150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK 19 - 25 FEBRUARY 1874
This week's many stories include the violence of the riotous colliers, the dog fighting that took place in Sutton, the mysterious leap off a train near Rainford, the brute that beat his wife for serving him cheese, the pair of Parr women that were labelled disgusting, the brainless stealing of new boots from a Naylor Street shop and as one mining dispute is resolved the St Helens engine-winders serve notice of strike action.
I've often commented how dangerous the railways were in the 1870s. On the 21st in a lengthy column headlined "Railway Accidents", the Liverpool Weekly Courier detailed a dozen crashes, derailments etc. that had happened throughout the country during the past 7 days. Five or six deaths had occurred and there had been many injuries.
And that's not counting the father of a little boy who had mysteriously gone missing from a train. When it stopped at Rainford his son told railway staff that his dad had jumped off the carriage some distance further back. A day later, despite the line being extensively searched, neither the man's dead body nor his live self had been found.
The miners' fortnightly "reckoning" was when the men got paid and some of them, with brass in their pocket, went a bit wild. The Wigan Observer on the 21st wrote: "Riotous Colliers – On Thursday, three colliers, named Thomas Kilshaw, William Swift, and John Swift, were brought up at St. Helens charged with seriously assaulting a man named Wilding, and destroying the windows of his house. They were also charged with assaulting two other persons.
"It appears that Monday last was “reckoning Monday,” and the colliers were very drunken and disorderly. The prisoners formed three of a large body who attacked Wilding, and subjected him to brutal treatment. When the police hurried to the scene of the row they were saluted with a shower of stones and driven back, and they had to procure assistance before they were able to quell the disturbance, which was, throughout, of a disgraceful character. The prisoners were remanded."
The engine-winders in collieries that took men and materials up and down shafts in pit cages had a very responsible job. One loss of concentration and a disaster could occur. However, those in St Helens and Haydock were only paid 4 shillings 6d per day, which was sixpence less than the engine winders in Wigan received. About a month ago the men had written to their employers asking for the extra tanner – but, as was the usual practice with mine managers and owners, their request had been ignored.
And so at a meeting held in St Helens on the 21st it was decided to make a formal demand for the increase and give a fortnight's notice of strike action. Unusually, an unnamed manager of a St Helens mine responded to newspaper reports of the decision by claiming that the winders actually earned 4s 8d or even 4s 10p per day and also free coal – which their Wigan colleagues did not.
A separate dispute concerning miners at Evans' pits in Haydock was settled this week. The strike had lasted two months and concerned a new coal weighing system. The miners were going to be paid for each full box of coal that they produced. But the definition of what comprised a full box had caused the dispute. The firm wanted the open coal boxes to be overflowing but the men thought they should be level. In the end the firm won – as the employers usually did then – as there was a limited amount of time that workers could go without income.
The St Helens Newspaper was published on the 21st and provided more details of the death of Dr Livingstone through dysentery. His demise had occurred in what we know as Zambia in May 1873 but the news had only recently reached Britain. A letter had now arrived from Africa which stated that Livingstone's servants had "disembowelled the corpse and filled it with salt, and put brandy into the mouth, &c., so as to preserve it, and are bringing it along with them."
The YMCA supposedly began in St Helens in 1884. But there was an advert in this week's Newspaper promoting "The Inaugural Tea Meeting" of the St Helens Young Men's Christian Association. The event at the Mission Hall in Waterloo Street featured an address from the secretary of the Manchester association.
This week's court hearings as featured in the Newspaper included the case of John Fitzgerald. It was very common for the less than bright to steal some garment from a shop and then walk a short distance to a pawnbroker. New items that persons attempted to pledge raised the suspicions of the broker who would call in the police. That happened to Fitzgerald who'd stolen a pair of boots from John Smith's shoemaker's premises in Naylor Street.
The 32-year-old barber then walked to Hugh Broadbent's pawnbrokers in Liverpool Road but gave such a poor account of why he’d wanted to pawn the new boots that PC Fleetwood was summoned. As he already had a conviction for a serious offence, John Fitzgerald was committed for trial at the Kirkdale Quarter Sessions in April where he was sentenced to four months imprisonment with hard labour.
Thomas Burrows and Edward McKenna were also in court charged with cruelty to two dogs. That was after a constable had seen the animals fighting near the engine sheds in Sutton with their two owners urging them on. The men ran off when they saw PC Clark but the officer managed to catch one of the dogs and found it bleeding from bites and scratches. Thomas Burrows denied his involvement in the affair but a witness corroborated the officer's identification and both men received fines of five shillings and costs.
Ann Worthington brought a charge of assault against her husband Henry in the Petty Sessions. The couple had not been married long but Ann said during their brief time together her husband had been so brutal that she was afraid to live with him. She said he had constantly beaten her but the final straw had been last Saturday week when he had hit her several times in the face. That was because Ann had only been able to serve him cheese for a meal. Henry Worthington was bound over for two months himself in the sum of £10 and he also had to find two sureties of £5 each.
Also in court was Esther Northcliffe who was accused of having a foul ashpit at her Rigby Street home in St Helens. The ashpits were the dumps that contained human waste and were mixed with ashes to reduce the smell and keep away pests. The St Helens Medical Officer of Health said he had visited the premises that morning and the ashpit was draining into another yard and although men were repairing the pit, there was still an offensive smell. The magistrates issued an order of abatement and ordered Mrs Northcliffe to pay all the costs.
Under the sub-headline "Disgusting Characters", the Newspaper published this brief piece about another case: "Sarah Priestley was charged with threatening to assault Jane Stapleton. The parties are Parr women, and the quarrel first arose between them through a wrangle amongst their children. The relation of the story of each was so replete with curses and blasphemy that a great majority of the audience derived palpable amusement, and every respectable person was disgusted. Defendant was bound over."
In St Helens County Court on the 24th Elizabeth Norman unsuccessfully sued the executors of her aunt's will for services rendered as housekeeper and companion. The woman explained to the judge that she had lived for two years with her aunt at her house in Prescot initially receiving wages.
However, those had stopped after a verbal agreement was made that upon the aunt's death Elizabeth would receive a special legacy in lieu of the unpaid wages. But at the will reading upon the old woman's demise, Elizabeth discovered that had not been the case and a stormy scene ensued. However, the judge said Elizabeth had "run her chance" and with no proof of the private arrangement he rejected her case.
At a meeting last December a new temperance organisation had been formed at Lowe House Church (pictured above) called the Catholic Association for the Suppression of Drunkenness. Over a hundred persons had signed the pledge that evening and within days that number had doubled. Unusually, the association accepted two forms of pledges. As well as total abstinence, members could agree not to drink more than two pints of beer a day, as long as they were not consumed within a public house.
During the evening of the 24th what was described as a "great gathering" of the new organisation took place with Father James Nugent one of the speakers. The pioneering child welfare reformer of which the Nugent Care charity is named ran his Boys of the Refuge and Night Asylum from St Anne Street in Liverpool. A further 133 persons took the pledge and the movement now numbered over 1,200 people.
And finally, at the beginning of 1871 the Prussian Chancellor Otto von Bismarck announced the formation of the German Empire and began a programme of religious discrimination. As a result many German Catholics chose – or felt forced – to leave the country. A number of priests settled in Ditton and on the 25th the Exiled German Fathers – as they were known – sang and played their instruments at Lowe House Church in St Helens as part of the regular Sunday services.
St Helens Newspaper courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include Andrew Kurtz's generosity to St Helens Hospital, the riotous man in Church Street who said he was nettled at being arrested, the Sutton horse in a fearful condition and the new Saints team play one of their first matches.
I've often commented how dangerous the railways were in the 1870s. On the 21st in a lengthy column headlined "Railway Accidents", the Liverpool Weekly Courier detailed a dozen crashes, derailments etc. that had happened throughout the country during the past 7 days. Five or six deaths had occurred and there had been many injuries.
And that's not counting the father of a little boy who had mysteriously gone missing from a train. When it stopped at Rainford his son told railway staff that his dad had jumped off the carriage some distance further back. A day later, despite the line being extensively searched, neither the man's dead body nor his live self had been found.
The miners' fortnightly "reckoning" was when the men got paid and some of them, with brass in their pocket, went a bit wild. The Wigan Observer on the 21st wrote: "Riotous Colliers – On Thursday, three colliers, named Thomas Kilshaw, William Swift, and John Swift, were brought up at St. Helens charged with seriously assaulting a man named Wilding, and destroying the windows of his house. They were also charged with assaulting two other persons.
"It appears that Monday last was “reckoning Monday,” and the colliers were very drunken and disorderly. The prisoners formed three of a large body who attacked Wilding, and subjected him to brutal treatment. When the police hurried to the scene of the row they were saluted with a shower of stones and driven back, and they had to procure assistance before they were able to quell the disturbance, which was, throughout, of a disgraceful character. The prisoners were remanded."
The engine-winders in collieries that took men and materials up and down shafts in pit cages had a very responsible job. One loss of concentration and a disaster could occur. However, those in St Helens and Haydock were only paid 4 shillings 6d per day, which was sixpence less than the engine winders in Wigan received. About a month ago the men had written to their employers asking for the extra tanner – but, as was the usual practice with mine managers and owners, their request had been ignored.
And so at a meeting held in St Helens on the 21st it was decided to make a formal demand for the increase and give a fortnight's notice of strike action. Unusually, an unnamed manager of a St Helens mine responded to newspaper reports of the decision by claiming that the winders actually earned 4s 8d or even 4s 10p per day and also free coal – which their Wigan colleagues did not.
A separate dispute concerning miners at Evans' pits in Haydock was settled this week. The strike had lasted two months and concerned a new coal weighing system. The miners were going to be paid for each full box of coal that they produced. But the definition of what comprised a full box had caused the dispute. The firm wanted the open coal boxes to be overflowing but the men thought they should be level. In the end the firm won – as the employers usually did then – as there was a limited amount of time that workers could go without income.
The St Helens Newspaper was published on the 21st and provided more details of the death of Dr Livingstone through dysentery. His demise had occurred in what we know as Zambia in May 1873 but the news had only recently reached Britain. A letter had now arrived from Africa which stated that Livingstone's servants had "disembowelled the corpse and filled it with salt, and put brandy into the mouth, &c., so as to preserve it, and are bringing it along with them."
The YMCA supposedly began in St Helens in 1884. But there was an advert in this week's Newspaper promoting "The Inaugural Tea Meeting" of the St Helens Young Men's Christian Association. The event at the Mission Hall in Waterloo Street featured an address from the secretary of the Manchester association.
This week's court hearings as featured in the Newspaper included the case of John Fitzgerald. It was very common for the less than bright to steal some garment from a shop and then walk a short distance to a pawnbroker. New items that persons attempted to pledge raised the suspicions of the broker who would call in the police. That happened to Fitzgerald who'd stolen a pair of boots from John Smith's shoemaker's premises in Naylor Street.
The 32-year-old barber then walked to Hugh Broadbent's pawnbrokers in Liverpool Road but gave such a poor account of why he’d wanted to pawn the new boots that PC Fleetwood was summoned. As he already had a conviction for a serious offence, John Fitzgerald was committed for trial at the Kirkdale Quarter Sessions in April where he was sentenced to four months imprisonment with hard labour.
Thomas Burrows and Edward McKenna were also in court charged with cruelty to two dogs. That was after a constable had seen the animals fighting near the engine sheds in Sutton with their two owners urging them on. The men ran off when they saw PC Clark but the officer managed to catch one of the dogs and found it bleeding from bites and scratches. Thomas Burrows denied his involvement in the affair but a witness corroborated the officer's identification and both men received fines of five shillings and costs.
Ann Worthington brought a charge of assault against her husband Henry in the Petty Sessions. The couple had not been married long but Ann said during their brief time together her husband had been so brutal that she was afraid to live with him. She said he had constantly beaten her but the final straw had been last Saturday week when he had hit her several times in the face. That was because Ann had only been able to serve him cheese for a meal. Henry Worthington was bound over for two months himself in the sum of £10 and he also had to find two sureties of £5 each.
Also in court was Esther Northcliffe who was accused of having a foul ashpit at her Rigby Street home in St Helens. The ashpits were the dumps that contained human waste and were mixed with ashes to reduce the smell and keep away pests. The St Helens Medical Officer of Health said he had visited the premises that morning and the ashpit was draining into another yard and although men were repairing the pit, there was still an offensive smell. The magistrates issued an order of abatement and ordered Mrs Northcliffe to pay all the costs.
Under the sub-headline "Disgusting Characters", the Newspaper published this brief piece about another case: "Sarah Priestley was charged with threatening to assault Jane Stapleton. The parties are Parr women, and the quarrel first arose between them through a wrangle amongst their children. The relation of the story of each was so replete with curses and blasphemy that a great majority of the audience derived palpable amusement, and every respectable person was disgusted. Defendant was bound over."
In St Helens County Court on the 24th Elizabeth Norman unsuccessfully sued the executors of her aunt's will for services rendered as housekeeper and companion. The woman explained to the judge that she had lived for two years with her aunt at her house in Prescot initially receiving wages.
However, those had stopped after a verbal agreement was made that upon the aunt's death Elizabeth would receive a special legacy in lieu of the unpaid wages. But at the will reading upon the old woman's demise, Elizabeth discovered that had not been the case and a stormy scene ensued. However, the judge said Elizabeth had "run her chance" and with no proof of the private arrangement he rejected her case.
During the evening of the 24th what was described as a "great gathering" of the new organisation took place with Father James Nugent one of the speakers. The pioneering child welfare reformer of which the Nugent Care charity is named ran his Boys of the Refuge and Night Asylum from St Anne Street in Liverpool. A further 133 persons took the pledge and the movement now numbered over 1,200 people.
And finally, at the beginning of 1871 the Prussian Chancellor Otto von Bismarck announced the formation of the German Empire and began a programme of religious discrimination. As a result many German Catholics chose – or felt forced – to leave the country. A number of priests settled in Ditton and on the 25th the Exiled German Fathers – as they were known – sang and played their instruments at Lowe House Church in St Helens as part of the regular Sunday services.
St Helens Newspaper courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include Andrew Kurtz's generosity to St Helens Hospital, the riotous man in Church Street who said he was nettled at being arrested, the Sutton horse in a fearful condition and the new Saints team play one of their first matches.
This week's many stories include the violence of the riotous colliers, the dog fighting that took place in Sutton, the mysterious leap off a train near Rainford, the brute that beat his wife for serving him cheese, the pair of Parr women that were labelled disgusting, the brainless stealing of new boots from a Naylor Street shop and as one mining dispute is resolved the St Helens engine-winders serve notice of strike action.
I've often commented how dangerous the railways were in the 1870s.
On the 21st in a lengthy column headlined "Railway Accidents", the Liverpool Weekly Courier detailed a dozen crashes, derailments etc. that had happened throughout the country during the past 7 days. Five or six deaths had occurred and there had been many injuries.
And that's not counting the father of a little boy who had mysteriously gone missing from a train.
When it stopped at Rainford his son told railway staff that his dad had jumped off the carriage some distance further back.
A day later, despite the line being extensively searched, neither the man's dead body nor his live self had been found.
The miners' fortnightly "reckoning" was when the men got paid and some of them, with brass in their pocket, went a bit wild. The Wigan Observer on the 21st wrote:
"Riotous Colliers – On Thursday, three colliers, named Thomas Kilshaw, William Swift, and John Swift, were brought up at St. Helens charged with seriously assaulting a man named Wilding, and destroying the windows of his house. They were also charged with assaulting two other persons.
"It appears that Monday last was “reckoning Monday,” and the colliers were very drunken and disorderly. The prisoners formed three of a large body who attacked Wilding, and subjected him to brutal treatment.
"When the police hurried to the scene of the row they were saluted with a shower of stones and driven back, and they had to procure assistance before they were able to quell the disturbance, which was, throughout, of a disgraceful character. The prisoners were remanded."
The engine-winders in collieries that took men and materials up and down shafts in pit cages had a very responsible job. One loss of concentration and a disaster could occur.
However, those in St Helens and Haydock were only paid 4 shillings 6d per day, which was sixpence less than the engine winders in Wigan received.
About a month ago the men had written to their employers asking for the extra tanner – but, as was the usual practice with mine managers and owners, their request had been ignored.
And so at a meeting held in St Helens on the 21st it was decided to make a formal demand for the increase and give a fortnight's notice of strike action.
Unusually, an unnamed manager of a St Helens mine responded to newspaper reports of the decision by claiming that the winders actually earned 4s 8d or even 4s 10p per day and also free coal – which their Wigan colleagues did not.
A separate dispute concerning miners at Evans' pits in Haydock was settled this week. The strike had lasted two months and concerned a new coal weighing system.
The miners were going to be paid for each full box of coal that they produced. But the definition of what comprised a full box had caused the dispute.
The firm wanted the open coal boxes to be overflowing but the men thought they should be level.
In the end the firm won – as the employers usually did then – as there was a limited amount of time that workers could go without income.
The St Helens Newspaper was published on the 21st and provided more details of the death of Dr Livingstone through dysentery.
His demise had occurred in what we know as Zambia in May 1873 but the news had only recently reached Britain.
A letter had now arrived from Africa which stated that Livingstone's servants had "disembowelled the corpse and filled it with salt, and put brandy into the mouth, &c., so as to preserve it, and are bringing it along with them."
The YMCA supposedly began in St Helens in 1884. But there was an advert in this week's Newspaper promoting "The Inaugural Tea Meeting" of the St Helens Young Men's Christian Association.
The event at the Mission Hall in Waterloo Street featured an address from the secretary of the Manchester association.
This week's court hearings as featured in the Newspaper included the case of John Fitzgerald.
It was very common for the less than bright to steal some garment from a shop and then walk a short distance to a pawnbroker.
New items that persons attempted to pledge raised the suspicions of the broker who would call in the police.
That happened to Fitzgerald who'd stolen a pair of boots from John Smith's shoemaker's premises in Naylor Street.
The 32-year-old barber then walked to Hugh Broadbent's pawnbrokers in Liverpool Road but gave such a poor account of why he’d wanted to pawn the new boots that PC Fleetwood was summoned.
As he already had a conviction for a serious offence, John Fitzgerald was committed for trial at the Kirkdale Quarter Sessions in April where he was sentenced to four months imprisonment with hard labour.
Thomas Burrows and Edward McKenna were also in court charged with cruelty to two dogs.
That was after a constable had seen the animals fighting near the engine sheds in Sutton with their two owners urging them on.
The men ran off when they saw PC Clark but the officer managed to catch one of the dogs and found it bleeding from bites and scratches.
Thomas Burrows denied his involvement in the affair but a witness corroborated the officer's identification and both men received fines of five shillings and costs.
Ann Worthington brought a charge of assault against her husband Henry in the Petty Sessions.
The couple had not been married long but Ann said during their brief time together her husband had been so brutal that she was afraid to live with him.
She said he had constantly beaten her but the final straw had been last Saturday week when he had hit her several times in the face. That was because Ann had only been able to serve him cheese for a meal.
Henry Worthington was bound over for two months himself in the sum of £10 and he also had to find two sureties of £5 each.
Also in court was Esther Northcliffe who was accused of having a foul ashpit at her Rigby Street home in St Helens.
The ashpits were the dumps that contained human waste and were mixed with ashes to reduce the smell and keep away pests.
The St Helens Medical Officer of Health said he had visited the premises that morning and the ashpit was draining into another yard and although men were repairing the pit, there was still an offensive smell.
The magistrates issued an order of abatement and ordered Mrs Northcliffe to pay all the costs.
Under the sub-headline "Disgusting Characters", the Newspaper published this brief piece about another case:
"Sarah Priestley was charged with threatening to assault Jane Stapleton. The parties are Parr women, and the quarrel first arose between them through a wrangle amongst their children.
"The relation of the story of each was so replete with curses and blasphemy that a great majority of the audience derived palpable amusement, and every respectable person was disgusted. Defendant was bound over."
In St Helens County Court on the 24th Elizabeth Norman unsuccessfully sued the executors of her aunt's will for services rendered as housekeeper and companion.
The woman explained to the judge that she had lived for two years with her aunt at her house in Prescot initially receiving wages.
However, those had stopped after a verbal agreement was made that upon the aunt's death Elizabeth would receive a special legacy in lieu of the unpaid wages.
But at the will reading upon the old woman's demise, Elizabeth discovered that had not been the case and a stormy scene ensued.
However, the judge said Elizabeth had "run her chance" and with no proof of the private arrangement he rejected her case.
At a meeting last December a new temperance organisation had been formed at Lowe House Church (pictured above) called the Catholic Association for the Suppression of Drunkenness.
Over a hundred persons had signed the pledge that evening and within days that number had doubled.
Unusually, the association accepted two forms of pledges. As well as total abstinence, members could agree not to drink more than two pints of beer a day, as long as they were not consumed within a public house.
During the evening of the 24th what was described as a "great gathering" of the new organisation took place with Father James Nugent one of the speakers.
The pioneering child welfare reformer of which the Nugent Care charity is named ran his Boys of the Refuge and Night Asylum from St Anne Street in Liverpool.
A further 133 persons took the pledge and the movement now numbered over 1,200 people.
And finally, at the beginning of 1871 the Prussian Chancellor Otto von Bismarck announced the formation of the German Empire and began a programme of religious discrimination. As a result many German Catholics chose – or felt forced – to leave the country.
A number of priests settled in Ditton and on the 25th the Exiled German Fathers – as they were known – sang and played their instruments at Lowe House Church in St Helens as part of the regular Sunday services.
St Helens Newspaper courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include Andrew Kurtz's generosity to St Helens Hospital, the riotous man in Church Street who said he was nettled at being arrested, the Sutton horse in a fearful condition and the new Saints team play one of their first matches.
I've often commented how dangerous the railways were in the 1870s.
On the 21st in a lengthy column headlined "Railway Accidents", the Liverpool Weekly Courier detailed a dozen crashes, derailments etc. that had happened throughout the country during the past 7 days. Five or six deaths had occurred and there had been many injuries.
And that's not counting the father of a little boy who had mysteriously gone missing from a train.
When it stopped at Rainford his son told railway staff that his dad had jumped off the carriage some distance further back.
A day later, despite the line being extensively searched, neither the man's dead body nor his live self had been found.
The miners' fortnightly "reckoning" was when the men got paid and some of them, with brass in their pocket, went a bit wild. The Wigan Observer on the 21st wrote:
"Riotous Colliers – On Thursday, three colliers, named Thomas Kilshaw, William Swift, and John Swift, were brought up at St. Helens charged with seriously assaulting a man named Wilding, and destroying the windows of his house. They were also charged with assaulting two other persons.
"It appears that Monday last was “reckoning Monday,” and the colliers were very drunken and disorderly. The prisoners formed three of a large body who attacked Wilding, and subjected him to brutal treatment.
"When the police hurried to the scene of the row they were saluted with a shower of stones and driven back, and they had to procure assistance before they were able to quell the disturbance, which was, throughout, of a disgraceful character. The prisoners were remanded."
The engine-winders in collieries that took men and materials up and down shafts in pit cages had a very responsible job. One loss of concentration and a disaster could occur.
However, those in St Helens and Haydock were only paid 4 shillings 6d per day, which was sixpence less than the engine winders in Wigan received.
About a month ago the men had written to their employers asking for the extra tanner – but, as was the usual practice with mine managers and owners, their request had been ignored.
And so at a meeting held in St Helens on the 21st it was decided to make a formal demand for the increase and give a fortnight's notice of strike action.
Unusually, an unnamed manager of a St Helens mine responded to newspaper reports of the decision by claiming that the winders actually earned 4s 8d or even 4s 10p per day and also free coal – which their Wigan colleagues did not.
A separate dispute concerning miners at Evans' pits in Haydock was settled this week. The strike had lasted two months and concerned a new coal weighing system.
The miners were going to be paid for each full box of coal that they produced. But the definition of what comprised a full box had caused the dispute.
The firm wanted the open coal boxes to be overflowing but the men thought they should be level.
In the end the firm won – as the employers usually did then – as there was a limited amount of time that workers could go without income.
The St Helens Newspaper was published on the 21st and provided more details of the death of Dr Livingstone through dysentery.
His demise had occurred in what we know as Zambia in May 1873 but the news had only recently reached Britain.
A letter had now arrived from Africa which stated that Livingstone's servants had "disembowelled the corpse and filled it with salt, and put brandy into the mouth, &c., so as to preserve it, and are bringing it along with them."
The YMCA supposedly began in St Helens in 1884. But there was an advert in this week's Newspaper promoting "The Inaugural Tea Meeting" of the St Helens Young Men's Christian Association.
The event at the Mission Hall in Waterloo Street featured an address from the secretary of the Manchester association.
This week's court hearings as featured in the Newspaper included the case of John Fitzgerald.
It was very common for the less than bright to steal some garment from a shop and then walk a short distance to a pawnbroker.
New items that persons attempted to pledge raised the suspicions of the broker who would call in the police.
That happened to Fitzgerald who'd stolen a pair of boots from John Smith's shoemaker's premises in Naylor Street.
The 32-year-old barber then walked to Hugh Broadbent's pawnbrokers in Liverpool Road but gave such a poor account of why he’d wanted to pawn the new boots that PC Fleetwood was summoned.
As he already had a conviction for a serious offence, John Fitzgerald was committed for trial at the Kirkdale Quarter Sessions in April where he was sentenced to four months imprisonment with hard labour.
Thomas Burrows and Edward McKenna were also in court charged with cruelty to two dogs.
That was after a constable had seen the animals fighting near the engine sheds in Sutton with their two owners urging them on.
The men ran off when they saw PC Clark but the officer managed to catch one of the dogs and found it bleeding from bites and scratches.
Thomas Burrows denied his involvement in the affair but a witness corroborated the officer's identification and both men received fines of five shillings and costs.
Ann Worthington brought a charge of assault against her husband Henry in the Petty Sessions.
The couple had not been married long but Ann said during their brief time together her husband had been so brutal that she was afraid to live with him.
She said he had constantly beaten her but the final straw had been last Saturday week when he had hit her several times in the face. That was because Ann had only been able to serve him cheese for a meal.
Henry Worthington was bound over for two months himself in the sum of £10 and he also had to find two sureties of £5 each.
Also in court was Esther Northcliffe who was accused of having a foul ashpit at her Rigby Street home in St Helens.
The ashpits were the dumps that contained human waste and were mixed with ashes to reduce the smell and keep away pests.
The St Helens Medical Officer of Health said he had visited the premises that morning and the ashpit was draining into another yard and although men were repairing the pit, there was still an offensive smell.
The magistrates issued an order of abatement and ordered Mrs Northcliffe to pay all the costs.
Under the sub-headline "Disgusting Characters", the Newspaper published this brief piece about another case:
"Sarah Priestley was charged with threatening to assault Jane Stapleton. The parties are Parr women, and the quarrel first arose between them through a wrangle amongst their children.
"The relation of the story of each was so replete with curses and blasphemy that a great majority of the audience derived palpable amusement, and every respectable person was disgusted. Defendant was bound over."
In St Helens County Court on the 24th Elizabeth Norman unsuccessfully sued the executors of her aunt's will for services rendered as housekeeper and companion.
The woman explained to the judge that she had lived for two years with her aunt at her house in Prescot initially receiving wages.
However, those had stopped after a verbal agreement was made that upon the aunt's death Elizabeth would receive a special legacy in lieu of the unpaid wages.
But at the will reading upon the old woman's demise, Elizabeth discovered that had not been the case and a stormy scene ensued.
However, the judge said Elizabeth had "run her chance" and with no proof of the private arrangement he rejected her case.
Over a hundred persons had signed the pledge that evening and within days that number had doubled.
Unusually, the association accepted two forms of pledges. As well as total abstinence, members could agree not to drink more than two pints of beer a day, as long as they were not consumed within a public house.
During the evening of the 24th what was described as a "great gathering" of the new organisation took place with Father James Nugent one of the speakers.
The pioneering child welfare reformer of which the Nugent Care charity is named ran his Boys of the Refuge and Night Asylum from St Anne Street in Liverpool.
A further 133 persons took the pledge and the movement now numbered over 1,200 people.
And finally, at the beginning of 1871 the Prussian Chancellor Otto von Bismarck announced the formation of the German Empire and began a programme of religious discrimination. As a result many German Catholics chose – or felt forced – to leave the country.
A number of priests settled in Ditton and on the 25th the Exiled German Fathers – as they were known – sang and played their instruments at Lowe House Church in St Helens as part of the regular Sunday services.
St Helens Newspaper courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include Andrew Kurtz's generosity to St Helens Hospital, the riotous man in Church Street who said he was nettled at being arrested, the Sutton horse in a fearful condition and the new Saints team play one of their first matches.