150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (13th - 19th JANUARY 1870)
This week's stories include the pocket picking on a St Helens train, the evicted Parr man accused of making off with a door, the Water Street beerhouse with no licence and the damsel tramp who stole overcoats in Prescot.
We begin on the 13th with a meeting of the Prescot Board of Guardians. Their members were told that two female paupers in Whiston Workhouse had been given some leave of absence but had returned to the house a day late. One of them had become drunk and got herself into trouble with the police. The Guardians directed that the woman be placed in solitary confinement for 24 hours on a diet of bread and water.
It's hard to imagine how horrendous coal mining was 150 years ago. On the 15th there were two explosions in a new mine that was being sunk at Whiston which burnt four men. The first explosion occurred when a pit sinker was using a lighted candle.
The Prescot Reporter was published on the 15th and contained several adverts for private schools. The Eccleston Terrace School said their terms were £1 1 shilling and £1 11s 6d per quarter, which I think referred to the cost of girls and boys respectively. The parents of boys tended to pay a higher fee as more facilities were provided for them.
Charles Rudd had kept a beerhouse in Water Street until last August when the licensing magistrates rescinded his licence upon advice from the police. They claimed his house was a brothel and Rudd had sixteen convictions to his name. In the St Helens Petty Sessions on the 17th Charles Rudd was back in court charged with selling six glasses of beer to John Flaherty from an unlicensed house. The young man was not an ideal witness, however, as he admitted having drunk a quart of beer in Sutton before going into Rudd's. His face was also bleeding after having had a fight. Flaherty was accused of fabricating his complaint to the police because of a disagreement with Mrs Rudd.
A vocalist called Frank Burke described John Flaherty as having been "very bloody and disordered" upon entering and so had been ordered out by Mrs Rudd. Burke also insisted to the court that only soft drinks were now sold since Rudd had lost his licence. Later in the evening Flaherty returned to Water Street and George Hunt – a beerseller in Bridge Street – said he had been so drunk that he had "tumbled down" in the passage outside. After hearing all the evidence the magistrates dismissed the case.
Bridget Murray was charged with stealing a tin can off William Kay's stall in St Helens Market and she was sent to prison for a week.
There was a curious case in the Sessions in which Joseph Welsby was accused of stealing a door during an eviction in Parr. The man and his wife had been tenants of the St Helens and Rainford Building Society and lived in Back Bolton Street. The Welsbys were ordered to leave their home and so packed up their belongings and moved to another address. Shortly afterwards the agent for the society went to examine their old house and found an upstairs door missing.
He immediately went to the family's new home and discovered the door in their back yard and so had Joseph Welsby arrested. But was the door the missing one? Welsby insisted to the court that it had been there when he took possession of the house. As it could not be proved that the door was the stolen one, the magistrates discharged him.
Another strange case was the prosecution of Catherine Campbell who was accused of picking the pocket of a woman named Williams in a railway carriage. The latter claimed that while travelling by train between Sutton and St Helens her purse had been stolen. This contained 12/6 and she blamed Catherine Campbell for the theft, despite several other people being in the same carriage. Mrs Williams was Welsh and requested an interpreter in court. However during the case she often spoke very good English, "to the evident astonishment of the interpreter" – as the St Helens Newspaper put it.
Catherine Campbell's defence counsel was the outspoken Thomas Swift of Hardshaw Hall, whose son Rigby would later become St Helens' third MP. He accused the interpreter John Owens of not translating correctly and so it was decided that another interpreter was needed, who – as the Newspaper put it – "would not be liable to the suspicion of either stupidity or partiality, in interpreting the evidence."
The prosecutrix – as Mrs Williams was called – said she challenged Catherine Campbell at the railway station for stealing her money and she agreed to give her the 12/6. However the defendant said it was an act of charity to help a poor woman and her counsel Thomas Swift went further. He said it was: "Simply a case where a designing and wicked old Welsh woman had lost her money, and then tried to get it out of the first person she met." The Bench censured Swift for those remarks but felt the case had not been proved and so dismissed it.
Michael Synnott was charged with stealing two pairs of boots from Robert Wallace's shop in Naylor Street. The man had entered the bootmaker's premises and lifted the boots off a rail but the rail "treacherously fell" – as the Newspaper put it – and he was caught in the act. I don't know why Synnott could not claim that he was simply examining the boots, as the theft was a serious offence and he was jailed for three weeks.
On the 18th a man called John Warburton was rabbit shooting at Haydock Park when he accidentally shot off the forefinger of his left hand and wounded his cheek. It would not be until 1899 that the land would become a venue for horse racing.
The Prescot Petty Sessions were also held on that day and Mary Johnson was charged with stealing two overcoats from the house of solicitor Edward Draper. The St Helens Newspaper described the woman as a "damsel" and an "experienced tramp".
They said Draper's son had seen Johnson coming from his family's home in Fall Lane with a bundle under her apron. As she passed him he saw part of his overcoat sticking out and upon him following and challenging her, she surrendered the two coats. Constable McLennon was informed and he started after the woman, catching up with her some distance away on the road to Liverpool. Mary Johnson pleaded guilty and was sent to prison for three months.
If you were an inmate of Whiston Workhouse you could not leave without permission and as we have already seen, you were compelled to return by a certain time. Tardiness in returning was punishable by either the Master of the workhouse or by the Board of Guardians. If, however, you chose to leave without permission, the courts would deal you with. James Litherland was charged in the Petty Sessions with absenting himself from the house and returning drunk. For that he was sent to prison for seven days.
On one day this week a sheep belonging to butcher William Hatton was killed in a field near Prescot and its carcass removed. The skin of the sheep was later discovered near to a Prescot pottery firm.
On the 19th the Kirkdale Quarter Sessions were held at the courtrooms in Liverpool (pictured above). Magistrates in St Helens could not pass prison sentences longer than six months and so referred the more serious cases to the Sessions. Two courts heard cases simultaneously, with one presided over by the Earl of Derby and the other by Richard Cross, the MP for South West Lancashire, and both passed tough sentences. Eliza Gaffney received six months' imprisonment for stealing 3¼ lbs. of beef, 1¾ lb. of ham and 1lb. of butter from Francis Draper in Rainhill.
Seventeen-year-old William Naylor and twenty-eight-year old John Naylor from Parr were each given six months for stealing seven miners' picks off Luke Grounds. William Rigby also received six months "for having, at Parr, on the 29th November, 1869, unlawfully and by certain false pretences, attempted to obtain from the Laffak and Garswood Collieries Company (Limited), divers sums of money, with intent thereby to defraud." Samuel Owen, a 39-year-old labourer, received a sentence of twelve months in prison for stealing four hens in Eccleston. And a 22-year-old baker called Thomas Hallern received nine months for stealing a rabbit and seventy herrings in Eccleston.
Next week's stories will include the man imprisoned for singing in the street, an allegation that an Eccleston council by-election had been corrupt, the deaf blacksmith on the Parr branch railway line, road rage near Rainford and the two Peasley Cross women who fought each other most savagely.
We begin on the 13th with a meeting of the Prescot Board of Guardians. Their members were told that two female paupers in Whiston Workhouse had been given some leave of absence but had returned to the house a day late. One of them had become drunk and got herself into trouble with the police. The Guardians directed that the woman be placed in solitary confinement for 24 hours on a diet of bread and water.
It's hard to imagine how horrendous coal mining was 150 years ago. On the 15th there were two explosions in a new mine that was being sunk at Whiston which burnt four men. The first explosion occurred when a pit sinker was using a lighted candle.
The Prescot Reporter was published on the 15th and contained several adverts for private schools. The Eccleston Terrace School said their terms were £1 1 shilling and £1 11s 6d per quarter, which I think referred to the cost of girls and boys respectively. The parents of boys tended to pay a higher fee as more facilities were provided for them.
Charles Rudd had kept a beerhouse in Water Street until last August when the licensing magistrates rescinded his licence upon advice from the police. They claimed his house was a brothel and Rudd had sixteen convictions to his name. In the St Helens Petty Sessions on the 17th Charles Rudd was back in court charged with selling six glasses of beer to John Flaherty from an unlicensed house. The young man was not an ideal witness, however, as he admitted having drunk a quart of beer in Sutton before going into Rudd's. His face was also bleeding after having had a fight. Flaherty was accused of fabricating his complaint to the police because of a disagreement with Mrs Rudd.
A vocalist called Frank Burke described John Flaherty as having been "very bloody and disordered" upon entering and so had been ordered out by Mrs Rudd. Burke also insisted to the court that only soft drinks were now sold since Rudd had lost his licence. Later in the evening Flaherty returned to Water Street and George Hunt – a beerseller in Bridge Street – said he had been so drunk that he had "tumbled down" in the passage outside. After hearing all the evidence the magistrates dismissed the case.
Bridget Murray was charged with stealing a tin can off William Kay's stall in St Helens Market and she was sent to prison for a week.
There was a curious case in the Sessions in which Joseph Welsby was accused of stealing a door during an eviction in Parr. The man and his wife had been tenants of the St Helens and Rainford Building Society and lived in Back Bolton Street. The Welsbys were ordered to leave their home and so packed up their belongings and moved to another address. Shortly afterwards the agent for the society went to examine their old house and found an upstairs door missing.
He immediately went to the family's new home and discovered the door in their back yard and so had Joseph Welsby arrested. But was the door the missing one? Welsby insisted to the court that it had been there when he took possession of the house. As it could not be proved that the door was the stolen one, the magistrates discharged him.
Another strange case was the prosecution of Catherine Campbell who was accused of picking the pocket of a woman named Williams in a railway carriage. The latter claimed that while travelling by train between Sutton and St Helens her purse had been stolen. This contained 12/6 and she blamed Catherine Campbell for the theft, despite several other people being in the same carriage. Mrs Williams was Welsh and requested an interpreter in court. However during the case she often spoke very good English, "to the evident astonishment of the interpreter" – as the St Helens Newspaper put it.
Catherine Campbell's defence counsel was the outspoken Thomas Swift of Hardshaw Hall, whose son Rigby would later become St Helens' third MP. He accused the interpreter John Owens of not translating correctly and so it was decided that another interpreter was needed, who – as the Newspaper put it – "would not be liable to the suspicion of either stupidity or partiality, in interpreting the evidence."
The prosecutrix – as Mrs Williams was called – said she challenged Catherine Campbell at the railway station for stealing her money and she agreed to give her the 12/6. However the defendant said it was an act of charity to help a poor woman and her counsel Thomas Swift went further. He said it was: "Simply a case where a designing and wicked old Welsh woman had lost her money, and then tried to get it out of the first person she met." The Bench censured Swift for those remarks but felt the case had not been proved and so dismissed it.
Michael Synnott was charged with stealing two pairs of boots from Robert Wallace's shop in Naylor Street. The man had entered the bootmaker's premises and lifted the boots off a rail but the rail "treacherously fell" – as the Newspaper put it – and he was caught in the act. I don't know why Synnott could not claim that he was simply examining the boots, as the theft was a serious offence and he was jailed for three weeks.
On the 18th a man called John Warburton was rabbit shooting at Haydock Park when he accidentally shot off the forefinger of his left hand and wounded his cheek. It would not be until 1899 that the land would become a venue for horse racing.
The Prescot Petty Sessions were also held on that day and Mary Johnson was charged with stealing two overcoats from the house of solicitor Edward Draper. The St Helens Newspaper described the woman as a "damsel" and an "experienced tramp".
They said Draper's son had seen Johnson coming from his family's home in Fall Lane with a bundle under her apron. As she passed him he saw part of his overcoat sticking out and upon him following and challenging her, she surrendered the two coats. Constable McLennon was informed and he started after the woman, catching up with her some distance away on the road to Liverpool. Mary Johnson pleaded guilty and was sent to prison for three months.
If you were an inmate of Whiston Workhouse you could not leave without permission and as we have already seen, you were compelled to return by a certain time. Tardiness in returning was punishable by either the Master of the workhouse or by the Board of Guardians. If, however, you chose to leave without permission, the courts would deal you with. James Litherland was charged in the Petty Sessions with absenting himself from the house and returning drunk. For that he was sent to prison for seven days.
On one day this week a sheep belonging to butcher William Hatton was killed in a field near Prescot and its carcass removed. The skin of the sheep was later discovered near to a Prescot pottery firm.
Seventeen-year-old William Naylor and twenty-eight-year old John Naylor from Parr were each given six months for stealing seven miners' picks off Luke Grounds. William Rigby also received six months "for having, at Parr, on the 29th November, 1869, unlawfully and by certain false pretences, attempted to obtain from the Laffak and Garswood Collieries Company (Limited), divers sums of money, with intent thereby to defraud." Samuel Owen, a 39-year-old labourer, received a sentence of twelve months in prison for stealing four hens in Eccleston. And a 22-year-old baker called Thomas Hallern received nine months for stealing a rabbit and seventy herrings in Eccleston.
Next week's stories will include the man imprisoned for singing in the street, an allegation that an Eccleston council by-election had been corrupt, the deaf blacksmith on the Parr branch railway line, road rage near Rainford and the two Peasley Cross women who fought each other most savagely.
This week's stories include the pocket picking on a St Helens train, the evicted Parr man accused of making off with a door, the Water Street beerhouse with no licence and the damsel tramp who stole overcoats in Prescot.
We begin on the 13th with a meeting of the Prescot Board of Guardians.
Their members were told that two female paupers in Whiston Workhouse had been given some leave of absence but had returned to the house a day late.
One of them had become drunk and got herself into trouble with the police.
The Guardians directed that the woman be placed in solitary confinement for 24 hours on a diet of bread and water.
It's hard to imagine how horrendous coal mining was 150 years ago. On the 15th there were two explosions in a new mine that was being sunk at Whiston which burnt four men.
The first explosion occurred when a pit sinker was using a lighted candle.
The Prescot Reporter was published on the 15th and contained several adverts for private schools.
The Eccleston Terrace School said their terms were £1 1 shilling and £1 11s 6d per quarter, which I think referred to the cost of girls and boys respectively.
The parents of boys tended to pay a higher fee as more facilities were provided for them.
Charles Rudd had kept a beerhouse in Water Street until last August when the licensing magistrates rescinded his licence upon advice from the police.
They claimed his house was a brothel and Rudd had sixteen convictions to his name.
In the St Helens Petty Sessions on the 17th Charles Rudd was back in court charged with selling six glasses of beer to John Flaherty from an unlicensed house.
The young man was not an ideal witness, however, as he admitted having drunk a quart of beer in Sutton before going into Rudd's. His face was also bleeding after having had a fight.
Flaherty was accused of fabricating his complaint to the police because of a disagreement with Mrs Rudd.
A vocalist called Frank Burke described John Flaherty as having been "very bloody and disordered" upon entering and so had been ordered out by Mrs Rudd.
Burke also insisted to the court that only soft drinks were now sold since Rudd had lost his licence.
Later in the evening Flaherty returned to Water Street and George Hunt – a beerseller in Bridge Street – said he had been so drunk that he had "tumbled down" in the passage outside.
After hearing all the evidence the magistrates dismissed the case.
Bridget Murray was charged with stealing a tin can off William Kay's stall in St Helens Market and she was sent to prison for a week.
There was a curious case in the Sessions in which Joseph Welsby was accused of stealing a door during an eviction in Parr.
The man and his wife had been tenants of the St Helens and Rainford Building Society and lived in Back Bolton Street.
The Welsbys were ordered to leave their home and so packed up their belongings and moved to another address.
Shortly afterwards the agent for the society went to examine their old house and found an upstairs door missing.
He immediately went to the family's new home and discovered the door in their back yard and so had Joseph Welsby arrested. But was the door the missing one?
Welsby insisted to the court that it had been there when he took possession of the house.
As it could not be proved that the door was the stolen one, the magistrates discharged him.
Another strange case was the prosecution of Catherine Campbell who was accused of picking the pocket of a woman named Williams in a railway carriage.
The latter claimed that while travelling by train between Sutton and St Helens her purse had been stolen.
This contained 12/6 and she blamed Catherine Campbell for the theft, despite several other people being in the same carriage. Mrs Williams was Welsh and requested an interpreter in court.
However during the case she often spoke very good English, "to the evident astonishment of the interpreter" – as the St Helens Newspaper put it.
Catherine Campbell's defence counsel was the outspoken Thomas Swift of Hardshaw Hall, whose son Rigby would later become St Helens' third MP.
He accused the interpreter John Owens of not translating correctly and so it was decided that another interpreter was needed, who – as the Newspaper put it – "would not be liable to the suspicion of either stupidity or partiality, in interpreting the evidence."
The prosecutrix – as Mrs Williams was called – said she challenged Catherine Campbell at the railway station for stealing her money and she agreed to give her the 12/6.
However the defendant said it was an act of charity to help a poor woman and her counsel Thomas Swift went further.
He said it was: "Simply a case where a designing and wicked old Welsh woman had lost her money, and then tried to get it out of the first person she met."
The Bench censured Swift for those remarks but felt the case had not been proved and so dismissed it.
Michael Synnott was charged with stealing two pairs of boots from Robert Wallace's shop in Naylor Street.
The man had entered the bootmaker's premises and lifted the boots off a rail but the rail "treacherously fell" – as the Newspaper put it – and he was caught in the act.
I don't know why Synnott could not claim that he was simply examining the boots, as the theft was a serious offence and he was jailed for three weeks.
On the 18th a man called John Warburton was rabbit shooting at Haydock Park when he accidentally shot off the forefinger of his left hand and wounded his cheek.
It would not be until 1899 that the land would become a venue for horse racing.
The Prescot Petty Sessions were also held on that day and Mary Johnson was charged with stealing two overcoats from the house of solicitor Edward Draper.
The St Helens Newspaper described the woman as a "damsel" and an "experienced tramp".
They said Draper's son had seen Johnson coming from his family's home in Fall Lane with a bundle under her apron.
As she passed him he saw part of his overcoat sticking out and upon him following and challenging her, she surrendered the two coats.
Constable McLennon was informed and he started after the woman, catching up with her some distance away on the road to Liverpool.
Mary Johnson pleaded guilty and was sent to prison for three months.
If you were an inmate of Whiston Workhouse you could not leave without permission and as we have already seen, you were compelled to return by a certain time.
Tardiness in returning was punishable by either the Master of the workhouse or by the Board of Guardians.
If, however, you chose to leave without permission, the courts would deal you with.
James Litherland was charged in the Petty Sessions with absenting himself from the house and returning drunk. For that he was sent to prison for 7 days.
On one day this week a sheep belonging to butcher William Hatton was killed in a field near Prescot and its carcass removed.
The skin of the sheep was later discovered near to a Prescot pottery firm.
On the 19th the Kirkdale Quarter Sessions were held at the courtrooms in Liverpool (pictured above).
Magistrates in St Helens could not pass prison sentences longer than six months and so referred the more serious cases to the Sessions.
Two courts heard cases simultaneously, with one presided over by the Earl of Derby and the other by Richard Cross, the MP for South West Lancashire, and both passed tough sentences.
Eliza Gaffney received six months' imprisonment for stealing 3¼ lbs. of beef, 1¾ lb. of ham and 1lb. of butter from Francis Draper in Rainhill.
Seventeen-year-old William Naylor and twenty-eight-year old John Naylor from Parr were each given six months for stealing seven miners' picks off Luke Grounds.
William Rigby also received six months "for having, at Parr, on the 29th November, 1869, unlawfully and by certain false pretences, attempted to obtain from the Laffak and Garswood Collieries Company (Limited), divers sums of money, with intent thereby to defraud."
Samuel Owen, a 39-year-old labourer, received a sentence of twelve months in prison for stealing four hens in Eccleston.
And a 22-year-old baker called Thomas Hallern received nine months for stealing a rabbit and seventy herrings in Eccleston.
Next week's stories will include the man imprisoned for singing in the street, an allegation that an Eccleston council by-election had been corrupt, the deaf blacksmith on the Parr branch railway line, road rage near Rainford and the two Peasley Cross women who fought each other most savagely.
We begin on the 13th with a meeting of the Prescot Board of Guardians.
Their members were told that two female paupers in Whiston Workhouse had been given some leave of absence but had returned to the house a day late.
One of them had become drunk and got herself into trouble with the police.
The Guardians directed that the woman be placed in solitary confinement for 24 hours on a diet of bread and water.
It's hard to imagine how horrendous coal mining was 150 years ago. On the 15th there were two explosions in a new mine that was being sunk at Whiston which burnt four men.
The first explosion occurred when a pit sinker was using a lighted candle.
The Prescot Reporter was published on the 15th and contained several adverts for private schools.
The Eccleston Terrace School said their terms were £1 1 shilling and £1 11s 6d per quarter, which I think referred to the cost of girls and boys respectively.
The parents of boys tended to pay a higher fee as more facilities were provided for them.
Charles Rudd had kept a beerhouse in Water Street until last August when the licensing magistrates rescinded his licence upon advice from the police.
They claimed his house was a brothel and Rudd had sixteen convictions to his name.
In the St Helens Petty Sessions on the 17th Charles Rudd was back in court charged with selling six glasses of beer to John Flaherty from an unlicensed house.
The young man was not an ideal witness, however, as he admitted having drunk a quart of beer in Sutton before going into Rudd's. His face was also bleeding after having had a fight.
Flaherty was accused of fabricating his complaint to the police because of a disagreement with Mrs Rudd.
A vocalist called Frank Burke described John Flaherty as having been "very bloody and disordered" upon entering and so had been ordered out by Mrs Rudd.
Burke also insisted to the court that only soft drinks were now sold since Rudd had lost his licence.
Later in the evening Flaherty returned to Water Street and George Hunt – a beerseller in Bridge Street – said he had been so drunk that he had "tumbled down" in the passage outside.
After hearing all the evidence the magistrates dismissed the case.
Bridget Murray was charged with stealing a tin can off William Kay's stall in St Helens Market and she was sent to prison for a week.
There was a curious case in the Sessions in which Joseph Welsby was accused of stealing a door during an eviction in Parr.
The man and his wife had been tenants of the St Helens and Rainford Building Society and lived in Back Bolton Street.
The Welsbys were ordered to leave their home and so packed up their belongings and moved to another address.
Shortly afterwards the agent for the society went to examine their old house and found an upstairs door missing.
He immediately went to the family's new home and discovered the door in their back yard and so had Joseph Welsby arrested. But was the door the missing one?
Welsby insisted to the court that it had been there when he took possession of the house.
As it could not be proved that the door was the stolen one, the magistrates discharged him.
Another strange case was the prosecution of Catherine Campbell who was accused of picking the pocket of a woman named Williams in a railway carriage.
The latter claimed that while travelling by train between Sutton and St Helens her purse had been stolen.
This contained 12/6 and she blamed Catherine Campbell for the theft, despite several other people being in the same carriage. Mrs Williams was Welsh and requested an interpreter in court.
However during the case she often spoke very good English, "to the evident astonishment of the interpreter" – as the St Helens Newspaper put it.
Catherine Campbell's defence counsel was the outspoken Thomas Swift of Hardshaw Hall, whose son Rigby would later become St Helens' third MP.
He accused the interpreter John Owens of not translating correctly and so it was decided that another interpreter was needed, who – as the Newspaper put it – "would not be liable to the suspicion of either stupidity or partiality, in interpreting the evidence."
The prosecutrix – as Mrs Williams was called – said she challenged Catherine Campbell at the railway station for stealing her money and she agreed to give her the 12/6.
However the defendant said it was an act of charity to help a poor woman and her counsel Thomas Swift went further.
He said it was: "Simply a case where a designing and wicked old Welsh woman had lost her money, and then tried to get it out of the first person she met."
The Bench censured Swift for those remarks but felt the case had not been proved and so dismissed it.
Michael Synnott was charged with stealing two pairs of boots from Robert Wallace's shop in Naylor Street.
The man had entered the bootmaker's premises and lifted the boots off a rail but the rail "treacherously fell" – as the Newspaper put it – and he was caught in the act.
I don't know why Synnott could not claim that he was simply examining the boots, as the theft was a serious offence and he was jailed for three weeks.
On the 18th a man called John Warburton was rabbit shooting at Haydock Park when he accidentally shot off the forefinger of his left hand and wounded his cheek.
It would not be until 1899 that the land would become a venue for horse racing.
The Prescot Petty Sessions were also held on that day and Mary Johnson was charged with stealing two overcoats from the house of solicitor Edward Draper.
The St Helens Newspaper described the woman as a "damsel" and an "experienced tramp".
They said Draper's son had seen Johnson coming from his family's home in Fall Lane with a bundle under her apron.
As she passed him he saw part of his overcoat sticking out and upon him following and challenging her, she surrendered the two coats.
Constable McLennon was informed and he started after the woman, catching up with her some distance away on the road to Liverpool.
Mary Johnson pleaded guilty and was sent to prison for three months.
If you were an inmate of Whiston Workhouse you could not leave without permission and as we have already seen, you were compelled to return by a certain time.
Tardiness in returning was punishable by either the Master of the workhouse or by the Board of Guardians.
If, however, you chose to leave without permission, the courts would deal you with.
James Litherland was charged in the Petty Sessions with absenting himself from the house and returning drunk. For that he was sent to prison for 7 days.
On one day this week a sheep belonging to butcher William Hatton was killed in a field near Prescot and its carcass removed.
The skin of the sheep was later discovered near to a Prescot pottery firm.
Magistrates in St Helens could not pass prison sentences longer than six months and so referred the more serious cases to the Sessions.
Two courts heard cases simultaneously, with one presided over by the Earl of Derby and the other by Richard Cross, the MP for South West Lancashire, and both passed tough sentences.
Eliza Gaffney received six months' imprisonment for stealing 3¼ lbs. of beef, 1¾ lb. of ham and 1lb. of butter from Francis Draper in Rainhill.
Seventeen-year-old William Naylor and twenty-eight-year old John Naylor from Parr were each given six months for stealing seven miners' picks off Luke Grounds.
William Rigby also received six months "for having, at Parr, on the 29th November, 1869, unlawfully and by certain false pretences, attempted to obtain from the Laffak and Garswood Collieries Company (Limited), divers sums of money, with intent thereby to defraud."
Samuel Owen, a 39-year-old labourer, received a sentence of twelve months in prison for stealing four hens in Eccleston.
And a 22-year-old baker called Thomas Hallern received nine months for stealing a rabbit and seventy herrings in Eccleston.
Next week's stories will include the man imprisoned for singing in the street, an allegation that an Eccleston council by-election had been corrupt, the deaf blacksmith on the Parr branch railway line, road rage near Rainford and the two Peasley Cross women who fought each other most savagely.