150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK 10 - 16 AUGUST 1876
This week's many stories include the constable seized by his moustache in Church Street, the iron spittoon used as a weapon in a Bridge Street beerhouse, a reluctant husband finally ties the knot, the Sutton wife-beater who when drunk rolled and tumbled about the house and the foundry apprentice warned he would serve a fortnight in prison if he failed to go to work.
The recent death of a young St Helens boy from rabies had led to an order being issued mandating that dogs needed to be confined. That was being interpreted as meaning they could only be let out onto the streets in chains.
Breaching the order led to dog owners Ann Varley, Joseph Hewitt, John Cartwright and Nathan Pearson appearing in court on the 11th, although they were each fined just one shilling and costs. The order was set to expire at the end of the month, although it could be renewed.
I wonder what sort of married life Mary Connelly and Joseph Dingsdale enjoyed? That was after the father of Mary's child had eventually agreed to get wed after months of trying to avoid marriage. Joseph had even joined the army to try and escape matrimony but had, seemingly, been kicked out after disgracing himself. This is how the St Helens Newspaper on the 12th reported on Dingsdale's appearance in court:
"Joseph Dingsdale was brought up on a warrant charging him with disobeying an order of the court for contributing to the support of the illegitimate child of Mary Connelly. The case had been remanded from time to time to afford the defendant an opportunity of fulfilling his promise of marrying the complainant, and it may be remembered that on the last condition when he was before the court he was also charged with being drunk and disorderly, the fact being that during the interval allowed him for “entering the holy state of matrimony” he had, instead, entered the army and got drunk with his bounty money [usually a one shilling gift for joining up].
"He had since seen the “error of his ways” and had, at last, married the girl, and on this being satisfactory proved he was discharged from custody, after a course of litigation which had extended over more than three months." The 1881 Census has Joseph and Mary living in Garden Street in Greenbank and they then had three children, with 28-year-old Joseph listed as a labourer.
Dingsdale seems to have been very much a common St Helens name in the past. There were only 122 persons in England, Scotland and Wales in 1881 called Dingsdale with the vast majority living within the St Helens district. George Dingsdale was probably the most prominent person bearing that surname, with his longstanding cycle shops in the 20th century in Duke Street and Higher Parr Street.
Apprentices worked incredibly long hours for little pay and were not always treated very well. If they failed to go into work they could be hauled before the magistrates for breaching the terms of their indentures. The Newspaper also described how Thomas Prescot was an apprentice at Daglish's Foundry (pictured above) and had been absent from his work at least half-a-dozen times.
The huge engineering firm that made bridges and colliery engines probably employed many apprentices and so they would have wanted the lad made an example of. The magistrates in the Petty Sessions had been asked to approve an order, which meant that on any future occasion that Thomas Prescot failed to go into work, he could be subject to a 14-day period of imprisonment, which they agreed to sign.
At 8am on the 14th two men were hung inside Kirkdale Gaol after being convicted of murder. It was the twelfth hanging in the Liverpool prison in two years and although such executions were no longer conducted in public before an excited crowd, many persons still gathered outside the prison gates. But they would have learned far more by reading the newspapers, as the reporters present at the execution gave a detailed account of the men's deaths.
Both had also (supposedly) dictated letters to the prison chaplain warning other prisoners in Kirkdale not to follow their example. They blamed their criminal careers that had ended in their hangings on drink, getting into bad company, serving Satan instead of God, breaking off Sunday School and on reading bad cheap journals. It does sound as if the chaplain had had quite a hand in creating the letters.
On the 14th Henry Gleave was summoned to court for assaulting his wife Agnes at their home in Blinkhorn's Row, near Sutton Oak Station. The Newspaper described Gleave as a man of "very peculiar habits". When he got drunk they said he went "rolling and tumbling about the house until he damages both himself and the things that are in it."
Gleave appears to have been one of many men who after getting paid for his week's labours on Saturday lunchtime, spent the afternoon and early evening getting helplessly drunk. On the previous Saturday around 7pm, his wife had found him lying in the road, a short distance from their house. With the help of some neighbours, she managed to get her husband home but he behaved violently and struck his wife in the face with his fist.
Gleave then chased her into a neighbour's house where she had fled for protection. A crowd assembled outside and what was described as a great disturbance was kept up in the neighbourhood until 1am on Sunday morning. Since the summons had been issued, Gleave had cleared everything out of the house and gone to live in Peasley Cross and his wife had moved in with her mother. In court Henry Gleave was bound over to keep the peace for 6 months.
Thomas Swift ran a beerhouse in Bridge Street and kept an iron spittoon for his customers' use. We know that because Thomas' son, William, had used the spittoon to bash his father with. William had also struck two other men in the house and when PCs McDonald and Heslip arrived and took him into custody, Swift Junior had strongly resisted and kicked and struck PC McDonald several times while being escorted to the station. The man was fined £2 and costs for each assault or must serve a total of 4 months in prison and he was also fined 5 shillings for being drunk.
The incident in the Bridge Street beerhouse had taken place on a Saturday night, the busiest time for the police in St Helens. It had been at 9.30pm on a Saturday when Patrick McCann had got drunk and assaulted PC Kinahan. The constable told the court that he had been on duty in Church Street where he found McCann drunk and disorderly and in the act of pulling off his waistcoat to fight someone.
During the 19th century it was almost mandatory for police officers in St Helens to wear a moustache – or whiskers, as they were more commonly called. Photographs of police from that period show very few officers without a substantial growth on their top lip. Sometimes, when attempting to make an arrest their moustache became a problem, as their prospective prisoner would grab hold of their whiskers and pull.
And that was the case with Patrick McCann, as when PC Kinahan approached him, McCann seized him by his moustache, struck him several times and knocked him down. During the struggle the officer's coat got torn and he was only rescued from further violence by the timely arrival of PC Heslip. And it had been with some difficulty that the pair got McCann to the police station. Unusually, the man was sent straight to prison for four months and he was also fined for tearing the coat and for his drunkenness.
St Helens Newspaper courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the clog-wearing bobby who was looking for Sunday morning drinkers wearing a dirty navvy's suit, the sham travellers at the Victoria in Thatto Heath and the curious case of rabbit stealing in Sutton.
The recent death of a young St Helens boy from rabies had led to an order being issued mandating that dogs needed to be confined. That was being interpreted as meaning they could only be let out onto the streets in chains.
Breaching the order led to dog owners Ann Varley, Joseph Hewitt, John Cartwright and Nathan Pearson appearing in court on the 11th, although they were each fined just one shilling and costs. The order was set to expire at the end of the month, although it could be renewed.
I wonder what sort of married life Mary Connelly and Joseph Dingsdale enjoyed? That was after the father of Mary's child had eventually agreed to get wed after months of trying to avoid marriage. Joseph had even joined the army to try and escape matrimony but had, seemingly, been kicked out after disgracing himself. This is how the St Helens Newspaper on the 12th reported on Dingsdale's appearance in court:
"Joseph Dingsdale was brought up on a warrant charging him with disobeying an order of the court for contributing to the support of the illegitimate child of Mary Connelly. The case had been remanded from time to time to afford the defendant an opportunity of fulfilling his promise of marrying the complainant, and it may be remembered that on the last condition when he was before the court he was also charged with being drunk and disorderly, the fact being that during the interval allowed him for “entering the holy state of matrimony” he had, instead, entered the army and got drunk with his bounty money [usually a one shilling gift for joining up].
"He had since seen the “error of his ways” and had, at last, married the girl, and on this being satisfactory proved he was discharged from custody, after a course of litigation which had extended over more than three months." The 1881 Census has Joseph and Mary living in Garden Street in Greenbank and they then had three children, with 28-year-old Joseph listed as a labourer.
Dingsdale seems to have been very much a common St Helens name in the past. There were only 122 persons in England, Scotland and Wales in 1881 called Dingsdale with the vast majority living within the St Helens district. George Dingsdale was probably the most prominent person bearing that surname, with his longstanding cycle shops in the 20th century in Duke Street and Higher Parr Street.
The huge engineering firm that made bridges and colliery engines probably employed many apprentices and so they would have wanted the lad made an example of. The magistrates in the Petty Sessions had been asked to approve an order, which meant that on any future occasion that Thomas Prescot failed to go into work, he could be subject to a 14-day period of imprisonment, which they agreed to sign.
At 8am on the 14th two men were hung inside Kirkdale Gaol after being convicted of murder. It was the twelfth hanging in the Liverpool prison in two years and although such executions were no longer conducted in public before an excited crowd, many persons still gathered outside the prison gates. But they would have learned far more by reading the newspapers, as the reporters present at the execution gave a detailed account of the men's deaths.
Both had also (supposedly) dictated letters to the prison chaplain warning other prisoners in Kirkdale not to follow their example. They blamed their criminal careers that had ended in their hangings on drink, getting into bad company, serving Satan instead of God, breaking off Sunday School and on reading bad cheap journals. It does sound as if the chaplain had had quite a hand in creating the letters.
On the 14th Henry Gleave was summoned to court for assaulting his wife Agnes at their home in Blinkhorn's Row, near Sutton Oak Station. The Newspaper described Gleave as a man of "very peculiar habits". When he got drunk they said he went "rolling and tumbling about the house until he damages both himself and the things that are in it."
Gleave appears to have been one of many men who after getting paid for his week's labours on Saturday lunchtime, spent the afternoon and early evening getting helplessly drunk. On the previous Saturday around 7pm, his wife had found him lying in the road, a short distance from their house. With the help of some neighbours, she managed to get her husband home but he behaved violently and struck his wife in the face with his fist.
Gleave then chased her into a neighbour's house where she had fled for protection. A crowd assembled outside and what was described as a great disturbance was kept up in the neighbourhood until 1am on Sunday morning. Since the summons had been issued, Gleave had cleared everything out of the house and gone to live in Peasley Cross and his wife had moved in with her mother. In court Henry Gleave was bound over to keep the peace for 6 months.
Thomas Swift ran a beerhouse in Bridge Street and kept an iron spittoon for his customers' use. We know that because Thomas' son, William, had used the spittoon to bash his father with. William had also struck two other men in the house and when PCs McDonald and Heslip arrived and took him into custody, Swift Junior had strongly resisted and kicked and struck PC McDonald several times while being escorted to the station. The man was fined £2 and costs for each assault or must serve a total of 4 months in prison and he was also fined 5 shillings for being drunk.
The incident in the Bridge Street beerhouse had taken place on a Saturday night, the busiest time for the police in St Helens. It had been at 9.30pm on a Saturday when Patrick McCann had got drunk and assaulted PC Kinahan. The constable told the court that he had been on duty in Church Street where he found McCann drunk and disorderly and in the act of pulling off his waistcoat to fight someone.
During the 19th century it was almost mandatory for police officers in St Helens to wear a moustache – or whiskers, as they were more commonly called. Photographs of police from that period show very few officers without a substantial growth on their top lip. Sometimes, when attempting to make an arrest their moustache became a problem, as their prospective prisoner would grab hold of their whiskers and pull.
And that was the case with Patrick McCann, as when PC Kinahan approached him, McCann seized him by his moustache, struck him several times and knocked him down. During the struggle the officer's coat got torn and he was only rescued from further violence by the timely arrival of PC Heslip. And it had been with some difficulty that the pair got McCann to the police station. Unusually, the man was sent straight to prison for four months and he was also fined for tearing the coat and for his drunkenness.
St Helens Newspaper courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the clog-wearing bobby who was looking for Sunday morning drinkers wearing a dirty navvy's suit, the sham travellers at the Victoria in Thatto Heath and the curious case of rabbit stealing in Sutton.
This week's many stories include the constable seized by his moustache in Church Street, the iron spittoon used as a weapon in a Bridge Street beerhouse, a reluctant husband finally ties the knot, the Sutton wife-beater who when drunk rolled and tumbled about the house and the foundry apprentice warned he would serve a fortnight in prison if he failed to go to work.
The recent death of a young St Helens boy from rabies had led to an order being issued mandating that dogs needed to be confined.
That was being interpreted as meaning they could only be let out onto the streets in chains.
Breaching the order led to dog owners Ann Varley, Joseph Hewitt, John Cartwright and Nathan Pearson appearing in court on the 11th, although they were each fined just one shilling and costs.
The order was set to expire at the end of the month, although it could be renewed.
I wonder what sort of married life Mary Connelly and Joseph Dingsdale enjoyed? That was after the father of Mary's child had eventually agreed to get wed after months of trying to avoid marriage.
Joseph had even joined the army to try and escape matrimony but had, seemingly, been kicked out after disgracing himself.
This is how the St Helens Newspaper on the 12th reported on Dingsdale's appearance in court:
"Joseph Dingsdale was brought up on a warrant charging him with disobeying an order of the court for contributing to the support of the illegitimate child of Mary Connelly.
"The case had been remanded from time to time to afford the defendant an opportunity of fulfilling his promise of marrying the complainant, and it may be remembered that on the last condition when he was before the court he was also charged with being drunk and disorderly, the fact being that during the interval allowed him for “entering the holy state of matrimony” he had, instead, entered the army and got drunk with his bounty money [usually a one shilling gift for joining up].
"He had since seen the “error of his ways” and had, at last, married the girl, and on this being satisfactory proved he was discharged from custody, after a course of litigation which had extended over more than three months."
The 1881 Census has Joseph and Mary living in Garden Street in Greenbank and they then had three children, with 28-year-old Joseph listed as a labourer.
Dingsdale seems to have been very much a common St Helens name in the past.
There were only 122 persons in England, Scotland and Wales in 1881 called Dingsdale with the vast majority living within the St Helens district.
George Dingsdale was probably the most prominent person bearing that surname, with his longstanding cycle shops in the 20th century in Duke Street and Higher Parr Street.
Apprentices worked incredibly long hours for little pay and were not always treated very well.
If they failed to go into work they could be hauled before the magistrates for breaching the terms of their indentures.
The Newspaper also described how Thomas Prescot was an apprentice at Daglish's Foundry (pictured above) and had been absent from his work at least half-a-dozen times.
The huge engineering firm that made bridges and colliery engines probably employed many apprentices and so they would have wanted the lad made an example of.
The magistrates in the Petty Sessions had been asked to approve an order, which meant that on any future occasion that Thomas Prescot failed to go into work, he could be subject to a 14-day period of imprisonment, which they agreed to sign.
At 8am on the 14th two men were hung inside Kirkdale Gaol after being convicted of murder.
It was the twelfth hanging in the Liverpool prison in two years and although such executions were no longer conducted in public before an excited crowd, many persons still gathered outside the prison gates.
But they would have learned far more by reading the newspapers, as the reporters present at the execution gave a detailed account of the men's deaths.
Both had also (supposedly) dictated letters to the prison chaplain warning other prisoners in Kirkdale not to follow their example.
They blamed their criminal careers that had ended in their hangings on drink, getting into bad company, serving Satan instead of God, breaking off Sunday School and on reading bad cheap journals.
It does sound as if the chaplain had had quite a hand in creating the letters.
On the 14th Henry Gleave was summoned to court for assaulting his wife Agnes at their home in Blinkhorn's Row, near Sutton Oak Station.
The Newspaper described Gleave as a man of "very peculiar habits". When he got drunk they said he went "rolling and tumbling about the house until he damages both himself and the things that are in it."
Gleave appears to have been one of many men who after getting paid for his week's labours on Saturday lunchtime, spent the afternoon and early evening getting helplessly drunk.
On the previous Saturday around 7pm, his wife had found him lying in the road, a short distance from their house.
With the help of some neighbours, she managed to get her husband home but he behaved violently and struck his wife in the face with his fist.
Gleave then chased her into a neighbour's house where she had fled for protection.
A crowd assembled outside and what was described as a great disturbance was kept up in the neighbourhood until 1am on Sunday morning.
Since the summons had been issued, Gleave had cleared everything out of the house and gone to live in Peasley Cross and his wife had moved in with her mother.
In court Henry Gleave was bound over to keep the peace for 6 months.
Thomas Swift ran a beerhouse in Bridge Street and kept an iron spittoon for his customers' use.
We know that because Thomas' son, William, had used the spittoon to bash his father with.
William had also struck two other men in the house and when PCs McDonald and Heslip arrived and took him into custody, Swift Junior had strongly resisted and kicked and struck PC McDonald several times while being escorted to the station.
The man was fined £2 and costs for each assault or must serve a total of 4 months in prison and he was also fined 5 shillings for being drunk.
The incident in the Bridge Street beerhouse had taken place on a Saturday night, the busiest time for the police in St Helens.
It had been at 9.30pm on a Saturday when Patrick McCann had got drunk and assaulted PC Kinahan.
The constable told the court that he had been on duty in Church Street where he found McCann drunk and disorderly and in the act of pulling off his waistcoat to fight someone.
During the 19th century it was almost mandatory for police officers in St Helens to wear a moustache – or whiskers, as they were more commonly called.
Photographs of police from that period show very few officers without a substantial growth on their top lip.
Sometimes, when attempting to make an arrest their moustache became a problem, as their prospective prisoner would grab hold of their whiskers and pull.
And that was the case with Patrick McCann, as when PC Kinahan approached him, McCann seized him by his moustache, struck him several times and knocked him down.
During the struggle the officer's coat got torn and he was only rescued from further violence by the timely arrival of PC Heslip.
And it had been with some difficulty that the pair got McCann to the police station. Unusually, the man was sent straight to prison for four months and he was also fined for tearing the coat and for his drunkenness.
St Helens Newspaper courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the clog-wearing bobby who was looking for Sunday morning drinkers wearing a dirty navvy's suit, the sham travellers at the Victoria in Thatto Heath and the curious case of rabbit stealing in Sutton.
The recent death of a young St Helens boy from rabies had led to an order being issued mandating that dogs needed to be confined.
That was being interpreted as meaning they could only be let out onto the streets in chains.
Breaching the order led to dog owners Ann Varley, Joseph Hewitt, John Cartwright and Nathan Pearson appearing in court on the 11th, although they were each fined just one shilling and costs.
The order was set to expire at the end of the month, although it could be renewed.
I wonder what sort of married life Mary Connelly and Joseph Dingsdale enjoyed? That was after the father of Mary's child had eventually agreed to get wed after months of trying to avoid marriage.
Joseph had even joined the army to try and escape matrimony but had, seemingly, been kicked out after disgracing himself.
This is how the St Helens Newspaper on the 12th reported on Dingsdale's appearance in court:
"Joseph Dingsdale was brought up on a warrant charging him with disobeying an order of the court for contributing to the support of the illegitimate child of Mary Connelly.
"The case had been remanded from time to time to afford the defendant an opportunity of fulfilling his promise of marrying the complainant, and it may be remembered that on the last condition when he was before the court he was also charged with being drunk and disorderly, the fact being that during the interval allowed him for “entering the holy state of matrimony” he had, instead, entered the army and got drunk with his bounty money [usually a one shilling gift for joining up].
"He had since seen the “error of his ways” and had, at last, married the girl, and on this being satisfactory proved he was discharged from custody, after a course of litigation which had extended over more than three months."
The 1881 Census has Joseph and Mary living in Garden Street in Greenbank and they then had three children, with 28-year-old Joseph listed as a labourer.
Dingsdale seems to have been very much a common St Helens name in the past.
There were only 122 persons in England, Scotland and Wales in 1881 called Dingsdale with the vast majority living within the St Helens district.
George Dingsdale was probably the most prominent person bearing that surname, with his longstanding cycle shops in the 20th century in Duke Street and Higher Parr Street.
If they failed to go into work they could be hauled before the magistrates for breaching the terms of their indentures.
The Newspaper also described how Thomas Prescot was an apprentice at Daglish's Foundry (pictured above) and had been absent from his work at least half-a-dozen times.
The huge engineering firm that made bridges and colliery engines probably employed many apprentices and so they would have wanted the lad made an example of.
The magistrates in the Petty Sessions had been asked to approve an order, which meant that on any future occasion that Thomas Prescot failed to go into work, he could be subject to a 14-day period of imprisonment, which they agreed to sign.
At 8am on the 14th two men were hung inside Kirkdale Gaol after being convicted of murder.
It was the twelfth hanging in the Liverpool prison in two years and although such executions were no longer conducted in public before an excited crowd, many persons still gathered outside the prison gates.
But they would have learned far more by reading the newspapers, as the reporters present at the execution gave a detailed account of the men's deaths.
Both had also (supposedly) dictated letters to the prison chaplain warning other prisoners in Kirkdale not to follow their example.
They blamed their criminal careers that had ended in their hangings on drink, getting into bad company, serving Satan instead of God, breaking off Sunday School and on reading bad cheap journals.
It does sound as if the chaplain had had quite a hand in creating the letters.
On the 14th Henry Gleave was summoned to court for assaulting his wife Agnes at their home in Blinkhorn's Row, near Sutton Oak Station.
The Newspaper described Gleave as a man of "very peculiar habits". When he got drunk they said he went "rolling and tumbling about the house until he damages both himself and the things that are in it."
Gleave appears to have been one of many men who after getting paid for his week's labours on Saturday lunchtime, spent the afternoon and early evening getting helplessly drunk.
On the previous Saturday around 7pm, his wife had found him lying in the road, a short distance from their house.
With the help of some neighbours, she managed to get her husband home but he behaved violently and struck his wife in the face with his fist.
Gleave then chased her into a neighbour's house where she had fled for protection.
A crowd assembled outside and what was described as a great disturbance was kept up in the neighbourhood until 1am on Sunday morning.
Since the summons had been issued, Gleave had cleared everything out of the house and gone to live in Peasley Cross and his wife had moved in with her mother.
In court Henry Gleave was bound over to keep the peace for 6 months.
Thomas Swift ran a beerhouse in Bridge Street and kept an iron spittoon for his customers' use.
We know that because Thomas' son, William, had used the spittoon to bash his father with.
William had also struck two other men in the house and when PCs McDonald and Heslip arrived and took him into custody, Swift Junior had strongly resisted and kicked and struck PC McDonald several times while being escorted to the station.
The man was fined £2 and costs for each assault or must serve a total of 4 months in prison and he was also fined 5 shillings for being drunk.
The incident in the Bridge Street beerhouse had taken place on a Saturday night, the busiest time for the police in St Helens.
It had been at 9.30pm on a Saturday when Patrick McCann had got drunk and assaulted PC Kinahan.
The constable told the court that he had been on duty in Church Street where he found McCann drunk and disorderly and in the act of pulling off his waistcoat to fight someone.
During the 19th century it was almost mandatory for police officers in St Helens to wear a moustache – or whiskers, as they were more commonly called.
Photographs of police from that period show very few officers without a substantial growth on their top lip.
Sometimes, when attempting to make an arrest their moustache became a problem, as their prospective prisoner would grab hold of their whiskers and pull.
And that was the case with Patrick McCann, as when PC Kinahan approached him, McCann seized him by his moustache, struck him several times and knocked him down.
During the struggle the officer's coat got torn and he was only rescued from further violence by the timely arrival of PC Heslip.
And it had been with some difficulty that the pair got McCann to the police station. Unusually, the man was sent straight to prison for four months and he was also fined for tearing the coat and for his drunkenness.
St Helens Newspaper courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the clog-wearing bobby who was looking for Sunday morning drinkers wearing a dirty navvy's suit, the sham travellers at the Victoria in Thatto Heath and the curious case of rabbit stealing in Sutton.