Seven years

Fascinating cutting from The Shrewsbury Chronicle of March 17th 1865 courtesy of Carole and Tim. I have a photograph of my great great grandmother, Elizabeth Mills who looks as if she had a hard life and this was her father - maybe an explanation for her expression.
The English Legal System is an interesting topic in its own right and it is made all the more intriguing when it enters the life of a family member, albeit one dead for over one hundred years. A crime of abject poverty yet a sentence of seven years imprisonment. In 1861 Elizabeth, at the age of 11, is identified living as a lodger, away from any family apart from an older sister, maybe, and working as a "nailer". Her father was not in the picture at that time and he certainly wouldn't have been after this court appearance. It is with wonder, sometimes, that I look at my family history and marvel at how I came to be. Oral tradition tells me of great grandparents meeting in the workhouse, survival through war and infection, hazardous occupations, a grandfather blown up in gas explosion at Etruria gasworks and further investigations produce evidence of crimes of poverty and removal under the Poor Laws. I can only feel gratitude for perseverance and endurance and the ability to survive and, in myself, a sense of humility when I complain that my high level problem today is the speed of my broadband connection