It was three hundred years ago today at the Old Bailey, in the second of our new series of extracts from the court archives, that:
Elizabeth Bell was Indicted for a Trespass in endeavouring to break into the Lodging of Charles Millar , with an intent to steal his Goods .
The Evidence Depos’d that the Prisoner came to the Prosecutors Lodging and unlock’d the Door, that she was taken in the Fact, and searching her, divers false Keys, were found upon her, the Jury found her Guilty of the Trespass.
She was ‘fined’.
And ‘whipped’.
If anyone chooses to recreate her punishment today to mark the anniversary, might I suggest that you waive the usual “one for every year, plus one” formula for a birthday whacking?
Did the fine and the whipping have any relationship? Like 10 shillings, 10 strokes? Or perhaps a multiple, 10 shillings, 20 strokes?
And I’ve got to ask, was it public or private?