Policing and Punishment in London, 1660-1750 - J.M. Beattie

years’ incarceration, a few of these men saved from the gallows by the juries’ ver-

dicts were sentenced to a term in the house of correction. Those convicted of

petty larceny were invariably sentenced to be whipped.

With respect to the trial of men accused of the offences for which men and

(after 1692 ) women could plead benefit of clergy, the patterns of verdicts and

sentences did not change as noticeably after the Revolution (Table 7. 2 ). The

judges continued to take advantage of the discretion created by the rules sur-

rounding clergy to threaten some of these men with capital punishment, as they

had on occasion before the Revolution—denying them clergy on the ground

that they had been granted it once before or by insisting on the letter of the law

when it came to a test of their literacy. That is why fifteen men in this period,

having been convicted of an offence that brought a clergyable discharge for

most defendants, found themselves threatened with the gallows (Table 7. 3 ). Five

were reprieved by the judges before passing sentence and ordered to be held for

transportation; the others were sentenced to death, some of whom were in fact

hanged, the rest pardoned by the king, as we shall see. The judges were able to

take advantage of the introduction of hard labour in 1706 to sentence eighteen

of the men who were allowed clergy to a term in the house of correction. But for

the most part, the men convicted of the clergyable offences continued to be

allowed their clergy and to be discharged from the court with a branded thumb

or (for a few years) cheek.

The Revolution, Crime, and Punishment in London 341

Table7.3.Sentences in non-capital property offences:

City of London cases at the Old Bailey, 1690 – 1713

A. Clergyable offences:

Convicted Clergy Denied Clergy Hard Known Other/

Transported Hanged Labour Sentences Unknown

Men 169 115 5 10 18 148 21
% 77.7 3.4 6.8 12.2 100.1
Women 210 159 — 4 36 199 11
% 79.9 — 2.0 18.1 100.0

B. Petty larceny:

Convicteda Sentence Whipped

unknown

Men 57 4 53
Women 104 3 101

Note:
aCharged with petty larceny and convicted; charged with clergyable and non-clergyable felonies and
convicted of petty larceny
Source: Sample