In Charles Dickens's 1837 novel Oliver Twist, the starving orphan is hauled before a magistrate and locked in a 'dark and solitary room' for a week for asking for a second helping of gruel with the famous words: 'Please, sir, I want some more.'
The newly discovered real-life case follows a similar pattern. Alice Shepherd, a consumptive pauper in the Hendon workhouse, was placed in solitary confinement and fed bread and water until a fortnighly board meeting after a magistrate ruled she was to be punished for daring to ask permission for a walk.
The magistrate who ordered the punishment, Reverend Theodore Williams, was chair of the local board of guardians. He described her conduct as 'disgusting'. Another magistrate present defended Shepherd, arguing that such a 'thin spare woman apparently suffering from consumption' was the last person who should be subjected to such a punishment.
Musgrove told the Guardian that the parallels between the real cruelty suffered by Shepherd and Dickens's fictional account are striking. The discovery adds a new layer to the understanding of the social injustices that Dickens sought to expose through his work.