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On 3 July 1751, George Stediford stood in the dock at the
Sessions House in Old Bailey Street, London, to face a charge of Simple Grand Larceny, or, in
today's language - theft.
He was indicted for stealing two silver teaspoons to the value of 4
shillings, being the property of one, John Gladen, the alleged theft
having taken place on 31 May 1751. |
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The Old Bailey Sessions House, 1824 |
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As he entered the dock, George Stediford must have felt very apprehensive. The crime of which he stood accused - Simple Grand
Larceny - was the most common offence at this time. It meant the theft
of any goods higher in value than 1 shilling and applied to thefts where
no assault or breaking and entering had taken place. If found guilty as
charged, he faced a death sentence - if the jury felt that the value of
the goods was probably less than 1 shilling but still found him guilty
of theft, he faced transportation for at least 7 years.
Having been held in prison since May until the
day of his trial, George
would have gleaned knowledge from other prisoners, if not from his own
previous experience, of the legal system which he faced. It was so
heavily weighted against the Defendant that unless he had friends with
influence or money for bribes, the outcome was not in much doubt. |
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The
various Stentiford families of the 17th and 18th centuries lived in a harsh world where
felonies were punished by death and misdemeanours by a barbarous range
of judicial remedies that took no account of individual
circumstances. In the villages of Devon there was
comparatively little crime.
Anyone who did step out of line was moved on, put in the stocks or taken
to Exeter for trial.
In the cities, there were no police and a growing crime rate. It was
the view of the judiciary at the time that Draconian sentences were a deterrent which is
why macabre punishments were carried out in public. |
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Public Hanging |
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The place where George's trial took place was not the "Old Bailey"
we know today but an older building known as the Sessions House
which stood in Old Bailey Street. People held in prisons in the City of
London or the County of Middlesex were brought to the old Newgate Gaol (which stood nearby)
a day or so before their trial. |
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When John Howard and Elizabeth Fry set out on their long
road to reform the prison system, their activities were triggered by
conditions in a later prison, also called Newgate, erected on the site of
the ancient
gatehouse which had stood here for centuries.
The replacement prison remained in being until 1902 and was only
closed because the land on which it stood was needed for the building of the new Central
Criminal Court which we now refer to as the Old Bailey. |
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Old Newgate Prison |
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