150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK 8 - 14 SEPTEMBER 1875
This week's many stories include the tobacco and cigar manufactory that was coming to St Helens, the fake Liverpool doctor that got a Rainhill housemaid pregnant, the melee in the Mechanics Arms, the curious attempt at an indecent assault in Whiston and the Eccleston cook attacked while walking to a religious service in Prescot.
We begin on the 11th in the St Helens Newspaper when John Johnson & Son from Bolton were advertising that they planned to open a "tobacco and cigar manufactory" in Naylor Street in St Helens. The firm was also an importer of tobacco. C.D. Fothergill also made, sold and imported a range of tobacco products, including cigars and pipes having begun around 1880 and with premises in Church Street.
The sad tale of how a Rainhill housemaid had been "seduced" by a man who claimed to be a doctor was told at Prescot Petty Sessions this week. Charles Lougest had set up a practice at Park Lane in Liverpool as a herbalist / botanist – although the St Helens Newspaper dubbed him a "quack". Anybody then could then call themselves a doctor and Eliza Thistlewood had seen adverts by the supposed Dr Lougest claiming to be able to cure nervous debility.
So as she suffered from that complaint, the 21-year-old paid several visits to his practice and soon began having an affair – or as the Newspaper put it – "they got to be sweethearts". Eliza always understood that Lougest was a single man but upon her last visit to Park Lane she found a woman inside the premises who claimed to be his wife. Despite incriminating letters from Lougest being read out in court, the man completely denied being the father of the woman's child. But the magistrates did not believe him and made an order for maintenance payments to be made to Eliza to the amount of five shillings per week.
In another case heard in Prescot Petty Sessions, Thomas Crooks was charged with attempting to commit an indecent assault upon Ellen Winders. She told the court that she lived with her brother at Whiston. On the previous Wednesday morning the brother had left their house at about half-past five in the morning to go to his work, leaving his sister in bed. Ellen said she fell asleep and about half-past six felt something at her feet and on sitting up saw Thomas Crooks with his trousers off.
The man immediately jumped on the bed and, as it was put, attempted to take liberties with the woman. But she struggled with him and Crooks subsequently got off the bed, put his trousers back on and went downstairs. Just exactly why Thomas Crooks was in the house was not stated in the newspaper report but, presumably, he was a lodger. However, his solicitor argued that the defendant had no criminal intent in doing what he did and, surprisingly, the Bench decided to dismiss the case.
In 1870 John Critchley became licensee of the Mechanics Arms in Ellamsbridge Road in Sutton. Four years later he sued lodger Joseph Greenough for breach of promise and seduction after he got his daughter Margaret "in trouble" and changed his mind about marrying her. As a result Critchley was awarded the huge sum of £150 damages.
This week Critchley and his wife Jane summoned Thomas Brown of the Victoria Vaults (or Little Pig, as it became known), which was also in Ellamsbridge Road, alleging assault. They claimed that Brown with others had entered their pub and started fighting, violently knocking Mrs Critchley over a table and causing much damage to glasses and jugs. James Cullen had attempted to defend Mrs Critchley from the onslaught, but was knocked down and given a kicking by Brown.
There were all sorts of claims made in the court case, including that pokers had been used in the melee. Brown claimed that when he had entered the Mechanics Arms he was struck over the head by three plates – one at a time. It sounds a right palaver but in the end Thomas Brown was fined a total of £4 5 shillings for the assaults and damage, plus costs.
The Prescot Reporter stated that John Daly had this week been charged at the St Helens Petty Sessions with indecently assaulting Mary Sermons. However, the St Helens Newspaper in their account said the cook (who they called Maria Surman) had suffered an aggravated assault. As Mary (as I'll call her) had passed out during her ordeal, it was not known what the "rough-looking young fellow" actually did. And he was seemingly too drunk to know.
Mary appeared in court with her arm in a sling and said that at half-past six on the previous Tuesday she had left her employer's house to attend a religious service in Prescot. On the journey Daly had run after Mary and pushed her down. She said she remembered nothing after that, except being carried into an adjacent cottage. Her arm was very seriously injured and the front of her dress had been torn.
Daly's solicitor contended that his client was in such a drunken condition at the time that he did not know what he was doing. But the Chairman of the Bench said he could scarcely conceive that such conduct could be possible in a civilised country and sent Daly to prison for two months.
John Crosby from Eccleston appeared in St Helens Police Court charged with drunkenness. As he had 37 times previously been before the Bench, the magistrates decided that fining him again would do him no good. And so they sent Crosby to Kirkdale Gaol for a month with hard labour, although I very much doubt that sentence would have stopped him from boozing.
Thomas Madden might have joined him in prison as he had quit working for the Greenbank Alkali Company on August 20th without giving notice. Why the furnaceman had suddenly departed was not stated in the newspaper report, although chemical works were particularly nasty places to work in. The firm demanded £2 in compensation and the magistrates ordered Madden to pay that amount and costs or serve a month in prison.
On the 11th at about 10pm, a man called Patrick Govern, who lived in Earlestown, was found lying at St Helens railway station with his right hand nearly cut off. The 45-year-old was unable to give a proper account of what had happened but it was assumed he had been run over by some passing engine while trying to cross the line. Mr Govan needed to have his hand amputated and was recovering in the Cottage Hospital in Peasley Cross.
James Tickle appeared in court on the 14th accused of stabbing his mother-in-law at Sutton. Alice Burrows had heard her daughter scream "murder" shortly after James had returned to their home in Watery Lane (pictured above) in a drunken condition and began beating his wife. Upon entering the room, Alice found her son-in-law holding his wife by the neck with one hand and grasping a table knife with the other and making threats to kill. Alice attempted to help her daughter and got stabbed in the arm.
Tickle was remanded but when brought up in court at the next hearing Mrs Burrows refused to prosecute the case. However, upon being pressed she gave bare details of what had occurred and her son-in-law was fined 20 shillings. Very likely it had been Alice's daughter who had pleaded with her mother not to cooperate in the prosecution.
It was a sad reflection of the times that it was not in the financial interests of battered wives for their husbands to be held accountable for their actions, with the 20 shilling fine probably having to come out of Tickle's wife's housekeeping money. But that was preferable to the husband being imprisoned, which would mean no household income for the duration.
St Helens Newspaper courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the abominable offence committed in the stable of the Derby Arms, the almighty row in Phythian Street, the attempted rape of a 9-year-old girl and the man who wandered into a coal mine and played at being an engineer.
We begin on the 11th in the St Helens Newspaper when John Johnson & Son from Bolton were advertising that they planned to open a "tobacco and cigar manufactory" in Naylor Street in St Helens. The firm was also an importer of tobacco. C.D. Fothergill also made, sold and imported a range of tobacco products, including cigars and pipes having begun around 1880 and with premises in Church Street.
The sad tale of how a Rainhill housemaid had been "seduced" by a man who claimed to be a doctor was told at Prescot Petty Sessions this week. Charles Lougest had set up a practice at Park Lane in Liverpool as a herbalist / botanist – although the St Helens Newspaper dubbed him a "quack". Anybody then could then call themselves a doctor and Eliza Thistlewood had seen adverts by the supposed Dr Lougest claiming to be able to cure nervous debility.
So as she suffered from that complaint, the 21-year-old paid several visits to his practice and soon began having an affair – or as the Newspaper put it – "they got to be sweethearts". Eliza always understood that Lougest was a single man but upon her last visit to Park Lane she found a woman inside the premises who claimed to be his wife. Despite incriminating letters from Lougest being read out in court, the man completely denied being the father of the woman's child. But the magistrates did not believe him and made an order for maintenance payments to be made to Eliza to the amount of five shillings per week.
In another case heard in Prescot Petty Sessions, Thomas Crooks was charged with attempting to commit an indecent assault upon Ellen Winders. She told the court that she lived with her brother at Whiston. On the previous Wednesday morning the brother had left their house at about half-past five in the morning to go to his work, leaving his sister in bed. Ellen said she fell asleep and about half-past six felt something at her feet and on sitting up saw Thomas Crooks with his trousers off.
The man immediately jumped on the bed and, as it was put, attempted to take liberties with the woman. But she struggled with him and Crooks subsequently got off the bed, put his trousers back on and went downstairs. Just exactly why Thomas Crooks was in the house was not stated in the newspaper report but, presumably, he was a lodger. However, his solicitor argued that the defendant had no criminal intent in doing what he did and, surprisingly, the Bench decided to dismiss the case.
In 1870 John Critchley became licensee of the Mechanics Arms in Ellamsbridge Road in Sutton. Four years later he sued lodger Joseph Greenough for breach of promise and seduction after he got his daughter Margaret "in trouble" and changed his mind about marrying her. As a result Critchley was awarded the huge sum of £150 damages.
This week Critchley and his wife Jane summoned Thomas Brown of the Victoria Vaults (or Little Pig, as it became known), which was also in Ellamsbridge Road, alleging assault. They claimed that Brown with others had entered their pub and started fighting, violently knocking Mrs Critchley over a table and causing much damage to glasses and jugs. James Cullen had attempted to defend Mrs Critchley from the onslaught, but was knocked down and given a kicking by Brown.
There were all sorts of claims made in the court case, including that pokers had been used in the melee. Brown claimed that when he had entered the Mechanics Arms he was struck over the head by three plates – one at a time. It sounds a right palaver but in the end Thomas Brown was fined a total of £4 5 shillings for the assaults and damage, plus costs.
The Prescot Reporter stated that John Daly had this week been charged at the St Helens Petty Sessions with indecently assaulting Mary Sermons. However, the St Helens Newspaper in their account said the cook (who they called Maria Surman) had suffered an aggravated assault. As Mary (as I'll call her) had passed out during her ordeal, it was not known what the "rough-looking young fellow" actually did. And he was seemingly too drunk to know.
Mary appeared in court with her arm in a sling and said that at half-past six on the previous Tuesday she had left her employer's house to attend a religious service in Prescot. On the journey Daly had run after Mary and pushed her down. She said she remembered nothing after that, except being carried into an adjacent cottage. Her arm was very seriously injured and the front of her dress had been torn.
Daly's solicitor contended that his client was in such a drunken condition at the time that he did not know what he was doing. But the Chairman of the Bench said he could scarcely conceive that such conduct could be possible in a civilised country and sent Daly to prison for two months.
John Crosby from Eccleston appeared in St Helens Police Court charged with drunkenness. As he had 37 times previously been before the Bench, the magistrates decided that fining him again would do him no good. And so they sent Crosby to Kirkdale Gaol for a month with hard labour, although I very much doubt that sentence would have stopped him from boozing.
Thomas Madden might have joined him in prison as he had quit working for the Greenbank Alkali Company on August 20th without giving notice. Why the furnaceman had suddenly departed was not stated in the newspaper report, although chemical works were particularly nasty places to work in. The firm demanded £2 in compensation and the magistrates ordered Madden to pay that amount and costs or serve a month in prison.
On the 11th at about 10pm, a man called Patrick Govern, who lived in Earlestown, was found lying at St Helens railway station with his right hand nearly cut off. The 45-year-old was unable to give a proper account of what had happened but it was assumed he had been run over by some passing engine while trying to cross the line. Mr Govan needed to have his hand amputated and was recovering in the Cottage Hospital in Peasley Cross.
Tickle was remanded but when brought up in court at the next hearing Mrs Burrows refused to prosecute the case. However, upon being pressed she gave bare details of what had occurred and her son-in-law was fined 20 shillings. Very likely it had been Alice's daughter who had pleaded with her mother not to cooperate in the prosecution.
It was a sad reflection of the times that it was not in the financial interests of battered wives for their husbands to be held accountable for their actions, with the 20 shilling fine probably having to come out of Tickle's wife's housekeeping money. But that was preferable to the husband being imprisoned, which would mean no household income for the duration.
St Helens Newspaper courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the abominable offence committed in the stable of the Derby Arms, the almighty row in Phythian Street, the attempted rape of a 9-year-old girl and the man who wandered into a coal mine and played at being an engineer.
This week's many stories include the tobacco and cigar manufactory that was coming to St Helens, the fake Liverpool doctor that got a Rainhill housemaid pregnant, the melee in the Mechanics Arms, the curious attempt at an indecent assault in Whiston and the Eccleston cook attacked while walking to a religious service in Prescot.
We begin on the 11th with an advert in the St Helens Newspaper from John Johnson & Son from Bolton who said they planned to open a "tobacco and cigar manufactory" in Naylor Street in St Helens. The firm was also an importer of tobacco.
C.D. Fothergill also made, sold and imported a range of tobacco products, including cigars and pipes having begun around 1880 and with premises in Church Street.
The sad tale of how a Rainhill housemaid had been "seduced" by a man who claimed to be a doctor was told at Prescot Petty Sessions this week.
Charles Lougest had set up a practice at Park Lane in Liverpool as a herbalist / botanist – although the St Helens Newspaper dubbed him a "quack".
Anybody then could then call themselves a doctor and Eliza Thistlewood had seen adverts by the supposed Dr Lougest claiming to be able to cure nervous debility.
So as she suffered from that complaint, the 21-year-old paid several visits to his practice and soon began having an affair – or as the Newspaper put it – "they got to be sweethearts".
Eliza always understood that Lougest was a single man but upon her last visit to Park Lane she found a woman inside the premises who claimed to be his wife.
Despite incriminating letters from Lougest being read out in court, the man completely denied being the father of the woman's child.
But the magistrates did not believe him and made an order for maintenance payments to be made to Eliza to the amount of five shillings per week.
In another case heard in Prescot Petty Sessions, Thomas Crooks was charged with attempting to commit an indecent assault upon Ellen Winders.
She told the court that she lived with her brother at Whiston.
On the previous Wednesday morning the brother had left their house at about half-past five in the morning to go to his work, leaving his sister in bed.
Ellen said she fell asleep and about half-past six felt something at her feet and on sitting up saw Thomas Crooks with his trousers off.
The man immediately jumped on the bed and, as it was put, attempted to take liberties with the woman.
But she struggled with him and Crooks subsequently got off the bed, put his trousers back on and went downstairs.
Just exactly why Thomas Crooks was in the house was not stated in the newspaper report but, presumably, he was a lodger.
However, his solicitor argued that the defendant had no criminal intent in doing what he did and, surprisingly, the Bench decided to dismiss the case.
In 1870 John Critchley became licensee of the Mechanics Arms in Ellamsbridge Road in Sutton.
Four years later he sued lodger Joseph Greenough for breach of promise and seduction after he got his daughter Margaret "in trouble" and changed his mind about marrying her. As a result Critchley was awarded the huge sum of £150 damages.
This week Critchley and his wife Jane summoned Thomas Brown of the Victoria Vaults (or Little Pig, as it became known), which was also in Ellamsbridge Road, alleging assault.
They claimed that Brown with others had entered their pub and started fighting, violently knocking Mrs Critchley over a table and causing much damage to glasses and jugs.
James Cullen had attempted to defend Mrs Critchley from the onslaught, but was knocked down and given a kicking by Brown.
There were all sorts of claims made in the court case, including that pokers had been used in the melee.
Brown claimed that when he had entered the Mechanics Arms he was struck over the head by three plates – one at a time.
It sounds a right palaver but in the end Thomas Brown was fined a total of £4 5 shillings for the assaults and damage, plus costs.
The Prescot Reporter stated that John Daly had this week been charged at the St Helens Petty Sessions with indecently assaulting Mary Sermons.
However, the St Helens Newspaper in their account said the cook (who they called Maria Surman) had suffered an aggravated assault.
As Mary (as I'll call her) had passed out during her ordeal, it was not known what the "rough-looking young fellow" actually did. And he was seemingly too drunk to know.
Mary appeared in court with her arm in a sling and said that at half-past six on the previous Tuesday she had left her employer's house to attend a religious service in Prescot.
On the journey Daly had run after Mary and pushed her down. She said she remembered nothing after that, except being carried into an adjacent cottage. Her arm was very seriously injured and the front of her dress had been torn.
Daly's solicitor contended that his client was in such a drunken condition at the time that he did not know what he was doing.
But the Chairman of the Bench said he could scarcely conceive that such conduct could be possible in a civilised country and sent Daly to prison for two months.
John Crosby from Eccleston appeared in St Helens Police Court charged with drunkenness.
As he had 37 times previously been before the Bench, the magistrates decided that fining him again would do him no good.
And so they sent Crosby to Kirkdale Gaol for a month with hard labour, although I very much doubt that sentence would have stopped him from boozing.
Thomas Madden might have joined him in prison as he had quit working for the Greenbank Alkali Company on August 20th without giving notice.
Why the furnaceman had suddenly departed was not stated in the newspaper report, although chemical works were particularly nasty places to work in.
The firm demanded £2 in compensation and the magistrates ordered Madden to pay that amount and costs or serve a month in prison.
On the 11th at about 10pm, a man called Patrick Govern, who lived in Earlestown, was found lying at St Helens railway station with his right hand nearly cut off.
The 45-year-old was unable to give a proper account of what had happened but it was assumed he had been run over by some passing engine while trying to cross the line.
Mr Govan needed to have his hand amputated and was recovering in the Cottage Hospital in Peasley Cross.
James Tickle appeared in court on the 14th accused of stabbing his mother-in-law at Sutton.
Alice Burrows had heard her daughter scream "murder" shortly after James had returned to their home in Watery Lane (pictured above) in a drunken condition and began beating his wife.
Upon entering the room, Alice found her son-in-law holding his wife by the neck with one hand and grasping a table knife with the other and making threats to kill.
Alice attempted to help her daughter and got stabbed in the arm.
Tickle was remanded but when brought up in court at the next hearing Mrs Burrows refused to prosecute the case.
However, upon being pressed she gave bare details of what had occurred and her son-in-law was fined 20 shillings.
Very likely it had been Alice's daughter who had pleaded with her mother not to cooperate in the prosecution.
It was a sad reflection of the times that it was not in the financial interests of battered wives for their husbands to be held accountable for their actions, with the 20 shilling fine probably having to come out of Tickle's wife's housekeeping money.
But that was preferable to the husband being imprisoned, which would mean no household income for the duration.
St Helens Newspaper courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the abominable offence committed in the stable of the Derby Arms, the almighty row in Phythian Street, the attempted rape of a 9-year-old girl and the man who wandered into a coal mine and played at being an engineer.
We begin on the 11th with an advert in the St Helens Newspaper from John Johnson & Son from Bolton who said they planned to open a "tobacco and cigar manufactory" in Naylor Street in St Helens. The firm was also an importer of tobacco.
C.D. Fothergill also made, sold and imported a range of tobacco products, including cigars and pipes having begun around 1880 and with premises in Church Street.
The sad tale of how a Rainhill housemaid had been "seduced" by a man who claimed to be a doctor was told at Prescot Petty Sessions this week.
Charles Lougest had set up a practice at Park Lane in Liverpool as a herbalist / botanist – although the St Helens Newspaper dubbed him a "quack".
Anybody then could then call themselves a doctor and Eliza Thistlewood had seen adverts by the supposed Dr Lougest claiming to be able to cure nervous debility.
So as she suffered from that complaint, the 21-year-old paid several visits to his practice and soon began having an affair – or as the Newspaper put it – "they got to be sweethearts".
Eliza always understood that Lougest was a single man but upon her last visit to Park Lane she found a woman inside the premises who claimed to be his wife.
Despite incriminating letters from Lougest being read out in court, the man completely denied being the father of the woman's child.
But the magistrates did not believe him and made an order for maintenance payments to be made to Eliza to the amount of five shillings per week.
In another case heard in Prescot Petty Sessions, Thomas Crooks was charged with attempting to commit an indecent assault upon Ellen Winders.
She told the court that she lived with her brother at Whiston.
On the previous Wednesday morning the brother had left their house at about half-past five in the morning to go to his work, leaving his sister in bed.
Ellen said she fell asleep and about half-past six felt something at her feet and on sitting up saw Thomas Crooks with his trousers off.
The man immediately jumped on the bed and, as it was put, attempted to take liberties with the woman.
But she struggled with him and Crooks subsequently got off the bed, put his trousers back on and went downstairs.
Just exactly why Thomas Crooks was in the house was not stated in the newspaper report but, presumably, he was a lodger.
However, his solicitor argued that the defendant had no criminal intent in doing what he did and, surprisingly, the Bench decided to dismiss the case.
In 1870 John Critchley became licensee of the Mechanics Arms in Ellamsbridge Road in Sutton.
Four years later he sued lodger Joseph Greenough for breach of promise and seduction after he got his daughter Margaret "in trouble" and changed his mind about marrying her. As a result Critchley was awarded the huge sum of £150 damages.
This week Critchley and his wife Jane summoned Thomas Brown of the Victoria Vaults (or Little Pig, as it became known), which was also in Ellamsbridge Road, alleging assault.
They claimed that Brown with others had entered their pub and started fighting, violently knocking Mrs Critchley over a table and causing much damage to glasses and jugs.
James Cullen had attempted to defend Mrs Critchley from the onslaught, but was knocked down and given a kicking by Brown.
There were all sorts of claims made in the court case, including that pokers had been used in the melee.
Brown claimed that when he had entered the Mechanics Arms he was struck over the head by three plates – one at a time.
It sounds a right palaver but in the end Thomas Brown was fined a total of £4 5 shillings for the assaults and damage, plus costs.
The Prescot Reporter stated that John Daly had this week been charged at the St Helens Petty Sessions with indecently assaulting Mary Sermons.
However, the St Helens Newspaper in their account said the cook (who they called Maria Surman) had suffered an aggravated assault.
As Mary (as I'll call her) had passed out during her ordeal, it was not known what the "rough-looking young fellow" actually did. And he was seemingly too drunk to know.
Mary appeared in court with her arm in a sling and said that at half-past six on the previous Tuesday she had left her employer's house to attend a religious service in Prescot.
On the journey Daly had run after Mary and pushed her down. She said she remembered nothing after that, except being carried into an adjacent cottage. Her arm was very seriously injured and the front of her dress had been torn.
Daly's solicitor contended that his client was in such a drunken condition at the time that he did not know what he was doing.
But the Chairman of the Bench said he could scarcely conceive that such conduct could be possible in a civilised country and sent Daly to prison for two months.
John Crosby from Eccleston appeared in St Helens Police Court charged with drunkenness.
As he had 37 times previously been before the Bench, the magistrates decided that fining him again would do him no good.
And so they sent Crosby to Kirkdale Gaol for a month with hard labour, although I very much doubt that sentence would have stopped him from boozing.
Thomas Madden might have joined him in prison as he had quit working for the Greenbank Alkali Company on August 20th without giving notice.
Why the furnaceman had suddenly departed was not stated in the newspaper report, although chemical works were particularly nasty places to work in.
The firm demanded £2 in compensation and the magistrates ordered Madden to pay that amount and costs or serve a month in prison.
On the 11th at about 10pm, a man called Patrick Govern, who lived in Earlestown, was found lying at St Helens railway station with his right hand nearly cut off.
The 45-year-old was unable to give a proper account of what had happened but it was assumed he had been run over by some passing engine while trying to cross the line.
Mr Govan needed to have his hand amputated and was recovering in the Cottage Hospital in Peasley Cross.
James Tickle appeared in court on the 14th accused of stabbing his mother-in-law at Sutton.
Upon entering the room, Alice found her son-in-law holding his wife by the neck with one hand and grasping a table knife with the other and making threats to kill.
Alice attempted to help her daughter and got stabbed in the arm.
Tickle was remanded but when brought up in court at the next hearing Mrs Burrows refused to prosecute the case.
However, upon being pressed she gave bare details of what had occurred and her son-in-law was fined 20 shillings.
Very likely it had been Alice's daughter who had pleaded with her mother not to cooperate in the prosecution.
It was a sad reflection of the times that it was not in the financial interests of battered wives for their husbands to be held accountable for their actions, with the 20 shilling fine probably having to come out of Tickle's wife's housekeeping money.
But that was preferable to the husband being imprisoned, which would mean no household income for the duration.
St Helens Newspaper courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the abominable offence committed in the stable of the Derby Arms, the almighty row in Phythian Street, the attempted rape of a 9-year-old girl and the man who wandered into a coal mine and played at being an engineer.