Chapter XXIII

. Death for Trifling Larcenies.

When Connecticut and New Haven were framing their first codes, larceny above the value of twelve pence was a capital crime in England--as it had been since the time of Henry I.--Dr. J. Hammond Trumbull’s Blue Laws, True and False, p. 17.

The curious old book called The English Rogue makes the limit thirteen pence ha’penny:  death being the portion of any who steal a thing ‘above the value of thirteen pence ha’penny.’

NOTES to