www.lesswrong.com/posts/SGRNbiMi8cojHYtk5/a-400-year-timeline-of-failed-attempts...
1 correction found
Andrew Benning was hanged for stealing... a spoon.
The surviving official record says the boy’s death sentence was commuted to transportation for life, not carried out by hanging.
Full reasoning
The anecdote is misstated.
The National Archives record for the case says Andrew Branning (a variant surname often rendered Brannan/Branning), together with John Branning, was convicted in 1801 "for burglary of a silver spoon" and "sentenced to death." But the same record immediately adds: "This sentence was mitigated to transportation for life." That directly contradicts the claim that he was hanged.
A second source, the convict transport register reproduced by Convict Records, lists Andrew Branning on the Perseus and Coromandel voyage that sailed on 31 December 1801 and arrived in New South Wales on 14 August 1802. Someone transported to New South Wales in 1802 was not executed in England in 1801.
So the post’s sentence is incorrect in at least two ways:
- the boy was not hanged; his death sentence was commuted; and
- the official record describes the offense as burglary of a silver spoon, not simply execution for petty theft under the old 12-pence rule.
2 sources
- The National Archives: Folio(s) 497-504. Letter from Robert Joseph Flinn requesting help with regard to 12 year old Andrew Branning
The convicts were tried and convicted at the Old Bailey, Middlesex, in February 1801, for burglary of a silver spoon at the house of Sarah Dane in Oxford Road and were sentenced to death. This sentence was mitigated to transportation for life.
- Perseus And Coromandel Voyage - Convict Records
The voyage page lists Andrew Branning under the Perseus And Coromandel transport, which sailed 31/12/1801 and arrived New South Wales 14/08/1802.