ABSTRACT
The full weight of the law was nevertheless not always applied. The rural aristocracy – who sat as judges and ‘justices of the peace’ – used their prerogative of clemency and leniency in order to demonstrate their power over the ‘lower orders’. Hence, evidence of ‘respectability’ in the form of references from a benevolent landowner, confirmation of significant religious observance and piety, or the simple discretionary whim of a JP could lead to a lesser sentence. These alternatives included transportation to a colony, a nonfatal, if brutal, corporal punishment or even release (Thompson, 1975).
