200 Years Ago in Norwich : £30 Reward after Theft of Two Fat Sheep

And another in my series of posts from 200 years ago this week (well, actually next week, but the crime was this week).

“£30 REWARD.

WHEREAS on Friday night last some Persons entered a Turnip Field, in Swardeston, Norfolk, and there STOLE TWO FAT SHEEP, the property of Mr. William Smith, of Swardeston Hall, the Skins, Heads, and Entrails of which have since been found hidden among the Furze Bushes on the Hall Green, at Swardeston.

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN, That whoever will give information which may lead to the apprehension of the persons concerned in the above felony, so as they be thereof convicted, shall be paid the Sum of TWENTY POUNDS out of the Fund of the Association for the Prosecution of Felons within the Hundred of Taverham and adjoining Hundreds and Towns, in the county of Norfolk, and the further Sum of TEN POUNDS by the said Wm. Smith.

J. S. PARKINSON,
Treasurer to the said Association.

Norwich, Jan. 10th, 1825.”

This caught my eye because this is a huge reward for the theft of two sheep, the equivalent of nearly £2,000 in today’s money. The level of this must have been intended to be a deterrent and the farmer must have had some considerable wealth and influence. The farm is there today, known as Swardeston Hall Farm, with the hall itself still standing. I couldn’t find any later reference to this case, so the perpetrators might well have got away with it. As a slight aside, Swardeston is where Edith Cavell was born in 1865.

I also think it’s interesting that this is the period when attitudes were changing towards crime. The Bloody Code which had increased the number of capital crimes had been pretty much phased out in 1823 and I wonder whether some landowners were nervous that crime might rise as a result of that.