150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (5th - 11th DECEMBER 1872)
This week's stories include the anti-vaccinators that appeared in St Helens Police Court, the German man in Rainford that had a mania for stealing hay cutters, a storm of the most exceptional severity hits St Helens, the billiards match at the Wellington Hotel in Naylor Street and the lazy, worthless vagabond that bellowed like a baby in open court.
"The London streets are paved with gold", thought Dick Whittington until he arrived in the capital and found they were paved with wood. Well, that's not exactly how the story goes, of course – but it could have been according to an article published in the St Helens Newspaper this week. They wrote on the 7th: "It is not at all unlikely that in the course of a very few years the principal thoroughfares of London will be paved with wood."
A new type of American wooden road surface had already been laid by the side of St Mary's Church in the Strand and also in King William Street. The regular drivers of horses through London – the cabmen and omnibus drivers – were "to a man" full of praise for it and a petition had been submitted calling for wood to replace asphalt surfaces. However, the Newspaper remembered how last year's Great Fire of Chicago had been spread by wooden pavements and cautioned against its use.
A German man calling himself Enoch Enochs – who was described as possessing a mania for stealing hay cutters – appeared before St Helens magistrates on the 7th. He'd been to Victoria Colliery in Rainford looking for work – but didn't find any. So Enochs was alleged to have gone onto Ellen Stockley's neighbouring farm in Old Lane and stolen her hay-cutting spade.
A policeman stopped him on the street at half-past midnight to question him about the cutter and not receiving a satisfactory answer arrested him. Enochs had twenty previous convictions to his name, three of which were for stealing hay cutters, and he was committed for trial to the next quarter sessions at Kirkdale. That took place on January 15th 1873 when the 34-year-old was sentenced to seven years in prison.
Also in court this week was George Tomlinson from Sutton who was charged with assaulting his wife Elizabeth after threatening her with a knife. The 24-year-old glass polisher claimed he was badly treated at home and made to do work "not in my province". He was ordered to find sureties to keep the peace for two months.
In the early hours of the 9th, what the paper called a "storm of the most exceptional severity" struck St Helens, with the wind raging "with exceeding violence", accompanied by dense showers of hail. When the morning came it was expected that many houses in the town would have displayed evidence of having suffered from the violent gale – but none was reported. However, elsewhere in the country considerable damage and some loss of life was wrought by the storm. "Up and down the Mersey the wind played havoc amongst the shipping, damaging some and sinking others", reported the St Helens Newspaper.
In the 1870s vaccination was compulsory which made it even more controversial than today. The ultimate sanction for fathers that refused to vaccinate their child against smallpox was prison. However, the courts tended to repeatedly fine offenders, as they weren't keen on making martyrs to the anti-vaccination movement. On the 9th three prosecutions of dads accused of failing to get their child vaccinated took place in St Helens Petty Sessions.
The defendants were Henry Knowles, a bootmaker, from the market place in St Helens, John Edington, a chemist from Hardshaw Street and John Hunt, a joiner from Windle Street. This was the first stage of the process in which applications were made to the magistrates for court orders that would legally oblige the defendants to have their child vaccinated within 14 days. If they failed to comply, then the dads would be hauled back into court for an explanation and probably fined.
The refuseniks' commitment to their cause varied, as might be expected. The bootmaker Henry Knowles fell at the first fence having already agreed to comply with the law. But the chemist John Edington was far more determined to resist – but had a rather unusual defence. His argument was that the vaccinations inspector of the Prescot Union – who had brought the case – had not proved that his child Harold actually existed!
Edington had been ordered to bring the two-year-old boy to the court to be examined for vaccination marks – but failed to do so. Although he never actually stated that Harold was not alive, the chemist claimed that the prosecution needed to prove he was living and had not done so. The inspector's response was the child's birth had been registered in November 1870 and no certificate of vaccination had been received, which suggested that no vaccination had taken place. The court decided that the child did exist and ordered Harold's dad to comply with their order to have his son vaccinated within 14 days.
The joiner John Hunt was a committed anti-vaccinator. In 1870 he had a furious letter published in a Wigan newspaper in which he wrote: "I could quote the names of large numbers of medical men who after twenty or thirty years' experience have come to the conclusion that vaccination is a delusion, and ought to be abandoned from the statute books as compulsory."
Hunt told the court that he objected to vaccination on conscientious grounds, arguing that it did no good and might be harmful. In 1898 an Act of Parliament would entitle parents to apply to a magistrate for a certificate of conscientious objection that would exempt their child from vaccination. But in 1872 there were no exemptions and John Hunt was also ordered to have his child inoculated within a fortnight.
An 8-year-old boy was prosecuted in the St Helens Petty Sessions – for sleeping rough. John Nichollas had apparently run away from his home in Wigan and was found sleeping on Canal Street in St Helens. One might have thought that he would have been returned home but instead seems to have spent the rest of the night in a cell at St Helens Police Station. In court he was charged with vagrancy and sent to an industrial school for five years.
Giving witness evidence in a court case could be a risky business, particularly if the person lived within a small community like Greenbank – the working-class district around Liverpool Road. Thomas Ward appeared in the Petty Sessions to face a charge of assaulting Mary Forde. It had actually been her son John who had given court evidence against Ward. But the man took it out on his mother, kicking her twice and, it was said, would have kicked her further but for the assistance of passers-by.
The Newspaper sarcastically wrote: "Supt. Ludlam [who was in charge of St Helens police] gave the defendant a precious character [reference] for disorder. The Chairman called him a lazy, worthless vagabond, and committed him for four months. Thereupon the fellow broke down and bellowed in open court."
Mary McNamara summoned Ann Campbell and Margaret Tague to court for assault – after a dispute over manure! Ann had attempted to help herself to some of Mary's muck. That led to an argument between the pair, blows being thrown and some hair pulling taking place. Margaret Tague then appeared on the scene bearing the handle of a brush and, as the Newspaper put it, was: "rushing with it to the fray, threatening violently" until some neighbours took her away. The two defendants were each bound over for a month.
Another violent character was Thomas Rigby, who pleaded guilty to assaulting William Whittle in North Road in St Helens. As he was walking in the street, Whittle said Rigby had "assailed me, knocked me down by pulling my legs, and when down he tried to bite me". Two blows to the face were also struck. The Chairman of the Bench told Rigby that it had been a disgraceful assault and he would have to pay a total of 58 shillings in fines and costs or go to prison for two months.
During the evening of the 9th, a Penny Reading session was held in the parish church schoolroom in St Helens. This was a form of entertainment designed for the working class that featured readings from popular authors, songs and talks for the admission price of a penny. Penny Readings had begun in London in the 1850s and became hugely popular nationwide during the ‘60s, before beginning to decline in popularity.
And finally, billiards was a fairly popular sport in St Helens, although places where matches could be played were very limited. But they clearly had a table in the Wellington Hotel in Naylor Street in St Helens (pictured above) as during the evening of the 11th, James Archdeacon from Parr took on a London player called Harrison but lost. After the match the victor played some trick shots, including cannoning a ball into a hat that was held a foot above the billiard table.
St Helens Newspaper courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next week's stories will include the new hospital that was planned for St Helens, the fight at Doulton's pottery works, the Widnes murder charge and the violent son who gave his father a beating in Crab Street.
"The London streets are paved with gold", thought Dick Whittington until he arrived in the capital and found they were paved with wood. Well, that's not exactly how the story goes, of course – but it could have been according to an article published in the St Helens Newspaper this week. They wrote on the 7th: "It is not at all unlikely that in the course of a very few years the principal thoroughfares of London will be paved with wood."
A new type of American wooden road surface had already been laid by the side of St Mary's Church in the Strand and also in King William Street. The regular drivers of horses through London – the cabmen and omnibus drivers – were "to a man" full of praise for it and a petition had been submitted calling for wood to replace asphalt surfaces. However, the Newspaper remembered how last year's Great Fire of Chicago had been spread by wooden pavements and cautioned against its use.
A German man calling himself Enoch Enochs – who was described as possessing a mania for stealing hay cutters – appeared before St Helens magistrates on the 7th. He'd been to Victoria Colliery in Rainford looking for work – but didn't find any. So Enochs was alleged to have gone onto Ellen Stockley's neighbouring farm in Old Lane and stolen her hay-cutting spade.
A policeman stopped him on the street at half-past midnight to question him about the cutter and not receiving a satisfactory answer arrested him. Enochs had twenty previous convictions to his name, three of which were for stealing hay cutters, and he was committed for trial to the next quarter sessions at Kirkdale. That took place on January 15th 1873 when the 34-year-old was sentenced to seven years in prison.
Also in court this week was George Tomlinson from Sutton who was charged with assaulting his wife Elizabeth after threatening her with a knife. The 24-year-old glass polisher claimed he was badly treated at home and made to do work "not in my province". He was ordered to find sureties to keep the peace for two months.
In the early hours of the 9th, what the paper called a "storm of the most exceptional severity" struck St Helens, with the wind raging "with exceeding violence", accompanied by dense showers of hail. When the morning came it was expected that many houses in the town would have displayed evidence of having suffered from the violent gale – but none was reported. However, elsewhere in the country considerable damage and some loss of life was wrought by the storm. "Up and down the Mersey the wind played havoc amongst the shipping, damaging some and sinking others", reported the St Helens Newspaper.
In the 1870s vaccination was compulsory which made it even more controversial than today. The ultimate sanction for fathers that refused to vaccinate their child against smallpox was prison. However, the courts tended to repeatedly fine offenders, as they weren't keen on making martyrs to the anti-vaccination movement. On the 9th three prosecutions of dads accused of failing to get their child vaccinated took place in St Helens Petty Sessions.
The defendants were Henry Knowles, a bootmaker, from the market place in St Helens, John Edington, a chemist from Hardshaw Street and John Hunt, a joiner from Windle Street. This was the first stage of the process in which applications were made to the magistrates for court orders that would legally oblige the defendants to have their child vaccinated within 14 days. If they failed to comply, then the dads would be hauled back into court for an explanation and probably fined.
The refuseniks' commitment to their cause varied, as might be expected. The bootmaker Henry Knowles fell at the first fence having already agreed to comply with the law. But the chemist John Edington was far more determined to resist – but had a rather unusual defence. His argument was that the vaccinations inspector of the Prescot Union – who had brought the case – had not proved that his child Harold actually existed!
Edington had been ordered to bring the two-year-old boy to the court to be examined for vaccination marks – but failed to do so. Although he never actually stated that Harold was not alive, the chemist claimed that the prosecution needed to prove he was living and had not done so. The inspector's response was the child's birth had been registered in November 1870 and no certificate of vaccination had been received, which suggested that no vaccination had taken place. The court decided that the child did exist and ordered Harold's dad to comply with their order to have his son vaccinated within 14 days.
The joiner John Hunt was a committed anti-vaccinator. In 1870 he had a furious letter published in a Wigan newspaper in which he wrote: "I could quote the names of large numbers of medical men who after twenty or thirty years' experience have come to the conclusion that vaccination is a delusion, and ought to be abandoned from the statute books as compulsory."
Hunt told the court that he objected to vaccination on conscientious grounds, arguing that it did no good and might be harmful. In 1898 an Act of Parliament would entitle parents to apply to a magistrate for a certificate of conscientious objection that would exempt their child from vaccination. But in 1872 there were no exemptions and John Hunt was also ordered to have his child inoculated within a fortnight.
An 8-year-old boy was prosecuted in the St Helens Petty Sessions – for sleeping rough. John Nichollas had apparently run away from his home in Wigan and was found sleeping on Canal Street in St Helens. One might have thought that he would have been returned home but instead seems to have spent the rest of the night in a cell at St Helens Police Station. In court he was charged with vagrancy and sent to an industrial school for five years.
Giving witness evidence in a court case could be a risky business, particularly if the person lived within a small community like Greenbank – the working-class district around Liverpool Road. Thomas Ward appeared in the Petty Sessions to face a charge of assaulting Mary Forde. It had actually been her son John who had given court evidence against Ward. But the man took it out on his mother, kicking her twice and, it was said, would have kicked her further but for the assistance of passers-by.
The Newspaper sarcastically wrote: "Supt. Ludlam [who was in charge of St Helens police] gave the defendant a precious character [reference] for disorder. The Chairman called him a lazy, worthless vagabond, and committed him for four months. Thereupon the fellow broke down and bellowed in open court."
Mary McNamara summoned Ann Campbell and Margaret Tague to court for assault – after a dispute over manure! Ann had attempted to help herself to some of Mary's muck. That led to an argument between the pair, blows being thrown and some hair pulling taking place. Margaret Tague then appeared on the scene bearing the handle of a brush and, as the Newspaper put it, was: "rushing with it to the fray, threatening violently" until some neighbours took her away. The two defendants were each bound over for a month.
Another violent character was Thomas Rigby, who pleaded guilty to assaulting William Whittle in North Road in St Helens. As he was walking in the street, Whittle said Rigby had "assailed me, knocked me down by pulling my legs, and when down he tried to bite me". Two blows to the face were also struck. The Chairman of the Bench told Rigby that it had been a disgraceful assault and he would have to pay a total of 58 shillings in fines and costs or go to prison for two months.
During the evening of the 9th, a Penny Reading session was held in the parish church schoolroom in St Helens. This was a form of entertainment designed for the working class that featured readings from popular authors, songs and talks for the admission price of a penny. Penny Readings had begun in London in the 1850s and became hugely popular nationwide during the ‘60s, before beginning to decline in popularity.
St Helens Newspaper courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next week's stories will include the new hospital that was planned for St Helens, the fight at Doulton's pottery works, the Widnes murder charge and the violent son who gave his father a beating in Crab Street.
This week's stories include the anti-vaccinators that appeared in St Helens Police Court, the German man in Rainford that had a mania for stealing hay cutters, a storm of the most exceptional severity hits St Helens, the billiards match at the Wellington Hotel in Naylor Street and the lazy, worthless vagabond that bellowed like a baby in open court.
"The London streets are paved with gold", thought Dick Whittington until he arrived in the capital and found they were paved with wood.
Well, that's not exactly how the story goes, of course – but it could have been according to an article published in the St Helens Newspaper this week. They wrote on the 7th:
"It is not at all unlikely that in the course of a very few years the principal thoroughfares of London will be paved with wood."
A new type of American wooden road surface had already been laid by the side of St Mary's Church in the Strand and also in King William Street.
The regular drivers of horses through London – the cabmen and omnibus drivers – were "to a man" full of praise for it and a petition had been submitted calling for wood to replace asphalt surfaces.
However, the Newspaper remembered how last year's Great Fire of Chicago had been spread by wooden pavements and cautioned against its use.
A German man calling himself Enoch Enochs – who was described as possessing a mania for stealing hay cutters – appeared before St Helens magistrates on the 7th.
He'd been to Victoria Colliery in Rainford looking for work – but didn't find any.
So Enochs was alleged to have gone onto Ellen Stockley's neighbouring farm in Old Lane and stolen her hay-cutting spade.
A policeman stopped him on the street at half-past midnight to question him about the cutter and not receiving a satisfactory answer arrested him.
Enochs had twenty previous convictions to his name, three of which were for stealing hay cutters, and he was committed for trial to the next quarter sessions at Kirkdale.
That took place on January 15th 1873 when the 34-year-old was sentenced to seven years in prison.
Also in court this week was George Tomlinson from Sutton who was charged with assaulting his wife Elizabeth after threatening her with a knife.
The 24-year-old glass polisher claimed he was badly treated at home and made to do work "not in my province". He was ordered to find sureties to keep the peace for two months.
In the early hours of the 9th, what the paper called a "storm of the most exceptional severity" struck St Helens, with the wind raging "with exceeding violence", accompanied by dense showers of hail.
When the morning came it was expected that many houses in the town would have displayed evidence of having suffered from the violent gale – but none was reported.
However, elsewhere in the country considerable damage and some loss of life was wrought by the storm.
"Up and down the Mersey the wind played havoc amongst the shipping, damaging some and sinking others", reported the St Helens Newspaper.
In the 1870s vaccination was compulsory which made it even more controversial than today.
The ultimate sanction for fathers that refused to vaccinate their child against smallpox was prison.
However, the courts tended to repeatedly fine offenders, as they weren't keen on making martyrs to the anti-vaccination movement.
On the 9th three prosecutions of dads accused of failing to get their child vaccinated took place in St Helens Petty Sessions.
The defendants were Henry Knowles, a bootmaker, from the market place in St Helens, John Edington, a chemist from Hardshaw Street and John Hunt, a joiner from Windle Street.
This was the first stage of the process in which applications were made to the magistrates for court orders that would legally oblige the defendants to have their child vaccinated within 14 days.
If they failed to comply, then the dads would be hauled back into court for an explanation and probably fined.
The refuseniks' commitment to their cause varied, as might be expected. The bootmaker Henry Knowles fell at the first fence having already agreed to comply with the law.
But the chemist John Edington was far more determined to resist – but had a rather unusual defence.
His argument was that the vaccinations inspector of the Prescot Union – who had brought the case – had not proved that his child Harold actually existed!
Edington had been ordered to bring the two-year-old boy to the court to be examined for vaccination marks – but failed to do so.
Although he never actually stated that Harold was not alive, the chemist claimed that the prosecution needed to prove he was living and had not done so.
The inspector's response was the child's birth had been registered in November 1870 and no certificate of vaccination had been received, which suggested that no vaccination had taken place.
The court decided that the child did exist and ordered Harold's dad to comply with their order to have his son vaccinated within 14 days.
The joiner John Hunt was a committed anti-vaccinator. In 1870 he had a furious letter published in a Wigan newspaper in which he wrote:
"I could quote the names of large numbers of medical men who after twenty or thirty years' experience have come to the conclusion that vaccination is a delusion, and ought to be abandoned from the statute books as compulsory."
Hunt told the court that he objected to vaccination on conscientious grounds, arguing that it did no good and might be harmful.
In 1898 an Act of Parliament would entitle parents to apply to a magistrate for a certificate of conscientious objection that would exempt their child from vaccination.
But in 1872 there were no exemptions and John Hunt was also ordered to have his child inoculated within a fortnight.
An 8-year-old boy was prosecuted in the St Helens Petty Sessions – for sleeping rough.
John Nichollas had apparently run away from his home in Wigan and was found sleeping on Canal Street in St Helens.
One might have thought that he would have been returned home but instead seems to have spent the rest of the night in a cell at St Helens Police Station.
In court he was charged with vagrancy and sent to an industrial school for five years.
Giving witness evidence in a court case could be a risky business, particularly if the person lived within a small community like Greenbank – the working-class district around Liverpool Road.
Thomas Ward appeared in the Petty Sessions to face a charge of assaulting Mary Forde. It had actually been her son John who had given court evidence against Ward.
But the man took it out on his mother, kicking her twice and, it was said, would have kicked her further but for the assistance of passers-by.
The Newspaper sarcastically wrote: "Supt. Ludlam [who was in charge of St Helens police] gave the defendant a precious character [reference] for disorder.
"The Chairman called him a lazy, worthless vagabond, and committed him for four months. Thereupon the fellow broke down and bellowed in open court."
Mary McNamara summoned Ann Campbell and Margaret Tague to court for assault – after a dispute over manure!
Ann had attempted to help herself to some of Mary's muck. That led to an argument between the pair, blows being thrown and some hair pulling taking place.
Margaret Tague then appeared on the scene bearing the handle of a brush and, as the Newspaper put it, was: "rushing with it to the fray, threatening violently" until some neighbours took her away. The two defendants were each bound over for a month.
Another violent character was Thomas Rigby, who pleaded guilty to assaulting William Whittle in North Road in St Helens.
As he was walking in the street, Whittle said Rigby had "assailed me, knocked me down by pulling my legs, and when down he tried to bite me". Two blows to the face were also struck.
The Chairman of the Bench told Rigby that it had been a disgraceful assault and he would have to pay a total of 58 shillings in fines and costs or go to prison for two months.
During the evening of the 9th, a Penny Reading session was held in the parish church schoolroom in St Helens.
This was a form of entertainment designed for the working class that featured readings from popular authors, songs and talks for the admission price of a penny.
Penny Readings had begun in London in the 1850s and became hugely popular nationwide during the ‘60s, before beginning to decline in popularity.
And finally, billiards was a fairly popular sport in St Helens, although places where matches could be played were very limited.
But they clearly had a table in the Wellington Hotel in Naylor Street in St Helens (pictured above) as during the evening of the 11th, James Archdeacon from Parr took on a London player called Harrison but lost.
After the match the victor played some trick shots, including cannoning a ball into a hat that was held a foot above the billiard table.
St Helens Newspaper courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next week's stories will include the new hospital that was planned for St Helens, the fight at Doulton's pottery works, the Widnes murder charge and the violent son who gave his father a beating in Crab Street.
"The London streets are paved with gold", thought Dick Whittington until he arrived in the capital and found they were paved with wood.
Well, that's not exactly how the story goes, of course – but it could have been according to an article published in the St Helens Newspaper this week. They wrote on the 7th:
"It is not at all unlikely that in the course of a very few years the principal thoroughfares of London will be paved with wood."
A new type of American wooden road surface had already been laid by the side of St Mary's Church in the Strand and also in King William Street.
The regular drivers of horses through London – the cabmen and omnibus drivers – were "to a man" full of praise for it and a petition had been submitted calling for wood to replace asphalt surfaces.
However, the Newspaper remembered how last year's Great Fire of Chicago had been spread by wooden pavements and cautioned against its use.
A German man calling himself Enoch Enochs – who was described as possessing a mania for stealing hay cutters – appeared before St Helens magistrates on the 7th.
He'd been to Victoria Colliery in Rainford looking for work – but didn't find any.
So Enochs was alleged to have gone onto Ellen Stockley's neighbouring farm in Old Lane and stolen her hay-cutting spade.
A policeman stopped him on the street at half-past midnight to question him about the cutter and not receiving a satisfactory answer arrested him.
Enochs had twenty previous convictions to his name, three of which were for stealing hay cutters, and he was committed for trial to the next quarter sessions at Kirkdale.
That took place on January 15th 1873 when the 34-year-old was sentenced to seven years in prison.
Also in court this week was George Tomlinson from Sutton who was charged with assaulting his wife Elizabeth after threatening her with a knife.
The 24-year-old glass polisher claimed he was badly treated at home and made to do work "not in my province". He was ordered to find sureties to keep the peace for two months.
In the early hours of the 9th, what the paper called a "storm of the most exceptional severity" struck St Helens, with the wind raging "with exceeding violence", accompanied by dense showers of hail.
When the morning came it was expected that many houses in the town would have displayed evidence of having suffered from the violent gale – but none was reported.
However, elsewhere in the country considerable damage and some loss of life was wrought by the storm.
"Up and down the Mersey the wind played havoc amongst the shipping, damaging some and sinking others", reported the St Helens Newspaper.
In the 1870s vaccination was compulsory which made it even more controversial than today.
The ultimate sanction for fathers that refused to vaccinate their child against smallpox was prison.
However, the courts tended to repeatedly fine offenders, as they weren't keen on making martyrs to the anti-vaccination movement.
On the 9th three prosecutions of dads accused of failing to get their child vaccinated took place in St Helens Petty Sessions.
The defendants were Henry Knowles, a bootmaker, from the market place in St Helens, John Edington, a chemist from Hardshaw Street and John Hunt, a joiner from Windle Street.
This was the first stage of the process in which applications were made to the magistrates for court orders that would legally oblige the defendants to have their child vaccinated within 14 days.
If they failed to comply, then the dads would be hauled back into court for an explanation and probably fined.
The refuseniks' commitment to their cause varied, as might be expected. The bootmaker Henry Knowles fell at the first fence having already agreed to comply with the law.
But the chemist John Edington was far more determined to resist – but had a rather unusual defence.
His argument was that the vaccinations inspector of the Prescot Union – who had brought the case – had not proved that his child Harold actually existed!
Edington had been ordered to bring the two-year-old boy to the court to be examined for vaccination marks – but failed to do so.
Although he never actually stated that Harold was not alive, the chemist claimed that the prosecution needed to prove he was living and had not done so.
The inspector's response was the child's birth had been registered in November 1870 and no certificate of vaccination had been received, which suggested that no vaccination had taken place.
The court decided that the child did exist and ordered Harold's dad to comply with their order to have his son vaccinated within 14 days.
The joiner John Hunt was a committed anti-vaccinator. In 1870 he had a furious letter published in a Wigan newspaper in which he wrote:
"I could quote the names of large numbers of medical men who after twenty or thirty years' experience have come to the conclusion that vaccination is a delusion, and ought to be abandoned from the statute books as compulsory."
Hunt told the court that he objected to vaccination on conscientious grounds, arguing that it did no good and might be harmful.
In 1898 an Act of Parliament would entitle parents to apply to a magistrate for a certificate of conscientious objection that would exempt their child from vaccination.
But in 1872 there were no exemptions and John Hunt was also ordered to have his child inoculated within a fortnight.
An 8-year-old boy was prosecuted in the St Helens Petty Sessions – for sleeping rough.
John Nichollas had apparently run away from his home in Wigan and was found sleeping on Canal Street in St Helens.
One might have thought that he would have been returned home but instead seems to have spent the rest of the night in a cell at St Helens Police Station.
In court he was charged with vagrancy and sent to an industrial school for five years.
Giving witness evidence in a court case could be a risky business, particularly if the person lived within a small community like Greenbank – the working-class district around Liverpool Road.
Thomas Ward appeared in the Petty Sessions to face a charge of assaulting Mary Forde. It had actually been her son John who had given court evidence against Ward.
But the man took it out on his mother, kicking her twice and, it was said, would have kicked her further but for the assistance of passers-by.
The Newspaper sarcastically wrote: "Supt. Ludlam [who was in charge of St Helens police] gave the defendant a precious character [reference] for disorder.
"The Chairman called him a lazy, worthless vagabond, and committed him for four months. Thereupon the fellow broke down and bellowed in open court."
Mary McNamara summoned Ann Campbell and Margaret Tague to court for assault – after a dispute over manure!
Ann had attempted to help herself to some of Mary's muck. That led to an argument between the pair, blows being thrown and some hair pulling taking place.
Margaret Tague then appeared on the scene bearing the handle of a brush and, as the Newspaper put it, was: "rushing with it to the fray, threatening violently" until some neighbours took her away. The two defendants were each bound over for a month.
Another violent character was Thomas Rigby, who pleaded guilty to assaulting William Whittle in North Road in St Helens.
As he was walking in the street, Whittle said Rigby had "assailed me, knocked me down by pulling my legs, and when down he tried to bite me". Two blows to the face were also struck.
The Chairman of the Bench told Rigby that it had been a disgraceful assault and he would have to pay a total of 58 shillings in fines and costs or go to prison for two months.
During the evening of the 9th, a Penny Reading session was held in the parish church schoolroom in St Helens.
This was a form of entertainment designed for the working class that featured readings from popular authors, songs and talks for the admission price of a penny.
Penny Readings had begun in London in the 1850s and became hugely popular nationwide during the ‘60s, before beginning to decline in popularity.
And finally, billiards was a fairly popular sport in St Helens, although places where matches could be played were very limited.
After the match the victor played some trick shots, including cannoning a ball into a hat that was held a foot above the billiard table.
St Helens Newspaper courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next week's stories will include the new hospital that was planned for St Helens, the fight at Doulton's pottery works, the Widnes murder charge and the violent son who gave his father a beating in Crab Street.