It was contended on behalf of the latter prisoner that he would have no motive for committing the crime with which he was charged, as he was a well-to-do tradesman, having money in the bank. The explanation given of their attempting to remove the stolen property from the sewer was that they had accidentally found it whilst taking a walk together.
Both prisoners were found guilty of receiving the property knowing it to have been stolen.
A former conviction was proved against Parker, and he was sentenced to six years’ penal servitude. Newton was sentenced to fifteen months’ imprisonment with hard labour.
Peace was sent to the Old Trafford Gaol. We must pass over the period of his imprisonment for this offence, as other and more important events in his life have to be chronicled.
Peace, though a desperate character, could appear as meek and mild a man as ever handled a six-shooter.
The result of his playing the good boy was that he was let out on ticket-of-leave, and society once more suffered for the relaxation of the law’s severity.
After his Old Trafford sentence he returned to Sheffield, and took a small shop in Kenyon-alley. There he used to amuse his acquaintances by showing the dexterity with which he could pick the most stubborn lock. He soon afterwards resumed his old practices, proving the truth of the old adage, “Once a thief always a thief.”
He carried on his business for some time in Kenyon-alley, and it was while here that he displayed some considerable amount of ability as an actor. Mr. John Tait, schoolmaster at Consett, gave an account in the Consett Guardian of a visit Peace paid to his school. He says, “Many of my old scholars well remember Peace performing the gravedigger scene in “Hamlet.” His acting was admirable, but the contortions of his countenance and the amazing transformations he effected in his visage baffle all description.” Mr. Tait further states he visited Mr. Dawson’s school at Spennymuir about the same time, and performed the same part as he did at his school, with the addition of decamping with two musical instruments he had borrowed, and attempting to persuade a girl to elope with him.
His life in the several convict prisons in which he was confined would fill a volume, but as we have given an account of his sojourn at Preston and Dartmoor, this will suffice for the present.
In serving his time at different periods, Peace made the acquaintance of the prisons of Millbank, Chatham (where he was flogged), and Gibraltar.