CRIME IN PAST TIMES

Teenagers become determined thieves

Young tearaways may appear to be a modern phenomenon but the archives reveal that they were a real threat to society in past times. One of the worst offenders was Isaac Clark, aged 19, who was apprehended in 1842 and charged with burglary.

The shop premises of Messrs Wherry and Sons in Eastgate had been broken into during the night of Thursday 26th May and about £14 in gold sovereigns, silver and copper stolen together with some pocket knives and other articles. The intruders had got in by removing one of the shutters and breaking a large square in the glass window and as a result, Clark and another youth, Thomas Tipler, aged 18, were questioned about the crime.

Both denied any involvement but after a witness came forward to say that soon after the break-in Clark been seen spending money on new clothes which he paid for in silver and as a result he and Tipler were charged at Kesteven Sessions held at the Town Hall, Bourne, on Monday 27th June.

During the hearing, Clark tried to incriminate someone else claiming to have seen him on the premises but without success although during a lengthy hearing he did manage to arouse sufficient doubt that the prosecution could not be sustained and the jury returned after a fifteen minute retirement with a verdict of not guilty, much to the surprise of most people attending the court who had no doubt of Clark's guilt in the matter.

But the following year, he was less fortunate after being indicted for theft at Kesteven Sessions held at the Town Hall on Monday 2nd January when his career in crime was fully revealed. He was accused of stealing a number of articles from a boat moored on the Bourne Eau including a shirt and a pistol. William Camm, who was employed on the boat, challenged the intruder while he was ransacking cupboards and went off to get the boat's owner, James Wrigglesworth, but when they returned they found Clark lying under a nearby bridge, apparently very drunk, and the stolen property was found nearby although the court was told that the inebriation had been feigned to divert attention.

Clark was found guilty and sentenced to four months in jail with hard labour. "He left the dock smiling", reported the Stamford Mercury, "no doubt at the lenient sentence passed upon him, he having expected, in case of conviction, to be transported. He is considered to be, although young and very diminutive, a most determined thief as well as the leader of a party of notorious characters in Bourne."

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