150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (7 - 13 AUGUST 1873)
This week's many stories include the violent outrage committed at Rainford, the curious Parr row between an octogenarian and a blind woman, the first annual meeting of St Helens Cottage Hospital, the shocking accident at Wigan station, the fight inside Gamble's Gerards Bridge chemical works and the Peasley Cross girl's harsh sentence for clog stealing.
"Outrage At Rainford" was the headline to an article in the Liverpool Weekly Courier on the 9th. The piece described how Richard Shuttleworth, John Smith and John Lawrenson had been charged in the St Helens Petty Sessions with violently attacking Peter Gorman. The paper said:
"The prosecutor, who appeared to have been brutally abused, deposed that he was attacked on the road by the prisoners late on Saturday night. Shuttleworth and Lawrenson seized him, threw him down, and rifled his pockets, and while he was down Smith kicked in the head and face, inflicting serious injury upon him. He was taken completely by surprise, by the suddenness of the attack. The prisoners were remanded."
The St Helens Newspaper in their report provided some extra details, revealing that Peter Gorman had spent the evening in the Wheatsheaf Inn (pictured above) attending a dinner and had just begun walking home to Bickerstaffe when the attack occurred. As usual with violent muggings the victim had screamed "Murder" to attract attention. But nobody had been about to help him, although Gorman's shouts did bring the attack on him to an end.
That was because in the dark the men had not realised who their victim was. They had thought they were robbing a stranger and when Peter Gorman recognised his attackers and spoke their names they realised they were in trouble. On the following day Richard Shuttleworth went to see Gorman to "beg off", that is persuade him not to prosecute him and his pals – but it was too late. So in court Shuttleworth resorted to plan B.
That was to invent a story that he was actually doing the man a service having found him lying drunk on the road and had stopped another man who had tried to "ransackle" (rob) him. But Gorman had a witness to what had really occurred on that dark road out of Rainford. Although as no serious harm had been done to the victim, Richard Shuttleworth was only fined £2 5 shillings and the others were cleared. However, Shuttleworth would have to go to prison for two months if he could not raise the cash.
Although the railway was the great technological advance of the 19th century – at least in terms of transport – taking a train ride had its risks. The St Helens Newspaper described more "fearful railway accidents" that had recently taken place involving a "frightful catalogue of casualties and fatalities". The worst of these had occurred in Wigan where 13 passengers in total were killed.
The "accident of a most disastrous character" occurred as an express train from London was entering Wigan station at what was described as "very considerable speed". Some of the rear carriages and the guard's van came off the line and "dashed with fearful force against the buildings". The Newspaper added: "The sudden shock had a terrible effect. The carriages were smashed, and the passengers thrown out on the line or crushed in the interior. The guard had a wonderful escape, having got off with a slight wound to his leg, while his van was wrecked."
Many were also injured in train accidents in Manchester and Glasgow – all three incidents taking place within hours of each other. There had also been a collision between trains at Peasley Cross this week. Fortunately there had been no serious injuries, "but had it occurred in the dark," wrote the Newspaper, "the result to life and limb would have been something frightful."
There was a strange case in the St Helens Petty Sessions this week in which two Alices from Parr were at loggerheads. One told the Bench that she was 80 years old and the other claimed to be blind. Octogenarian Alice Atherton said she kept a small shop in the Havannah district and Alice Hamer had run up a bill with her but had done little to pay it off.
On one day she'd popped into the shop and boasted that her "good man" was going to buy her a nice new frock. To that Mrs Atherton said if her good man had any money to spare he might like to pay off a portion of her debt. She said that remark annoyed Mrs Hamer and she called the shopkeeper vile names. That night when Mrs Atherton went to bed she said she heard a noise outside and going to her window saw Mrs Hamer standing in the road.
The Newspaper wrote: "She cursed all the Athertons, root and branch, and wound up by declaring that she would wash her hands in the blood of the complainant." Mrs Hamer – who said she was blind and only able to distinguish light – claimed that the elderly shopkeeper had abused her but was ordered to find two sureties to keep the peace for a month.
A violent row at Gamble's chemical works in Gerards Bridge was also played out in court in which "Andrew Cathcart the Elder and Andrew Cathcart the Younger" were both charged with assault. John Dogherty of Oldfield Street claimed that he had quarrelled with the father and son and the elder Cathcart had struck him whilst his son held him. Dogherty claimed that he was almost knocked into a caustic pot and when cross-examined by Andrew Cathcart the Elder (who was defending himself), he denied having called him "the underminingest cutthroat in the whole yard".
A witness for the defence said Dogherty had started the row through threatening to pitch the elder Cathcart off the stage where they were working. In the end the magistrates fined both Andrew Cathcart the Elder and Andrew Cathcart the Younger five shillings and gave Dogherty a lecture, as they did not consider him blameless in the affair.
In another case a man's enquiries into a pair of clogs led to his 13-year-old granddaughter being sent to prison for a month and then onto a reformatory for five years. Mary Quinn from Sutton Street in Peasley Cross had come home carrying a pair of clogs that she claimed to have found discarded in a pigsty.
Her granddad James Quinn was suspicious and asked his neighbours if they'd seen anything, with one telling him that she had observed the girl leaving James Tyrer's house. His door had been left unlocked so that a man working on nightshift could enter. But Mary Quinn had nipped in as well and taken the clogs, leading to the girl's harsh sentence in court.
Robert Berry was a beerseller in Tontine Street in St Helens and was in court to face a charge of assaulting his wife. However, Mary Berry was not present to press her case. That was because her violent spouse had promised to be a better husband and he was probably also concerned about the effect of a criminal conviction on his beer licence.
Such promises of better behaviour usually persuaded a battered wife to drop charges, as being on her own without her husband's income would not have been easy. Mary's solicitor told the court that the woman had "extended her forgiveness, trusting her spouse would be a better one in future". The Newspaper wrote: "Robert renewed his marriage vow, and departed."
The first annual meeting of subscribers of the St Helens Cottage Hospital was held on the 13th. The small infirmary had opened in Peasley Cross in January with the matron Martha Walker in charge. Hospitals were still fairly new with many of them attached to workhouses in order to provide free treatment for paupers. And so to some a hospital had a stigma attached.
That led to the Mayor of St Helens pointing out at the start of the meeting that the "great recommendation of the institution was that there was nothing pauperising about it", with Ald. John Marsh adding that all who stayed there had to pay a certain sum per day for their maintenance. That, of course, would not be a great selling point today! But in the 1870s there was some misunderstanding about the institution and in the seven months since it had opened it hadn't received many patients. Not that many could be accommodated, as there were only eleven beds in three rooms.
The matron was highly praised at the meeting with the St Helens Newspaper writing: "She has rendered it a home of happiness and comfort to the patients; winning also the high approval of the medical men whose cases she has nursed." Mrs Walker's team of trainee nurses were also making a good impression. Although so far their tasks had been very basic.
The three girls had come from Whiston Workhouse and were aged eight and nine. The Newspaper wrote: "The three little orphan girls are of much assistance; they are useful in various acts of domestic service – cleaning, arranging, waiting upon patients, and acting as messengers for the hospital."
St Helens Newspaper courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the blast at a waxworks exhibition in Rainford, the man accused of indecent assault in Pocket Nook, the rival stingy nettle beer sellers and the woman using abusive and blasphemous language in Robins Lane.
"Outrage At Rainford" was the headline to an article in the Liverpool Weekly Courier on the 9th. The piece described how Richard Shuttleworth, John Smith and John Lawrenson had been charged in the St Helens Petty Sessions with violently attacking Peter Gorman. The paper said:
"The prosecutor, who appeared to have been brutally abused, deposed that he was attacked on the road by the prisoners late on Saturday night. Shuttleworth and Lawrenson seized him, threw him down, and rifled his pockets, and while he was down Smith kicked in the head and face, inflicting serious injury upon him. He was taken completely by surprise, by the suddenness of the attack. The prisoners were remanded."
That was because in the dark the men had not realised who their victim was. They had thought they were robbing a stranger and when Peter Gorman recognised his attackers and spoke their names they realised they were in trouble. On the following day Richard Shuttleworth went to see Gorman to "beg off", that is persuade him not to prosecute him and his pals – but it was too late. So in court Shuttleworth resorted to plan B.
That was to invent a story that he was actually doing the man a service having found him lying drunk on the road and had stopped another man who had tried to "ransackle" (rob) him. But Gorman had a witness to what had really occurred on that dark road out of Rainford. Although as no serious harm had been done to the victim, Richard Shuttleworth was only fined £2 5 shillings and the others were cleared. However, Shuttleworth would have to go to prison for two months if he could not raise the cash.
Although the railway was the great technological advance of the 19th century – at least in terms of transport – taking a train ride had its risks. The St Helens Newspaper described more "fearful railway accidents" that had recently taken place involving a "frightful catalogue of casualties and fatalities". The worst of these had occurred in Wigan where 13 passengers in total were killed.
The "accident of a most disastrous character" occurred as an express train from London was entering Wigan station at what was described as "very considerable speed". Some of the rear carriages and the guard's van came off the line and "dashed with fearful force against the buildings". The Newspaper added: "The sudden shock had a terrible effect. The carriages were smashed, and the passengers thrown out on the line or crushed in the interior. The guard had a wonderful escape, having got off with a slight wound to his leg, while his van was wrecked."
Many were also injured in train accidents in Manchester and Glasgow – all three incidents taking place within hours of each other. There had also been a collision between trains at Peasley Cross this week. Fortunately there had been no serious injuries, "but had it occurred in the dark," wrote the Newspaper, "the result to life and limb would have been something frightful."
There was a strange case in the St Helens Petty Sessions this week in which two Alices from Parr were at loggerheads. One told the Bench that she was 80 years old and the other claimed to be blind. Octogenarian Alice Atherton said she kept a small shop in the Havannah district and Alice Hamer had run up a bill with her but had done little to pay it off.
On one day she'd popped into the shop and boasted that her "good man" was going to buy her a nice new frock. To that Mrs Atherton said if her good man had any money to spare he might like to pay off a portion of her debt. She said that remark annoyed Mrs Hamer and she called the shopkeeper vile names. That night when Mrs Atherton went to bed she said she heard a noise outside and going to her window saw Mrs Hamer standing in the road.
The Newspaper wrote: "She cursed all the Athertons, root and branch, and wound up by declaring that she would wash her hands in the blood of the complainant." Mrs Hamer – who said she was blind and only able to distinguish light – claimed that the elderly shopkeeper had abused her but was ordered to find two sureties to keep the peace for a month.
A violent row at Gamble's chemical works in Gerards Bridge was also played out in court in which "Andrew Cathcart the Elder and Andrew Cathcart the Younger" were both charged with assault. John Dogherty of Oldfield Street claimed that he had quarrelled with the father and son and the elder Cathcart had struck him whilst his son held him. Dogherty claimed that he was almost knocked into a caustic pot and when cross-examined by Andrew Cathcart the Elder (who was defending himself), he denied having called him "the underminingest cutthroat in the whole yard".
A witness for the defence said Dogherty had started the row through threatening to pitch the elder Cathcart off the stage where they were working. In the end the magistrates fined both Andrew Cathcart the Elder and Andrew Cathcart the Younger five shillings and gave Dogherty a lecture, as they did not consider him blameless in the affair.
In another case a man's enquiries into a pair of clogs led to his 13-year-old granddaughter being sent to prison for a month and then onto a reformatory for five years. Mary Quinn from Sutton Street in Peasley Cross had come home carrying a pair of clogs that she claimed to have found discarded in a pigsty.
Her granddad James Quinn was suspicious and asked his neighbours if they'd seen anything, with one telling him that she had observed the girl leaving James Tyrer's house. His door had been left unlocked so that a man working on nightshift could enter. But Mary Quinn had nipped in as well and taken the clogs, leading to the girl's harsh sentence in court.
Robert Berry was a beerseller in Tontine Street in St Helens and was in court to face a charge of assaulting his wife. However, Mary Berry was not present to press her case. That was because her violent spouse had promised to be a better husband and he was probably also concerned about the effect of a criminal conviction on his beer licence.
Such promises of better behaviour usually persuaded a battered wife to drop charges, as being on her own without her husband's income would not have been easy. Mary's solicitor told the court that the woman had "extended her forgiveness, trusting her spouse would be a better one in future". The Newspaper wrote: "Robert renewed his marriage vow, and departed."
The first annual meeting of subscribers of the St Helens Cottage Hospital was held on the 13th. The small infirmary had opened in Peasley Cross in January with the matron Martha Walker in charge. Hospitals were still fairly new with many of them attached to workhouses in order to provide free treatment for paupers. And so to some a hospital had a stigma attached.
That led to the Mayor of St Helens pointing out at the start of the meeting that the "great recommendation of the institution was that there was nothing pauperising about it", with Ald. John Marsh adding that all who stayed there had to pay a certain sum per day for their maintenance. That, of course, would not be a great selling point today! But in the 1870s there was some misunderstanding about the institution and in the seven months since it had opened it hadn't received many patients. Not that many could be accommodated, as there were only eleven beds in three rooms.
The matron was highly praised at the meeting with the St Helens Newspaper writing: "She has rendered it a home of happiness and comfort to the patients; winning also the high approval of the medical men whose cases she has nursed." Mrs Walker's team of trainee nurses were also making a good impression. Although so far their tasks had been very basic.
The three girls had come from Whiston Workhouse and were aged eight and nine. The Newspaper wrote: "The three little orphan girls are of much assistance; they are useful in various acts of domestic service – cleaning, arranging, waiting upon patients, and acting as messengers for the hospital."
St Helens Newspaper courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the blast at a waxworks exhibition in Rainford, the man accused of indecent assault in Pocket Nook, the rival stingy nettle beer sellers and the woman using abusive and blasphemous language in Robins Lane.
This week's many stories include the violent outrage committed at Rainford, the curious Parr row between an octogenarian and a blind woman, the first annual meeting of St Helens Cottage Hospital, the shocking accident at Wigan station, the fight inside Gamble's Gerards Bridge chemical works and the Peasley Cross girl's harsh sentence for clog stealing.
"Outrage At Rainford" was the headline to an article in the Liverpool Weekly Courier on the 9th.
The piece described how Richard Shuttleworth, John Smith and John Lawrenson had been charged in the St Helens Petty Sessions with violently attacking Peter Gorman.
The paper said: "The prosecutor, who appeared to have been brutally abused, deposed that he was attacked on the road by the prisoners late on Saturday night.
"Shuttleworth and Lawrenson seized him, threw him down, and rifled his pockets, and while he was down Smith kicked in the head and face, inflicting serious injury upon him. He was taken completely by surprise, by the suddenness of the attack. The prisoners were remanded."
The St Helens Newspaper in their report provided some extra details, revealing that Peter Gorman had spent the evening in the Wheatsheaf Inn (pictured above) attending a dinner and had just begun walking home to Bickerstaffe when the attack occurred.
As usual with violent muggings the victim had screamed "Murder" to attract attention. But nobody had been about to help him, although Gorman's shouts did bring the attack on him to an end.
That was because in the dark the men had not realised who their victim was. They had thought they were robbing a stranger and when Peter Gorman recognised his attackers and spoke their names they realised they were in trouble.
On the following day Richard Shuttleworth went to see Gorman to "beg off", that is persuade him not to prosecute him and his pals – but it was too late.
So in court Shuttleworth resorted to plan B. That was to invent a story that he was actually doing the man a service having found him lying drunk on the road and had stopped another man who had tried to "ransackle" (rob) him.
But Gorman had a witness to what had really occurred on that dark road out of Rainford.
Although as no serious harm had been done to the victim, Richard Shuttleworth was only fined £2 5 shillings and the others were cleared.
However, Shuttleworth would have to go to prison for two months if he could not raise the cash.
Although the railway was the great technological advance of the 19th century – at least in terms of transport – taking a train ride had its risks.
The St Helens Newspaper described more "fearful railway accidents" that had recently taken place involving a "frightful catalogue of casualties and fatalities".
The worst of these had occurred in Wigan where 13 passengers in total were killed.
The "accident of a most disastrous character" occurred as an express train from London was entering Wigan station at what was described as "very considerable speed".
Some of the rear carriages and the guard's van came off the line and "dashed with fearful force against the buildings".
The Newspaper added: "The sudden shock had a terrible effect. The carriages were smashed, and the passengers thrown out on the line or crushed in the interior. The guard had a wonderful escape, having got off with a slight wound to his leg, while his van was wrecked."
Many were also injured in train accidents in Manchester and Glasgow – all three incidents taking place within hours of each other.
There had also been a collision between trains at Peasley Cross this week. Fortunately there had been no serious injuries, "but had it occurred in the dark," wrote the Newspaper, "the result to life and limb would have been something frightful."
There was a strange case in the St Helens Petty Sessions this week in which two Alices from Parr were at loggerheads. One told the Bench that she was 80 years old and the other claimed to be blind.
Octogenarian Alice Atherton said she kept a small shop in the Havannah district and Alice Hamer had run up a bill with her but had done little to pay it off.
On one day she'd popped into the shop and boasted that her "good man" was going to buy her a nice new frock.
To that Mrs Atherton said if her good man had any money to spare he might like to pay off a portion of her debt. She said that remark annoyed Mrs Hamer and she called the shopkeeper vile names.
That night when Mrs Atherton went to bed she said she heard a noise outside and going to her window saw Mrs Hamer standing in the road. The Newspaper wrote:
"She cursed all the Athertons, root and branch, and wound up by declaring that she would wash her hands in the blood of the complainant."
Mrs Hamer – who said she was blind and only able to distinguish light – claimed that the elderly shopkeeper had abused her but was ordered to find two sureties to keep the peace for a month.
A violent row at Gamble's chemical works in Gerards Bridge was also played out in court in which "Andrew Cathcart the Elder and Andrew Cathcart the Younger" were both charged with assault.
John Dogherty of Oldfield Street claimed that he had quarrelled with the father and son and the elder Cathcart had struck him whilst his son held him.
Dogherty claimed that he was almost knocked into a caustic pot and when cross-examined by Andrew Cathcart the Elder (who was defending himself), he denied having called him "the underminingest cutthroat in the whole yard".
A witness for the defence said Dogherty had started the row through threatening to pitch the elder Cathcart off the stage where they were working.
In the end the magistrates fined both Andrew Cathcart the Elder and Andrew Cathcart the Younger five shillings and gave Dogherty a lecture, as they did not consider him blameless in the affair.
In another case a man's enquiries into a pair of clogs led to his 13-year-old granddaughter being sent to prison for a month and then onto a reformatory for five years.
Mary Quinn from Sutton Street in Peasley Cross had come home carrying a pair of clogs that she claimed to have found discarded in a pigsty.
Her granddad James Quinn was suspicious and asked his neighbours if they'd seen anything, with one telling him that she had observed the girl leaving James Tyrer's house.
His door had been left unlocked so that a man working on nightshift could enter. But Mary Quinn had nipped in as well and taken the clogs, leading to the girl's harsh sentence in court.
Robert Berry was a beerseller in Tontine Street in St Helens and was in court to face a charge of assaulting his wife. However, Mary Berry was not present to press her case.
That was because her violent spouse had promised to be a better husband and he was probably also concerned about the effect of a criminal conviction on his beer licence.
Such promises of better behaviour usually persuaded a battered wife to drop charges, as being on her own without her husband's income would not have been easy.
Mary's solicitor told the court that the woman had "extended her forgiveness, trusting her spouse would be a better one in future". The Newspaper wrote: "Robert renewed his marriage vow, and departed."
The first annual meeting of subscribers of the St Helens Cottage Hospital was held on the 13th.
The small infirmary had opened in Peasley Cross in January with the matron Martha Walker in charge.
Hospitals were still fairly new with many of them attached to workhouses in order to provide free treatment for paupers. And so to some a hospital had a stigma attached.
That led to the Mayor of St Helens pointing out at the start of the meeting that the "great recommendation of the institution was that there was nothing pauperising about it", with Ald. John Marsh adding that all who stayed there had to pay a certain sum per day for their maintenance.
That, of course, would not be a great selling point today! But in the 1870s there was some misunderstanding about the institution and in the seven months since it had opened it hadn't received many patients.
Not that many could be accommodated, as there were only eleven beds in three rooms.
The matron was highly praised at the meeting with the St Helens Newspaper writing:
"She has rendered it a home of happiness and comfort to the patients; winning also the high approval of the medical men whose cases she has nursed."
Mrs Walker's team of trainee nurses were also making a good impression. Although so far their tasks had been very basic.
The three girls had come from Whiston Workhouse and were aged eight and nine. The Newspaper wrote:
"The three little orphan girls are of much assistance; they are useful in various acts of domestic service – cleaning, arranging, waiting upon patients, and acting as messengers for the hospital."
St Helens Newspaper courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the blast at a waxworks exhibition in Rainford, the man accused of indecent assault in Pocket Nook, the rival stingy nettle beer sellers and the woman using abusive and blasphemous language in Robins Lane.
"Outrage At Rainford" was the headline to an article in the Liverpool Weekly Courier on the 9th.
The piece described how Richard Shuttleworth, John Smith and John Lawrenson had been charged in the St Helens Petty Sessions with violently attacking Peter Gorman.
The paper said: "The prosecutor, who appeared to have been brutally abused, deposed that he was attacked on the road by the prisoners late on Saturday night.
"Shuttleworth and Lawrenson seized him, threw him down, and rifled his pockets, and while he was down Smith kicked in the head and face, inflicting serious injury upon him. He was taken completely by surprise, by the suddenness of the attack. The prisoners were remanded."
As usual with violent muggings the victim had screamed "Murder" to attract attention. But nobody had been about to help him, although Gorman's shouts did bring the attack on him to an end.
That was because in the dark the men had not realised who their victim was. They had thought they were robbing a stranger and when Peter Gorman recognised his attackers and spoke their names they realised they were in trouble.
On the following day Richard Shuttleworth went to see Gorman to "beg off", that is persuade him not to prosecute him and his pals – but it was too late.
So in court Shuttleworth resorted to plan B. That was to invent a story that he was actually doing the man a service having found him lying drunk on the road and had stopped another man who had tried to "ransackle" (rob) him.
But Gorman had a witness to what had really occurred on that dark road out of Rainford.
Although as no serious harm had been done to the victim, Richard Shuttleworth was only fined £2 5 shillings and the others were cleared.
However, Shuttleworth would have to go to prison for two months if he could not raise the cash.
Although the railway was the great technological advance of the 19th century – at least in terms of transport – taking a train ride had its risks.
The St Helens Newspaper described more "fearful railway accidents" that had recently taken place involving a "frightful catalogue of casualties and fatalities".
The worst of these had occurred in Wigan where 13 passengers in total were killed.
The "accident of a most disastrous character" occurred as an express train from London was entering Wigan station at what was described as "very considerable speed".
Some of the rear carriages and the guard's van came off the line and "dashed with fearful force against the buildings".
The Newspaper added: "The sudden shock had a terrible effect. The carriages were smashed, and the passengers thrown out on the line or crushed in the interior. The guard had a wonderful escape, having got off with a slight wound to his leg, while his van was wrecked."
Many were also injured in train accidents in Manchester and Glasgow – all three incidents taking place within hours of each other.
There had also been a collision between trains at Peasley Cross this week. Fortunately there had been no serious injuries, "but had it occurred in the dark," wrote the Newspaper, "the result to life and limb would have been something frightful."
There was a strange case in the St Helens Petty Sessions this week in which two Alices from Parr were at loggerheads. One told the Bench that she was 80 years old and the other claimed to be blind.
Octogenarian Alice Atherton said she kept a small shop in the Havannah district and Alice Hamer had run up a bill with her but had done little to pay it off.
On one day she'd popped into the shop and boasted that her "good man" was going to buy her a nice new frock.
To that Mrs Atherton said if her good man had any money to spare he might like to pay off a portion of her debt. She said that remark annoyed Mrs Hamer and she called the shopkeeper vile names.
That night when Mrs Atherton went to bed she said she heard a noise outside and going to her window saw Mrs Hamer standing in the road. The Newspaper wrote:
"She cursed all the Athertons, root and branch, and wound up by declaring that she would wash her hands in the blood of the complainant."
Mrs Hamer – who said she was blind and only able to distinguish light – claimed that the elderly shopkeeper had abused her but was ordered to find two sureties to keep the peace for a month.
A violent row at Gamble's chemical works in Gerards Bridge was also played out in court in which "Andrew Cathcart the Elder and Andrew Cathcart the Younger" were both charged with assault.
John Dogherty of Oldfield Street claimed that he had quarrelled with the father and son and the elder Cathcart had struck him whilst his son held him.
Dogherty claimed that he was almost knocked into a caustic pot and when cross-examined by Andrew Cathcart the Elder (who was defending himself), he denied having called him "the underminingest cutthroat in the whole yard".
A witness for the defence said Dogherty had started the row through threatening to pitch the elder Cathcart off the stage where they were working.
In the end the magistrates fined both Andrew Cathcart the Elder and Andrew Cathcart the Younger five shillings and gave Dogherty a lecture, as they did not consider him blameless in the affair.
In another case a man's enquiries into a pair of clogs led to his 13-year-old granddaughter being sent to prison for a month and then onto a reformatory for five years.
Mary Quinn from Sutton Street in Peasley Cross had come home carrying a pair of clogs that she claimed to have found discarded in a pigsty.
Her granddad James Quinn was suspicious and asked his neighbours if they'd seen anything, with one telling him that she had observed the girl leaving James Tyrer's house.
His door had been left unlocked so that a man working on nightshift could enter. But Mary Quinn had nipped in as well and taken the clogs, leading to the girl's harsh sentence in court.
Robert Berry was a beerseller in Tontine Street in St Helens and was in court to face a charge of assaulting his wife. However, Mary Berry was not present to press her case.
That was because her violent spouse had promised to be a better husband and he was probably also concerned about the effect of a criminal conviction on his beer licence.
Such promises of better behaviour usually persuaded a battered wife to drop charges, as being on her own without her husband's income would not have been easy.
Mary's solicitor told the court that the woman had "extended her forgiveness, trusting her spouse would be a better one in future". The Newspaper wrote: "Robert renewed his marriage vow, and departed."
The first annual meeting of subscribers of the St Helens Cottage Hospital was held on the 13th.
The small infirmary had opened in Peasley Cross in January with the matron Martha Walker in charge.
Hospitals were still fairly new with many of them attached to workhouses in order to provide free treatment for paupers. And so to some a hospital had a stigma attached.
That led to the Mayor of St Helens pointing out at the start of the meeting that the "great recommendation of the institution was that there was nothing pauperising about it", with Ald. John Marsh adding that all who stayed there had to pay a certain sum per day for their maintenance.
That, of course, would not be a great selling point today! But in the 1870s there was some misunderstanding about the institution and in the seven months since it had opened it hadn't received many patients.
Not that many could be accommodated, as there were only eleven beds in three rooms.
The matron was highly praised at the meeting with the St Helens Newspaper writing:
"She has rendered it a home of happiness and comfort to the patients; winning also the high approval of the medical men whose cases she has nursed."
Mrs Walker's team of trainee nurses were also making a good impression. Although so far their tasks had been very basic.
The three girls had come from Whiston Workhouse and were aged eight and nine. The Newspaper wrote:
"The three little orphan girls are of much assistance; they are useful in various acts of domestic service – cleaning, arranging, waiting upon patients, and acting as messengers for the hospital."
St Helens Newspaper courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the blast at a waxworks exhibition in Rainford, the man accused of indecent assault in Pocket Nook, the rival stingy nettle beer sellers and the woman using abusive and blasphemous language in Robins Lane.