150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (9th - 15th DECEMBER 1869)
This week's stories include the drunken Dragoon in Prescot, the prosecution of a gipsy for telling fortunes in Park Road, the coin trick used in the Griffin Inn in Bold, the woman who broke her relative's windows in Parr and the man who attacked his wife after drinking 29 glasses of beer.
We begin on the 9th when a detachment of the 1st Dragoons arrived in Prescot from Manchester, where they were billeted for the night. The troops numbered 10 officers and 490 men but also in the party there were 64 women and 75 children. They had only received their orders to march two days earlier and were making for Ireland via Liverpool. However as they marched through Prescot on the following day one soldier started causing trouble, as reported by the Prescot Reporter:
"One of the troopers had been indulging too freely in drink and was placed in charge of a corporal and two privates, and to sober him had been ordered to walk. He became very disorderly in Fall-lane and refused to walk any further. After considerable difficulty, and the application of some small blows with the flat sides of the swords, he again commenced the journey. At the Blue Bell, Huyton, he again broke out into a rage, and as an empty cart came up shortly after, he deliberately lay down in the road and let the cart wheel pass over his head. He was lifted into the cart, his face and head bleeding very profusely and conveyed to the Liverpool Infirmary."
On the 11th the St Helens Newspaper stated that the council had estimated the population of the borough of St Helens as 45,000. However the means of calculation was a little suspect. They had come up with the total by multiplying the number of houses in the town (8,182) by 5½. That was the average number of people occupying houses in England.
On the 13th the wife of a Sergeant Major in the St Helens Rifle Volunteers died after having fallen down the stairs a fortnight earlier at her home – seemingly in Hamer Street. Elizabeth Hodgson was only 47-years-old and had simply broken her arm. However medical treatment was so rudimentary compared to today that the shock to her body was sufficient to cause her death.
The St Helens Petty Sessions were held on the 13th and Mary Mooney from Cowley Street was back in court. Last year the Irishwoman was charged with disturbing the peace in nearby Back Albert Street. Constable Gilligan then said he saw the woman calling her neighbours filthy names and challenging them to fight. On this occasion the 38-year-old was accused of creating a disturbance in Back Albert Street by cursing and shouting. Not much different really to last year and even the sentence of being bound over by the magistrates was the same.
Anne Clarke was summoned for doing wilful damage to the house of her relative Charlotte Clarke, who appeared to live in Bishop Street in Parr. The St Helens Newspaper wrote: "The defendant came to the complainant's house, and not getting a hospitable reception, she retired a short distance, and sent a volley of stones and bricks into the house, some of which broke a quantity of glass, and demolished a venetian blind."
Anne Clarke failed to show but sent her mother instead. She told the Bench that they could not afford to pay the fourteen shillings cost of the damage. However the magistrates ordered that the amount be paid and they also fined the daughter 2s 6d, plus costs.
Patrick Kane was charged with assaulting Constable Armstrong, a policeman described by the Newspaper as being of "gigantic stature". The officer said a number of men were causing a disturbance in Sandfield Crescent, off Liverpool Road, and they dispersed upon his order. Shortly afterwards Kane returned and resumed making a noise and PC Armstrong followed him up an entry.
After being collared by the bobby, Kane struck him several blows to the ribs. He then put out the constable's lamp and got away under cover of darkness. The officer drew his truncheon and went after Kane, finally capturing and keeping his quarry. Patrick Kane was fined 40 shillings and costs. That was quite a lot of money and so the man probably had to accept the alternative sentence of one month in prison.
William Martindale made his 32nd appearance before the Bench when he was charged with assaulting his wife, Heather. The St Helens Newspaper said the woman appeared very weak and gave evidence in almost inaudible tones. She told the court that they had been married 32 years and frequently had received "ill usage" from her husband using stools, chairs and other similar weapons.
The man's defence was that he had been very drunk at the time, having consumed 29 half-pints of beer and during his assault on Heather she had broken a two-quart jug over his head. Martindale was sent to prison for four months with hard labour and told that after his release he would have to find sureties to keep the peace for a further four months.
James Elson was charged with stealing a sovereign from Charles Knee, the landlord of the Griffin Inn in Warrington Road in Bold Heath. The man had entered the pub with a friend and bought some gin and whisky, paying for the drinks with a coin. This was thought by the bar staff to be a sovereign and 19s 6d change was given. The pair had more drinks and after ninety minutes left the Griffin and later the landlord realised he'd been tricked. The coin was in fact a farthing that seemingly had been embellished to look like a sovereign.
However the Bench dismissed the case, as they said the word "farthing" was printed quite distinctly on the coin and the fault lay more with those that had accepted it as a sovereign. The Chairman added that they did not justify the defendant taking the change but the magistrates could not overlook the word farthing on the coin.
One has to admire the indomitable solicitor Thomas Swift of Hardshaw Hall, whose son Rigby would later become St Helens' third MP. He must have been the rudest solicitor the town ever had but was quiet brilliant in getting his clients off a wide range of charges. Swift was defending beerhouse keeper James Miller, who was charged in the Sessions with illegally serving drink on a Sunday morning.
A constable had found two men inside the house in Coal Pit Lane in Parr, although they fled before he could get their names. The landlord's son then tried to hide a glass of porter in a drawer. However the law did allow the serving of alcohol to travellers and Swift got to work in demolishing the evidence. He said the constable did not know who the two men had been and so they might well have been travellers, adding that the burden of proof lay with the prosecution.
There was then a frosty exchange between Superintendent James Ludlam and Thomas Swift. The head of St Helens' police remarked how the two men running off had implied guilt, to which Swift replied that he was not speaking to him. Ludlam responded with: "I am not speaking to Mr. Swift." The solicitor told the court that it was often the case that innocent people did not want to get involved with prosecutions. The Bench accepted his argument and dismissed the case.
The payment of miners' wages was known as a "reckoning" as those working on the coalface as hewers were paid by the weight of coal that they produced. Then on payday (usually every fortnight) it was reckoned how much money they were owed. The St Helens Newspaper wrote on the 14th that the colliers in the St Helens district could expect a 10% increase in their wages at the first reckoning of the New Year.
The mine owners had issued circulars stating that the cost of coal would rise by 6d per ton on or just after January 1st in order to pay for the wage rise. This had been one of the demands of the miners, who over the last year, with many explosions in coalmines, had become more unionised.
A gypsy woman called Jane Carling appeared in St Helens Police Court on the 14th accused of unlawfully pursuing the trade of fortune telling. She had gone into the Black Horse pub in Park Road and a Miss Foster had agreed to have her fortune told, as the Newspaper described: "Miss Foster crossed her palm by planting a bright shilling in the middle of it, and then submitted her own [palm], in order that the mysteries of the future might be unravelled from its irregular radiation of lines.
"The history of a life thus yielded and imparted ought to have satisfied reasonable young ladies, if they coveted a career of exceptional happiness, but it seems that it did not, for a policeman named Wilding, who was observed near the house, was appraised of what was going on, and he immediately sauntered leisurely in."
The Bench told Jane Carling that by her actions she had rendered herself liable to a heavy term of imprisonment. However this was the first prosecution of its kind in a St Helens court and there was a tradition of leniency for offenders in such cases. So Jane was let off on a promise that she would not reoffend. The Newspaper wrote: "She was then liberated, to the great joy of a few of the tribe, who seemed thoroughly frightened at the prosecution."
And finally the first in a series of musical and literary evenings took place at Rosbotham School in Rainford on the 15th before a "tolerably large" audience. The programme comprised songs, recitations and readings, with its second half being a performance by the Rainford Amateur Christy Minstrels to violin accompaniment. I expect the Minstrels would have been in blackface.
Next week's stories will include the awkward shooters on the St Helens Junction rifle range, the fowl theft at Ravenhead, the annual reunion of Cowley School, a public examination of pupils at Lowe House School, the thieves hawking Old Moore's Almanack round St Helens and the shouting, cursing, and din of carters in Prescot.
We begin on the 9th when a detachment of the 1st Dragoons arrived in Prescot from Manchester, where they were billeted for the night. The troops numbered 10 officers and 490 men but also in the party there were 64 women and 75 children. They had only received their orders to march two days earlier and were making for Ireland via Liverpool. However as they marched through Prescot on the following day one soldier started causing trouble, as reported by the Prescot Reporter:
"One of the troopers had been indulging too freely in drink and was placed in charge of a corporal and two privates, and to sober him had been ordered to walk. He became very disorderly in Fall-lane and refused to walk any further. After considerable difficulty, and the application of some small blows with the flat sides of the swords, he again commenced the journey. At the Blue Bell, Huyton, he again broke out into a rage, and as an empty cart came up shortly after, he deliberately lay down in the road and let the cart wheel pass over his head. He was lifted into the cart, his face and head bleeding very profusely and conveyed to the Liverpool Infirmary."
On the 13th the wife of a Sergeant Major in the St Helens Rifle Volunteers died after having fallen down the stairs a fortnight earlier at her home – seemingly in Hamer Street. Elizabeth Hodgson was only 47-years-old and had simply broken her arm. However medical treatment was so rudimentary compared to today that the shock to her body was sufficient to cause her death.
The St Helens Petty Sessions were held on the 13th and Mary Mooney from Cowley Street was back in court. Last year the Irishwoman was charged with disturbing the peace in nearby Back Albert Street. Constable Gilligan then said he saw the woman calling her neighbours filthy names and challenging them to fight. On this occasion the 38-year-old was accused of creating a disturbance in Back Albert Street by cursing and shouting. Not much different really to last year and even the sentence of being bound over by the magistrates was the same.
Anne Clarke was summoned for doing wilful damage to the house of her relative Charlotte Clarke, who appeared to live in Bishop Street in Parr. The St Helens Newspaper wrote: "The defendant came to the complainant's house, and not getting a hospitable reception, she retired a short distance, and sent a volley of stones and bricks into the house, some of which broke a quantity of glass, and demolished a venetian blind."
Anne Clarke failed to show but sent her mother instead. She told the Bench that they could not afford to pay the fourteen shillings cost of the damage. However the magistrates ordered that the amount be paid and they also fined the daughter 2s 6d, plus costs.
Patrick Kane was charged with assaulting Constable Armstrong, a policeman described by the Newspaper as being of "gigantic stature". The officer said a number of men were causing a disturbance in Sandfield Crescent, off Liverpool Road, and they dispersed upon his order. Shortly afterwards Kane returned and resumed making a noise and PC Armstrong followed him up an entry.
After being collared by the bobby, Kane struck him several blows to the ribs. He then put out the constable's lamp and got away under cover of darkness. The officer drew his truncheon and went after Kane, finally capturing and keeping his quarry. Patrick Kane was fined 40 shillings and costs. That was quite a lot of money and so the man probably had to accept the alternative sentence of one month in prison.
William Martindale made his 32nd appearance before the Bench when he was charged with assaulting his wife, Heather. The St Helens Newspaper said the woman appeared very weak and gave evidence in almost inaudible tones. She told the court that they had been married 32 years and frequently had received "ill usage" from her husband using stools, chairs and other similar weapons.
The man's defence was that he had been very drunk at the time, having consumed 29 half-pints of beer and during his assault on Heather she had broken a two-quart jug over his head. Martindale was sent to prison for four months with hard labour and told that after his release he would have to find sureties to keep the peace for a further four months.
James Elson was charged with stealing a sovereign from Charles Knee, the landlord of the Griffin Inn in Warrington Road in Bold Heath. The man had entered the pub with a friend and bought some gin and whisky, paying for the drinks with a coin. This was thought by the bar staff to be a sovereign and 19s 6d change was given. The pair had more drinks and after ninety minutes left the Griffin and later the landlord realised he'd been tricked. The coin was in fact a farthing that seemingly had been embellished to look like a sovereign.
However the Bench dismissed the case, as they said the word "farthing" was printed quite distinctly on the coin and the fault lay more with those that had accepted it as a sovereign. The Chairman added that they did not justify the defendant taking the change but the magistrates could not overlook the word farthing on the coin.
One has to admire the indomitable solicitor Thomas Swift of Hardshaw Hall, whose son Rigby would later become St Helens' third MP. He must have been the rudest solicitor the town ever had but was quiet brilliant in getting his clients off a wide range of charges. Swift was defending beerhouse keeper James Miller, who was charged in the Sessions with illegally serving drink on a Sunday morning.
A constable had found two men inside the house in Coal Pit Lane in Parr, although they fled before he could get their names. The landlord's son then tried to hide a glass of porter in a drawer. However the law did allow the serving of alcohol to travellers and Swift got to work in demolishing the evidence. He said the constable did not know who the two men had been and so they might well have been travellers, adding that the burden of proof lay with the prosecution.
There was then a frosty exchange between Superintendent James Ludlam and Thomas Swift. The head of St Helens' police remarked how the two men running off had implied guilt, to which Swift replied that he was not speaking to him. Ludlam responded with: "I am not speaking to Mr. Swift." The solicitor told the court that it was often the case that innocent people did not want to get involved with prosecutions. The Bench accepted his argument and dismissed the case.
The payment of miners' wages was known as a "reckoning" as those working on the coalface as hewers were paid by the weight of coal that they produced. Then on payday (usually every fortnight) it was reckoned how much money they were owed. The St Helens Newspaper wrote on the 14th that the colliers in the St Helens district could expect a 10% increase in their wages at the first reckoning of the New Year.
The mine owners had issued circulars stating that the cost of coal would rise by 6d per ton on or just after January 1st in order to pay for the wage rise. This had been one of the demands of the miners, who over the last year, with many explosions in coalmines, had become more unionised.
A gypsy woman called Jane Carling appeared in St Helens Police Court on the 14th accused of unlawfully pursuing the trade of fortune telling. She had gone into the Black Horse pub in Park Road and a Miss Foster had agreed to have her fortune told, as the Newspaper described: "Miss Foster crossed her palm by planting a bright shilling in the middle of it, and then submitted her own [palm], in order that the mysteries of the future might be unravelled from its irregular radiation of lines.
"The history of a life thus yielded and imparted ought to have satisfied reasonable young ladies, if they coveted a career of exceptional happiness, but it seems that it did not, for a policeman named Wilding, who was observed near the house, was appraised of what was going on, and he immediately sauntered leisurely in."
The Bench told Jane Carling that by her actions she had rendered herself liable to a heavy term of imprisonment. However this was the first prosecution of its kind in a St Helens court and there was a tradition of leniency for offenders in such cases. So Jane was let off on a promise that she would not reoffend. The Newspaper wrote: "She was then liberated, to the great joy of a few of the tribe, who seemed thoroughly frightened at the prosecution."
And finally the first in a series of musical and literary evenings took place at Rosbotham School in Rainford on the 15th before a "tolerably large" audience. The programme comprised songs, recitations and readings, with its second half being a performance by the Rainford Amateur Christy Minstrels to violin accompaniment. I expect the Minstrels would have been in blackface.
Next week's stories will include the awkward shooters on the St Helens Junction rifle range, the fowl theft at Ravenhead, the annual reunion of Cowley School, a public examination of pupils at Lowe House School, the thieves hawking Old Moore's Almanack round St Helens and the shouting, cursing, and din of carters in Prescot.