This website, created by Valerie Martin, contains scenes from her home village of Findon, West Sussex, U.K.

ELIZABETHAN SHEEP RUSTLING

Copyright Valerie Martin 2000

Part text published in Findon News in July 2000.

The weather was taking its toll on the weak and ailing and mortality rates were high.  Richard Gyle was a labourer of Findon, and conditions were maybe becoming desperate.  He travelled to nearby Pulborough that bleak mid-winter and on 20th December 1590, with hardly a thought for the consequences, he rounded up six sheep said to be worth 3s. belonging to a man named Gregory.  The acquisition was, no doubt, to see him and his family through the winter months.

He was caught and taken to East Grinstead Assizes where on 20th July 1591, he shuffled before Judge Robert Clark and Serjeant John Puckering with a charge of grand larceny.  Final judgment was passed and he stood dull-eyed no doubt as he was found guilty.

My next story is of thieves who were energetic and tireless in their travels around the Findon countryside and ended with sentences of death.

John Streater was a husbandman and lived at Shipley with his wife, Elizabeth. They were indicted for grand larceny, together with Eleanor Gurr, a spinster, and William Gurr of Goring and Catherine Gurr of Shipley. There were as many as nine offences committed. The patchwork of their crimes unfolded and the court was entertained with a continuous flow of their misdemeanours.

On 24th May 1595, John and Elizabeth Streater, together with Eleanor Gurr, paid a visit to our village and amid much commotion and scuffling they stole a sheep worth 12d (5p today) from a Findon man, John Wycheer. They went on to abscond with a further two fattened sheep belonging to another villager. The thieves then travelled the surrounding communities and committed various crimes at West Grinstead, as well as at Warminghurst and Shipley. These were all taken into account at the trial.

The presiding officers at the East Grinstead Court on 18th July 1595 were the forbidding judges Francis Gawdy and Thomas Owen.

John Streater's face bore the marks of life's harrow when he heard the familiar words. He would never steal again. He was unceremoniously found guilty. He bore his sentence stoically and claimed "benefit of clergy". This meant that if he could write he could receive a lesser punishment than hanging, (for example branding). Unfortunately, it was discovered that he was unable to read and write and was, therefore, decreed to be hanged.

His wife was also convicted and with an gasp of terror she was punished with the same fate.

Their accomplice, Eleanor Gurr, was sentenced to hang but being heavily pregnant she was remanded in custody — I expect only until the baby was born.

It was a day or reckoning. William Gurr and Catherine Gurr must have breathed a sigh of relief when the general hubbub in the court died down and they were found "not guilty" of the crimes brought against them. They walked free back to their villages to continue their lives.

Continue if you would like to read about Crimes Connected with Findon in the 1600s and 1700s.

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THIS IS FINDON — was launched in January 1999 and will grow to be a historical record of life in Findon, West Sussex, U.K.