County Express newspaper in which Cradley people were implicated, either as perpetrator or victim, or both.

If you had ancestors in Cradley in 1888, you may find one or more them named here. For example, Richard Jones of Two Gates, fined for being drunk and disorderly, was my great, great uncle, while Eliza Partridge, fined for striking Thomas Barnsley Nock on the head with a cup in a public house, was my great, great grandma. We are not told what Tom Nock did to cause her to do it. Perhaps she just disliked him.

Read on, and see if you find anyone you know...

Nigel Brown

Note: The fines and costs are given in the money system in use at the time, which persisted until decimalisation in 1971. Prior to that every Pound Sterling (₤) comprised 20 shillings ("/-"), each of which comprised 12 pence. There were also half pennies and quarter pennies (farthings).

One pound (₤1.0.0) in 1888 was the equivalent of about ₤72 today (2012).

Drunkenness

Assault