150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK 10 - 16 MARCH 1875
This week's many stories include the 12-year-old Parr girl's claim of rape against a Corporation official, the dispute over a policeman's lamp in Rainford, the harsh penalty for stealing a coat from St Helens market, criticism of Sunday schools for giving tea parties to their children, Fossett's Circus comes to Prescot and the Parr grocer who wanted his debt paying off but received a beating instead.
We begin with the extraordinary allegation of rape that a 12-year-old Parr girl called Alice Kay had made against Alexander Atwell. He was a St Helens Corporation official whose job was to look after water taps and so was well known in the district. Commenting on Atwell's appearance this week in St Helens Petty Sessions, the Prescot Reporter wrote:
"There was great excitement in the neighbourhood of the court, owing to the anxiety to obtain a view of the prisoner on his passage to the court. The police had some difficulty in order to avoid a breach of the peace."
Young Alice told the court that on the day in question she had seen Atwell passing her house and went out to tell him that their water tap was faulty. He went into the scullery with her to examine the tap and finding that the girl was in the house alone, Atwell instructed her to shut the front door, which she did. Alice claimed that he then began to "take liberties" with her. She said she told him to stop but he then took her into the kitchen and raped her.
Curiously, she claimed that upon leaving her house, Atwell had wanted her to shake hands with him but she had refused. After he had gone, Alice confided in two female neighbours and when her father came home she told him what had occurred. The two women and the girl's aunt took her to Dr Gaskell's surgery to be examined and afterwards, accompanied by her father, a complaint was made to the police.
Next morning Alice accompanied PC Robinson to the Corporation yard in St Mary's Street in St Helens and pointed out Atwell as her attacker. Dr Gaskell told the court that he had not seen any marks of violence on Alice and so did not think the offence of rape had been committed. Some witnesses were then called to corroborate Alice's claim of her complaining to them about what had occurred.
It was also revealed that when Atwell had been arrested, he had said to the constable, "What! Surely you are only jesting?" His solicitor submitted that if his client was to be committed for trial at the assizes, it should only be for a common assault. However, the Bench thought otherwise and ordered Atwell to be tried at the Kirkdale Assizes on a charge of attempted rape but allowed the man bail.
But the trial in Liverpool did not take place, with newspaper reports simply stating that the "grand jury ignored the Bill". In other words they had looked at the charge sheet containing a synopsis of the evidence and decided not to pursue the case against Atwell. I expect that was through a combination of it centring on a child's evidence against a respected official, along with the damning statement of the doctor.
Without modern-day forensics, evidence of violence was expected to be found on the bodies of rape victims, as it was assumed they would have resisted their assault. It seems unlikely that Alice would have invented her account but with the rejection of the charge at Kirkdale, there are no more details of what happened to Atwell and Alice. That is apart from the 1881 census, in which Atwell and his wife Sophia and their children are listed as living in Widnes with the man now employed as a County Court bailiff.
Christopher Jones appeared in the St Helens Petty Sessions on the 15th charged with being drunk and disorderly at Rainford and assaulting PC William Eckford in the execution of his duty. As was often the case, the incident had taken place on a Saturday night. The constable gave evidence that he had seen Jones drunk and disorderly in Ormskirk Road along with four or five others.
He approached the group and as he turned his lamp onto their faces to see who they were, Jones had kicked him in the stomach. The defendant admitted being drunk but denied the assault claiming that he had not kicked out at the constable but at the lamp. That would have been a so-called bulls-eye oil lamp that police officers carried during the Victorian era.
A witness called Peter Smith corroborated his claim but the magistrates preferred the evidence of the policeman and fined Jones 10 shillings, plus costs. Paternity cases were very common in the Petty Sessions and usually the man who had been summoned to court denied being the father of the child. Without blood or DNA tests, definitive proof was impossible and so the accused men would often attempt to wriggle out of their responsibilities.
The young woman would then have to bring many witnesses to court to prove that she had been "walking out" with the defendant. But when John Carey was summoned to contribute to the maintenance of Ann Ashcroft's illegitimate child that had been born just before last Christmas, he admitted being the father. That made things a little easier for Ann but the paltry 2s 6d weekly maintenance payments that the magistrates granted her would not stretch very far.
Small shopkeepers routinely allowed their customers to put goods "on the slate" or ask for "strap", i.e. credit. Most housewives would then pay off their debt on the following Saturday when their husband got paid. Such repayments created confidence between both shopkeepers and customers and allowed more "strap" to be granted. But there were always some silly folk that tried it on and sometimes got violent when the shop demanded their money.
This week George Sephton and his wife Alice were summoned to the Petty Sessions charged with violently assaulting Benjamin Williamson at Parr. The latter kept a grocery shop in Traverse Street and he had sent the Sephtons a note that unless they paid off their debt he would have to take them to the County Court.
That enraged the Sephtons and at 10pm that night they were accused of entering the shop and, without any provocation, began a violent attack on Williamson and his brother in which both were struck and kicked several times. George and Alice Sephton both pleaded guilty, along with Thomas Battersby who had also joined in the assault, and all three were fined 10 shillings and costs.
Beating up a shopkeeper might be seen as just as serious – if not more so – than nicking a coat. But the 1870s were strange times when stealing possessions almost always landed you in prison and being violent usually resulted in a fine. Nicholas Greener learned that the hard way when he appeared in court. He had stolen a coat valued at £1 from Michael Fairhurst's stall on the market.
After his theft Greener went into the Rising Sun Vaults in East Street and persuaded a man called John Briers to go and pawn the coat for 10 shillings. By this time the police were on the look out for the stolen coat and as Briers re-entered the Rising Sun and handed Greener his cash and ticket, a constable collared the thief. Despite pleading guilty to the charge, Nicholas Greener was sent to prison for three months.
An advert in the Prescot Reporter described how Fossett's Circus was coming to town: "Mr. R. Fossett respectfully announces that owing to the great success he met with on his last visit, he has determined to pay a return visit to Prescot for two days only, Wednesday and Thursday, March 17th and 18th, with his celebrated Troupe, consisting of Male and Female Riders, Acrobatic Marvels, Sensational Gymnasts, Tight and Slack-rope Artists, Jugglers, Contortionists, Tumblers, Vaulters, Male and Female Clowns, not to be equalled in any other Equestrian Establishment.
"Mr. R. Fossett, the great bare-back Rider, will appear each evening in his marvellous Jockey Act, concluding with jumping from the ring on the bare back of the horse, erect, while at full speed, without touching with his hands; a feat achieved by no other artist in Great Britain. The World-renowned DAN COOKE, the singing jester, will have the honour of giving some new favourite ditties, eminently suited to the ideas of all who will be present. Prices of admission – Boxes, 1s.; Pit, 6d.; Gallery, 3d." The circus would be setting up in the grounds of the Plough Hotel in Warrington Road in Prescot.
Father James Nugent – the pioneering child welfare reformer of which the Nugent Care charity is named – often appeared in St Helens accompanying his Boys of the Refuge and Night Asylum. They were based at St Anne Street in Liverpool and came to town on the 15th to perform a concert at the Volunteer Hall. As St Patrick's Day was only two days away, the boys gave a selection of Irish vocal and instrumental music to a crowded audience.
On the same evening a lecture was delivered in the Mission Hall in Waterloo Street as part of training for Sunday School volunteers. About 120 persons, mainly teachers, attended the session in which the main lecturer condemned the practice of what he called the "bribing" of scholars.
That was by giving them tea parties etc., saying, "Schools are being made too cheap, so much so, that both parents and children are beginning to think they are conferring a favour upon the teachers by their children attending." Having two or more teachers to a class was also condemned "as being certain to destroy it."
St Helens Newspaper courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the police chase in Liverpool Road to capture a violent man, the proposed widening of Corporation Street, the punch up at the Volunteer Inn and the opening of the Victoria Pleasure Gardens in Thatto Heath.
We begin with the extraordinary allegation of rape that a 12-year-old Parr girl called Alice Kay had made against Alexander Atwell. He was a St Helens Corporation official whose job was to look after water taps and so was well known in the district. Commenting on Atwell's appearance this week in St Helens Petty Sessions, the Prescot Reporter wrote:
"There was great excitement in the neighbourhood of the court, owing to the anxiety to obtain a view of the prisoner on his passage to the court. The police had some difficulty in order to avoid a breach of the peace."
Young Alice told the court that on the day in question she had seen Atwell passing her house and went out to tell him that their water tap was faulty. He went into the scullery with her to examine the tap and finding that the girl was in the house alone, Atwell instructed her to shut the front door, which she did. Alice claimed that he then began to "take liberties" with her. She said she told him to stop but he then took her into the kitchen and raped her.
Curiously, she claimed that upon leaving her house, Atwell had wanted her to shake hands with him but she had refused. After he had gone, Alice confided in two female neighbours and when her father came home she told him what had occurred. The two women and the girl's aunt took her to Dr Gaskell's surgery to be examined and afterwards, accompanied by her father, a complaint was made to the police.
Next morning Alice accompanied PC Robinson to the Corporation yard in St Mary's Street in St Helens and pointed out Atwell as her attacker. Dr Gaskell told the court that he had not seen any marks of violence on Alice and so did not think the offence of rape had been committed. Some witnesses were then called to corroborate Alice's claim of her complaining to them about what had occurred.
It was also revealed that when Atwell had been arrested, he had said to the constable, "What! Surely you are only jesting?" His solicitor submitted that if his client was to be committed for trial at the assizes, it should only be for a common assault. However, the Bench thought otherwise and ordered Atwell to be tried at the Kirkdale Assizes on a charge of attempted rape but allowed the man bail.
But the trial in Liverpool did not take place, with newspaper reports simply stating that the "grand jury ignored the Bill". In other words they had looked at the charge sheet containing a synopsis of the evidence and decided not to pursue the case against Atwell. I expect that was through a combination of it centring on a child's evidence against a respected official, along with the damning statement of the doctor.
Without modern-day forensics, evidence of violence was expected to be found on the bodies of rape victims, as it was assumed they would have resisted their assault. It seems unlikely that Alice would have invented her account but with the rejection of the charge at Kirkdale, there are no more details of what happened to Atwell and Alice. That is apart from the 1881 census, in which Atwell and his wife Sophia and their children are listed as living in Widnes with the man now employed as a County Court bailiff.
Christopher Jones appeared in the St Helens Petty Sessions on the 15th charged with being drunk and disorderly at Rainford and assaulting PC William Eckford in the execution of his duty. As was often the case, the incident had taken place on a Saturday night. The constable gave evidence that he had seen Jones drunk and disorderly in Ormskirk Road along with four or five others.
He approached the group and as he turned his lamp onto their faces to see who they were, Jones had kicked him in the stomach. The defendant admitted being drunk but denied the assault claiming that he had not kicked out at the constable but at the lamp. That would have been a so-called bulls-eye oil lamp that police officers carried during the Victorian era.
A witness called Peter Smith corroborated his claim but the magistrates preferred the evidence of the policeman and fined Jones 10 shillings, plus costs. Paternity cases were very common in the Petty Sessions and usually the man who had been summoned to court denied being the father of the child. Without blood or DNA tests, definitive proof was impossible and so the accused men would often attempt to wriggle out of their responsibilities.
The young woman would then have to bring many witnesses to court to prove that she had been "walking out" with the defendant. But when John Carey was summoned to contribute to the maintenance of Ann Ashcroft's illegitimate child that had been born just before last Christmas, he admitted being the father. That made things a little easier for Ann but the paltry 2s 6d weekly maintenance payments that the magistrates granted her would not stretch very far.
Small shopkeepers routinely allowed their customers to put goods "on the slate" or ask for "strap", i.e. credit. Most housewives would then pay off their debt on the following Saturday when their husband got paid. Such repayments created confidence between both shopkeepers and customers and allowed more "strap" to be granted. But there were always some silly folk that tried it on and sometimes got violent when the shop demanded their money.
This week George Sephton and his wife Alice were summoned to the Petty Sessions charged with violently assaulting Benjamin Williamson at Parr. The latter kept a grocery shop in Traverse Street and he had sent the Sephtons a note that unless they paid off their debt he would have to take them to the County Court.
That enraged the Sephtons and at 10pm that night they were accused of entering the shop and, without any provocation, began a violent attack on Williamson and his brother in which both were struck and kicked several times. George and Alice Sephton both pleaded guilty, along with Thomas Battersby who had also joined in the assault, and all three were fined 10 shillings and costs.
Beating up a shopkeeper might be seen as just as serious – if not more so – than nicking a coat. But the 1870s were strange times when stealing possessions almost always landed you in prison and being violent usually resulted in a fine. Nicholas Greener learned that the hard way when he appeared in court. He had stolen a coat valued at £1 from Michael Fairhurst's stall on the market.
After his theft Greener went into the Rising Sun Vaults in East Street and persuaded a man called John Briers to go and pawn the coat for 10 shillings. By this time the police were on the look out for the stolen coat and as Briers re-entered the Rising Sun and handed Greener his cash and ticket, a constable collared the thief. Despite pleading guilty to the charge, Nicholas Greener was sent to prison for three months.
An advert in the Prescot Reporter described how Fossett's Circus was coming to town: "Mr. R. Fossett respectfully announces that owing to the great success he met with on his last visit, he has determined to pay a return visit to Prescot for two days only, Wednesday and Thursday, March 17th and 18th, with his celebrated Troupe, consisting of Male and Female Riders, Acrobatic Marvels, Sensational Gymnasts, Tight and Slack-rope Artists, Jugglers, Contortionists, Tumblers, Vaulters, Male and Female Clowns, not to be equalled in any other Equestrian Establishment.
"Mr. R. Fossett, the great bare-back Rider, will appear each evening in his marvellous Jockey Act, concluding with jumping from the ring on the bare back of the horse, erect, while at full speed, without touching with his hands; a feat achieved by no other artist in Great Britain. The World-renowned DAN COOKE, the singing jester, will have the honour of giving some new favourite ditties, eminently suited to the ideas of all who will be present. Prices of admission – Boxes, 1s.; Pit, 6d.; Gallery, 3d." The circus would be setting up in the grounds of the Plough Hotel in Warrington Road in Prescot.
Father James Nugent – the pioneering child welfare reformer of which the Nugent Care charity is named – often appeared in St Helens accompanying his Boys of the Refuge and Night Asylum. They were based at St Anne Street in Liverpool and came to town on the 15th to perform a concert at the Volunteer Hall. As St Patrick's Day was only two days away, the boys gave a selection of Irish vocal and instrumental music to a crowded audience.
On the same evening a lecture was delivered in the Mission Hall in Waterloo Street as part of training for Sunday School volunteers. About 120 persons, mainly teachers, attended the session in which the main lecturer condemned the practice of what he called the "bribing" of scholars.
That was by giving them tea parties etc., saying, "Schools are being made too cheap, so much so, that both parents and children are beginning to think they are conferring a favour upon the teachers by their children attending." Having two or more teachers to a class was also condemned "as being certain to destroy it."
St Helens Newspaper courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the police chase in Liverpool Road to capture a violent man, the proposed widening of Corporation Street, the punch up at the Volunteer Inn and the opening of the Victoria Pleasure Gardens in Thatto Heath.
This week's many stories include the 12-year-old Parr girl's claim of rape against a Corporation official, the dispute over a policeman's lamp in Rainford, the harsh penalty for stealing a coat from St Helens market, criticism of Sunday schools for giving tea parties to their children, Fossett's Circus comes to Prescot and the Parr grocer who wanted his debt paying off but received a beating instead.
We begin with the extraordinary allegation of rape that a 12-year-old Parr girl called Alice Kay had made against Alexander Atwell.
He was a St Helens Corporation official whose job was to look after water taps and so was well known in the district. Commenting on Atwell's appearance this week in St Helens Petty Sessions, the Prescot Reporter wrote:
"There was great excitement in the neighbourhood of the court, owing to the anxiety to obtain a view of the prisoner on his passage to the court. The police had some difficulty in order to avoid a breach of the peace."
Young Alice told the court that on the day in question she had seen Atwell passing her house and went out to tell him that their water tap was faulty.
He went into the scullery with her to examine the tap and finding that the girl was in the house alone, Atwell instructed her to shut the front door, which she did.
Alice claimed that he then began to "take liberties" with her. She said she told him to stop but he then took her into the kitchen and raped her.
Curiously, she claimed that upon leaving her house, Atwell had wanted her to shake hands with him but she had refused.
After he had gone, Alice confided in two female neighbours and when her father came home she told him what had occurred.
The two women and the girl's aunt took her to Dr Gaskell's surgery to be examined and afterwards, accompanied by her father, a complaint was made to the police.
Next morning Alice accompanied PC Robinson to the Corporation yard in St Mary's Street in St Helens and pointed out Atwell as her attacker.
Dr Gaskell told the court that he had not seen any marks of violence on Alice and so did not think the offence of rape had been committed.
Some witnesses were then called to corroborate Alice's claim of her complaining to them about what had occurred.
It was also revealed that when Atwell had been arrested, he had said to the constable, "What! Surely you are only jesting?"
His solicitor submitted that if his client was to be committed for trial at the assizes, it should only be for a common assault.
However, the Bench thought otherwise and ordered Atwell to be tried at the Kirkdale Assizes on a charge of attempted rape but allowed the man bail.
But the trial in Liverpool did not take place, with newspaper reports simply stating that the "grand jury ignored the Bill".
In other words they had looked at the charge sheet containing a synopsis of the evidence and decided not to pursue the case against Atwell.
I expect that was through a combination of it centring on a child's evidence against a respected official, along with the damning statement of the doctor.
Without modern-day forensics, evidence of violence was expected to be found on the bodies of rape victims, as it was assumed they would have resisted their assault.
It seems unlikely that Alice would have invented her account but with the rejection of the charge at Kirkdale, there are no more details of what happened to Atwell and Alice.
That is apart from the 1881 census, in which Atwell and his wife Sophia and their children are listed as living in Widnes with the man now employed as a County Court bailiff.
Christopher Jones appeared in the St Helens Petty Sessions on the 15th charged with being drunk and disorderly at Rainford and assaulting PC William Eckford in the execution of his duty.
As was often the case, the incident had taken place on a Saturday night. The constable gave evidence that he had seen Jones drunk and disorderly in Ormskirk Road along with four or five others.
He approached the group and as he turned his lamp onto their faces to see who they were, Jones had kicked him in the stomach.
The defendant admitted being drunk but denied the assault claiming that he had not kicked out at the constable but at the lamp.
That would have been a so-called bulls-eye oil lamp that police officers carried during the Victorian era.
A witness called Peter Smith corroborated his claim but the magistrates preferred the evidence of the policeman and fined Jones 10 shillings, plus costs.
Paternity cases were very common in the Petty Sessions and usually the man who had been summoned to court denied being the father of the child.
Without blood or DNA tests, definitive proof was impossible and so the accused men would often attempt to wriggle out of their responsibilities.
The young woman would then have to bring many witnesses to court to prove that she had been "walking out" with the defendant.
But when John Carey was summoned to contribute to the maintenance of Ann Ashcroft's illegitimate child that had been born just before last Christmas, he admitted being the father.
That made things a little easier for Ann but the paltry 2s 6d weekly maintenance payments that the magistrates granted her would not stretch very far.
Small shopkeepers routinely allowed their customers to put goods "on the slate" or ask for "strap", i.e. credit.
Most housewives would then pay off their debt on the following Saturday when their husband got paid.
Such repayments created confidence between both shopkeepers and customers and allowed more "strap" to be granted.
But there were always some silly folk that tried it on and sometimes got violent when the shop demanded their money.
This week George Sephton and his wife Alice were summoned to the Petty Sessions charged with violently assaulting Benjamin Williamson at Parr.
The latter kept a grocery shop in Traverse Street and he had sent the Sephtons a note that unless they paid off their debt he would have to take them to the County Court.
That enraged the Sephtons and at 10pm that night they were accused of entering the shop and, without any provocation, began a violent attack on Williamson and his brother in which both were struck and kicked several times.
George and Alice Sephton both pleaded guilty, along with Thomas Battersby who had also joined in the assault, and all three were fined 10 shillings and costs.
Beating up a shopkeeper might be seen as just as serious – if not more so – than nicking a coat.
But the 1870s were strange times when stealing possessions almost always landed you in prison and being violent usually resulted in a fine.
Nicholas Greener learned that the hard way when he appeared in court. He had stolen a coat valued at £1 from Michael Fairhurst's stall on the market.
After his theft Greener went into the Rising Sun Vaults in East Street and persuaded a man called John Briers to go and pawn the coat for 10 shillings.
By this time the police were on the look out for the stolen coat and as Briers re-entered the Rising Sun and handed Greener his cash and ticket, a constable collared the thief.
Despite pleading guilty to the charge, Nicholas Greener was sent to prison for three months.
An advert in the Prescot Reporter described how Fossett's Circus was coming to town:
"Mr. R. Fossett respectfully announces that owing to the great success he met with on his last visit, he has determined to pay a return visit to Prescot for two days only, Wednesday and Thursday, March 17th and 18th, with his celebrated Troupe, consisting of Male and Female Riders, Acrobatic Marvels, Sensational Gymnasts, Tight and Slack-rope Artists, Jugglers, Contortionists, Tumblers, Vaulters, Male and Female Clowns, not to be equalled in any other Equestrian Establishment.
"Mr. R. Fossett, the great bare-back Rider, will appear each evening in his marvellous Jockey Act, concluding with jumping from the ring on the bare back of the horse, erect, while at full speed, without touching with his hands; a feat achieved by no other artist in Great Britain.
"The World-renowned DAN COOKE, the singing jester, will have the honour of giving some new favourite ditties, eminently suited to the ideas of all who will be present.
"Prices of admission – Boxes, 1s.; Pit, 6d.; Gallery, 3d."
The circus would be setting up in the grounds of the Plough Hotel in Warrington Road in Prescot.
Father James Nugent – the pioneering child welfare reformer of which the Nugent Care charity is named – often appeared in St Helens accompanying his Boys of the Refuge and Night Asylum.
They were based at St Anne Street in Liverpool and came to town on the 15th to perform a concert at the Volunteer Hall.
As St Patrick's Day was only two days away, the boys gave a selection of Irish vocal and instrumental music to a crowded audience.
On the same evening a lecture was delivered in the Mission Hall in Waterloo Street as part of training for Sunday School volunteers.
About 120 persons, mainly teachers, attended the session in which the main lecturer condemned the practice of what he called the "bribing" of scholars.
That was by giving them tea parties etc., saying, "Schools are being made too cheap, so much so, that both parents and children are beginning to think they are conferring a favour upon the teachers by their children attending."
Having two or more teachers to a class was also condemned "as being certain to destroy it."
St Helens Newspaper courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the police chase in Liverpool Road to capture a violent man, the proposed widening of Corporation Street, the punch up at the Volunteer Inn and the opening of the Victoria Pleasure Gardens in Thatto Heath.
We begin with the extraordinary allegation of rape that a 12-year-old Parr girl called Alice Kay had made against Alexander Atwell.
He was a St Helens Corporation official whose job was to look after water taps and so was well known in the district. Commenting on Atwell's appearance this week in St Helens Petty Sessions, the Prescot Reporter wrote:
"There was great excitement in the neighbourhood of the court, owing to the anxiety to obtain a view of the prisoner on his passage to the court. The police had some difficulty in order to avoid a breach of the peace."
Young Alice told the court that on the day in question she had seen Atwell passing her house and went out to tell him that their water tap was faulty.
He went into the scullery with her to examine the tap and finding that the girl was in the house alone, Atwell instructed her to shut the front door, which she did.
Alice claimed that he then began to "take liberties" with her. She said she told him to stop but he then took her into the kitchen and raped her.
Curiously, she claimed that upon leaving her house, Atwell had wanted her to shake hands with him but she had refused.
After he had gone, Alice confided in two female neighbours and when her father came home she told him what had occurred.
The two women and the girl's aunt took her to Dr Gaskell's surgery to be examined and afterwards, accompanied by her father, a complaint was made to the police.
Next morning Alice accompanied PC Robinson to the Corporation yard in St Mary's Street in St Helens and pointed out Atwell as her attacker.
Dr Gaskell told the court that he had not seen any marks of violence on Alice and so did not think the offence of rape had been committed.
Some witnesses were then called to corroborate Alice's claim of her complaining to them about what had occurred.
It was also revealed that when Atwell had been arrested, he had said to the constable, "What! Surely you are only jesting?"
His solicitor submitted that if his client was to be committed for trial at the assizes, it should only be for a common assault.
However, the Bench thought otherwise and ordered Atwell to be tried at the Kirkdale Assizes on a charge of attempted rape but allowed the man bail.
But the trial in Liverpool did not take place, with newspaper reports simply stating that the "grand jury ignored the Bill".
In other words they had looked at the charge sheet containing a synopsis of the evidence and decided not to pursue the case against Atwell.
I expect that was through a combination of it centring on a child's evidence against a respected official, along with the damning statement of the doctor.
Without modern-day forensics, evidence of violence was expected to be found on the bodies of rape victims, as it was assumed they would have resisted their assault.
It seems unlikely that Alice would have invented her account but with the rejection of the charge at Kirkdale, there are no more details of what happened to Atwell and Alice.
That is apart from the 1881 census, in which Atwell and his wife Sophia and their children are listed as living in Widnes with the man now employed as a County Court bailiff.
Christopher Jones appeared in the St Helens Petty Sessions on the 15th charged with being drunk and disorderly at Rainford and assaulting PC William Eckford in the execution of his duty.
As was often the case, the incident had taken place on a Saturday night. The constable gave evidence that he had seen Jones drunk and disorderly in Ormskirk Road along with four or five others.
He approached the group and as he turned his lamp onto their faces to see who they were, Jones had kicked him in the stomach.
The defendant admitted being drunk but denied the assault claiming that he had not kicked out at the constable but at the lamp.
That would have been a so-called bulls-eye oil lamp that police officers carried during the Victorian era.
A witness called Peter Smith corroborated his claim but the magistrates preferred the evidence of the policeman and fined Jones 10 shillings, plus costs.
Paternity cases were very common in the Petty Sessions and usually the man who had been summoned to court denied being the father of the child.
Without blood or DNA tests, definitive proof was impossible and so the accused men would often attempt to wriggle out of their responsibilities.
The young woman would then have to bring many witnesses to court to prove that she had been "walking out" with the defendant.
But when John Carey was summoned to contribute to the maintenance of Ann Ashcroft's illegitimate child that had been born just before last Christmas, he admitted being the father.
That made things a little easier for Ann but the paltry 2s 6d weekly maintenance payments that the magistrates granted her would not stretch very far.
Small shopkeepers routinely allowed their customers to put goods "on the slate" or ask for "strap", i.e. credit.
Most housewives would then pay off their debt on the following Saturday when their husband got paid.
Such repayments created confidence between both shopkeepers and customers and allowed more "strap" to be granted.
But there were always some silly folk that tried it on and sometimes got violent when the shop demanded their money.
This week George Sephton and his wife Alice were summoned to the Petty Sessions charged with violently assaulting Benjamin Williamson at Parr.
The latter kept a grocery shop in Traverse Street and he had sent the Sephtons a note that unless they paid off their debt he would have to take them to the County Court.
That enraged the Sephtons and at 10pm that night they were accused of entering the shop and, without any provocation, began a violent attack on Williamson and his brother in which both were struck and kicked several times.
George and Alice Sephton both pleaded guilty, along with Thomas Battersby who had also joined in the assault, and all three were fined 10 shillings and costs.
Beating up a shopkeeper might be seen as just as serious – if not more so – than nicking a coat.
But the 1870s were strange times when stealing possessions almost always landed you in prison and being violent usually resulted in a fine.
Nicholas Greener learned that the hard way when he appeared in court. He had stolen a coat valued at £1 from Michael Fairhurst's stall on the market.
After his theft Greener went into the Rising Sun Vaults in East Street and persuaded a man called John Briers to go and pawn the coat for 10 shillings.
By this time the police were on the look out for the stolen coat and as Briers re-entered the Rising Sun and handed Greener his cash and ticket, a constable collared the thief.
Despite pleading guilty to the charge, Nicholas Greener was sent to prison for three months.
An advert in the Prescot Reporter described how Fossett's Circus was coming to town:
"Mr. R. Fossett respectfully announces that owing to the great success he met with on his last visit, he has determined to pay a return visit to Prescot for two days only, Wednesday and Thursday, March 17th and 18th, with his celebrated Troupe, consisting of Male and Female Riders, Acrobatic Marvels, Sensational Gymnasts, Tight and Slack-rope Artists, Jugglers, Contortionists, Tumblers, Vaulters, Male and Female Clowns, not to be equalled in any other Equestrian Establishment.
"Mr. R. Fossett, the great bare-back Rider, will appear each evening in his marvellous Jockey Act, concluding with jumping from the ring on the bare back of the horse, erect, while at full speed, without touching with his hands; a feat achieved by no other artist in Great Britain.
"The World-renowned DAN COOKE, the singing jester, will have the honour of giving some new favourite ditties, eminently suited to the ideas of all who will be present.
"Prices of admission – Boxes, 1s.; Pit, 6d.; Gallery, 3d."
The circus would be setting up in the grounds of the Plough Hotel in Warrington Road in Prescot.
Father James Nugent – the pioneering child welfare reformer of which the Nugent Care charity is named – often appeared in St Helens accompanying his Boys of the Refuge and Night Asylum.
They were based at St Anne Street in Liverpool and came to town on the 15th to perform a concert at the Volunteer Hall.
As St Patrick's Day was only two days away, the boys gave a selection of Irish vocal and instrumental music to a crowded audience.
On the same evening a lecture was delivered in the Mission Hall in Waterloo Street as part of training for Sunday School volunteers.
About 120 persons, mainly teachers, attended the session in which the main lecturer condemned the practice of what he called the "bribing" of scholars.
That was by giving them tea parties etc., saying, "Schools are being made too cheap, so much so, that both parents and children are beginning to think they are conferring a favour upon the teachers by their children attending."
Having two or more teachers to a class was also condemned "as being certain to destroy it."
St Helens Newspaper courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the police chase in Liverpool Road to capture a violent man, the proposed widening of Corporation Street, the punch up at the Volunteer Inn and the opening of the Victoria Pleasure Gardens in Thatto Heath.