Your Blacksheep-Do they amuse you?

[cristeen]

My 4xG grandfather was tried in 1850 for causing a riot involving over three hundred people, including pistol firing & stone throwing. His younger brother had been arrested for throwing a punch at a constable and sentenced to 3 months but without a trial, hence the riot. While the constables were sheltering in a local inn, the handcuffed brother escaped!
My 4xG grandfather was acquitted, one of his main witnesses being a widow whom he married at Gretna Green 6 weeks later, no perjury there then:) His brother was found a few months later and sent to Carlisle to serve his time. The trial reports were extensive and provided great background on several family members and other locals

[Rishile]

I have a few black sheep but the best one is a murderer who killed his wife with a machete then went after his daughter.  The housekeeper hid the daughter in the tunnels under the house (used by the father for smuggling) but the daughter got lost in the labyrinth and was never found.  Apparently, on a clear night you can still hear her calling.  My ancestor blamed his very drunk friend, then tried to escape but was found and hanged.

Rishile

[radstockjeff]

Not so much a "black sheep" as a local character  my great grandfather, Henry Gane Rogers (my avatar).Known locally as Mad Harry.

Reputed to have driven a trotting pony and 4 wheel buggy from Clandown to Bath (a distance of about ten miles) using fine thread as reins, for a wager, which he won.

In company one day in Bath, which included an Inspector from the Somerset and Dorset Railway, when he boasted that he had travelled into Bath that day without paying a rail fare. When callenged by the inspector he said, "Well of course I didn't pay a rail fare, I came by pony and trap."

Frequently in trouble with the local constabulary for "furious driving of a horse drawn vehicle", with subsequent appearances before the local bench.

Often in financial difficulties with his business he eventually became bankrupt and on the death of his wife left the area, in 1903 to live in Coventry, returning only once to Bristol to see one of  his sons, before his death in 1923.

[coombs]

Black sheep enhance the family documents and biographies, that is my motto. The ones who were sent abroad, the ones always up in court, in prison. My ancestor Richard Richardson was a sod and always up in court, poaching, assault etc.

[Nifty1]

I have two late uncles who were caught by police when they tried to steal a van with a load of televisions in it in the mid to late 1960s. They did not realise that there were police officers  amongst the van’s cargo and they were arrested. They had a stay in Oxford prison for there trouble. How can I substantiate this story? I think that it took place in London or the Home Counties to the west of London.

[LizzieW]

I've a 2 x g.g.aunt who was deported for stealing rather a lot of food, drink etc.  "11 lbs weight of beef, 2 quarts of wine, 2 bottles, 2 basins, 1 lb of butter and 4 lbs of bread".  I guess she was going to sell it because there's no way one person could eat all that meat and bread. IWorse was that she dragged her mother into her crimes by giving her the goods so her mother was charged with receiving stolen goods and sentenced to 6 months hard labour - at the age of 66.  It wasn't my 2 x g.g. aunt's first offence either, previously she had stolen more clothes and bedding than one family could want.

[coombs]

In 1940, my great, great grandmother's brother committed suicide while in court.

[Rena]

I don't know about family black sheep amusing me, but an amateur reseacher on a--y who has now got as far back as me has apportioned a ream of 19th century Scottish criminal cases to my ancestor 

I'd already looked at those cases but it isn't clear if the defendants are the same person, as ages aren't given.  Then again, in one generation, as well as other JTs born,  there were three JTs born in the same village within 2 years of each other, there still wouldn't be clarity of which JT son of JT was the culprit in any one case. Especially as the village produced many males having the same career of "carrier"

[StevieSteve]

How about we all make a New Year's Resolution to not corrupt every thread into "Look at these bozos on Ancestry. "

Instead, let's corrupt them by completely changing the original  question. So: is anyone ashamed of any of their long-dead relations? And if so, why?