Here are just a handful of the crimes that could get you strung up by your throat during the years of the Bloody Code:
* Stealing from a shipwreck
* Damaging Westminster Bridge
* Stealing goods valued at five shillings (25p) or more
* Stealing letters
* Poaching
* Blacking yourself up at night (well no one likes a racist do they?)
* Impersonating a Chelsea Pensioner
* Cutting down young trees
* Begging without a licence if you are a soldier or sailor
* Being in the company of gypsies for a month (surely that’s punishment in its self?)
* “Strong evidence of malice” in children 7-14 years old (that must be most of them?)
* Stealing horses or sheep
* Writing a threatening letter
* Destroying turnpike roads
* Unmarried mother concealing a stillborn child (give her a break!)
* Stealing from a rabbit warren
* Housebreaking
* Shoplifting
* Pick pocketing
* Sacrilege (bit vague?)
Pretty scary huh?
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