Mexborough & Swinton Times – Saturday 13 August 1910
Vagrant in Trouble at Conisborough.
Lucy Smith, a married vagrant, was charged under Section 118 of the Children’s Act with not providing sufficient elementary education for her two children—Jim and Angelina, aged 11 and 10 respectively.
P.c. Lundy said that at seven o’clock that morning he found the woman with the two children and a man who wasn’t her husband, in a van in a quarry, off Doncaster Road, Conisborough. She had no exemptions for her children.
The couple, with the children, travelled about the country hawking an living in their van in lanes and quarries.
Defendant eloquently pleaded her ignorance of the new law, but she promised to have the children sent to school in the future.
The children told the Bench they had been to school in Worksop. The lad said he had been in Standard I, and the little girl said she had been in the baby’s Class for a month.
Defendant denied having been warned about her children, and again expressed her sorrow.
She was fined 5/- inclusive, and left the Court smiling. “I’m very glad I haven’t to go to gaol,” she said, as she handed the fine to the Clerk.