It seems Easton was gaining a reputation for being a hotbed of criminality due to the large scale and amount of crime committed there in recent weeks! But was there, perhaps, a reason for this?
“In addition to the names of 12 males, whom we have shown to be committed to gaol for various felonies at Easton, near Stamford, we lament to record those of 8 females, viz. Mary Ploughwright, Mary Hull, Ann Ford, Mary Ploughwright, jun., Eleanor Ploughwright, Sarah Ploughwright, Frances Walden, and Sarah Scotchbrook, all of that parish, who were yesterday se’nnight committed to the house of correction at Oundle to hard labour to various and repeated delinquencies; thus completing a catalogue of no less than twenty persons, all within a few weeks extracted from the village, and at the present moment incarcerated, for offences from the lowest to the highest in the scale of crime, even murder! – A grave enquiry arises as to the cause of such extreme delinquency, in a village of not very large population; and the chief cause seems to be, that formerly the digging of stones for the purpose of making slates for roofing was very extensively carried on at Easton, but latterly it has been the pleasure of the Marquis of Exeter, the owner of the soil to restrict the continuance of the trade and many person have been in consequence thrown out of employment, their connections, and their settlements, being at Easton, they do not like to quit the parish, and their poverty and their idleness have produced great demoralisation.”
The Stamford Mercury, 4th May, 1838.