150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (2 - 8 OCTOBER 1873)
This week's many stories include a drunken man's fatal freak in the canal, the Prescot boy that died after jumping on the back of a horse-driven wagon, the drowning outside a Cowley Hill pub, the many railway accidents in the district, the stiff sentence for sleeping out in Bridge Street, the St Helens turner that had spent 60 years working for the same firm and the women's language that was repeated in court that disgusted the magistrates.
We begin in St Helens Petty Sessions on the 2nd when Thomas and Ann Feeley of Greenbank appeared. The husband and wife were charged with committing a violent assault on their neighbour, Thomas Mack. It was another case in which the precise cause of the row was not revealed by the Newspaper due to it being considered too sordid – but this is what they wrote:
"The case arose out of some very immoral transactions, and the prisoners went to the house of the prosecutor, where he was very much abused by them. His head bore ample testimony to the hardness of a poker. They were each fined 40s and costs."
It was a risky business travelling on a train in the 1870s. On the 2nd the Ormskirk Advertiser under its heading "Railway Accidents" detailed nine recent incidents nationwide, with several using the adjective "alarming" to describe their nature. Then on other parts of the same page two more such accidents were listed and there was also details of the inquiry into the "catastrophe" (as they called it) that had taken place at Wigan Station in the summer that killed 13 people. That investigation, incidentally, had come to the conclusion that the train had been travelling too fast. And, there was also this report:
"It is not an unusual circumstance for persons travelling on the railway to get out of the carriage before the train comes to a standstill, and it is surprising accidents and loss of life do not more frequently occur in consequence. An illustration of this foolish practice occurred at Rainford Junction on Tuesday evening, by which a female narrowly escaped losing her life.
"As the train which leaves Manchester at 5 30 p.m. for Liverpool was entering the platform at Rainford Junction an elderly female, having to change there, although warned of the danger by the passengers, attempted to get out of the carriage, and in doing so missed the step, and fell on the side of the platform, and within a few inches of the train. Her left arm and shoulder were bruised, and she sustained a severe shaking, but beyond these she sustained no further injuries, and was able to proceed on her journey. It was almost a miracle she escaped being caught between the platform and the carriages."
The St Helens Newspaper described on the 4th how a young man called Thomas Kellitt from Groves Row had drowned in the St Helens Canal – in an unusual fashion. Drunken men returning home from the pub and accidentally stumbling into the canal in the dark caused many deaths in the deep waterway. And Kellitt had been drinking all day, although his immersion in the canal had been a deliberate act – but not seemingly suicide.
At 10:30pm after having his supper Kellitt had left his home with his wife, removed his jacket and hat and declared that he was going to have a race. The 21-year-old then ran towards the Navigation Bridge and threw himself into the canal. He then attempted to swim towards a boat moored on its other side but was unable to climb in. And so Kellitt began swimming back to the bank on the other side but at the mid-way point sank in the water and drowned. The Newspaper's headline was "Fatal Freak of a Drunken Man".
Many people also lost their lives in the many water-filled clayholes in St Helens. On the same day that Thomas Kellitt took a deadly dip in the canal, the body of George Newton from Stanhope Street was recovered from a pit. The clayhole was situated just ten yards from the back door of the Cowley Hill Tavern in Oldfield Street. Newton had left via the inn's back door in a drunken state and seemed to have accidentally fallen into the unfenced pit.
The Newspaper also described how a Prescot boy had died after jumping on the back of a horse-driven wagon that was travelling to St Helens. Andrew Black did not appear to have been hitching a lift but having a bit of fun. In the absence of any children's playgrounds or other amenities, boys liked to swing from the rear of slow-moving vehicles and in doing so the 7-year-old had got his feet entangled in one of the wagon's wheels.
Andrew was badly crushed and taken to the hospital attached to Whiston Workhouse where one of his legs was amputated. But as was often the case in the 19th century, the shock was too great for the lad's body and his injury proved fatal.
I'm not certain where Elizabeth Pennington and Mary Hargreaves lived – but I think it was Sutton. They both appeared in the Petty Sessions this week when Elizabeth accused Mary of assault. It was another case in which two women in bringing their petty dispute to court thought it a good idea to repeat all the filthy words allegedly said by the other side. That, they naively assumed, would help them win their case but it disgusted the magistrates and often led to them dismissing the charge.
The newspapers rarely reported the precise accusations that had been decorated with expletives. But they were usually claims of husband and wife not actually being married; their children having different fathers or the woman being accused of having an affair with another man. The Newspaper described what was said in court:
"The complainant said that she and defendant had some words, and she threatened to tell defendant's husband. Later on in the day, defendant went to meet her husband, so as to anticipate any complaint that might be made, and having got the good man into possession and left him at home, she sought out complainant and gave her a good shaking. The words used were very scandalous, as may be supposed.
"Defendant, in her own behalf, made a very disconnected statement, and then called an ancient dame who is called Ellen Lucas, and deposed to having seen complainant encourage a little dog named ”Tinker” to worry the defendant. For the rest there was nothing to choose between them, the language being very bad on both sides. The Chairman said the case would be dismissed, and pronounced it an exceedingly disgraceful one." The "ancient dame" called Ellen Lucas was – according to the 1871 census – either 54 or possibly 47. It was a hard life then that put years on middle-aged folk.
There were no such things as sentencing guidelines for the magistrates to consider. That led to wildly differing sentences being imposed on different defendants after they had committed similar minor offences. For example, if a vagrant promised to immediately leave St Helens they could have his or her case dismissed – although they were far more likely to receive 7 to 14 days in prison. That might sometimes be extended to 28 days, if the defendant was a regular in court or if the magistrates were in a stern mood.
But the Chairman of the Bench, Robert Daglish, must have been in a stinker of a temper this week when George Stanton and William Lewing came in front of him and his fellow magistrate Thomas Pilkington. The two men had been found sleeping in a cart off Bridge Street with Stanton described as a Cockney and Lewing a Wakefieldian. Both were tramping the country and they received a lecture from Daglish about rambling around when they could be working. He then sent them both to prison for two months. Even the Newspaper commented how it had been a "heavy sentence" for vagrancy.
During the 19th century it was almost mandatory for police officers in St Helens to wear a moustache – or whiskers, as they tended to be called. Photographs of police from that period show very few officers without a substantial growth on their top lip. Sometimes, when attempting to make an arrest their moustache became a problem, as their prospective prisoner would grab hold of their whiskers and pull.
James Brady was one such assailant. He had been causing trouble at St Helens Railway Station and had assaulted an official. PC Sharkey arrested Brady near to Holy Cross Church and on the walk to the police station he'd grabbed hold of the officer's whiskers, dragged him to the ground and then kicked him in his stomach. Brady blamed drunkenness and was fined a total of about £3 and if in default of payment he had to serve two months in prison.
In an era when boys began working in factories at a very tender age, they could clock up many decades of employment with the same firm. That was, of course, if their health permitted it, which it didn't for most men. But with no state retirement pension, workers continued at their jobs as long as they physically could. And so cases like that of Richard Rogerson would occasionally appear in the St Helens Newspaper. He had worked in Daglish's huge iron foundry in St Helens (pictured above) as a turner for 60 years having begun at the age of 12.
Rogerson was described as "hale and healthy" and so retirement was not yet in his thoughts. But he had witnessed St Helens' growth from a village to a busy industrial town and the expansion of the foundry. The Newspaper wrote this about the latter: "Rogerson has seen the small place grow around him to vast proportions, and spreading its name and reputation over the land. He has seen everything – masters, men, machinery, manufactures – changed with the progress of time, leaving himself about the only landmark of the past." The great-grandfather lived in a cottage in Market Street and had fourteen children.
St Helens Newspaper courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the men charged with attempted murder, the laying of the foundation stone for the new Town Hall, the defence of a violent wife-beater and a notorious female impersonator comes to St Helens.
We begin in St Helens Petty Sessions on the 2nd when Thomas and Ann Feeley of Greenbank appeared. The husband and wife were charged with committing a violent assault on their neighbour, Thomas Mack. It was another case in which the precise cause of the row was not revealed by the Newspaper due to it being considered too sordid – but this is what they wrote:
"The case arose out of some very immoral transactions, and the prisoners went to the house of the prosecutor, where he was very much abused by them. His head bore ample testimony to the hardness of a poker. They were each fined 40s and costs."
It was a risky business travelling on a train in the 1870s. On the 2nd the Ormskirk Advertiser under its heading "Railway Accidents" detailed nine recent incidents nationwide, with several using the adjective "alarming" to describe their nature. Then on other parts of the same page two more such accidents were listed and there was also details of the inquiry into the "catastrophe" (as they called it) that had taken place at Wigan Station in the summer that killed 13 people. That investigation, incidentally, had come to the conclusion that the train had been travelling too fast. And, there was also this report:
"It is not an unusual circumstance for persons travelling on the railway to get out of the carriage before the train comes to a standstill, and it is surprising accidents and loss of life do not more frequently occur in consequence. An illustration of this foolish practice occurred at Rainford Junction on Tuesday evening, by which a female narrowly escaped losing her life.
"As the train which leaves Manchester at 5 30 p.m. for Liverpool was entering the platform at Rainford Junction an elderly female, having to change there, although warned of the danger by the passengers, attempted to get out of the carriage, and in doing so missed the step, and fell on the side of the platform, and within a few inches of the train. Her left arm and shoulder were bruised, and she sustained a severe shaking, but beyond these she sustained no further injuries, and was able to proceed on her journey. It was almost a miracle she escaped being caught between the platform and the carriages."
The St Helens Newspaper described on the 4th how a young man called Thomas Kellitt from Groves Row had drowned in the St Helens Canal – in an unusual fashion. Drunken men returning home from the pub and accidentally stumbling into the canal in the dark caused many deaths in the deep waterway. And Kellitt had been drinking all day, although his immersion in the canal had been a deliberate act – but not seemingly suicide.
At 10:30pm after having his supper Kellitt had left his home with his wife, removed his jacket and hat and declared that he was going to have a race. The 21-year-old then ran towards the Navigation Bridge and threw himself into the canal. He then attempted to swim towards a boat moored on its other side but was unable to climb in. And so Kellitt began swimming back to the bank on the other side but at the mid-way point sank in the water and drowned. The Newspaper's headline was "Fatal Freak of a Drunken Man".
Many people also lost their lives in the many water-filled clayholes in St Helens. On the same day that Thomas Kellitt took a deadly dip in the canal, the body of George Newton from Stanhope Street was recovered from a pit. The clayhole was situated just ten yards from the back door of the Cowley Hill Tavern in Oldfield Street. Newton had left via the inn's back door in a drunken state and seemed to have accidentally fallen into the unfenced pit.
The Newspaper also described how a Prescot boy had died after jumping on the back of a horse-driven wagon that was travelling to St Helens. Andrew Black did not appear to have been hitching a lift but having a bit of fun. In the absence of any children's playgrounds or other amenities, boys liked to swing from the rear of slow-moving vehicles and in doing so the 7-year-old had got his feet entangled in one of the wagon's wheels.
Andrew was badly crushed and taken to the hospital attached to Whiston Workhouse where one of his legs was amputated. But as was often the case in the 19th century, the shock was too great for the lad's body and his injury proved fatal.
I'm not certain where Elizabeth Pennington and Mary Hargreaves lived – but I think it was Sutton. They both appeared in the Petty Sessions this week when Elizabeth accused Mary of assault. It was another case in which two women in bringing their petty dispute to court thought it a good idea to repeat all the filthy words allegedly said by the other side. That, they naively assumed, would help them win their case but it disgusted the magistrates and often led to them dismissing the charge.
The newspapers rarely reported the precise accusations that had been decorated with expletives. But they were usually claims of husband and wife not actually being married; their children having different fathers or the woman being accused of having an affair with another man. The Newspaper described what was said in court:
"The complainant said that she and defendant had some words, and she threatened to tell defendant's husband. Later on in the day, defendant went to meet her husband, so as to anticipate any complaint that might be made, and having got the good man into possession and left him at home, she sought out complainant and gave her a good shaking. The words used were very scandalous, as may be supposed.
"Defendant, in her own behalf, made a very disconnected statement, and then called an ancient dame who is called Ellen Lucas, and deposed to having seen complainant encourage a little dog named ”Tinker” to worry the defendant. For the rest there was nothing to choose between them, the language being very bad on both sides. The Chairman said the case would be dismissed, and pronounced it an exceedingly disgraceful one." The "ancient dame" called Ellen Lucas was – according to the 1871 census – either 54 or possibly 47. It was a hard life then that put years on middle-aged folk.
There were no such things as sentencing guidelines for the magistrates to consider. That led to wildly differing sentences being imposed on different defendants after they had committed similar minor offences. For example, if a vagrant promised to immediately leave St Helens they could have his or her case dismissed – although they were far more likely to receive 7 to 14 days in prison. That might sometimes be extended to 28 days, if the defendant was a regular in court or if the magistrates were in a stern mood.
But the Chairman of the Bench, Robert Daglish, must have been in a stinker of a temper this week when George Stanton and William Lewing came in front of him and his fellow magistrate Thomas Pilkington. The two men had been found sleeping in a cart off Bridge Street with Stanton described as a Cockney and Lewing a Wakefieldian. Both were tramping the country and they received a lecture from Daglish about rambling around when they could be working. He then sent them both to prison for two months. Even the Newspaper commented how it had been a "heavy sentence" for vagrancy.
During the 19th century it was almost mandatory for police officers in St Helens to wear a moustache – or whiskers, as they tended to be called. Photographs of police from that period show very few officers without a substantial growth on their top lip. Sometimes, when attempting to make an arrest their moustache became a problem, as their prospective prisoner would grab hold of their whiskers and pull.
James Brady was one such assailant. He had been causing trouble at St Helens Railway Station and had assaulted an official. PC Sharkey arrested Brady near to Holy Cross Church and on the walk to the police station he'd grabbed hold of the officer's whiskers, dragged him to the ground and then kicked him in his stomach. Brady blamed drunkenness and was fined a total of about £3 and if in default of payment he had to serve two months in prison.
Rogerson was described as "hale and healthy" and so retirement was not yet in his thoughts. But he had witnessed St Helens' growth from a village to a busy industrial town and the expansion of the foundry. The Newspaper wrote this about the latter: "Rogerson has seen the small place grow around him to vast proportions, and spreading its name and reputation over the land. He has seen everything – masters, men, machinery, manufactures – changed with the progress of time, leaving himself about the only landmark of the past." The great-grandfather lived in a cottage in Market Street and had fourteen children.
St Helens Newspaper courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the men charged with attempted murder, the laying of the foundation stone for the new Town Hall, the defence of a violent wife-beater and a notorious female impersonator comes to St Helens.
This week's many stories include a drunken man's fatal freak in the canal, the Prescot boy that died after jumping on the back of a horse-driven wagon, the drowning outside a Cowley Hill pub, the many railway accidents in the district, the stiff sentence for sleeping out in Bridge Street, the St Helens turner that had spent 60 years working for the same firm and the women's language that was repeated in court that disgusted the magistrates.
We begin in St Helens Petty Sessions on the 2nd when Thomas and Ann Feeley of Greenbank appeared.
The husband and wife were charged with committing a violent assault on their neighbour, Thomas Mack.
It was another case in which the precise cause of the row was not revealed by the Newspaper due to it being considered too sordid – but this is what they wrote:
"The case arose out of some very immoral transactions, and the prisoners went to the house of the prosecutor, where he was very much abused by them.
"His head bore ample testimony to the hardness of a poker. They were each fined 40s and costs."
It was a risky business travelling on a train in the 1870s. On the 2nd the Ormskirk Advertiser under its heading "Railway Accidents" detailed nine recent incidents nationwide, with several using the adjective "alarming" to describe their nature.
Then on other parts of the same page two more such accidents were listed and there was also details of the inquiry into the "catastrophe" (as they called it) that had taken place at Wigan Station in the summer that killed 13 people.
That investigation, incidentally, had come to the conclusion that the train had been travelling too fast. And, there was also this report:
"It is not an unusual circumstance for persons travelling on the railway to get out of the carriage before the train comes to a standstill, and it is surprising accidents and loss of life do not more frequently occur in consequence.
"An illustration of this foolish practice occurred at Rainford Junction on Tuesday evening, by which a female narrowly escaped losing her life.
"As the train which leaves Manchester at 5 30 p.m. for Liverpool was entering the platform at Rainford Junction an elderly female, having to change there, although warned of the danger by the passengers, attempted to get out of the carriage, and in doing so missed the step, and fell on the side of the platform, and within a few inches of the train.
"Her left arm and shoulder were bruised, and she sustained a severe shaking, but beyond these she sustained no further injuries, and was able to proceed on her journey.
"It was almost a miracle she escaped being caught between the platform and the carriages."
The St Helens Newspaper described on the 4th how a young man called Thomas Kellitt from Groves Row had drowned in the St Helens Canal – in an unusual fashion.
Drunken men returning home from the pub and accidentally stumbling into the canal in the dark caused many deaths in the deep waterway.
And Kellitt had been drinking all day, although his immersion in the canal had been a deliberate act – but not seemingly suicide.
At 10:30pm after having his supper Kellitt had left his home with his wife, removed his jacket and hat and declared that he was going to have a race.
The 21-year-old then ran towards the Navigation Bridge and threw himself into the canal.
He then attempted to swim towards a boat moored on its other side but was unable to climb in.
And so Kellitt began swimming back to the bank on the other side but at the mid-way point sank in the water and drowned. The Newspaper's headline was "Fatal Freak of a Drunken Man".
Many people also lost their lives in the many water-filled clayholes in St Helens.
On the same day that Thomas Kellitt took a deadly dip in the canal, the body of George Newton from Stanhope Street was recovered from a pit.
The clayhole was situated just ten yards from the back door of the Cowley Hill Tavern in Oldfield Street.
Newton had left via the inn's back door in a drunken state and seemed to have accidentally fallen into the unfenced pit.
The Newspaper also described how a Prescot boy had died after jumping on the back of a horse-driven wagon that was travelling to St Helens. Andrew Black did not appear to have been hitching a lift but having a bit of fun.
In the absence of any children's playgrounds or other amenities, boys liked to swing from the rear of slow-moving vehicles and in doing so the 7-year-old had got his feet entangled in one of the wagon's wheels.
Andrew was badly crushed and taken to the hospital attached to Whiston Workhouse where one of his legs was amputated.
But as was often the case in the 19th century, the shock was too great for the lad's body and his injury proved fatal.
I'm not certain where Elizabeth Pennington and Mary Hargreaves lived – but I think it was Sutton.
They both appeared in the Petty Sessions this week when Elizabeth accused Mary of assault.
It was another case in which two women in bringing their petty dispute to court thought it a good idea to repeat all the filthy words allegedly said by the other side.
That, they naively assumed, would help them win their case but it disgusted the magistrates and often led to them dismissing the charge.
The newspapers rarely reported the precise accusations that had been decorated with expletives.
But they were usually claims of husband and wife not actually being married; their children having different fathers or the woman being accused of having an affair with another man.
The Newspaper described what was said in court: "The complainant said that she and defendant had some words, and she threatened to tell defendant's husband.
"Later on in the day, defendant went to meet her husband, so as to anticipate any complaint that might be made, and having got the good man into possession and left him at home, she sought out complainant and gave her a good shaking.
"The words used were very scandalous, as may be supposed. Defendant, in her own behalf, made a very disconnected statement, and then called an ancient dame who is called Ellen Lucas, and deposed to having seen complainant encourage a little dog named ”Tinker” to worry the defendant.
"For the rest there was nothing to choose between them, the language being very bad on both sides. The Chairman said the case would be dismissed, and pronounced it an exceedingly disgraceful one."
The "ancient dame" called Ellen Lucas was – according to the 1871 census – either 54 or possibly 47. It was a hard life then that put years on middle-aged folk.
There were no such things as sentencing guidelines for the magistrates to consider. That led to wildly differing sentences being imposed on different defendants after they had committed similar minor offences.
For example, if a vagrant promised to immediately leave St Helens they could have his or her case dismissed – although they were far more likely to receive 7 to 14 days in prison.
That might sometimes be extended to 28 days, if the defendant was a regular in court or if the magistrates were in a stern mood.
But the Chairman of the Bench, Robert Daglish, must have been in a stinker of a temper this week when George Stanton and William Lewing came in front of him and his fellow magistrate Thomas Pilkington.
The two men had been found sleeping in a cart off Bridge Street with Stanton described as a Cockney and Lewing a Wakefieldian.
Both were tramping the country and they received a lecture from Daglish about rambling around when they could be working.
He then sent them both to prison for two months. Even the Newspaper commented how it had been a "heavy sentence" for vagrancy.
During the 19th century it was almost mandatory for police officers in St Helens to wear a moustache – or whiskers, as they tended to be called.
Photographs of police from that period show very few officers without a substantial growth on their top lip.
Sometimes, when attempting to make an arrest their moustache became a problem, as their prospective prisoner would grab hold of their whiskers and pull.
James Brady was one such assailant. He had been causing trouble at St Helens Railway Station and had assaulted an official.
PC Sharkey arrested Brady near to Holy Cross Church and on the walk to the police station he'd grabbed hold of the officer's whiskers, dragged him to the ground and then kicked him in his stomach.
Brady blamed drunkenness and was fined a total of about £3 and if in default of payment he had to serve two months in prison.
In an era when boys began working in factories at a very tender age, they could clock up many decades of employment with the same firm.
That was, of course, if their health permitted it, which it didn't for most men.
But with no state retirement pension, workers continued at their jobs as long as they physically could.
And so cases like that of Richard Rogerson would occasionally appear in the St Helens Newspaper.
He had worked in Daglish's huge iron foundry in St Helens (pictured above) as a turner for 60 years having begun at the age of 12.
Rogerson was described as "hale and healthy" and so retirement was not yet in his thoughts.
But he had witnessed St Helens' growth from a village to a busy industrial town and the expansion of the foundry. The Newspaper wrote this about the latter:
"Rogerson has seen the small place grow around him to vast proportions, and spreading its name and reputation over the land. He has seen everything – masters, men, machinery, manufactures – changed with the progress of time, leaving himself about the only landmark of the past."
The great-grandfather lived in a cottage in Market Street and had fourteen children.
St Helens Newspaper courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the men charged with attempted murder, the laying of the foundation stone for the new Town Hall, the defence of a violent wife-beater and a notorious female impersonator comes to St Helens.
We begin in St Helens Petty Sessions on the 2nd when Thomas and Ann Feeley of Greenbank appeared.
The husband and wife were charged with committing a violent assault on their neighbour, Thomas Mack.
It was another case in which the precise cause of the row was not revealed by the Newspaper due to it being considered too sordid – but this is what they wrote:
"The case arose out of some very immoral transactions, and the prisoners went to the house of the prosecutor, where he was very much abused by them.
"His head bore ample testimony to the hardness of a poker. They were each fined 40s and costs."
It was a risky business travelling on a train in the 1870s. On the 2nd the Ormskirk Advertiser under its heading "Railway Accidents" detailed nine recent incidents nationwide, with several using the adjective "alarming" to describe their nature.
Then on other parts of the same page two more such accidents were listed and there was also details of the inquiry into the "catastrophe" (as they called it) that had taken place at Wigan Station in the summer that killed 13 people.
That investigation, incidentally, had come to the conclusion that the train had been travelling too fast. And, there was also this report:
"It is not an unusual circumstance for persons travelling on the railway to get out of the carriage before the train comes to a standstill, and it is surprising accidents and loss of life do not more frequently occur in consequence.
"An illustration of this foolish practice occurred at Rainford Junction on Tuesday evening, by which a female narrowly escaped losing her life.
"As the train which leaves Manchester at 5 30 p.m. for Liverpool was entering the platform at Rainford Junction an elderly female, having to change there, although warned of the danger by the passengers, attempted to get out of the carriage, and in doing so missed the step, and fell on the side of the platform, and within a few inches of the train.
"Her left arm and shoulder were bruised, and she sustained a severe shaking, but beyond these she sustained no further injuries, and was able to proceed on her journey.
"It was almost a miracle she escaped being caught between the platform and the carriages."
The St Helens Newspaper described on the 4th how a young man called Thomas Kellitt from Groves Row had drowned in the St Helens Canal – in an unusual fashion.
Drunken men returning home from the pub and accidentally stumbling into the canal in the dark caused many deaths in the deep waterway.
And Kellitt had been drinking all day, although his immersion in the canal had been a deliberate act – but not seemingly suicide.
At 10:30pm after having his supper Kellitt had left his home with his wife, removed his jacket and hat and declared that he was going to have a race.
The 21-year-old then ran towards the Navigation Bridge and threw himself into the canal.
He then attempted to swim towards a boat moored on its other side but was unable to climb in.
And so Kellitt began swimming back to the bank on the other side but at the mid-way point sank in the water and drowned. The Newspaper's headline was "Fatal Freak of a Drunken Man".
Many people also lost their lives in the many water-filled clayholes in St Helens.
On the same day that Thomas Kellitt took a deadly dip in the canal, the body of George Newton from Stanhope Street was recovered from a pit.
The clayhole was situated just ten yards from the back door of the Cowley Hill Tavern in Oldfield Street.
Newton had left via the inn's back door in a drunken state and seemed to have accidentally fallen into the unfenced pit.
The Newspaper also described how a Prescot boy had died after jumping on the back of a horse-driven wagon that was travelling to St Helens. Andrew Black did not appear to have been hitching a lift but having a bit of fun.
In the absence of any children's playgrounds or other amenities, boys liked to swing from the rear of slow-moving vehicles and in doing so the 7-year-old had got his feet entangled in one of the wagon's wheels.
Andrew was badly crushed and taken to the hospital attached to Whiston Workhouse where one of his legs was amputated.
But as was often the case in the 19th century, the shock was too great for the lad's body and his injury proved fatal.
I'm not certain where Elizabeth Pennington and Mary Hargreaves lived – but I think it was Sutton.
They both appeared in the Petty Sessions this week when Elizabeth accused Mary of assault.
It was another case in which two women in bringing their petty dispute to court thought it a good idea to repeat all the filthy words allegedly said by the other side.
That, they naively assumed, would help them win their case but it disgusted the magistrates and often led to them dismissing the charge.
The newspapers rarely reported the precise accusations that had been decorated with expletives.
But they were usually claims of husband and wife not actually being married; their children having different fathers or the woman being accused of having an affair with another man.
The Newspaper described what was said in court: "The complainant said that she and defendant had some words, and she threatened to tell defendant's husband.
"Later on in the day, defendant went to meet her husband, so as to anticipate any complaint that might be made, and having got the good man into possession and left him at home, she sought out complainant and gave her a good shaking.
"The words used were very scandalous, as may be supposed. Defendant, in her own behalf, made a very disconnected statement, and then called an ancient dame who is called Ellen Lucas, and deposed to having seen complainant encourage a little dog named ”Tinker” to worry the defendant.
"For the rest there was nothing to choose between them, the language being very bad on both sides. The Chairman said the case would be dismissed, and pronounced it an exceedingly disgraceful one."
The "ancient dame" called Ellen Lucas was – according to the 1871 census – either 54 or possibly 47. It was a hard life then that put years on middle-aged folk.
There were no such things as sentencing guidelines for the magistrates to consider. That led to wildly differing sentences being imposed on different defendants after they had committed similar minor offences.
For example, if a vagrant promised to immediately leave St Helens they could have his or her case dismissed – although they were far more likely to receive 7 to 14 days in prison.
That might sometimes be extended to 28 days, if the defendant was a regular in court or if the magistrates were in a stern mood.
But the Chairman of the Bench, Robert Daglish, must have been in a stinker of a temper this week when George Stanton and William Lewing came in front of him and his fellow magistrate Thomas Pilkington.
The two men had been found sleeping in a cart off Bridge Street with Stanton described as a Cockney and Lewing a Wakefieldian.
Both were tramping the country and they received a lecture from Daglish about rambling around when they could be working.
He then sent them both to prison for two months. Even the Newspaper commented how it had been a "heavy sentence" for vagrancy.
During the 19th century it was almost mandatory for police officers in St Helens to wear a moustache – or whiskers, as they tended to be called.
Photographs of police from that period show very few officers without a substantial growth on their top lip.
Sometimes, when attempting to make an arrest their moustache became a problem, as their prospective prisoner would grab hold of their whiskers and pull.
James Brady was one such assailant. He had been causing trouble at St Helens Railway Station and had assaulted an official.
PC Sharkey arrested Brady near to Holy Cross Church and on the walk to the police station he'd grabbed hold of the officer's whiskers, dragged him to the ground and then kicked him in his stomach.
Brady blamed drunkenness and was fined a total of about £3 and if in default of payment he had to serve two months in prison.
In an era when boys began working in factories at a very tender age, they could clock up many decades of employment with the same firm.
That was, of course, if their health permitted it, which it didn't for most men.
But with no state retirement pension, workers continued at their jobs as long as they physically could.
And so cases like that of Richard Rogerson would occasionally appear in the St Helens Newspaper.
Rogerson was described as "hale and healthy" and so retirement was not yet in his thoughts.
But he had witnessed St Helens' growth from a village to a busy industrial town and the expansion of the foundry. The Newspaper wrote this about the latter:
"Rogerson has seen the small place grow around him to vast proportions, and spreading its name and reputation over the land. He has seen everything – masters, men, machinery, manufactures – changed with the progress of time, leaving himself about the only landmark of the past."
The great-grandfather lived in a cottage in Market Street and had fourteen children.
St Helens Newspaper courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the men charged with attempted murder, the laying of the foundation stone for the new Town Hall, the defence of a violent wife-beater and a notorious female impersonator comes to St Helens.