Five years jail for umbrella thief

Five years jail for umbrella thief

Thousands of criminal records detailing the harsh punishments handed our to female convicts in Victorian times will be published online for the first time.

Family history website, Ancestry.co.uk is publishing more than 4,400 criminal records and 500 mugshots in its collection, which included one woman who received a five year sentence for stealing an umbrella.

They provide an astonishing insight into the way justice was done at the time, and indicted that gender and the offence committed was no barrier to the full force of the law.

Women and young girls featured in the records include Mary Richards, who was jailed for five years in 1880 at the age 59 for stealing 130 oysters valued at eight shillings.

Another tells of Dorcas Mary Snell, 45, who was sentenced to five years of imprisonment with hard labour in 1883 for the theft of a single piece of bacon, although she was paroled two years later.

Elizabeth Murphy, who stole the umbrella, received a five years of hard labour in 1884 and seven years of police supervision.

She served three years of her sentence before receiving parole in 1887.
Source: The Daily Mail

Published Feb 25 2011

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