"ELLEN JANE DAVEY, a married woman of West-street, was summoned on the information of Chief Inspector Short for stealing a pair of boots.
"The Inspector stated that a few days since the defendant and her husband were summoned for failing to send their child regularly to school. The plea then put in was that the child could not go to school because it had no boots. The Mayor ordered him (Inspector Short) to purchase a pair of boots. He had done so, and gave them to the defendant. Before he did so he gave her clearly to understand that the boots were not hers.
"The boy wore them for about a week when defendant pawned them at Mr. Linscott's, pawnbroker for half a crown.
"The defendant said she had not had any money for eleven years, and she was supported by her son. She pawned the boots to get food for her husband who had been ill.
"The Mayor, addressing the defendant, said she had been guilty of a wicked and gross act of ingratitude. He had no hesitation in saying that the boots were pledged for the purpose of getting drink, The case would be adjourned for a month in order to see how she behaved herself."
Ellen Jane Davey's little boy could not go to school barefoot so the Mayor of Exeter shod him. For a week he wore new boots. The boots were not a gift but a loan so when Ellen Jane popped them at the pawnshop she committed theft and her son ran barefoot again.
I am assuming the son who supported her was not the one with, or rather without, the boots. But maybe not!
Whether Mrs. Davey spent the money on drink or on food for her husband, such desperate poverty is mind-blowing and, happily, unthinkable in today's Exeter.
Source: The Exeter Flying Post, 28th May, 1892.
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