STRANGE BUT TRUE

The lesser of two evils

Life in England 200 years ago must have been harsh if a teenage girl found it so insufferable that she would prefer to undergo the ordeal of being transported to the colonies but that was the choice of 18-year-old Ann Smith.

We know little of her circumstances other than she lived in Bourne and in desperation of her situation, on 3rd May 1848 she set fire to a wheat stack in a yard off North Road owned by Mr Joseph Gentle. “The exertions of a young man named Moisey were most commendable”, reported the Stamford Mercury, “because notwithstanding the fire and smoke, he fearlessly mounted the burning stack and effected a saving of a portion of it. Another stack of wheat and a haystack were saved, the wind being very still”.

Ann Smith made no secret of the crime and confessed her actions at the scene saying that she had done it because she “wished to see another country”, meaning transportation, a sentence frequently handed out in the courts where crimes of property were involved. The punishment meant a long and dangerous voyage to one of our penal settlements in the colonies such as Australia, Tasmania, Bermuda or Canada, in overcrowded ships with little to eat and no fresh food and the constant threat of contracting disease and on arrival the prospect of serving your sentence in a strange land.

However, Ann Smith did not to get her wish although her punishment was equally severe. She subsequently appeared at Lincoln Crown Court on Thursday 20th July when she pleaded guilty to wilfully and maliciously setting fire to the wheat stack but in passing sentence, the judge, Mr Justice Patteson, said: "You appear to have made no secret that you committed this wicked act but you told everyone that you had done it, and done it that you might get transported and that if you did not get transported you would do something that should get you transported.

“The firing of stacks is not so bad as setting fire to buildings, which may cause the sacrifice of human life, and therefore I shall take that into consideration, and you will be disappointed, for if you want to be transported, I will not indulge you.”
Instead, he sentenced her to 18 months in prison with hard labour and added: “I hope that will bring you to your proper senses and to a knowledge of your duty."

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