150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (22nd - 28th NOVEMER 1871)
This week's stories include a rabies death in Newton, Beecham's magic cure, the husband who attacked his wife for serving him breakfast in a pub, a drunken Haydock miner's canal death, the man who fell down a hole and there is another wearing apparel theft.
Cases of rabies (aka hydrophobia) were regularly reported in the newspapers during the 1870s. Although the chances of contracting the dreaded disease from the bite of a so-called mad dog were low, the period of incubation could be very long. That meant dog bite victims could spend months anxiously waiting for symptoms to appear. Some would imagine the onset of rabies and the terror would, ironically, drive some non-sufferers mad.
Joseph Crowther – of the Old Crow Inn in Crow Lane, Newton-le-Willows – must have thought that his incubation period had passed. He had been bitten on the lip by a fox terrier dog as far back as August and it wasn’t until November 24th that any symptoms of rabies showed. Within 48 hours the man was dead and as the same dog had bitten several other persons, it must have been a worrying development for them.
The St Helens firm of Beecham's was advertising their pills in the Fleetwood Chronicle on the 24th: "For females of all ages these pills are invaluable, as a few doses of them carry off all gross humour, open all obstructions, and bring about all that is required. No female should be without them." A testimonial was provided from a Mary Winstanley from Orrell, which bore the headline "A Magic Cure of Nine Years Standing":
"For nine years I had been so great a sufferer from bilious and liver complaints, with nervous and trembling sensations at times, that it was not thought possible for me to live five minutes longer. I have been so weak at times that I could not stand. I have been given up by all the doctors round this neighbourhood as incurable. In this hopeless, miserable condition, eleven months ago, I got a box of Beecham's Pills, and oh! I cannot express the good they have done me. I am now quite strong and in good health."
The Wigan Observer wrote on the 25th that the Earlestown Wesleyan Young Men's Mutual Improvement Society had delivered a lecture. The subject had been: "The family, the wooing, the wedding, the birth, and the death."
On the same day the Warrington Examiner described another drowning in St Helens Canal. These deaths could be by accident or by design – but deciding whether someone had slipped into the water unintentionally or committed suicide could be tricky. However, if the last time the deceased had been seen was in a pub – then it was odds on that making their way home in the darkness, they had inadvertently stumbled into deep water.
Miner Benjamin Heyes had been pulled out of the canal near Newton Common having last been seen a week earlier at the Vanny public house. It was believed that he'd probably fallen in the canal while on his way home – but they couldn't be sure. So the jury at his inquest returned the usual open verdict of "found drowned".
The artists performing this week at the Theatre Royal Concert Hall in St Helens – in the building we remember as the Citadel – included: Churchill, Crabtree and Young Pete ("The refined negro and terpsichorean artistes, having fulfilled brilliant engagements at the principal music halls in the United Kingdom"); Miss Annie Perry ("Serio-comic and ballad vocalist"); Mr and Mrs Con ("Ireland's greatest and most humorous duettists, dancers") and Mr Will Sherratt ("Irish comic").
In the St Helens Petty Sessions on the 27th there was another wearing apparel theft – as the courts and newspapers called clothes. It was a serious offence to steal garments, as Alice Heyes discovered after being sent to prison for two months. The woman had helped herself to £1 16s 6d worth of wearing apparel from the house of John Leyland in Sutton.
Stealing a watch also usually led to a prison sentence. When Mary Doherty had appeared in St Helens Petty Sessions last week she had been described as a "wretched looking woman". Mary had been found in possession of a silver lever watch, which wretched looking folk could not afford to own. So she'd been remanded pending further inquiries that revealed James Brown as the owner of the watch. The magistrates now committed the woman for trial at Liverpool Assizes.
This is how the St Helens Newspaper described another case heard in the Petty Sessions: "John Woods was charged with assaulting his wife, Mary Woods, and he pleaded guilty. The complainant said her husband had been drinking for a fortnight, and on Sunday morning she took his breakfast into the vaults where he was sitting. This delicate hint he resented by giving her a thrashing. She said it was dangerous to live with him; in June, 1870 he was bound over for his conduct towards her. Supt. Ludlam said the complainant was a very industrious woman, and most exemplary in her conduct. The defendant was sent to prison for three months. He never offered a word of defence."
There were a total of 239 cases heard at the St Helens County Court on the 28th. The court's jurisdiction covered a wide area and disputes from Widnes were adjudicated in the East Street court. In one case a man called Molyneux demanded £5 compensation from a Widnes publican called Midwood after tumbling into a hole in Mersey Road. Workmen had been excavating to create a cellar and the plaintiff alleged the hole that they had created had not been properly fenced off. This had led to him and his wife sustaining "hurts" to their persons and damage to their clothing after accidentally falling in.
However, the defendant showed that the plaintiff had to leave the thoroughfare and climb a bank of earth nearly six feet high before he could possibly have dropped into the cavity – and claimed he must have been under the influence of drink. He also stated that the contractor involved in the excavation was the responsible party – if anybody was. The judge after hearing the evidence gave the verdict for the defendant.
And finally, imposter scams were much more common during the 1870s in the days when means of communication were basic and proving or disproving identity hard. This week the Liverpool Daily Post published this article about a conwoman who got a bit carried away with her alternate sham persona:
"An extraordinary case of female swindling has just been brought to light in Birmingham. The accused is Mary Jane Furneaux, a woman of some thirty years of age. In the month of June last she was living at respectable lodgings in Ashted-row, with another woman, who is supposed to be her mother. On the 26th of that month she introduced herself to a Mrs. Morecroft and her husband living at the back of 62, Coleshill-street, leading them to understand that she was a dressmaker. Mrs. Morecroft is a machinist, and partly earns her livelihood by executing sewing for different people, and Mary Jane Furneaux employed her to do some sewing.
"From this time she became a regular customer, and ultimately became quite familiar with Mrs. Morecroft and her husband, and visited them frequently as a friend. Having quite initiated herself into their favour, she ventured to tell them an extraordinary story.
"She was not, as they believed, the plain Mary Jane Furneaux, of “plebeian birth,” but a person of high and noble origin, and who was connected with some of the most respectable and influential families in the country. She was not, in fact, even a member of the “fair sex,” although she was compelled to don female attire, and to pass as a woman, through unfortunate circumstances. She was no less a personage, however astonished they might be to hear it, than Lord Arthur Clinton, who was erroneously supposed be dead. This astounding revelation was made in such a manner that for some time it would appear the persons she had chosen as confidants were really at a loss to know whether they were the entertainers of a noble guest or not.
"Having excited their curiosity, she then proceeded to describe the remarkable manner which she (or he) escaped burial; told them in a graphic manner how chloroform was administered to her, how she could remember being placed in the coffin – which she was very particular in describing even to the minutest detail, but at an opportune moment burst the lid off, and made her escape in some untold mysterious manner, and was now obliged to keep her name secret until the expiration of a certain period of time, in order to get free of punishment.
"The whole of the story, as may be imagined, was rather too incredible for Mr. and Mrs. Morecroft to believe. They were, however, now very doubtful as to the sex their influential friend, for many of her actions were decidedly masculine, whilst her dress was a sort of mixture of a man's and woman's – sometimes she would wear a man's collar and front, with other articles of clothing to match, which were not of the style usually worn by females. Another fact, which caused them much amusement, and created suspicion that she was in reality a man, was that she often sat down in the house, chatted with Mr. and Mrs. Morecroft, and smoked, with apparently great enjoyment, cigarettes with the former.
"Subsequently, she produced a number of letters purporting to come from the Countess of Lanesborough, according to which she was to receive several important legacies. By these means she succeeded in obtaining various sums of money from Mrs. Morecroft, but the fraud was shortly afterwards discovered, and she was given into custody. Since her arrest Detective Cooper had discovered that the prisoner has swindled numbers of people, not only in Birmingham, but in the district."
In January Mary Jane Furneaux – and she was apparently a woman – was sentenced to 12 months hard labour. But such con-merchants were invariably repeat offenders and in 1882 she received a further 7 years for defrauding a man of the huge sum of £2,000.
Next week's stories will include a complaint about disgusting exhibitions at Rainford, the high death-rate in St Helens, another serious fire takes place at Newton, the fight at the Junction Hotel and the gipsy fortune tellers that could not locate their own horses.
Cases of rabies (aka hydrophobia) were regularly reported in the newspapers during the 1870s. Although the chances of contracting the dreaded disease from the bite of a so-called mad dog were low, the period of incubation could be very long. That meant dog bite victims could spend months anxiously waiting for symptoms to appear. Some would imagine the onset of rabies and the terror would, ironically, drive some non-sufferers mad.
Joseph Crowther – of the Old Crow Inn in Crow Lane, Newton-le-Willows – must have thought that his incubation period had passed. He had been bitten on the lip by a fox terrier dog as far back as August and it wasn’t until November 24th that any symptoms of rabies showed. Within 48 hours the man was dead and as the same dog had bitten several other persons, it must have been a worrying development for them.
"For nine years I had been so great a sufferer from bilious and liver complaints, with nervous and trembling sensations at times, that it was not thought possible for me to live five minutes longer. I have been so weak at times that I could not stand. I have been given up by all the doctors round this neighbourhood as incurable. In this hopeless, miserable condition, eleven months ago, I got a box of Beecham's Pills, and oh! I cannot express the good they have done me. I am now quite strong and in good health."
The Wigan Observer wrote on the 25th that the Earlestown Wesleyan Young Men's Mutual Improvement Society had delivered a lecture. The subject had been: "The family, the wooing, the wedding, the birth, and the death."
On the same day the Warrington Examiner described another drowning in St Helens Canal. These deaths could be by accident or by design – but deciding whether someone had slipped into the water unintentionally or committed suicide could be tricky. However, if the last time the deceased had been seen was in a pub – then it was odds on that making their way home in the darkness, they had inadvertently stumbled into deep water.
Miner Benjamin Heyes had been pulled out of the canal near Newton Common having last been seen a week earlier at the Vanny public house. It was believed that he'd probably fallen in the canal while on his way home – but they couldn't be sure. So the jury at his inquest returned the usual open verdict of "found drowned".
The artists performing this week at the Theatre Royal Concert Hall in St Helens – in the building we remember as the Citadel – included: Churchill, Crabtree and Young Pete ("The refined negro and terpsichorean artistes, having fulfilled brilliant engagements at the principal music halls in the United Kingdom"); Miss Annie Perry ("Serio-comic and ballad vocalist"); Mr and Mrs Con ("Ireland's greatest and most humorous duettists, dancers") and Mr Will Sherratt ("Irish comic").
In the St Helens Petty Sessions on the 27th there was another wearing apparel theft – as the courts and newspapers called clothes. It was a serious offence to steal garments, as Alice Heyes discovered after being sent to prison for two months. The woman had helped herself to £1 16s 6d worth of wearing apparel from the house of John Leyland in Sutton.
Stealing a watch also usually led to a prison sentence. When Mary Doherty had appeared in St Helens Petty Sessions last week she had been described as a "wretched looking woman". Mary had been found in possession of a silver lever watch, which wretched looking folk could not afford to own. So she'd been remanded pending further inquiries that revealed James Brown as the owner of the watch. The magistrates now committed the woman for trial at Liverpool Assizes.
This is how the St Helens Newspaper described another case heard in the Petty Sessions: "John Woods was charged with assaulting his wife, Mary Woods, and he pleaded guilty. The complainant said her husband had been drinking for a fortnight, and on Sunday morning she took his breakfast into the vaults where he was sitting. This delicate hint he resented by giving her a thrashing. She said it was dangerous to live with him; in June, 1870 he was bound over for his conduct towards her. Supt. Ludlam said the complainant was a very industrious woman, and most exemplary in her conduct. The defendant was sent to prison for three months. He never offered a word of defence."
There were a total of 239 cases heard at the St Helens County Court on the 28th. The court's jurisdiction covered a wide area and disputes from Widnes were adjudicated in the East Street court. In one case a man called Molyneux demanded £5 compensation from a Widnes publican called Midwood after tumbling into a hole in Mersey Road. Workmen had been excavating to create a cellar and the plaintiff alleged the hole that they had created had not been properly fenced off. This had led to him and his wife sustaining "hurts" to their persons and damage to their clothing after accidentally falling in.
However, the defendant showed that the plaintiff had to leave the thoroughfare and climb a bank of earth nearly six feet high before he could possibly have dropped into the cavity – and claimed he must have been under the influence of drink. He also stated that the contractor involved in the excavation was the responsible party – if anybody was. The judge after hearing the evidence gave the verdict for the defendant.
And finally, imposter scams were much more common during the 1870s in the days when means of communication were basic and proving or disproving identity hard. This week the Liverpool Daily Post published this article about a conwoman who got a bit carried away with her alternate sham persona:
"An extraordinary case of female swindling has just been brought to light in Birmingham. The accused is Mary Jane Furneaux, a woman of some thirty years of age. In the month of June last she was living at respectable lodgings in Ashted-row, with another woman, who is supposed to be her mother. On the 26th of that month she introduced herself to a Mrs. Morecroft and her husband living at the back of 62, Coleshill-street, leading them to understand that she was a dressmaker. Mrs. Morecroft is a machinist, and partly earns her livelihood by executing sewing for different people, and Mary Jane Furneaux employed her to do some sewing.
"From this time she became a regular customer, and ultimately became quite familiar with Mrs. Morecroft and her husband, and visited them frequently as a friend. Having quite initiated herself into their favour, she ventured to tell them an extraordinary story.
"She was not, as they believed, the plain Mary Jane Furneaux, of “plebeian birth,” but a person of high and noble origin, and who was connected with some of the most respectable and influential families in the country. She was not, in fact, even a member of the “fair sex,” although she was compelled to don female attire, and to pass as a woman, through unfortunate circumstances. She was no less a personage, however astonished they might be to hear it, than Lord Arthur Clinton, who was erroneously supposed be dead. This astounding revelation was made in such a manner that for some time it would appear the persons she had chosen as confidants were really at a loss to know whether they were the entertainers of a noble guest or not.
"Having excited their curiosity, she then proceeded to describe the remarkable manner which she (or he) escaped burial; told them in a graphic manner how chloroform was administered to her, how she could remember being placed in the coffin – which she was very particular in describing even to the minutest detail, but at an opportune moment burst the lid off, and made her escape in some untold mysterious manner, and was now obliged to keep her name secret until the expiration of a certain period of time, in order to get free of punishment.
"The whole of the story, as may be imagined, was rather too incredible for Mr. and Mrs. Morecroft to believe. They were, however, now very doubtful as to the sex their influential friend, for many of her actions were decidedly masculine, whilst her dress was a sort of mixture of a man's and woman's – sometimes she would wear a man's collar and front, with other articles of clothing to match, which were not of the style usually worn by females. Another fact, which caused them much amusement, and created suspicion that she was in reality a man, was that she often sat down in the house, chatted with Mr. and Mrs. Morecroft, and smoked, with apparently great enjoyment, cigarettes with the former.
"Subsequently, she produced a number of letters purporting to come from the Countess of Lanesborough, according to which she was to receive several important legacies. By these means she succeeded in obtaining various sums of money from Mrs. Morecroft, but the fraud was shortly afterwards discovered, and she was given into custody. Since her arrest Detective Cooper had discovered that the prisoner has swindled numbers of people, not only in Birmingham, but in the district."
In January Mary Jane Furneaux – and she was apparently a woman – was sentenced to 12 months hard labour. But such con-merchants were invariably repeat offenders and in 1882 she received a further 7 years for defrauding a man of the huge sum of £2,000.
Next week's stories will include a complaint about disgusting exhibitions at Rainford, the high death-rate in St Helens, another serious fire takes place at Newton, the fight at the Junction Hotel and the gipsy fortune tellers that could not locate their own horses.
This week's stories include a rabies death in Newton, Beecham's magic cure, the husband who attacked his wife for serving him breakfast in a pub, a drunken Haydock miner's canal death, the man who fell down a hole and there is another wearing apparel theft.
Cases of rabies (aka hydrophobia) were regularly reported in the newspapers during the 1870s.
Although the chances of contracting the dreaded disease from the bite of a so-called mad dog were low, the period of incubation could be very long.
That meant dog bite victims could spend months anxiously waiting for symptoms to appear.
Some would imagine the onset of rabies and the terror would, ironically, drive some non-sufferers mad.
Joseph Crowther – of the Old Crow Inn in Crow Lane, Newton-le-Willows – must have thought that his incubation period had passed.
He had been bitten on the lip by a fox terrier dog as far back as August and it wasn’t until November 24th that any symptoms of rabies showed.
Within 48 hours the man was dead and as the same dog had bitten several other persons, it must have been a worrying development for them.
The St Helens firm of Beecham's was advertising their pills in the Fleetwood Chronicle on the 24th:
"For females of all ages these pills are invaluable, as a few doses of them carry off all gross humour, open all obstructions, and bring about all that is required. No female should be without them."
A testimonial was provided from a Mary Winstanley from Orrell, which bore the headline "A Magic Cure of Nine Years Standing":
"For nine years I had been so great a sufferer from bilious and liver complaints, with nervous and trembling sensations at times, that it was not thought possible for me to live five minutes longer. I have been so weak at times that I could not stand.
"I have been given up by all the doctors round this neighbourhood as incurable. In this hopeless, miserable condition, eleven months ago, I got a box of Beecham's Pills, and oh! I cannot express the good they have done me. I am now quite strong and in good health."
The Wigan Observer wrote on the 25th that the Earlestown Wesleyan Young Men's Mutual Improvement Society had delivered a lecture.
The subject had been: "The family, the wooing, the wedding, the birth, and the death."
On the same day the Warrington Examiner described another drowning in St Helens Canal.
These deaths could be by accident or by design – but deciding whether someone had slipped into the water unintentionally or committed suicide could be tricky.
However, if the last time the deceased had been seen was in a pub – then it was odds on that making their way home in the darkness, they had inadvertently stumbled into deep water.
Miner Benjamin Heyes had been pulled out of the canal near Newton Common having last been seen a week earlier at the Vanny public house.
It was believed that he'd probably fallen in the canal while on his way home – but they couldn't be sure. So the jury at his inquest returned the usual open verdict of "found drowned".
The artists performing this week at the Theatre Royal Concert Hall in St Helens – in the building we remember as the Citadel – included:
Churchill, Crabtree and Young Pete ("The refined negro and terpsichorean artistes, having fulfilled brilliant engagements at the principal music halls in the United Kingdom"); Miss Annie Perry ("Serio-comic and ballad vocalist"); Mr and Mrs Con ("Ireland's greatest and most humorous duettists, dancers") and Mr Will Sherratt ("Irish comic").
In the St Helens Petty Sessions on the 27th there was another wearing apparel theft – as the courts and newspapers called clothes.
It was a serious offence to steal garments, as Alice Heyes discovered after being sent to prison for two months.
The woman had helped herself to £1 16s 6d worth of wearing apparel from the house of John Leyland in Sutton.
Stealing a watch also usually led to a prison sentence. When Mary Doherty had appeared in St Helens Petty Sessions last week she had been described as a "wretched looking woman".
Mary had been found in possession of a silver lever watch, which wretched looking folk could not afford to own.
So she'd been remanded pending further inquiries that revealed James Brown as the owner of the watch. The magistrates now committed the woman for trial at Liverpool Assizes.
This is how the St Helens Newspaper described another case heard in the Petty Sessions:
"John Woods was charged with assaulting his wife, Mary Woods, and he pleaded guilty.
"The complainant said her husband had been drinking for a fortnight, and on Sunday morning she took his breakfast into the vaults where he was sitting.
"This delicate hint he resented by giving her a thrashing. She said it was dangerous to live with him; in June, 1870 he was bound over for his conduct towards her.
"Supt. Ludlam said the complainant was a very industrious woman, and most exemplary in her conduct.
"The defendant was sent to prison for three months. He never offered a word of defence."
There were a total of 239 cases heard at the St Helens County Court on the 28th.
The court's jurisdiction covered a wide area and disputes from Widnes were adjudicated in the East Street court.
In one case a man called Molyneux demanded £5 compensation from a Widnes publican called Midwood after tumbling into a hole in Mersey Road.
Workmen had been excavating to create a cellar and the plaintiff alleged the hole that they had created had not been properly fenced off.
This had led to him and his wife sustaining "hurts" to their persons and damage to their clothing after accidentally falling in.
However, the defendant showed that the plaintiff had to leave the thoroughfare and climb a bank of earth nearly six feet high before he could possibly have dropped into the cavity – and claimed he must have been under the influence of drink.
He also stated that the contractor involved in the excavation was the responsible party – if anybody was.
The judge after hearing the evidence gave the verdict for the defendant.
And finally, imposter scams were much more common during the 1870s in the days when means of communication were basic and proving or disproving identity hard.
This week the Liverpool Daily Post published this article about a conwoman who got a bit carried away with her alternate sham persona:
"An extraordinary case of female swindling has just been brought to light in Birmingham. The accused is Mary Jane Furneaux, a woman of some thirty years of age.
"In the month of June last she was living at respectable lodgings in Ashted-row, with another woman, who is supposed to be her mother.
"On the 26th of that month she introduced herself to a Mrs. Morecroft and her husband living at the back of 62, Coleshill-street, leading them to understand that she was a dressmaker.
"Mrs. Morecroft is a machinist, and partly earns her livelihood by executing sewing for different people, and Mary Jane Furneaux employed her to do some sewing.
"From this time she became a regular customer, and ultimately became quite familiar with Mrs. Morecroft and her husband, and visited them frequently as a friend.
"Having quite initiated herself into their favour, she ventured to tell them an extraordinary story.
"She was not, as they believed, the plain Mary Jane Furneaux, of “plebeian birth,” but a person of high and noble origin, and who was connected with some of the most respectable and influential families in the country.
"She was not, in fact, even a member of the “fair sex,” although she was compelled to don female attire, and to pass as a woman, through unfortunate circumstances.
"She was no less a personage, however astonished they might be to hear it, than Lord Arthur Clinton, who was erroneously supposed be dead.
"This astounding revelation was made in such a manner that for some time it would appear the persons she had chosen as confidants were really at a loss to know whether they were the entertainers of a noble guest or not.
"Having excited their curiosity, she then proceeded to describe the remarkable manner which she (or he) escaped burial; told them in a graphic manner how chloroform was administered to her, how she could remember being placed in the coffin – which she was very particular in describing even to the minutest detail, but at an opportune moment burst the lid off, and made her escape in some untold mysterious manner, and was now obliged to keep her name secret until the expiration of a certain period of time, in order to get free of punishment.
"The whole of the story, as may be imagined, was rather too incredible for Mr. and Mrs. Morecroft to believe.
"They were, however, now very doubtful as to the sex their influential friend, for many of her actions were decidedly masculine, whilst her dress was a sort of mixture of a man's and woman's – sometimes she would wear a man's collar and front, with other articles of clothing to match, which were not of the style usually worn by females.
"Another fact, which caused them much amusement, and created suspicion that she was in reality a man, was that she often sat down in the house, chatted with Mr. and Mrs. Morecroft, and smoked, with apparently great enjoyment, cigarettes with the former.
"Subsequently, she produced a number of letters purporting to come from the Countess of Lanesborough, according to which she was to receive several important legacies.
"By these means she succeeded in obtaining various sums of money from Mrs. Morecroft, but the fraud was shortly afterwards discovered, and she was given into custody.
"Since her arrest Detective Cooper had discovered that the prisoner has swindled numbers of people, not only in Birmingham, but in the district."
In January Mary Jane Furneaux – and she was apparently a woman – was sentenced to 12 months hard labour.
But such con-merchants were invariably repeat offenders and in 1882 she received a further 7 years for defrauding a man of the huge sum of £2,000.
Next week's stories will include a complaint about disgusting exhibitions at Rainford, the high death-rate in St Helens, another serious fire takes place at Newton, the fight at the Junction Hotel and the gipsy fortune tellers that could not locate their own horses.
Cases of rabies (aka hydrophobia) were regularly reported in the newspapers during the 1870s.
Although the chances of contracting the dreaded disease from the bite of a so-called mad dog were low, the period of incubation could be very long.
That meant dog bite victims could spend months anxiously waiting for symptoms to appear.
Some would imagine the onset of rabies and the terror would, ironically, drive some non-sufferers mad.
Joseph Crowther – of the Old Crow Inn in Crow Lane, Newton-le-Willows – must have thought that his incubation period had passed.
He had been bitten on the lip by a fox terrier dog as far back as August and it wasn’t until November 24th that any symptoms of rabies showed.
Within 48 hours the man was dead and as the same dog had bitten several other persons, it must have been a worrying development for them.
"For females of all ages these pills are invaluable, as a few doses of them carry off all gross humour, open all obstructions, and bring about all that is required. No female should be without them."
A testimonial was provided from a Mary Winstanley from Orrell, which bore the headline "A Magic Cure of Nine Years Standing":
"For nine years I had been so great a sufferer from bilious and liver complaints, with nervous and trembling sensations at times, that it was not thought possible for me to live five minutes longer. I have been so weak at times that I could not stand.
"I have been given up by all the doctors round this neighbourhood as incurable. In this hopeless, miserable condition, eleven months ago, I got a box of Beecham's Pills, and oh! I cannot express the good they have done me. I am now quite strong and in good health."
The Wigan Observer wrote on the 25th that the Earlestown Wesleyan Young Men's Mutual Improvement Society had delivered a lecture.
The subject had been: "The family, the wooing, the wedding, the birth, and the death."
On the same day the Warrington Examiner described another drowning in St Helens Canal.
These deaths could be by accident or by design – but deciding whether someone had slipped into the water unintentionally or committed suicide could be tricky.
However, if the last time the deceased had been seen was in a pub – then it was odds on that making their way home in the darkness, they had inadvertently stumbled into deep water.
Miner Benjamin Heyes had been pulled out of the canal near Newton Common having last been seen a week earlier at the Vanny public house.
It was believed that he'd probably fallen in the canal while on his way home – but they couldn't be sure. So the jury at his inquest returned the usual open verdict of "found drowned".
The artists performing this week at the Theatre Royal Concert Hall in St Helens – in the building we remember as the Citadel – included:
Churchill, Crabtree and Young Pete ("The refined negro and terpsichorean artistes, having fulfilled brilliant engagements at the principal music halls in the United Kingdom"); Miss Annie Perry ("Serio-comic and ballad vocalist"); Mr and Mrs Con ("Ireland's greatest and most humorous duettists, dancers") and Mr Will Sherratt ("Irish comic").
In the St Helens Petty Sessions on the 27th there was another wearing apparel theft – as the courts and newspapers called clothes.
It was a serious offence to steal garments, as Alice Heyes discovered after being sent to prison for two months.
The woman had helped herself to £1 16s 6d worth of wearing apparel from the house of John Leyland in Sutton.
Stealing a watch also usually led to a prison sentence. When Mary Doherty had appeared in St Helens Petty Sessions last week she had been described as a "wretched looking woman".
Mary had been found in possession of a silver lever watch, which wretched looking folk could not afford to own.
So she'd been remanded pending further inquiries that revealed James Brown as the owner of the watch. The magistrates now committed the woman for trial at Liverpool Assizes.
This is how the St Helens Newspaper described another case heard in the Petty Sessions:
"John Woods was charged with assaulting his wife, Mary Woods, and he pleaded guilty.
"The complainant said her husband had been drinking for a fortnight, and on Sunday morning she took his breakfast into the vaults where he was sitting.
"This delicate hint he resented by giving her a thrashing. She said it was dangerous to live with him; in June, 1870 he was bound over for his conduct towards her.
"Supt. Ludlam said the complainant was a very industrious woman, and most exemplary in her conduct.
"The defendant was sent to prison for three months. He never offered a word of defence."
There were a total of 239 cases heard at the St Helens County Court on the 28th.
The court's jurisdiction covered a wide area and disputes from Widnes were adjudicated in the East Street court.
In one case a man called Molyneux demanded £5 compensation from a Widnes publican called Midwood after tumbling into a hole in Mersey Road.
Workmen had been excavating to create a cellar and the plaintiff alleged the hole that they had created had not been properly fenced off.
This had led to him and his wife sustaining "hurts" to their persons and damage to their clothing after accidentally falling in.
However, the defendant showed that the plaintiff had to leave the thoroughfare and climb a bank of earth nearly six feet high before he could possibly have dropped into the cavity – and claimed he must have been under the influence of drink.
He also stated that the contractor involved in the excavation was the responsible party – if anybody was.
The judge after hearing the evidence gave the verdict for the defendant.
And finally, imposter scams were much more common during the 1870s in the days when means of communication were basic and proving or disproving identity hard.
This week the Liverpool Daily Post published this article about a conwoman who got a bit carried away with her alternate sham persona:
"An extraordinary case of female swindling has just been brought to light in Birmingham. The accused is Mary Jane Furneaux, a woman of some thirty years of age.
"In the month of June last she was living at respectable lodgings in Ashted-row, with another woman, who is supposed to be her mother.
"On the 26th of that month she introduced herself to a Mrs. Morecroft and her husband living at the back of 62, Coleshill-street, leading them to understand that she was a dressmaker.
"Mrs. Morecroft is a machinist, and partly earns her livelihood by executing sewing for different people, and Mary Jane Furneaux employed her to do some sewing.
"From this time she became a regular customer, and ultimately became quite familiar with Mrs. Morecroft and her husband, and visited them frequently as a friend.
"Having quite initiated herself into their favour, she ventured to tell them an extraordinary story.
"She was not, as they believed, the plain Mary Jane Furneaux, of “plebeian birth,” but a person of high and noble origin, and who was connected with some of the most respectable and influential families in the country.
"She was not, in fact, even a member of the “fair sex,” although she was compelled to don female attire, and to pass as a woman, through unfortunate circumstances.
"She was no less a personage, however astonished they might be to hear it, than Lord Arthur Clinton, who was erroneously supposed be dead.
"This astounding revelation was made in such a manner that for some time it would appear the persons she had chosen as confidants were really at a loss to know whether they were the entertainers of a noble guest or not.
"Having excited their curiosity, she then proceeded to describe the remarkable manner which she (or he) escaped burial; told them in a graphic manner how chloroform was administered to her, how she could remember being placed in the coffin – which she was very particular in describing even to the minutest detail, but at an opportune moment burst the lid off, and made her escape in some untold mysterious manner, and was now obliged to keep her name secret until the expiration of a certain period of time, in order to get free of punishment.
"The whole of the story, as may be imagined, was rather too incredible for Mr. and Mrs. Morecroft to believe.
"They were, however, now very doubtful as to the sex their influential friend, for many of her actions were decidedly masculine, whilst her dress was a sort of mixture of a man's and woman's – sometimes she would wear a man's collar and front, with other articles of clothing to match, which were not of the style usually worn by females.
"Another fact, which caused them much amusement, and created suspicion that she was in reality a man, was that she often sat down in the house, chatted with Mr. and Mrs. Morecroft, and smoked, with apparently great enjoyment, cigarettes with the former.
"Subsequently, she produced a number of letters purporting to come from the Countess of Lanesborough, according to which she was to receive several important legacies.
"By these means she succeeded in obtaining various sums of money from Mrs. Morecroft, but the fraud was shortly afterwards discovered, and she was given into custody.
"Since her arrest Detective Cooper had discovered that the prisoner has swindled numbers of people, not only in Birmingham, but in the district."
In January Mary Jane Furneaux – and she was apparently a woman – was sentenced to 12 months hard labour.
But such con-merchants were invariably repeat offenders and in 1882 she received a further 7 years for defrauding a man of the huge sum of £2,000.
Next week's stories will include a complaint about disgusting exhibitions at Rainford, the high death-rate in St Helens, another serious fire takes place at Newton, the fight at the Junction Hotel and the gipsy fortune tellers that could not locate their own horses.