Local traders caught out

‘No less than 25 persons, in Doncaster, have been convicted and paid the penalties for having in their possession light and deficient weights, on Saturday last, by His Majesty’s Justices of the Peace, acting in and for the lower division of the Wapentake of Strafforth and Tickhill at the Town Hall in Doncaster. The astonishing number of 80 persons, living in the townships of Wadworth, Tickhill, Bawtry, Austerfield, Cantley, Armthorpe, Hatfield, Stainforth, Thorne, Fishlake and Sykehouse were also convicted of the above offence. What a scene of roguery is here laid forth to public view!’ (‘Chester Chronicle’, Friday, 12 September 1800, page 3.) [In 1797 an act was passed ‘for the more effectual prevention of the use of defective weights and of false and unequal balances’. However, it was not until 1824 that legislation was introduced to standardise weights and measures – the origin of the imperial unit.]

‘A Tickhill butcher, William Dawson, was fined £10 including costs, at Doncaster, yesterday, under a food regulation permitting prosecution where preparations had been made to commit an offence, but where an actual offence had not been committed. Dawson pleaded ‘guilty’ to an offence relating to overcharging on meat. The prosecution stated that two Ministry of Food inspectors visiting Dawson’s premises in Market place, Tickhill, found tickets on 7 of 18 parcels in the refrigerator, ready for delivery, which showed an average overcharge of 7½ d on each parcel.’ (‘Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer’, Wednesday 13 December 1950, page 6.)