Your Blacksheep-Do they amuse you?

[Erato]

"Oct.16, 1651
We present Joane Andrews, the wife of John Andrews for an infamous scould and a breaker of the peace and for Conteming Authority in abusing the Governor. It is ordered by this court that Joane Andrews is either forthwith to pay forty shillings fine, or else to receive corporall punishment by having 25 stripes upon the bare skine. John Andrews stands bound for his wifes appearance at the next court in the bond of tenn pounds, for her good behaviour.

And that was just the beginning.  John and Joane [my 8x great grandparents] were convicted over and over again for blasphemy, drunkenness, theft, disturbing the peace, assault, suspected adultery and general misbehavior.  They represented the dark side of the Puritan migration to New England.

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mainegenie/ANDREWS.htm

[pendlelad]

My 4x Great grandfather Joseph Stretton went to prison for 3 months for stealing items from an auction house along with another man in 1850. Joseph's brother William  was transported exactly 5 years before for robbery at the SAME building!

[ThrelfallYorky]

Baaaaa! Sadly, mine mostly seem to have been sheep of a pallid hue. None really stood out from the herd, alas for record-seeking.

[Jebber]

I only have white sheep 

You obviously still have to uncover your black sheep

[Lisajb]

Job Tandy nicked a tree "from the pleasure garden of the Duke of Beaufort".

He had a few run ins with the law and was transported eventually.

[Milliepede]

You obviously still have to uncover your black sheep

I would love to but it's probably the one I've been searching for over 8 years.  His fleece is very woolly, certainly pulled it over my eyes 

[Guyana]

Got one or two Herdwick-coloured in my lot. One was excommunicated by Lichfield Cathedral Consistory Court.

[greyingrey]

The black sheep I've found so far don't really amuse me because their offences weren't those of the "cuddly rogue" type...but they're too far back to be shocked by or ashamed of. One left a man gurgling with blood (disturbed by police) after a night's drinking. The victim had a very unusual surname & there's a poster on this site searching that surname, so I thought I'd contact them. The victim turned out to be their ggg uncle & they hadn't known of the case. I still treasure their reply...."Don't worry...he was just as bad himself".

I've got a friend who , despite extensive research, found no black sheep at all. Eventually, she did find a couple who'd been put on trial for the murder of one of their children (poisoning). However, they were found not guilty & it was determined that the child had swallowed the poison by accident. Nevertheless, she refuses to accept this, as she says this is the  first interesting incident she's found !

[eadaoin]

Well - my father was jailed, but it was for political reasons - so we think of him as a white sheep!

I think great-uncle Richard was patchy light-grey, but I think a fine was about as bad as he got!