You might have thought that by 1880  justice was being tempered by mercy in cases of petty theft, but this was not the case at Worcester as is shown by the story of Sarah Preece who was imprisoned for a very trival affair.

Sarah Preece was the great grandmother of Sheila Kirk who lives in South Shropshire. Sheila has very kindly allowed me to make use of her research into her great  grandmother’s life.

Sarah Whatmore was baptised on 14 June 1835 at Chelmarsh, a few miles south of Bridgnorth in Shropshire. She was born at the Red House where her father James Whatmore  was a shopkeeper. Her mother was Elizabeth Wenlock from Stottesdon. James was born on 6 February 1797 at Stanford on Teme in Worcestershire and his ancestors have ben traced back to the Whatmore family of Bewdley who were tanners  and influential in the affairs of the town, being burgesses and acting from time to time as Bailiffs.

James moved about quite a lot during his life; in fact Sheila has nicknamed him  ‘James the Wanderer’.  We know that in 1834 he was publican at Chorley, Stottesdon where he will have been the landlord of ‘The Duck’ which still exists and is illustrated in an earlier post.

Sarah had two older sisters - Elizabeth born 1832 and Mary born 1834. In 1835 the family moved to Kidderminster where James was the lordlord of the Land Oak Inn at the junction of the Birmingham and Chester roads. The pub still exists although it has been rebuilt. It was here that Sarah’s sister Ann was born in 1836.

By the time of the birth of James and Elizabeth’s next child, James,  in 1838, the family had moved to Amblecote near Stourbridge where James worked as a gardener and groom and coachman. Two further children were born here - John in 1842 and 1843, but these were tragic years for the family with the deaths of three of the children - John- a few days after birth, Elizabeth in March 1844 and  James in November 1844.

Sometime after the 1851 census, the family moved back to Kidderminster and it was there that Sarah Whatmore met her future husband - Thomas Preece.  Thomas was employed as a Carrier’s Waggoner, carrying goods for the railway companies.  Sarah and Thomas’s first child, Ann Elizabeth Whatmore was born at 17 Chester Lane, Kidderminster in July 1860. This is the address at which all their children were born. When Sarah was expecting the next child, Thomas and she decided they had perhaps better get married which they did in July 1863 at St Mary’s church. Their child Mary Ann Whatmore was born in March 1864.

The later children of Thomas and Sarah were: Thomas  1867; John 1871 and  James 1869 who only lived a few months; John 1871 and Frederick William 1874.

By the time of the 1881 census the family had moved to 4 New Road, Kidderminster, but Sarah was not with the family. After a long search, Sheila eventually found that her great grandmother was in prison at Salt Lane, Claines, Worcestershire.  Sarah had been convicted in September 1880 of the theft of a quantity of ale and whisky.

The following is a transcription made by Sheila Kirk from the County of Worcester Calendar of Prisoners Vol 6 Epiphany 1862 -1882:

The Michaelmas Sessions of the Peace 1880    Held at Worcester on 18 October 1880  Chaired by Earl of Coventry  Presiding Magistrate: W Boycott Esq  Kidderminster              Judge: Sir R Harrington Bart                                                           Index no 25 Sarah Preece  Date of arrest  22 Sept 1880 Charge: ‘Unlawfully and knowingly, by certain false pretences, obtaining from William Howe Green on 20 Sept 1880, at the Borough of Kidderminster, 5 quarts of ale and 5 quartens of whisky, and also on 21st Sept 1880, obtaining one quart of ale and one  quarten of whisky, the property of the said William Howe Green, with intent there and then to cheat and defraud him of the same.’

When tried on 20 October 1880 by Sir R Harrington Bart,  found guilty of fraud. No previous convictions. Sentence: Imprisonment with hard labour for 6 calendar  months, in Worcester Gaol.                                        

Sarah returned in the spring of 1881 after serving her sentence, but the health of her husband Thomas was in decline. He died from pneumonia and heart complications in the Kidderminster Workhouse Infirmary on 22 April 1885 and was buried in Kidderminster Cemetery on 25 April 1885.

By 1897, all Sarah’s children had left home. Sarah cannot be traced in the 1901 census, so what had happened to her? Sheila Kirk searched for a long time for further information until in 2004 a relative came across a family Bible in which was a letter to Mrs A Lloyd (Sarah’s daughter) from Whitechapel Infirmary, London, informing her of Sarah’s death aged 75 on 9 June 1909. Sarah’s death certificate states that she died of ‘mitral stenosis’. Her medical card shows that she been in hospital and discharged earlier that year, suffering from heart problems. Sarah’s death certificate shows that she had lived at 37 Cobb Street, Spitalfields. Sarah was buried on 14 June 1901 in a second class grave in the City of London Cemetary, Ilford, Essex.

So ends a rather sad story of a simple country girl who succumbed to temptation at a time when her family was probably living in abject poverty, who was harshly punished for a minor offence, and who died far away from her home, presumably alone. We can only add, perhaps somewhat inadequately, that her great grand daughter cares about what happened to her and her family now remember her with respect.