ABSTRACT
Whipping was at one time the penalty for thieving as well as “vagabondism and sedition.” We gather from a calendar of prisoners tried at the Old Bailey in December 1689, that Mary Lamb, indicted for stealing a silver spoon, value 9s., from William Story of St. Martins-in-the-Fields, with whom she was a servant, was found guilty of theft to the value of 10d.; and that Jane Peel, servant, indicted for stealing money and jewellery to the value of between £30 and £40, was also found guilty to the value of 10d., along with Hannah Basset, who was indicted for stealing some cloth of the value of £4, and likewise found guilty to the value of 10d., were all sentenced to be flogged. The first mentioned was ordered to be whipped from Newgate to Holborn Bars, and the other two from Newgate to Aldgate. In the calendar for the next year, 1690, at the same court, we find one Jane Symson, alias Bibbey, sentenced to be whipped from Newgate to Holborn Bars for stealing various articles from the house of Mr. Todd, her master. Part of the goods were found upon her, and she was at once found guilty to the value of 10d. This restriction of value to the small sum of 10d. saved thieves from being convicted of a capital offence.
