150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (8th - 14th April 1869)
This week's stories include alleged police brutality in Ormskirk Street, the serious charges made against the Master of Whiston Workhouse, the foundation stone is laid for a new Sutton school, an 11-year-old boy steals a magic lantern and there is a curious water prosecution of a little girl.
We begin on the 8th with a meeting of the Prescot Union Board of Guardians. The elected members that oversaw Whiston Workhouse (pictured above) were told that 320 paupers had been staying in the house during the past week, of which 136 were children.
Some relief was also provided to the poor in their own homes and £64 9 shillings had been spent during the past week within the St Helens district assisting 1,119 people. According to my calculations that averages a little over one shilling each. However during the previous week £102 had been spent on a similar number.
During the past fortnight the medical officer had attended to 116 cases within the workhouse's own hospital. Assuming these were all different people, that means more than one in three of the inmates were in need of medical help, underlining the link between poverty and ill-health.
Last month the hospital's head nurse had accused the master of the workhouse of tyranny. Then she and another nurse declared their intention to resign, once they'd obtained other positions.
At this week's meeting of the Guardians, their medical officer of health, Dr Rayner, levelled some serious accusations against the master. The St Helens Newspaper stated that the doctor's "grave charges" against Thomas Holmes amounted to "nothing short of manslaughter".
Among the long list of offences, Holmes was alleged to have prevented a nurse from dispatching an order for medicines and had also refused to allow a messenger to collect some medicine from the doctor's surgery.
The most serious charge was a peculiar one. The doctor had ordered that two patients should be given brandy and beef tea as treatment for typhus fever. A nurse had requested them three times but the master had refused to allow them to be provided.
Subsequently one of the patients had died – hence the manslaughter claim in the Newspaper. The Liverpool Mercury wrote that the Guardians upon hearing these charges being read "were almost continually giving vent to feelings of surprise and indignation."
Incidentally on the same page as the Mercury's report was an article about Charles Dickens giving readings from his books in London. The Mercury wrote: "He last night fully sustained his high reputation not only as a writer but as a personator of some of the most startling characters with which his works abound."
Back to the workhouse and the St Helens Newspaper wrote that the medical officer had informed the Guardians that the master's conduct would lead to a cycle of resignations. Dr Rayner said that if the two nurses felt "compelled to leave, others who may succeed them will, in their turn, have to be sacrificed, and so the thing will go on until the end of the chapter.
"For I am convinced that no sensible woman, be she nurse or otherwise will elect to stay here if the same harsh treatment be allowed to be exercised, as has hitherto been tolerated in this workhouse." It was decided that a special meeting should be held by the Guardians to consider the charges against the master.
On the 10th a butcher called William Turner appeared in the Police Court accused of assaulting a police officer in Ormskirk Street. Turner's solicitor told the court that it was: "…my misfortune to appear on behalf of a man well known, and unfavourably known – a man who had lived the life of anything but a rational creature; but this was no reason why he should be maltreated by a police-officer or any one else. It did not deprive him of the rights of a citizen."
PC John Nicholson gave evidence that he had found Turner at 1:20am half asleep in Ormskirk Street, near the Prince of Wales Hotel. The officer said he had tried to make the man go home but the butcher reacted badly after he had placed his hands on him and the pair ended up rolling over in the gutter. PC Nicholson denied striking Turner but a baker called William McNevin, who was passing on his way to his work, contradicted this.
He said he had heard the man tell the constable not to shove him and the officer took something from his clothes and then struck him down and then hit him again. The magistrate, William Pilkington, said the policeman had interfered with the defendant much more than was necessary and dismissed the case.
There was good news in the St Helens Newspaper on the 10th for those who lived in or regularly used Claughton Street. An advertisement sought a contractor to prepare the road ready for it to be paved and have a system of drainage installed. The newspaper also commented on the sanitary state of Prescot, which they said was "painfully defective" and "must injuriously affect the health of the inhabitants."
On the 11th Fr. Bernardine from London laid the foundation stone for a new boys' school near St Anne's church in Sutton. A Government inspector had warned the Passionist Fathers – who ran the schools – that they needed to expand by June 1869 or lose their government grant.
It was a fast growing district and only half the children in the parish could be accommodated in the existing buildings. So new boys' and girls' schools had to be built, along with an adjacent cottage for a master. However there was only sufficient money for the boys' school and so the girls would have to wait.
The Liverpool Mercury described how a "vast concourse" of people had attended the stone laying. After a church service, a procession had been formed which included members of the Sutton Catholic Philanthropic Society and Peasley Cross Guild.
The stars of the procession were the little girls who were dressed in white and wearing long flowing veils and coronets of flowers. Within the stone that was ceremoniously laid, a time capsule was inserted which contained coins, documents and a local newspaper. I wonder what happened to these?
On the 12th the St Helens Petty Sessions were held in which James Lynch of Liverpool Road was charged with breaching the peace by striking his wife. However his wife told the magistrates that she had been the cause of the trouble through saying something to her husband that annoyed him. So Lynch was only bound over for a month but had to find sureties.
A little girl called Eliza Young was also in court charged with taking water from a pipe while not being the person paying the water rate. Patrick Dooley was also charged with permitting the offence. This was a curious case in which a man called Alexander Athwell – who appeared to work for St Helens Corporation – had been hiding in an empty house to spy on people.
He told the court that he had been informed that it was a common practice in the unnamed street for water to be illegally shared. Athwell saw little Eliza draw water from her neighbour's house (with Patrick Dooley's permission) and take it to her mother.
The woman was not paying the Corporation any water rates and so committing an offence but it was her child who was prosecuted. However the family's solicitor successfully argued legal technicalities about the summons, including the fact that the Corporation was not the water provider.
The principle of the prosecution was not questioned but the case was dismissed and the unnamed little girl's ordeal was now at an end. There was an issue with water with the Corporation's engineer, John Ross, saying this week that the domestic supply to 39,000 people in the town was only ten gallons a day.
Five men were charged with fighting at the Red Cat in Crank (some with sticks) but only one of them turned up to court, or as the St Helens Newspaper put it: "did not think it worth their while to show their faces." William Rimmer was bound over and warrants were issued for the arrest of the other four men.
In 1869 it was quite common for children to leave school at the age of 9 or 10. So when 11-year-old John Nolan appeared in court charged with stealing from his employer, no one would have batted an eyelid. The lad had worked for Bernard Dromgoole as an errand boy for quite some time. However recently the man had cause to believe the boy was taking things out of his shop.
So John was called into his office for questioning and after a "great deal of pressing" produced sixpence that he admitted stealing from the till. The boy was searched and a magic lantern and a box of slides were found hidden under his waistcoat. Prison might well have been his fate but he'd been held in custody at the police station for nearly three days.
Dromgoole told the court that he felt that was sufficient punishment and he did not want to press the charge. However the magistrates did fine John ten shillings. The St Helens Newspaper covered the case in detail. They were fully aware of what had happened, as Bernard Dromgoole was not only a stationer but also the editor of the paper.
Next week's stories will include the hapless pickpocket in St Helens Market, the Rainford Church sexton accused of highway robbery, the master of Whiston Workhouse is asked to resign after an inquiry, the horse that was made to pull pig iron up an Eccleston hill and the woman who tore a bonnet off the head of a policeman's wife in Peter Street.
Some relief was also provided to the poor in their own homes and £64 9 shillings had been spent during the past week within the St Helens district assisting 1,119 people. According to my calculations that averages a little over one shilling each. However during the previous week £102 had been spent on a similar number.
During the past fortnight the medical officer had attended to 116 cases within the workhouse's own hospital. Assuming these were all different people, that means more than one in three of the inmates were in need of medical help, underlining the link between poverty and ill-health.
Last month the hospital's head nurse had accused the master of the workhouse of tyranny. Then she and another nurse declared their intention to resign, once they'd obtained other positions.
At this week's meeting of the Guardians, their medical officer of health, Dr Rayner, levelled some serious accusations against the master. The St Helens Newspaper stated that the doctor's "grave charges" against Thomas Holmes amounted to "nothing short of manslaughter".
Among the long list of offences, Holmes was alleged to have prevented a nurse from dispatching an order for medicines and had also refused to allow a messenger to collect some medicine from the doctor's surgery.
The most serious charge was a peculiar one. The doctor had ordered that two patients should be given brandy and beef tea as treatment for typhus fever. A nurse had requested them three times but the master had refused to allow them to be provided.
Subsequently one of the patients had died – hence the manslaughter claim in the Newspaper. The Liverpool Mercury wrote that the Guardians upon hearing these charges being read "were almost continually giving vent to feelings of surprise and indignation."
Incidentally on the same page as the Mercury's report was an article about Charles Dickens giving readings from his books in London. The Mercury wrote: "He last night fully sustained his high reputation not only as a writer but as a personator of some of the most startling characters with which his works abound."
Back to the workhouse and the St Helens Newspaper wrote that the medical officer had informed the Guardians that the master's conduct would lead to a cycle of resignations. Dr Rayner said that if the two nurses felt "compelled to leave, others who may succeed them will, in their turn, have to be sacrificed, and so the thing will go on until the end of the chapter.
"For I am convinced that no sensible woman, be she nurse or otherwise will elect to stay here if the same harsh treatment be allowed to be exercised, as has hitherto been tolerated in this workhouse." It was decided that a special meeting should be held by the Guardians to consider the charges against the master.
On the 10th a butcher called William Turner appeared in the Police Court accused of assaulting a police officer in Ormskirk Street. Turner's solicitor told the court that it was: "…my misfortune to appear on behalf of a man well known, and unfavourably known – a man who had lived the life of anything but a rational creature; but this was no reason why he should be maltreated by a police-officer or any one else. It did not deprive him of the rights of a citizen."
PC John Nicholson gave evidence that he had found Turner at 1:20am half asleep in Ormskirk Street, near the Prince of Wales Hotel. The officer said he had tried to make the man go home but the butcher reacted badly after he had placed his hands on him and the pair ended up rolling over in the gutter. PC Nicholson denied striking Turner but a baker called William McNevin, who was passing on his way to his work, contradicted this.
He said he had heard the man tell the constable not to shove him and the officer took something from his clothes and then struck him down and then hit him again. The magistrate, William Pilkington, said the policeman had interfered with the defendant much more than was necessary and dismissed the case.
There was good news in the St Helens Newspaper on the 10th for those who lived in or regularly used Claughton Street. An advertisement sought a contractor to prepare the road ready for it to be paved and have a system of drainage installed. The newspaper also commented on the sanitary state of Prescot, which they said was "painfully defective" and "must injuriously affect the health of the inhabitants."
On the 11th Fr. Bernardine from London laid the foundation stone for a new boys' school near St Anne's church in Sutton. A Government inspector had warned the Passionist Fathers – who ran the schools – that they needed to expand by June 1869 or lose their government grant.
It was a fast growing district and only half the children in the parish could be accommodated in the existing buildings. So new boys' and girls' schools had to be built, along with an adjacent cottage for a master. However there was only sufficient money for the boys' school and so the girls would have to wait.
The Liverpool Mercury described how a "vast concourse" of people had attended the stone laying. After a church service, a procession had been formed which included members of the Sutton Catholic Philanthropic Society and Peasley Cross Guild.
The stars of the procession were the little girls who were dressed in white and wearing long flowing veils and coronets of flowers. Within the stone that was ceremoniously laid, a time capsule was inserted which contained coins, documents and a local newspaper. I wonder what happened to these?
On the 12th the St Helens Petty Sessions were held in which James Lynch of Liverpool Road was charged with breaching the peace by striking his wife. However his wife told the magistrates that she had been the cause of the trouble through saying something to her husband that annoyed him. So Lynch was only bound over for a month but had to find sureties.
A little girl called Eliza Young was also in court charged with taking water from a pipe while not being the person paying the water rate. Patrick Dooley was also charged with permitting the offence. This was a curious case in which a man called Alexander Athwell – who appeared to work for St Helens Corporation – had been hiding in an empty house to spy on people.
He told the court that he had been informed that it was a common practice in the unnamed street for water to be illegally shared. Athwell saw little Eliza draw water from her neighbour's house (with Patrick Dooley's permission) and take it to her mother.
The woman was not paying the Corporation any water rates and so committing an offence but it was her child who was prosecuted. However the family's solicitor successfully argued legal technicalities about the summons, including the fact that the Corporation was not the water provider.
The principle of the prosecution was not questioned but the case was dismissed and the unnamed little girl's ordeal was now at an end. There was an issue with water with the Corporation's engineer, John Ross, saying this week that the domestic supply to 39,000 people in the town was only ten gallons a day.
Five men were charged with fighting at the Red Cat in Crank (some with sticks) but only one of them turned up to court, or as the St Helens Newspaper put it: "did not think it worth their while to show their faces." William Rimmer was bound over and warrants were issued for the arrest of the other four men.
In 1869 it was quite common for children to leave school at the age of 9 or 10. So when 11-year-old John Nolan appeared in court charged with stealing from his employer, no one would have batted an eyelid. The lad had worked for Bernard Dromgoole as an errand boy for quite some time. However recently the man had cause to believe the boy was taking things out of his shop.
So John was called into his office for questioning and after a "great deal of pressing" produced sixpence that he admitted stealing from the till. The boy was searched and a magic lantern and a box of slides were found hidden under his waistcoat. Prison might well have been his fate but he'd been held in custody at the police station for nearly three days.
Dromgoole told the court that he felt that was sufficient punishment and he did not want to press the charge. However the magistrates did fine John ten shillings. The St Helens Newspaper covered the case in detail. They were fully aware of what had happened, as Bernard Dromgoole was not only a stationer but also the editor of the paper.
Next week's stories will include the hapless pickpocket in St Helens Market, the Rainford Church sexton accused of highway robbery, the master of Whiston Workhouse is asked to resign after an inquiry, the horse that was made to pull pig iron up an Eccleston hill and the woman who tore a bonnet off the head of a policeman's wife in Peter Street.