"Black Sheep" - Kingshotts that have appeared in court
One of the more interesting aspects of family history research is discovering that some of your ancestors were perhaps not the upstanding citizens that you would have expected them to be. Lots of people can find themselves facing a magistrate or judge, and it doesn't make them bad people. People make mistakes, people can be wrongly accused, and people can be guilty. Everyone is a human being and, therefore fallible.
So, whilst the section is entitled "Black Sheep", this does not mean that these particular people were actually bad people.
The following pages give examples of occasions on which Kingshotts have found themselves on the wrong side of the Magistrate's bench.
This is as good a place as any to bring up the subject of my own brush with the law. Whilst serving as a police custody sergeant, I dealt with a person who, despite my very best efforts at looking after him, died. This led to nearly ten years of court and other proceedings, but I was ultimately not found guilty of any wrongdoing. I did my very best for him, and the result was tragic for all concerned. The process, however, as you might expect, took its toll.