Horse Thief

[Julie1966]

Hello,
I am still looking for any information on McDermotts and/or Collough's (Cullow, Culloo, etc). Recently, my research led me to reconnect with a branch of the family we had not seen in decades. It was very exciting. I was able to reunite my aging mother with one of her cousins. During this visit, a cousin asked me if we had been told the story of why our McDermott ancestors left Ireland. I told her that they left during the famine, so I just assumed the reason was necessity. She said that in their family the story goes that our great-great grandfather Michael McDermott and his male siblings left Ireland because one of them was accused of stealing a horse. He fled for his life and so did the other siblings as at that time a brother could be hung for his siblings crime. Does anyone know if this is true? Could a sibling be hung for his brother's crime? I am asking if anyone comes across a news story or other information of such an event that they bring it to my attention. I know it could just be family legend, but there is often some vein of truth to these long-standing stories. But no one knows from where we originated. Any suggestions as to where to look for such a news story would be appreciated.
Julie

[Jim McNamara]

Hi Julie,

I do not believe that would be true as the law in Ireland was based on English law and I have never seen anything of the kind appear in any newspapers I have read. I would not completely dismiss this idea though as it may have depended on the period. I have read one account of a child (young girl of about 6 or 7) being put on trial for stealing a sweater. It was found to be an accidental thing and charges were dismissed. I have read of people being transported for stealing a loaf of bread. Maybe it was just that the possible punishment may have included transportation as a convict.

What may have been true was that a great prejudice may have been brought down on all remaining family members in such a case. In Scotland for example, a group of mainly Campbells, or order of the king, visited the MacDonald village of Glencoe in 1692 and at an agreed upon time in early morning hours got up to massacre all the MacDonalds.

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massacre_of_Glencoe

There was such prejudice against all Campbells since that many have left Scotland, many going to Ireland, and many seen as far south as Clare County. The main theme being that no Scotsman could ever trust a Campbell again, none would ever be granted a job; due to this one group of men who partook of MacDonald hospitality, food, alcohol, etc., and in the next moment just killing them for no good reason (other than a King's decree).

I do know of a few stories of Irish leaving upon fear of reprisals for things such as killing a plow horse; this a story of 3 brothers who went to Australia rather than have a possible public trial. So was it also the fear of an errant deed becoming public as well that could cause emigration?

Best regards,

[Julie1966]

Thank you, Jim, for taking the time to reply! Interesting information.

[Paddy Casey]

Julie,

At the beginning of the 19th century, there were no fewer than 222 capital crimes, including such terrible offences as impersonating a Chelsea pensioner and damaging London Bridge! In practice, there were only about seventeen general offences for which a death sentence was generally carried out in the 18th and early 19th centuries. These included murder, attempted murder, arson, rape, sodomy, forgery, uttering (passing forged or counterfeit monies or bills) coining, robbery, highway robbery (in many cases, this was the offence of street robbery, that we would now call mugging), housebreaking, robbery in a dwelling house, returning from transportation, cutting and maiming (grievous bodily harm) and horse, cattle or sheep stealing. For all the other capital offences, transportation to America or Australia was generally substituted for execution.

From the 1820’s, the number of capital crimes began to be rapidly reduced and were down to sixteen by 1837. Post 1837 only five people were to hang for a crime other than murder, they had been convicted of attempted murder. The Criminal Law Consolidation Act of 1861 reduced the number of capital crimes to four, viz., murder, High Treason, arson in a Royal Dockyard, and piracy. In reality all executions from September 1861 were for murder, except in time of war.

In the case of your gggf's siblings we don't know, if I understand correctly, exactly when they emigrated or were deported or transported. However, if one of those siblings had been aiding and/or abetting the hypothetical crime it is well possible that he/she, if not a lawyer, might have feared a sentence of death simply for aiding and abetting and simply fled.

As late as the 1870s there was a legal concept of collective responsibility in Ireland. Thus in 1873 a farmer called Pat McCarthy was found dead with a hatchet in the back of his head in the townland of Coolbane, Tubber, Co.Clare. Three members of the Howard family were suspected and none were convicted. However, a heavy fine was placed on the whole townland of Coolbane, i.e. on all the inhabitants, presumably because they had all remained silent when asked to assist the police and judiciary. Subsequently two of the Howard brothers emigrated to the US in order to (this is hearsay) earn money to pay off the townland fine.

In Ireland it was also possible for individuals or whole families to be extradited, e.g. to Van Diemen's Land as it was then known (now Tasmania), if they had assisted (or were locally thought to have assisted) the authorities in the clarification of a crime. This extradition or assisted passage was done for their own protection and was referred to as Crown Protection. A family in Tubber in Co.Clare was deported to Van Diemen's Land in the latter half of the 19th century and settled there by the Crown.

Sentences in the 19th century were sometimes brutally arbitrary. In one court report that I came across, a starving woman had stolen something of little value in order to be transported and thus escape starvation. The judge said that her crime was so heinous that he would not sentence her to transportation and she was sent back to the hulk in Cork harbour. Conditions in the hulk were such that, for a starving person, this was as good as a death sentence.

So, all in all, those siblings of your gggf may have simply decided to flee rather than face the risk of an arbitrary sentence handed down by a "hanging judge".

Paddy

[Margaret Melican]

I looked at the transportation records and saw that several people were sentenced to transportation for crimes such as conspiracy, aiding and abetting and accessory. These were in relation to murder cases usually but some of the records weren't as clear. When you consider that stealing a handkerchief meant transportation for 7 years, it isn't a stretch to think that accessory to, aiding and abetting and conspiracy to horse stealing might have brought a similar consequence. Stealing a horse was a capital offense for a long time - in almost every country, including the United States.