Context Note: Seaton’s father died in 1866.
PETERBOROUGH PETTY SESSIONS.
WEDNESDAY. – (Before C. I. Strong, Esq., in the chair, H. P. Gates, Esq., W. Paley, Esq., and J. M. Vines, Esq.)
WHAT CAN BE DONE WITH THOSE BOYS? – Thomas James Gale and John Robert Seaton, of Peterborough, were summoned by Robert Cooke, of Dogsthorpe, for wilfully damaging a door to the amount of 6d., on the 14th inst. – The two lads both pleaded guilty. – The practice was for boys to go round the village with stones attached to a string which they slung to the knockers and made them hit the doors. It had been a common practice of late, and it was a considerable nuisance. The prosecutor produced some of the stones that had been fastened to his own door, and they were very formidable missiles. – The boys said there were others implicated beside themselves, but did not deny the charge. – The Chairman said it was a most mischievous trick, and if the law had given them power they would certainly have ordered them to be whipped. They were fined with costs 10s. each. – In Gale’s case the money was paid; but Seaton it was said had no friends. His father [William Seaton (1827-1866)] was dead, and his mother had married again turning the poor boy out to get his living as best he could. The Magistrates in default had ordered the boy to be imprisoned for a week, when a gentleman in Court paid the money for the boy and liberated him.
(Peterborough Advertiser, 27th January 1877)
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