Victorian
In the spring of 1869, a butcher newly settled in Leigh found himself before the magistrates, and the story was picked up by the Maidstone Telegraph in its edition of Saturday 1 May 1869. The man in the dock was Edward Outram, and the charge concerned his weights and scales.
The case was brought by Mr Francis, the inspector of weights and measures, who had called at the defendant's shop and examined his equipment there. What he found was not reassuring. One of the weights, marked 36lb, was five and a half ounces under weight, and a second weight was two ounces short as well. The scales were also at fault, giving five ounces in the purchaser's favour — or rather, against the purchaser, since the customer was the one losing out.
When the case was called at the hearing, Outram did not appear to answer it. The Bench, presided over by Mr Goldsmid, heard the evidence in his absence. The inspector, to his credit, told the court that he did not believe there had been any intention to defraud. He explained that hooks were used to adjust the scales, and he also revealed that he had previously given a caution to the defendant's wife over similar matters.
The background to the business helped explain the situation. Outram had taken over the shop only nine or ten weeks before the inspection, having succeeded his son-in-law in the trade. He had installed his daughters in the shop, it was said, in order to make a home for them. The magistrates ordered him to pay a fine of ten shillings together with costs. The faulty weights were forfeited, but the scales were allowed to remain with him. Mr Goldsmid, however, directed that the inspector should return to recheck the scales once the conviction had been recorded.
Outram's shop stood at Church Hill House, a property built in 1856 with eight rooms, together with a shop, a washhouse and a garden. A leaflet surviving from the period listed the price per pound of the meat he sold there.
The venture in Leigh did not last long. By the time of the 1871 census, Outram had left the village and returned to Hever, where he had spent at least twenty years before coming to Leigh. There he worked as a grocer and beer retailer, a trade he carried on until his death in 1891.
This article appeared in the Parish Magazine in March 2025. The Leigh website records the village's butchers between 1827 and 1938.