Crime of Concealment

[jim234j]

One of my ancestors called Loveday Harris married Samuel Carpenter in 1852 Newton Abbott Devon had children by him He passed in 1869

In 1872 she is sentenced to one year in jail for the crime of Concealment. She would of been 40/41  On the docket page there are 28 enteries.   5 have the same sentence on the same date but their names are not one after another.  One is acquited and the reason appears to be bale ignorance.   The "second letter" in the first word is hard to read.  Another got the year but it was first hard labor and than reduced

I think Concealment might be a catch all but does anyone have a idea what this legal term could mean.  I know it means hiding but what could thye be hiding in the 1870s to get a year in prison

thanks

[ShaunJ]

Per contemporary newspaper reports she concealed the birth (and death) of a child.

[jim234j]

Thanks Shaun

[ShaunJ]

All 4 women were found guilty of concealing the birth of their infants.

[stanmapstone]

Offences Against the Person Act 1861
Concealing the Birth of a Child.
60   If any Woman shall be delivered of a Child, every Person who shall, by any secret Disposition of the dead Body of the said Child, whether such Child died before, at, or after its Birth, endeavour to conceal the Birth thereof, shall be guilty of a Misdemeanor, and being convicted thereof shall be liable, at the Discretion of the Court, to be imprisoned for any Term not exceeding Two Years, with or without Hard Labour: Provided that if any Person tried for the Murder of any Child shall be acquitted thereof, it shall be lawful for the Jury by whose Verdict such Person shall be acquitted to find, in case it shall so appear in Evidence, that the Child had recently been born, and that such Person did, by some secret Disposition of the dead Body of such Child, endeavour to conceal the Birth thereof, and thereupon the Court may pass such Sentence as if such Person had been convicted upon an Indictment for the Concealment of the Birth.
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Vict/24-25/100/crossheading/concealing-the-birth-of-a-child/enacted
Stan

[jim234j]

Thanks to all.