150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (13th - 19th May 1869)
This week's stories include an inquiry into the sex scandal at Whiston Workhouse, the first bus service in St Helens, the "shivering, bare-footed little bundle of suffering humanity" from Smithy Brow, a "murderous assault" within a Westfield Street "house of ill fame", the Whit Monday excursionists and the woman whose Irish was got up in Victoria Passage.
We begin on the 15th when the St Helens Newspaper published this extraordinary letter written by a woman using the Latin pseudonym 'Materfamilias': "In the midst of the heavy soaking rain of Friday evening, a shivering, bare-footed, little bundle of suffering humanity, came to my door to beg.
"It was a little girl of only five years of age, and, on questioning the child, who, despite her misery and her rags, was pretty and interesting looking, I found that she had walked from St. Helens, a distance of some two miles, in the drenching rain; that her mother sends her out regularly to beg, wet or dry; that her name is Annie Kearney; that her father is dead, and she lives on Smithy Brow, with her mother and brothers and sisters.
"Now, either her mother is a depraved, cruel, and thoroughly worthless woman, or she is suffering from some disease which prevents her earning a livelihood and supporting her little ones, at least so as to keep them from such utter misery as that of the poor child I have described.
"In any case this should not be allowed to go on. The writer would be sorry if this letter brought any undeserved trouble on the woman. If she is utterly abandoned and bad, the children should be taken from her; but if she has anything in her favour she should be relieved, and suitable employment given to her and her children.
"For the credit of St. Helens, if for no better motive, a disgraceful trade such as this seems to be, that of systematically training up children to beg, and under the most miserable circumstance, ought to be put an end to."
The Newspaper also wrote of a visit to St Helens by General Sir William Denison of the Rivers Pollution Commission, who had:
"…held out some charming prospects of pleasant rippling brooks, instead of “pea-soup” like streams; smiling green fields instead of noxious and unsightly heaps of alkali waste; and these splendid transformations are to take place within a few years, and, what is better, without any injury to our manufacturers."
However the paper was rather cynical of such talk of clean brooks and the chemical industry's waste heaps being obliterated, writing: "All hail, to the beautiful time coming!" Sir William had told the Newspaper that he had been on overseas trips and they wondered whether he had "met with the genie of the Arabian Nights or the Fairy of Cinderella and have they imparted to him their secrets?"!
The 15th was an important day in the history of St Helens as what appears to have been the first bus service operating within the town began running. The Newspaper wrote: "From an advertisement in another column, it will be seen that a gentleman has at length been found with sufficient public spirit to start an omnibus in St. Helens."
That man was John Young of the Raven Hotel and his horse-driven bus would travel from the railway station to St Ann's in Eccleston with five services each day. There was already an omnibus service that ran from Prescot to St Helens but this appears to have been the first within the town itself.
Coaches also ran to other towns from the Raven and in the yard of the closed down inn (now an unofficial car park) there are still some rusty iron rings attached to the walls that horses were tethered to (as pictured above).
The 17th was Whit Monday and most shops in St Helens closed for the day, with many residents going on an excursion. The most popular medium of advertisement in 1869 was not newspapers – which much of the working class did not or could not read – but posters or handbills. The St Helens Newspaper wrote that during the week prior to Whit, "our walls were placarded with the announcement of cheap excursions to almost all parts of the country boasting of scenic beauties, and he who possessed time and inclination had many sources of healthful pleasure to make a selection from.
"The morning looked bright and cheering, and the early trains carried off large numbers of excursionists, some bound to contiguous places, and others bent on opening their summer vacation by a pleasant trip to some healthful locality, where the dust and smoke of our furnace-begift borough may be shaken off by the pure fresh breezes, and the mind depressed by the cares of daily toil, may grow more elastic from rejuvenated health."
The St Helens Petty Sessions still sat on the 17th despite it being Whit Monday and Bridget Kenny was charged with committing a breach of the peace by striking an unknown man. The incident had taken place in the infamous Victoria Passage (pictured above). This was an entry between Bridge Street and Naylor Street and quite a number of low-level crimes took place there.
Constable Darmody told the court that he had seen the defendant and some other women abusing a man, with Bridget vigorously beating him with a bottle. The woman said the man had struck her in the mouth while walking through the passage and her Irish being got up, she retaliated with the bottle that she happened to have in her hand. The magistrates bound her over.
Thomas Clarke – described as a "young lad" – was charged with assaulting Mary Rigby of Eccleston. He was alleged to have knocked at the woman's house and then thrown a stone that struck Mary on the shoulder. The boy was fined a total of 12 shillings – including costs – but his father said his son would have to go to prison, as he would "pay nothing".
"Murderous Assault in a House of Ill Fame", was the St Helens Newspaper's headline to their article on an incident in a Westfield Street beerhouse. John Woodcock was described as the proprietor of a "house of ill repute", which in the 1871 census was called the Temp Hotel.
The 45-year-old was in court charged with assaulting Patrick Nolan but his solicitor said the 18-year-old had brought his injury upon himself. Reading between the lines it appears that he did something that he shouldn't with one of the women in the house and got battered for his trouble.
Patrick Nolan appeared in court with his head wrapped in a handkerchief and admitted being in a state of intoxication when he went into the beerhouse and remembered nothing of what had happened. The Chairman of the Bench said: "I do not know what kind of a house is there now, and if it is what it used to be, it is a great pity this young man should go there, and it is a great pity Woodcock would not keep a better house."
The defence offered to settle the case and after a short recess it was decided that Nolan would receive £2 compensation, plus 4s 6d for lost wages through being off work injured. His wages from the Kurtz Alkali Works were twenty shillings a week and so £2 was considered a good result.
On the 18th poor law inspector Basil Cane held a 7-hour inquiry at Whiston Workhouse into a charge of gross immorality against the workhouse master, Thomas Holmes. Mary Sixsmith had made the allegation. She was now a patient in the workhouse hospital, and had been an inmate of the house – along with two of her three children – for almost four years.
The 36-year-old had accused the master of having had sex with her on several occasions and making her pregnant from which she miscarried last October. Mary alleged that in return for sex the master had allowed her more freedom around the workhouse and had supplied her with more food, beer and clothing than the other paupers. On one occasion he gave her money.
The woman was too ill to attend the inquiry but had made a statement on oath and also gave the names of several inmates and officials to corroborate her account. A number of witnesses gave evidence and all spoke of rumours prior to the miscarriage that the master had made the woman pregnant.
However they also stated that Mary Sixsmith was often in a drunken state. Although that did not help her credibility, the inmates were only allowed small amounts of alcohol. So the question in the mind of the Inspector would be where had the woman been getting the drink from, if it hadn't been from the master?
A 67-year-old inmate named Thomas Harrison also gave evidence that while lying in hospital, Mary Sixsmith had approached him while drunk and thrown herself upon him and then did the same to another patient. The master was reported to have "positively and solemnly repudiated the charges" of the woman and denied that any intimacy of any kind had ever existed between them.
The Inspector said he would report the proceedings to the Poor Law Board and await their decision. Should it be necessary to hold an inquiry into the other charges against the master made by the doctor and nurses, he would inform the Guardians.
And finally James Berry of George Street had another advert published in the Tuesday edition of the St Helens Newspaper (price 1 penny) on the 18th. Not only was he the town crier "by special appointment of the Local Board of Commissioners", but Berry was also a billposter, delivering circulars and handbills around St Helens "with promptitude".
Next week's article will be posted with promptitude on Friday and include the bull that got stuck in a Prescot shop, the resolution of the Whiston Workhouse sex scandal, an assault on the Rainford Junction stationmaster, the man who suffered from the blue devils and the Ancient Shepherds' Friendly Society at Parr are sued in the County Court.
We begin on the 15th when the St Helens Newspaper published this extraordinary letter written by a woman using the Latin pseudonym 'Materfamilias': "In the midst of the heavy soaking rain of Friday evening, a shivering, bare-footed, little bundle of suffering humanity, came to my door to beg.
"It was a little girl of only five years of age, and, on questioning the child, who, despite her misery and her rags, was pretty and interesting looking, I found that she had walked from St. Helens, a distance of some two miles, in the drenching rain; that her mother sends her out regularly to beg, wet or dry; that her name is Annie Kearney; that her father is dead, and she lives on Smithy Brow, with her mother and brothers and sisters.
"Now, either her mother is a depraved, cruel, and thoroughly worthless woman, or she is suffering from some disease which prevents her earning a livelihood and supporting her little ones, at least so as to keep them from such utter misery as that of the poor child I have described.
"In any case this should not be allowed to go on. The writer would be sorry if this letter brought any undeserved trouble on the woman. If she is utterly abandoned and bad, the children should be taken from her; but if she has anything in her favour she should be relieved, and suitable employment given to her and her children.
"For the credit of St. Helens, if for no better motive, a disgraceful trade such as this seems to be, that of systematically training up children to beg, and under the most miserable circumstance, ought to be put an end to."
The Newspaper also wrote of a visit to St Helens by General Sir William Denison of the Rivers Pollution Commission, who had:
"…held out some charming prospects of pleasant rippling brooks, instead of “pea-soup” like streams; smiling green fields instead of noxious and unsightly heaps of alkali waste; and these splendid transformations are to take place within a few years, and, what is better, without any injury to our manufacturers."
However the paper was rather cynical of such talk of clean brooks and the chemical industry's waste heaps being obliterated, writing: "All hail, to the beautiful time coming!" Sir William had told the Newspaper that he had been on overseas trips and they wondered whether he had "met with the genie of the Arabian Nights or the Fairy of Cinderella and have they imparted to him their secrets?"!
The 15th was an important day in the history of St Helens as what appears to have been the first bus service operating within the town began running. The Newspaper wrote: "From an advertisement in another column, it will be seen that a gentleman has at length been found with sufficient public spirit to start an omnibus in St. Helens."
That man was John Young of the Raven Hotel and his horse-driven bus would travel from the railway station to St Ann's in Eccleston with five services each day. There was already an omnibus service that ran from Prescot to St Helens but this appears to have been the first within the town itself.
The 17th was Whit Monday and most shops in St Helens closed for the day, with many residents going on an excursion. The most popular medium of advertisement in 1869 was not newspapers – which much of the working class did not or could not read – but posters or handbills. The St Helens Newspaper wrote that during the week prior to Whit, "our walls were placarded with the announcement of cheap excursions to almost all parts of the country boasting of scenic beauties, and he who possessed time and inclination had many sources of healthful pleasure to make a selection from.
"The morning looked bright and cheering, and the early trains carried off large numbers of excursionists, some bound to contiguous places, and others bent on opening their summer vacation by a pleasant trip to some healthful locality, where the dust and smoke of our furnace-begift borough may be shaken off by the pure fresh breezes, and the mind depressed by the cares of daily toil, may grow more elastic from rejuvenated health."
Constable Darmody told the court that he had seen the defendant and some other women abusing a man, with Bridget vigorously beating him with a bottle. The woman said the man had struck her in the mouth while walking through the passage and her Irish being got up, she retaliated with the bottle that she happened to have in her hand. The magistrates bound her over.
Thomas Clarke – described as a "young lad" – was charged with assaulting Mary Rigby of Eccleston. He was alleged to have knocked at the woman's house and then thrown a stone that struck Mary on the shoulder. The boy was fined a total of 12 shillings – including costs – but his father said his son would have to go to prison, as he would "pay nothing".
"Murderous Assault in a House of Ill Fame", was the St Helens Newspaper's headline to their article on an incident in a Westfield Street beerhouse. John Woodcock was described as the proprietor of a "house of ill repute", which in the 1871 census was called the Temp Hotel.
The 45-year-old was in court charged with assaulting Patrick Nolan but his solicitor said the 18-year-old had brought his injury upon himself. Reading between the lines it appears that he did something that he shouldn't with one of the women in the house and got battered for his trouble.
Patrick Nolan appeared in court with his head wrapped in a handkerchief and admitted being in a state of intoxication when he went into the beerhouse and remembered nothing of what had happened. The Chairman of the Bench said: "I do not know what kind of a house is there now, and if it is what it used to be, it is a great pity this young man should go there, and it is a great pity Woodcock would not keep a better house."
The defence offered to settle the case and after a short recess it was decided that Nolan would receive £2 compensation, plus 4s 6d for lost wages through being off work injured. His wages from the Kurtz Alkali Works were twenty shillings a week and so £2 was considered a good result.
On the 18th poor law inspector Basil Cane held a 7-hour inquiry at Whiston Workhouse into a charge of gross immorality against the workhouse master, Thomas Holmes. Mary Sixsmith had made the allegation. She was now a patient in the workhouse hospital, and had been an inmate of the house – along with two of her three children – for almost four years.
The 36-year-old had accused the master of having had sex with her on several occasions and making her pregnant from which she miscarried last October. Mary alleged that in return for sex the master had allowed her more freedom around the workhouse and had supplied her with more food, beer and clothing than the other paupers. On one occasion he gave her money.
The woman was too ill to attend the inquiry but had made a statement on oath and also gave the names of several inmates and officials to corroborate her account. A number of witnesses gave evidence and all spoke of rumours prior to the miscarriage that the master had made the woman pregnant.
However they also stated that Mary Sixsmith was often in a drunken state. Although that did not help her credibility, the inmates were only allowed small amounts of alcohol. So the question in the mind of the Inspector would be where had the woman been getting the drink from, if it hadn't been from the master?
A 67-year-old inmate named Thomas Harrison also gave evidence that while lying in hospital, Mary Sixsmith had approached him while drunk and thrown herself upon him and then did the same to another patient. The master was reported to have "positively and solemnly repudiated the charges" of the woman and denied that any intimacy of any kind had ever existed between them.
The Inspector said he would report the proceedings to the Poor Law Board and await their decision. Should it be necessary to hold an inquiry into the other charges against the master made by the doctor and nurses, he would inform the Guardians.
And finally James Berry of George Street had another advert published in the Tuesday edition of the St Helens Newspaper (price 1 penny) on the 18th. Not only was he the town crier "by special appointment of the Local Board of Commissioners", but Berry was also a billposter, delivering circulars and handbills around St Helens "with promptitude".
Next week's article will be posted with promptitude on Friday and include the bull that got stuck in a Prescot shop, the resolution of the Whiston Workhouse sex scandal, an assault on the Rainford Junction stationmaster, the man who suffered from the blue devils and the Ancient Shepherds' Friendly Society at Parr are sued in the County Court.