Boy, 9, was in tears after 14-year sentence for theft from inkeeper

Thomas Batty Addison, chairman of the Preston Sessions, conducted the Midsummer Quarter Sessions at the Court House adjacent to the House of Correction in early July 1831.

- 

It was a time when convicted felons were often sent for transportation across the seas and Mr. Addison proved to be a believer in this severe form of punishment.

Thomas Barker, a child just nine years old, was found guilty of stealing a quantity of money from a basin, the property of a local innkeeper, Benjamin Raby of the Joiner's Arms on Lord Street. The money had been placed as a bait following the earlier disappearance of cash and included a marked shilling found in the boy's pocket and the jury found him guilty.

Mr. Addison remarked that the boy had twice before been convicted of felony, and in mercy to himself the sentence was one of transportation for fourteen years. The juvenile offender was in tears when taken from the dock, and a sympathetic murmuring filled the court room.