150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (8th - 14th FEBRUARY 1871)
This week's stories include the stiff sentences for the larking boys of Peasley Cross, the man called Judas drunk in Bridge Street, walking the treadmill at Kirkdale Gaol, the Marshalls Cross maintenance case and the Water Street beerhouse keeper who said he was unconscious of cheating his customers.
We begin on the 9th when the United Methodist Free church of Marshalls Cross held what was described as a "scenic and musical entertainment" in the schoolroom in Micklehead Green. In 1873 the church would build a chapel at the top of Clock Face Road, near to Chester Lane, and adjacent to Marshalls Cross Pottery. These places had little heating and on one day in 1904 when two inquests were held in the chapel the coroner complained that it was as "cold as death". That might be thought as appropriate in the circumstances but he added that if he and the jury had sat in that "deadly cold place much longer we would all be ill with pneumonia."
Talking of the cold, the St Helens Newspaper wrote this on the 11th: "King Frost, whose reign this season was a lengthened one, disappeared a few days ago, and many wished him a hearty farewell, as his presence not only stopped a great many outdoor workers, but also marred the pleasure of agriculturists, who during the latter end of this month of January, hold ploughing matches all over the country."
It was the introduction to a report on the much-postponed Rainford ploughing match, which had finally taken place with the participants able to win prizes of up to £5. The brief reference to outdoor workers was an important one. If you couldn't work through the weather you didn't get paid, creating much misery for the families of such men.
The marking of Valentine's Day goes back hundreds of years with the sending of cards growing in popularity after postal rates became cheaper in 1840. The Newspaper was also advertising Valentine cards, which were available from their premises in Hardshaw Street known as the Public Hall (and illustrated above): "The stock of Valentines for 1871 is unequalled in the district. 2000 Pretty Valentines suitable for Juveniles. Valentines from ½d. to 10s. each, in the greatest variety, and of the Choicest, Prettiest, as well as the most comical kinds."
The Newspaper also wrote about a recent hearing in the Petty Sessions in which two young men aged about 18 were summoned for causing an obstruction in Peasley Cross. Superintendent Ludlam told the court that as a consequence of complaints received about "overgrown boys" causing a nuisance, a constable had been ordered to keep watch on the neighbourhood. Jonathan Hartley and Henry Harrison had consequently been seen "larking" on the footpath and received a warning from the officer – but they continued annoying passers-by and so were booked. In court they were each fined 5s and 10s 6d costs or if in default of payment go to gaol for 7 days.
That was a lot of money for lads and if their families were unable to help them, the pair may well have gone to prison. However the Newspaper was pleased with the result, writing: "It is satisfactory that the police have determined to suppress the nuisance caused by crowds of unruly youths collecting in the streets, especially at the corners of thoroughfares abutting on these where there is a constant pedestrian traffic, whose chief amusement seems to consist of a torrent of obscene abuse to persons passing and, if remonstrated with, to assault them. It is to be hoped that other localities besides Peasley Cross will receive the attention of the police."
The Newspaper also described how beerhouse keeper Elijah Leather from Water Street was prosecuted for having "five drinking glasses short of the imperial measure required by statute". Superintendent James Ludlam – who was in charge of the St Helens police force – was a very hands-on, multi-skilled officer. He probably had to be, as he did not have many bobbies under his command. In fact as of November 1869 his force only comprised 23 men. There was no such thing then, of course, as trading standards with Ludlam undertaking that role as inspector of weights and measures. He was also in charge of the fire brigade but that's another matter!
The superintendent told the court how he had inspected Elijah Leather's beerhouse and found the five glasses short in measure from between one to two tablespoons. In his defence the beerhouse keeper said they'd been bought as half-pint glasses and he was "quite unconscious" of them not being correct until tested by Mr Ludlam. The Bench told him he should have measured the glasses before buying and was fined 15 shillings, including costs, or spend 48 hours in prison.
When stating the length of a prison sentence, I’ve often added the phrase "with hard labour", without specifying what it entailed. Usually it meant working on a treadmill in Kirkdale Gaol in Liverpool for at least six hours a day. It was back-breaking labour that brought many a man to an early grave as 2,000 calories a day were burned off but not replaced by meagre prison rations. The treadmill gets mentioned in the next court case when John Rotchford was charged with neglecting his family.
The St Helens Relieving Officer, James Fowler, told the Bench that he had been to Rotchford's house and found his wife and three children completely destitute, while he spent his earnings on drink. Rotchford asked the magistrates to give him another chance. But he had already served 14 days in prison with hard labour last December for the same offence. The Bench asked the defendant: "Did you get any tread-mill when you were last in"? "Yes, sir", came the reply from Rotchford. "I have been punished enough already. I have had that and all". "Well", said the Bench, "You will have a little more now. You are committed to prison at Kirkdale for one month with hard labour."
It seems a cruel thing to me to inflict the name Judas on a child. One poor fellow born in 1883 in Stafford was named Judas Iscariot Burton. His parents must really have disliked him! There were five individuals with Judas as their first name listed in the 1871 census. However there was no Judas Hesteriot, who claimed to bear that name when he appeared in the St Helens Petty Sessions on the 13th. Our Judas came from Newcastle and had been arrested for being drunk in Bridge Street. The young man claimed to be a compositor on his way to Liverpool and upon promising to leave St Helens was discharged from the court.
Mary Ford was described as a "miserably clad woman" when she appeared in the Sessions charged with stealing threepence worth of turnips from a stall on St Helens market. She was clearly not much of a thief, as she did not notice the policeman watching her take the turnips. Mary was sent to prison for fourteen days.
It could be extremely tough on young women who gave birth to illegitimate children when their partner denied paternity. There were, of course, no blood or DNA tests available and so when maintenance payments were claimed it came down to one person's word against another. If lawyers were hired it could get quite nasty with the defendant's counsel claiming the woman had been sleeping around. That was what 24-year-old railway platelayer William Whalley's brief alleged in the Sessions when Ann Critchley sought a maintenance order for her child. It became a public grilling with much laughter in the courtroom as the poorly educated young woman had difficulty understanding the questions.
The couple were neighbours in Marshall Cross – living near the Bull and Dog – and had been courting for five years. However they had often quarrelled – or had "sulks" as Ann described the fall-outs. The word "pregnant" was not normally used in court – they preferred the nicer-sounding "enceinte" instead – although that might not have been the word that Ann used when she told William of her condition! According to the young woman, William then said he would marry her but then stopped coming round to her house. In court Ann told the Bench that the intimacy between the couple had been very frequent.
The Newspaper described William's reaction to that: "The defendant here held down his head, and the witness [Ann] addressing him with much vehemence said, “Thou may weel blush”." William’s counsel asked Ann about a John Jones, a man called Worthington, John Gerard, Nathan Harrison and a man called Liptrot. Ann said she knew them to talk to or had kept company once or twice with them but insisted she had only had "criminal intercourse" with John Jones and that had been four years ago.
The two lawyers rowed repeatedly in court and called each other's behaviour "abominable" and a witness for Ann had the fact that she had three illegitimate children revealed in order to undermine her character and damage her testimony. William Whalley swore he had never committed any "criminal act" with the woman. But despite all the shenanigans which provided great entertainment for those in the public gallery, the magistrates did not believe Whalley and ordered him to pay Ann two shillings a week for their child.
Next week's stories will include the posh Catholic Charity Ball in the Volunteer Hall, the mockery of the Chinese hawker, the Parr grocer threatened by a debtor and the great "looby" who was accused of being afraid of an old woman.
We begin on the 9th when the United Methodist Free church of Marshalls Cross held what was described as a "scenic and musical entertainment" in the schoolroom in Micklehead Green. In 1873 the church would build a chapel at the top of Clock Face Road, near to Chester Lane, and adjacent to Marshalls Cross Pottery. These places had little heating and on one day in 1904 when two inquests were held in the chapel the coroner complained that it was as "cold as death". That might be thought as appropriate in the circumstances but he added that if he and the jury had sat in that "deadly cold place much longer we would all be ill with pneumonia."
Talking of the cold, the St Helens Newspaper wrote this on the 11th: "King Frost, whose reign this season was a lengthened one, disappeared a few days ago, and many wished him a hearty farewell, as his presence not only stopped a great many outdoor workers, but also marred the pleasure of agriculturists, who during the latter end of this month of January, hold ploughing matches all over the country."
It was the introduction to a report on the much-postponed Rainford ploughing match, which had finally taken place with the participants able to win prizes of up to £5. The brief reference to outdoor workers was an important one. If you couldn't work through the weather you didn't get paid, creating much misery for the families of such men.
The Newspaper also wrote about a recent hearing in the Petty Sessions in which two young men aged about 18 were summoned for causing an obstruction in Peasley Cross. Superintendent Ludlam told the court that as a consequence of complaints received about "overgrown boys" causing a nuisance, a constable had been ordered to keep watch on the neighbourhood. Jonathan Hartley and Henry Harrison had consequently been seen "larking" on the footpath and received a warning from the officer – but they continued annoying passers-by and so were booked. In court they were each fined 5s and 10s 6d costs or if in default of payment go to gaol for 7 days.
That was a lot of money for lads and if their families were unable to help them, the pair may well have gone to prison. However the Newspaper was pleased with the result, writing: "It is satisfactory that the police have determined to suppress the nuisance caused by crowds of unruly youths collecting in the streets, especially at the corners of thoroughfares abutting on these where there is a constant pedestrian traffic, whose chief amusement seems to consist of a torrent of obscene abuse to persons passing and, if remonstrated with, to assault them. It is to be hoped that other localities besides Peasley Cross will receive the attention of the police."
The Newspaper also described how beerhouse keeper Elijah Leather from Water Street was prosecuted for having "five drinking glasses short of the imperial measure required by statute". Superintendent James Ludlam – who was in charge of the St Helens police force – was a very hands-on, multi-skilled officer. He probably had to be, as he did not have many bobbies under his command. In fact as of November 1869 his force only comprised 23 men. There was no such thing then, of course, as trading standards with Ludlam undertaking that role as inspector of weights and measures. He was also in charge of the fire brigade but that's another matter!
The superintendent told the court how he had inspected Elijah Leather's beerhouse and found the five glasses short in measure from between one to two tablespoons. In his defence the beerhouse keeper said they'd been bought as half-pint glasses and he was "quite unconscious" of them not being correct until tested by Mr Ludlam. The Bench told him he should have measured the glasses before buying and was fined 15 shillings, including costs, or spend 48 hours in prison.
When stating the length of a prison sentence, I’ve often added the phrase "with hard labour", without specifying what it entailed. Usually it meant working on a treadmill in Kirkdale Gaol in Liverpool for at least six hours a day. It was back-breaking labour that brought many a man to an early grave as 2,000 calories a day were burned off but not replaced by meagre prison rations. The treadmill gets mentioned in the next court case when John Rotchford was charged with neglecting his family.
The St Helens Relieving Officer, James Fowler, told the Bench that he had been to Rotchford's house and found his wife and three children completely destitute, while he spent his earnings on drink. Rotchford asked the magistrates to give him another chance. But he had already served 14 days in prison with hard labour last December for the same offence. The Bench asked the defendant: "Did you get any tread-mill when you were last in"? "Yes, sir", came the reply from Rotchford. "I have been punished enough already. I have had that and all". "Well", said the Bench, "You will have a little more now. You are committed to prison at Kirkdale for one month with hard labour."
It seems a cruel thing to me to inflict the name Judas on a child. One poor fellow born in 1883 in Stafford was named Judas Iscariot Burton. His parents must really have disliked him! There were five individuals with Judas as their first name listed in the 1871 census. However there was no Judas Hesteriot, who claimed to bear that name when he appeared in the St Helens Petty Sessions on the 13th. Our Judas came from Newcastle and had been arrested for being drunk in Bridge Street. The young man claimed to be a compositor on his way to Liverpool and upon promising to leave St Helens was discharged from the court.
Mary Ford was described as a "miserably clad woman" when she appeared in the Sessions charged with stealing threepence worth of turnips from a stall on St Helens market. She was clearly not much of a thief, as she did not notice the policeman watching her take the turnips. Mary was sent to prison for fourteen days.
It could be extremely tough on young women who gave birth to illegitimate children when their partner denied paternity. There were, of course, no blood or DNA tests available and so when maintenance payments were claimed it came down to one person's word against another. If lawyers were hired it could get quite nasty with the defendant's counsel claiming the woman had been sleeping around. That was what 24-year-old railway platelayer William Whalley's brief alleged in the Sessions when Ann Critchley sought a maintenance order for her child. It became a public grilling with much laughter in the courtroom as the poorly educated young woman had difficulty understanding the questions.
The couple were neighbours in Marshall Cross – living near the Bull and Dog – and had been courting for five years. However they had often quarrelled – or had "sulks" as Ann described the fall-outs. The word "pregnant" was not normally used in court – they preferred the nicer-sounding "enceinte" instead – although that might not have been the word that Ann used when she told William of her condition! According to the young woman, William then said he would marry her but then stopped coming round to her house. In court Ann told the Bench that the intimacy between the couple had been very frequent.
The Newspaper described William's reaction to that: "The defendant here held down his head, and the witness [Ann] addressing him with much vehemence said, “Thou may weel blush”." William’s counsel asked Ann about a John Jones, a man called Worthington, John Gerard, Nathan Harrison and a man called Liptrot. Ann said she knew them to talk to or had kept company once or twice with them but insisted she had only had "criminal intercourse" with John Jones and that had been four years ago.
The two lawyers rowed repeatedly in court and called each other's behaviour "abominable" and a witness for Ann had the fact that she had three illegitimate children revealed in order to undermine her character and damage her testimony. William Whalley swore he had never committed any "criminal act" with the woman. But despite all the shenanigans which provided great entertainment for those in the public gallery, the magistrates did not believe Whalley and ordered him to pay Ann two shillings a week for their child.
Next week's stories will include the posh Catholic Charity Ball in the Volunteer Hall, the mockery of the Chinese hawker, the Parr grocer threatened by a debtor and the great "looby" who was accused of being afraid of an old woman.
This week's stories include the stiff sentences for the larking boys of Peasley Cross, the man called Judas drunk in Bridge Street, walking the treadmill at Kirkdale Gaol, the Marshalls Cross maintenance case and the Water Street beerhouse keeper who said he was unconscious of cheating his customers.
We begin on the 9th when the United Methodist Free church of Marshalls Cross held what was described as a "scenic and musical entertainment" in the schoolroom in Micklehead Green.
In 1873 the church would build a chapel at the top of Clock Face Road, near to Chester Lane, and adjacent to Marshalls Cross Pottery.
These places had little heating and on one day in 1904 when two inquests were held in the chapel the coroner complained that it was as "cold as death".
That might be thought as appropriate in the circumstances but he added that if he and the jury had sat in that "deadly cold place much longer we would all be ill with pneumonia."
Talking of the cold, the St Helens Newspaper wrote this on the 11th:
"King Frost, whose reign this season was a lengthened one, disappeared a few days ago, and many wished him a hearty farewell, as his presence not only stopped a great many outdoor workers, but also marred the pleasure of agriculturists, who during the latter end of this month of January, hold ploughing matches all over the country."
It was the introduction to a report on the much-postponed Rainford ploughing match, which had finally taken place with the participants able to win prizes of up to £5.
The brief reference to outdoor workers was an important one. If you couldn't work through the weather you didn't get paid, creating much misery for the families of such men.
The marking of Valentine's Day goes back hundreds of years with the sending of cards growing in popularity after postal rates became cheaper in 1840.
The Newspaper was also advertising Valentine cards, which were available from their premises in Hardshaw Street known as the Public Hall (illustrated above):
"The stock of Valentines for 1871 is unequalled in the district. 2000 Pretty Valentines suitable for Juveniles. Valentines from ½d. to 10s. each, in the greatest variety, and of the Choicest, Prettiest, as well as the most comical kinds."
The Newspaper also wrote about a recent hearing in the Petty Sessions in which two young men aged about 18 were summoned for causing an obstruction in Peasley Cross.
Superintendent Ludlam told the court that as a consequence of complaints received about "overgrown boys" causing a nuisance, a constable had been ordered to keep watch on the neighbourhood.
Jonathan Hartley and Henry Harrison had consequently been seen "larking" on the footpath and received a warning from the officer – but they continued annoying passers-by and so were booked.
In court they were each fined 5s and 10s 6d costs or if in default of payment go to gaol for 7 days.
That was a lot of money for lads and if their families were unable to help them, the pair may well have gone to prison. However the Newspaper was pleased with the result, writing:
"It is satisfactory that the police have determined to suppress the nuisance caused by crowds of unruly youths collecting in the streets, especially at the corners of thoroughfares abutting on these where there is a constant pedestrian traffic, whose chief amusement seems to consist of a torrent of obscene abuse to persons passing and, if remonstrated with, to assault them.
"It is to be hoped that other localities besides Peasley Cross will receive the attention of the police."
The Newspaper also described how beerhouse keeper Elijah Leather from Water Street was prosecuted for having "five drinking glasses short of the imperial measure required by statute".
Superintendent James Ludlam – who was in charge of the St Helens police force – was a very hands-on, multi-skilled officer.
He probably had to be, as he did not have many bobbies under his command. In fact as of November 1869 his force only comprised 23 men.
There was no such thing then, of course, as trading standards with Ludlam undertaking that role as inspector of weights and measures. He was also in charge of the fire brigade but that's another matter!
The superintendent told the court how he had inspected Elijah Leather's beerhouse and found the five glasses short in measure from between one to two tablespoons.
In his defence the beerhouse keeper said they'd been bought as half-pint glasses and he was "quite unconscious" of them not being correct until tested by Mr Ludlam.
The Bench told him he should have measured the glasses before buying and was fined 15 shillings, including costs, or spend 48 hours in prison.
When stating the length of a prison sentence, I’ve often added the phrase "with hard labour", without specifying what it entailed.
Usually it meant working on a treadmill in Kirkdale Gaol in Liverpool for at least six hours a day.
It was back-breaking labour that brought many a man to an early grave as 2,000 calories a day were burned off but not replaced by meagre prison rations.
The treadmill gets mentioned in the next court case when John Rotchford was charged with neglecting his family.
The St Helens Relieving Officer, James Fowler, told the Bench that he had been to Rotchford's house and found his wife and three children completely destitute, while he spent his earnings on drink.
Rotchford asked the magistrates to give him another chance. But he had already served 14 days in prison with hard labour last December for the same offence.
The Bench asked the defendant: "Did you get any tread-mill when you were last in?"
"Yes, sir”, came the reply from Rotchford. "I have been punished enough already. I have had that and all."
"Well", said the Bench, "You will have a little more now. You are committed to prison at Kirkdale for one month with hard labour."
It seems a cruel thing to me to inflict the name Judas on a child. One poor fellow born in 1883 in Stafford was named Judas Iscariot Burton. His parents must really have disliked him!
There were five individuals with Judas as their first name listed in the 1871 census. However there was no Judas Hesteriot, who claimed to bear that name when he appeared in the St Helens Petty Sessions on the 13th.
Our Judas came from Newcastle and had been arrested for being drunk in Bridge Street.
The young man claimed to be a compositor on his way to Liverpool and upon promising to leave St Helens was discharged from the court.
Mary Ford was described as a "miserably clad woman" when she appeared in the Sessions charged with stealing threepence worth of turnips from a stall on St Helens market.
She was clearly not much of a thief, as she did not notice the policeman watching her take the turnips. Mary was sent to prison for fourteen days.
It could be extremely tough on young women who gave birth to illegitimate children when their partner denied paternity.
There were, of course, no blood or DNA tests available and so when maintenance payments were claimed it came down to one person's word against another.
If lawyers were hired it could get quite nasty with the defendant's counsel claiming the woman had been sleeping around.
That was what 24-year-old railway platelayer William Whalley's brief alleged in the Sessions when Ann Critchley sought a maintenance order for her child.
It became a public grilling with much laughter in the courtroom as the poorly educated young woman had difficulty understanding the questions.
The couple were neighbours in Marshall Cross – living near the Bull and Dog – and had been courting for five years.
However they had often quarrelled – or had "sulks" as Ann described the fall-outs.
The word "pregnant" was not normally used in court – they preferred the nicer-sounding "enceinte" instead – although that might not have been the word that Ann used when she told William of her condition!
According to the young woman, William then said he would marry her but then stopped coming round to her house.
In court Ann told the Bench that the intimacy between the couple had been very frequent. The Newspaper described William's reaction to that:
"The defendant here held down his head, and the witness [Ann] addressing him with much vehemence said, “Thou may weel blush”."
William’s counsel asked Ann about a John Jones, a man called Worthington, John Gerard, Nathan Harrison and a man called Liptrot.
Ann said she knew them to talk to or had kept company once or twice with them but insisted she had only had "criminal intercourse" with John Jones and that had been four years ago.
The two lawyers rowed repeatedly in court and called each other's behaviour "abominable" and a witness for Ann had the fact that she had three illegitimate children revealed in order to undermine her character and damage her testimony.
William Whalley swore he had never committed any "criminal act" with the woman.
But despite all the shenanigans which provided great entertainment for those in the public gallery, the magistrates did not believe Whalley and ordered him to pay Ann two shillings a week for their child.
Next week's stories will include the posh Catholic Charity Ball in the Volunteer Hall, the mockery of the Chinese hawker, the Parr grocer threatened by a debtor and the great "looby" who was accused of being afraid of an old woman.
We begin on the 9th when the United Methodist Free church of Marshalls Cross held what was described as a "scenic and musical entertainment" in the schoolroom in Micklehead Green.
In 1873 the church would build a chapel at the top of Clock Face Road, near to Chester Lane, and adjacent to Marshalls Cross Pottery.
These places had little heating and on one day in 1904 when two inquests were held in the chapel the coroner complained that it was as "cold as death".
That might be thought as appropriate in the circumstances but he added that if he and the jury had sat in that "deadly cold place much longer we would all be ill with pneumonia."
Talking of the cold, the St Helens Newspaper wrote this on the 11th:
"King Frost, whose reign this season was a lengthened one, disappeared a few days ago, and many wished him a hearty farewell, as his presence not only stopped a great many outdoor workers, but also marred the pleasure of agriculturists, who during the latter end of this month of January, hold ploughing matches all over the country."
It was the introduction to a report on the much-postponed Rainford ploughing match, which had finally taken place with the participants able to win prizes of up to £5.
The brief reference to outdoor workers was an important one. If you couldn't work through the weather you didn't get paid, creating much misery for the families of such men.
The marking of Valentine's Day goes back hundreds of years with the sending of cards growing in popularity after postal rates became cheaper in 1840.
"The stock of Valentines for 1871 is unequalled in the district. 2000 Pretty Valentines suitable for Juveniles. Valentines from ½d. to 10s. each, in the greatest variety, and of the Choicest, Prettiest, as well as the most comical kinds."
The Newspaper also wrote about a recent hearing in the Petty Sessions in which two young men aged about 18 were summoned for causing an obstruction in Peasley Cross.
Superintendent Ludlam told the court that as a consequence of complaints received about "overgrown boys" causing a nuisance, a constable had been ordered to keep watch on the neighbourhood.
Jonathan Hartley and Henry Harrison had consequently been seen "larking" on the footpath and received a warning from the officer – but they continued annoying passers-by and so were booked.
In court they were each fined 5s and 10s 6d costs or if in default of payment go to gaol for 7 days.
That was a lot of money for lads and if their families were unable to help them, the pair may well have gone to prison. However the Newspaper was pleased with the result, writing:
"It is satisfactory that the police have determined to suppress the nuisance caused by crowds of unruly youths collecting in the streets, especially at the corners of thoroughfares abutting on these where there is a constant pedestrian traffic, whose chief amusement seems to consist of a torrent of obscene abuse to persons passing and, if remonstrated with, to assault them.
"It is to be hoped that other localities besides Peasley Cross will receive the attention of the police."
The Newspaper also described how beerhouse keeper Elijah Leather from Water Street was prosecuted for having "five drinking glasses short of the imperial measure required by statute".
Superintendent James Ludlam – who was in charge of the St Helens police force – was a very hands-on, multi-skilled officer.
He probably had to be, as he did not have many bobbies under his command. In fact as of November 1869 his force only comprised 23 men.
There was no such thing then, of course, as trading standards with Ludlam undertaking that role as inspector of weights and measures. He was also in charge of the fire brigade but that's another matter!
The superintendent told the court how he had inspected Elijah Leather's beerhouse and found the five glasses short in measure from between one to two tablespoons.
In his defence the beerhouse keeper said they'd been bought as half-pint glasses and he was "quite unconscious" of them not being correct until tested by Mr Ludlam.
The Bench told him he should have measured the glasses before buying and was fined 15 shillings, including costs, or spend 48 hours in prison.
When stating the length of a prison sentence, I’ve often added the phrase "with hard labour", without specifying what it entailed.
Usually it meant working on a treadmill in Kirkdale Gaol in Liverpool for at least six hours a day.
It was back-breaking labour that brought many a man to an early grave as 2,000 calories a day were burned off but not replaced by meagre prison rations.
The treadmill gets mentioned in the next court case when John Rotchford was charged with neglecting his family.
The St Helens Relieving Officer, James Fowler, told the Bench that he had been to Rotchford's house and found his wife and three children completely destitute, while he spent his earnings on drink.
Rotchford asked the magistrates to give him another chance. But he had already served 14 days in prison with hard labour last December for the same offence.
The Bench asked the defendant: "Did you get any tread-mill when you were last in?"
"Yes, sir”, came the reply from Rotchford. "I have been punished enough already. I have had that and all."
"Well", said the Bench, "You will have a little more now. You are committed to prison at Kirkdale for one month with hard labour."
It seems a cruel thing to me to inflict the name Judas on a child. One poor fellow born in 1883 in Stafford was named Judas Iscariot Burton. His parents must really have disliked him!
There were five individuals with Judas as their first name listed in the 1871 census. However there was no Judas Hesteriot, who claimed to bear that name when he appeared in the St Helens Petty Sessions on the 13th.
Our Judas came from Newcastle and had been arrested for being drunk in Bridge Street.
The young man claimed to be a compositor on his way to Liverpool and upon promising to leave St Helens was discharged from the court.
Mary Ford was described as a "miserably clad woman" when she appeared in the Sessions charged with stealing threepence worth of turnips from a stall on St Helens market.
She was clearly not much of a thief, as she did not notice the policeman watching her take the turnips. Mary was sent to prison for fourteen days.
It could be extremely tough on young women who gave birth to illegitimate children when their partner denied paternity.
There were, of course, no blood or DNA tests available and so when maintenance payments were claimed it came down to one person's word against another.
If lawyers were hired it could get quite nasty with the defendant's counsel claiming the woman had been sleeping around.
That was what 24-year-old railway platelayer William Whalley's brief alleged in the Sessions when Ann Critchley sought a maintenance order for her child.
It became a public grilling with much laughter in the courtroom as the poorly educated young woman had difficulty understanding the questions.
The couple were neighbours in Marshall Cross – living near the Bull and Dog – and had been courting for five years.
However they had often quarrelled – or had "sulks" as Ann described the fall-outs.
The word "pregnant" was not normally used in court – they preferred the nicer-sounding "enceinte" instead – although that might not have been the word that Ann used when she told William of her condition!
According to the young woman, William then said he would marry her but then stopped coming round to her house.
In court Ann told the Bench that the intimacy between the couple had been very frequent. The Newspaper described William's reaction to that:
"The defendant here held down his head, and the witness [Ann] addressing him with much vehemence said, “Thou may weel blush”."
William’s counsel asked Ann about a John Jones, a man called Worthington, John Gerard, Nathan Harrison and a man called Liptrot.
Ann said she knew them to talk to or had kept company once or twice with them but insisted she had only had "criminal intercourse" with John Jones and that had been four years ago.
The two lawyers rowed repeatedly in court and called each other's behaviour "abominable" and a witness for Ann had the fact that she had three illegitimate children revealed in order to undermine her character and damage her testimony.
William Whalley swore he had never committed any "criminal act" with the woman.
But despite all the shenanigans which provided great entertainment for those in the public gallery, the magistrates did not believe Whalley and ordered him to pay Ann two shillings a week for their child.
Next week's stories will include the posh Catholic Charity Ball in the Volunteer Hall, the mockery of the Chinese hawker, the Parr grocer threatened by a debtor and the great "looby" who was accused of being afraid of an old woman.