Next in our occasional series of posts on the anniversaries of real-life court cases recorded in the Old Bailey’s records…

On 4 December 1799, Mary Loftus and Sarah Edwards were brought before judge Grose, charged with “feloniously stealing” “five pounds of soap, value 3s. and a linen shirt, value 2s. the property of William Barnfield .”

George Osborne testified that he was watching his neighbour Mr Barnfield’s yard:

The prisoner at the bar, Loftus, came out of the house; she was servant to Mr. Barnfield… I saw her, followed by another woman, I cannot say who it was, and go into the warehouse; Loftus said to the other person, shut the door; it appeared to me that they had shut the warehouse-door, because I lost the light; I saw them go in; I gave information to Mr. Duffield, a friend of Mr. Barnfield’s; I staid a little longer, and saw the prisoner Loftus come out, and another woman, but whether it was the other prisoner I cannot say; they came along the yard and went into the house, and I saw no more of them; the prisoner Loftus has lived four years in Mr.Barnfield’s place, and I never heard any thing disrespectful of her till this time.

Thomas Sapwell, an officer takes up the story:

On Wednesday night; about six o’clock. I perceived the prisoner Edwards come out of Mr. Barnfield’s shop; I watched her some way up Bishopsgate-street, and I stopped her; I felt something hard in her pocket, and I took her into Messrs. Barnet and Cookson’s, haberdashers; I there searched her, and in her right-hand pocket I found two cakes of soap; under her left arm I found a shirt, and some more things in her left-hand pocket, which are not mentioned in the indictment; I have had them in my possession ever since. (Produces them).

Mr Barnfield’s initials on the shirt were enough to damn the girls. Their defence was brief, the sentence inevitable:

Loftus’s defence. I have nothing to say, but to beg for mercy.

Edwards’s defence. I beg the mercy of the Court, and leave the rest to my counsel.

The prisoner Edwards called four witnesses, who gave her a good character.

Loftus, GUILTY . (Aged 25.)

Edwards, GUILTY. (Aged 26.)

Privately whipped , and discharged.

I wonder whether the judge asked the punishment officer to take their pleas for mercy into account. Somehow I rather doubt it. I can’t help but wonder whether the two were hardened criminals, defiant in the face of their floggings, or good-girls-gone-bad quaking as they were led to the whipping post.