Punishment For Theft
Information
1800: At the Quarter Sessions of the Peace for the Liberty of Peterborough one Samuel Letts of Borough Fen was convicted of stealing three sheepskins, the property of Mr John Whitwell of Werrington. He was alleged to have taken the skins from three trees in the parish of Peakirk. In his defence, the accused alleged that he had got himself lost on Borough Fen Common and, being very weary, he took the skins down for the purpose of resting on them. He was found guilty of theft and was sentenced to one months' imprisonment, and to be publicly whipped on two market days. Public whipping of miscreants was a great attraction to the community at large - but not so good for the sufferer. (Lincoln, Rutland and Stamford Mercury)
Taken from The Peterborough Book of Days by Brian Jones, The History Press,2014.