Selling Sparrows

Front Cover
Judy Wright, 2006 - 454 pages
One bitter winter night during 1849, landowners of Stanbridge in Bedfordshire, seeking to protect their property from a gang of petty thieves, detailed two police constables to watch the activities of a local man thought to be their ringleader. The bloody events of that night were to have disastrous consequences for many families. This true story depicts the lives of the three men who were subsequently arrested for a crime which at the time could carry a sentence of transportation to Australia.

From inside the book

Contents

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
5
INTRODUCTION The Accused
7
Village Life Thorn and Puddlehill
11
Facts of Life for Labourers
27
Facts of Life for Strawplaiters and Children
45
The Whites Family Life 1800 to 1849
55
The Dockerills A Paupers Life in Stanbridge
83
The Rise in Crime
113
Caught in the Act
129
The Bedfordshire Lent Assizes 1849
143
The Trial
159
William and Squire Brandreth
177
Life in Bedford Prison
191
Millbank Cholera and Shorncliffe
215
Portland Gaol
229
Copyright

Common terms and phrases

Bibliographic information