The Blandford Express

Poaching in Dorset in the 1800s was a crime chiefly driven by the rural poor’s  need for food. It represented a conflict between landowners who claimed exclusive rights to the valuable game on their estates and the poor who felt a traditional right to access food. Encounters between poachers and gamekeepers were often violent and convicted poachers faced severe penalties. Man-traps were frequently left in place to capture poachers. A desperate poaching affray took place in September 1893 on the estate of Lord Wolverton at Iwerne Minster. Four men who had set nets in a rabbit warren were surprised by an equal number of gamekeepers. The poachers were armed with bludgeons and this all took place around 2 o’clock in the morning. Gamekeeper to Lord Wolverton, Tom Lane said the keepers were first attacked with sticks and he was struck by a heavy blow to his head. They were then stoned but after some hard fighting the four poachers were finally captured. The poachers were in possession of...

After release from the prison convict hulk, Laurel in Portsmouth Harbour, John Weeks returned to his poaching trade in Handley. As a result of some further skirmishes with the law John became far more familiar with the Dorchester Courtroom than any of the Tolpuddle Martyrs. When John’s children married their prospects in Handley were pretty grim. Wages paid to agricultural labourers in Dorset were among the lowest in the country. So Benjamin, John & Jane seized the opportunity when a local clergyman, the Reverend John West of Chettle offered them the chance in 1836 to start a new life in Australia. This was under an early assisted passage scheme sponsored by the new colony and the Australian landowning Macarthur family. Their father John was desperate to travel out with them but had no chance. He was too old at 62 and he also had a criminal record. The only way the wayward father could get out to join his children was as a convict – as a ‘ prisoner of His Majesty’ . So John Weeks ...

John Weeks has the unusual distinction of being convicted twice in a Dorchester Courtroom to be transported to Australia. Born in Handley in 1775, John by trade was a poacher as at the time it was said were many of the Handley villagers. By 1815, the authorities had had enough of John Weeks. So, following an altercation with a gamekeeper, he was found guilty and sentenced in the Dorchester Courtroom to be transported to Australia for seven years. Prisoners at the time had to walk from Dorchester to Portsmouth or Gosport under armed guard to await transportation. First day’s walk from Dorchester was about 14 miles and it is said brought the prisoners to a red post between Bere Regis and Wimborne. It is reckoned the post was red so that it could be identified because most of the guards were illiterate. Close by was a brick barn where the prisoners spent the night chained to a large post. John Weeks never left these shores and spent the entire seven years in the convict prison ship ...

Elderly farm labourer, John White was due to appear, back in November 1859, before Blandford Magistrates charged with poaching. He was up before Magistrates JJ Farquarson (above) from Langton Long, W P Okendon from Turnworth and Lord Portman from Bryanston. As Dorset landowners and local gentry he knew they would show little sympathy towards a poacher. Indeed there were many Dorset folk who had been transported as convicts to Australia for this crime. Witness Robert Fookes came forward in the Courtroom and identified John as the man he had seen trespassing in the pursuit of game on Baron Hambro’s land. He had seen him with four dogs stop and pick up something which he had put in his pocket. As he could not afford a lawyer, John had to conduct his own defence. He endeavoured to show that neither he, as a silly old man, nor his ‘ poor bitch’ nor his three ‘ pups of two months old’ could ever be guilty of such an offence. The Magistrates were so amused by the old man’s eccentricitie...