With the passing of the 1830 Beer Act – and its subsequent amendments – what can be described as a proliferation of beer houses, sometimes known as beer shops, sprung up all over Leicester. With it came the ‘informers’. A modern police force in the borough had not yet materialised: it would not be formed until 1836 and even then it was a small scale operation. This vacuum was a perfect opportunity for the informers to charge and bring before the courts lawbreaking of all kinds. Their living came from the court fines and expenses granted by the courts. Moses Pegg was the most industrious of these informers.
The new beer houses that had sprung up was fertile ground for Moses Pegg, indeed without the cases recorded at local sessions many of these beer houses would never come to light. One of these was the Reaper in Humberstone Gate.
In September 1834, Joseph Whitworth was keeper of this new beer shop and was brought before the courts. Moses Pegg deposed that walking up Humberstone Gate he saw a woman approach the Reaper door after official closing time. She knocked on the door, was let in, and five minutes later reappeared with a jug of ale under her apron. The woman disputed this claiming she had purchased some tripe. Pegg was often was accompanied by a witness (whom he paid), to corroborate his story. This time it was a man named Arms.
Joseph or John Arms (nick named ‘Barky Jack’), was one of Pegg’s witnesses who would do anything to earn some money The magistrates however, in this case were told that Arms had previously been convicted of giving false information, so the case against Joseph Whitworth, landlord of the Reaper, was dismissed.
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