150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK 15 - 21 JANUARY 1874
This week's many stories include the freed slaves performing at the Volunteer Hall, a call to provide an ambulance for St Helens, the Pilkington's Glassworks apprentice who tried to abscond to India, the suicidal French polisher that the magistrates passed on to Oldham, a comical row between neighbours over gossip and the Rainhill man that died after police handcuffs had been placed too tightly on his wrists.
We begin on the 15th with a meeting of the Prescot Guardians, the folk who managed Whiston Workhouse where St Helens and Prescot paupers ended up. The house was getting increasingly crowded with 377 inmates during the previous week – of which 133 were children.
The Guardians also gave subsistence payments to the very poor in the community. This was known as outdoor relief or being on the "parish". The amount paid was meagre and it was revealed at the meeting that during the previous week 1,193 persons in St Helens had received a share of only £75 17s 6d.
There was not much good to be said about being in the workhouse or on the parish but the paupers did receive free medical care. Over the previous fortnight 167 cases had received attention in the workhouse hospital and 44 persons in St Helens had received free visits from a doctor. Patients with contagious diseases were brought to the Whiston infirmary that was attached to the workhouse in a horse-drawn cab.
I'm not sure if I had been a cab driver I'd have thought the risk of having folk with smallpox and other such conditions in my vehicle was worth the fare, even if I was sat out in front or on top driving the thing – but perhaps they weren't told beforehand. At the meeting a guardian asked why it was that an ambulance could not be provided to bring patients from St Helens. The answer was down to the cost of the ambulance and who should pay for it with the Chairman of the Guardians saying St Helens Town Council should be the ones that provided one. Not even the new Cottage Hospital in Peasley Cross had its own ambulance.
The Local Government Board had written to the Guardians reminding them that the children of persons in receipt of outdoor relief should regularly attend school. The Clerk to the Guardians stated that school attendance was a condition of receiving such relief and the "masters and mistresses" (i.e. teachers) were obliged to send them certificates of school attendance at regular intervals.
The Chairman of the Guardians added that a shilling per week was given for each child in such a family, but that it could be withdrawn if the parent neglected to send their child to school. That would have been the school fee, as education was not then completely free.
During the evening of the 16th the Jubilee Singers from America performed in the Volunteer Hall in St Helens. The black ensemble was on a tour of Europe to raise funds for the creation of Jubilee Hall on the campus of Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee. This was one of the first black colleges and universities to be established after the Civil War.
The seven females and four males that gave the concert to a crowded audience in St Helens were described as either freed slaves or their descendants. However, the St Helens Newspaper was far from impressed with their abilities, saying: "…such an entertainment, if given by “white folk,” would only elicit expressions of disapprobation."
There was usually at least one case in every Petty Sessions hearing that the Newspaper described using rather comical, flamboyant language. This week's was Bowles vs. Bracken in which a man was accused of threatening a female neighbour – who may have been Mary Bowles of New Cross Street. This is how the Newspaper described their dispute on the 17th:
"Mrs. Bowles, “mother of a large family,” wanted Bracken bound over, lest while in riotous freedom he might some day take it into his head to bring her children to the melancholy condition of maternal orphanage. Mr. Spencely [court clerk] looked very narrowly at the man who could be supposed to harbour the idea of cutting short the career of a respectable matron, and then asked him whether he was guilty or not. Bracken positively laughed, and denied his guilt.
"Mrs. Bowles then began her story, but like most of the ladies who pay suit to the magistrates, she did not appear to have been blessed with even a reasonably loud voice until their Worships declared she must “speak up” or give up. Then she spoke so as to be heard afar, and she said that Bracken had come with wild and terrible noises to her peaceful door; that he shouted aloud threatening her with instant death by pulling down her house; and that he also spoke to her, demanding that her children should be sent out to him, so that he might assert his superiority to them.
"Mrs. Bowles paused here, and concluded by telling the bench that she was “as quiet a woman as was to be found about the diggins.” Then came the defendant's story. “It's all spite yer Workshops,” he said to the magistrates in a mechanical sort of a way. It did not appear how the spite was generated; but defendant claimed to be the really aggrieved person.
"He got into a small argument with his wife – nothing more than an argument – and it went over the neighbourhood that he had used a sort of persuasion which can be applied very effectually with a fist or a poker. The women were very indignant of course, and it was decided at a doorstep privy council that Bracken was quite as bad as Corrigan.
"Consequently when next he appeared in public Mrs. Bowles called him by that name, and he gave her a trifle of his mind in return. The case was dismissed." The man called Corrigan that was mentioned in the report was Thomas Corrigan from Liverpool who had been executed at Kirkdale Gaol a couple of weeks before for brutally killing his mother.
It was illegal to attempt suicide but what the magistrates did with those accused of committing the offence varied considerably. In the case of William Sharmon – who appeared in St Helens Petty Sessions this week – the man was sent to Oldham. A constable told the court that on the previous Saturday night he had found the French polisher on the corner of Bridgewater Street – which was just south of Bridge Street – surrounded by a crowd.
Sharmon was feeling at his throat to see if it was bleeding as he had been trying to cut it with a blunt knife. Upon the magistrates asking what had induced him to try and "destroy himself" in such a way, he said he had been working in Oldham but had come to St Helens to live with his father. But they didn't get on as he said his father was always going on at him. He wanted to return to Oldham but had no money to pay his train fare.
Upon hearing his explanation the magistrates gave the amount of the fare to the police superintendent and asked him to send Sharmon to Oldham. Upon hearing the Bench's decision the man said he was much obliged to them for their kindness. In reality the magistrates were passing a problem person onto another town, something that they often did.
During the 19th century there were many prosecutions of people who failed to turn up for work. Often these were bound apprentices who were contractually tied to a firm from the age of 14 until they turned 21 and obtained their indentures. It was a harsh agreement for very low pay.
If youths tried to leave their employment or didn't go to work, they would initially receive warnings from their employer. If that didn't work then they would be put in front of the magistrates and warned again. The final sanction would be to return to court and be given a short prison sentence of around 7 to 14 days.
On the 19th William Gabriel appeared in St Helens Petty Sessions charged with absconding from Pilkington's Glassworks (pictured above) during his apprenticeship with the firm. The young man had joined the army and was arrested just as his regiment was about to sail to India. Gabriel was ordered to return to his job at Pilks and was not given any other penalty – but he had spent a couple of days in police custody waiting for his day in court.
It became a tradition in the late 19th and early 20th centuries for 'The Messiah' to be performed in St Helens every Christmas / New Year. During the evening of the 19th what was claimed as the very first performance of Handel's oratorio in the town took place in the Volunteer Hall in Mill Street.
On the 21st the inquest into the death of painter Joseph Simms was held at the Railway Inn at Rainhill. The 39-year-old had died from mortification, aka gangrene, which was believed to have been caused through police handcuffs being placed too tightly upon his wrists. Simms had been arrested for drunkenness and had been handcuffed while being escorted by train to Kirkdale Gaol. The police told the hearing that it was a common thing to "nip a piece of skin or flesh" out of a wrist when putting on handcuffs.
St Helens Newspaper courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the cow's head outside a butcher's that was causing an obstruction, Whiston Workhouse's Christmas tree celebration, the lengthy waits at Crank's level crossing and the new temperance movement in St Helens.
We begin on the 15th with a meeting of the Prescot Guardians, the folk who managed Whiston Workhouse where St Helens and Prescot paupers ended up. The house was getting increasingly crowded with 377 inmates during the previous week – of which 133 were children.
The Guardians also gave subsistence payments to the very poor in the community. This was known as outdoor relief or being on the "parish". The amount paid was meagre and it was revealed at the meeting that during the previous week 1,193 persons in St Helens had received a share of only £75 17s 6d.
There was not much good to be said about being in the workhouse or on the parish but the paupers did receive free medical care. Over the previous fortnight 167 cases had received attention in the workhouse hospital and 44 persons in St Helens had received free visits from a doctor. Patients with contagious diseases were brought to the Whiston infirmary that was attached to the workhouse in a horse-drawn cab.
I'm not sure if I had been a cab driver I'd have thought the risk of having folk with smallpox and other such conditions in my vehicle was worth the fare, even if I was sat out in front or on top driving the thing – but perhaps they weren't told beforehand. At the meeting a guardian asked why it was that an ambulance could not be provided to bring patients from St Helens. The answer was down to the cost of the ambulance and who should pay for it with the Chairman of the Guardians saying St Helens Town Council should be the ones that provided one. Not even the new Cottage Hospital in Peasley Cross had its own ambulance.
The Local Government Board had written to the Guardians reminding them that the children of persons in receipt of outdoor relief should regularly attend school. The Clerk to the Guardians stated that school attendance was a condition of receiving such relief and the "masters and mistresses" (i.e. teachers) were obliged to send them certificates of school attendance at regular intervals.
The Chairman of the Guardians added that a shilling per week was given for each child in such a family, but that it could be withdrawn if the parent neglected to send their child to school. That would have been the school fee, as education was not then completely free.
During the evening of the 16th the Jubilee Singers from America performed in the Volunteer Hall in St Helens. The black ensemble was on a tour of Europe to raise funds for the creation of Jubilee Hall on the campus of Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee. This was one of the first black colleges and universities to be established after the Civil War.
The seven females and four males that gave the concert to a crowded audience in St Helens were described as either freed slaves or their descendants. However, the St Helens Newspaper was far from impressed with their abilities, saying: "…such an entertainment, if given by “white folk,” would only elicit expressions of disapprobation."
There was usually at least one case in every Petty Sessions hearing that the Newspaper described using rather comical, flamboyant language. This week's was Bowles vs. Bracken in which a man was accused of threatening a female neighbour – who may have been Mary Bowles of New Cross Street. This is how the Newspaper described their dispute on the 17th:
"Mrs. Bowles, “mother of a large family,” wanted Bracken bound over, lest while in riotous freedom he might some day take it into his head to bring her children to the melancholy condition of maternal orphanage. Mr. Spencely [court clerk] looked very narrowly at the man who could be supposed to harbour the idea of cutting short the career of a respectable matron, and then asked him whether he was guilty or not. Bracken positively laughed, and denied his guilt.
"Mrs. Bowles then began her story, but like most of the ladies who pay suit to the magistrates, she did not appear to have been blessed with even a reasonably loud voice until their Worships declared she must “speak up” or give up. Then she spoke so as to be heard afar, and she said that Bracken had come with wild and terrible noises to her peaceful door; that he shouted aloud threatening her with instant death by pulling down her house; and that he also spoke to her, demanding that her children should be sent out to him, so that he might assert his superiority to them.
"Mrs. Bowles paused here, and concluded by telling the bench that she was “as quiet a woman as was to be found about the diggins.” Then came the defendant's story. “It's all spite yer Workshops,” he said to the magistrates in a mechanical sort of a way. It did not appear how the spite was generated; but defendant claimed to be the really aggrieved person.
"He got into a small argument with his wife – nothing more than an argument – and it went over the neighbourhood that he had used a sort of persuasion which can be applied very effectually with a fist or a poker. The women were very indignant of course, and it was decided at a doorstep privy council that Bracken was quite as bad as Corrigan.
"Consequently when next he appeared in public Mrs. Bowles called him by that name, and he gave her a trifle of his mind in return. The case was dismissed." The man called Corrigan that was mentioned in the report was Thomas Corrigan from Liverpool who had been executed at Kirkdale Gaol a couple of weeks before for brutally killing his mother.
It was illegal to attempt suicide but what the magistrates did with those accused of committing the offence varied considerably. In the case of William Sharmon – who appeared in St Helens Petty Sessions this week – the man was sent to Oldham. A constable told the court that on the previous Saturday night he had found the French polisher on the corner of Bridgewater Street – which was just south of Bridge Street – surrounded by a crowd.
Sharmon was feeling at his throat to see if it was bleeding as he had been trying to cut it with a blunt knife. Upon the magistrates asking what had induced him to try and "destroy himself" in such a way, he said he had been working in Oldham but had come to St Helens to live with his father. But they didn't get on as he said his father was always going on at him. He wanted to return to Oldham but had no money to pay his train fare.
Upon hearing his explanation the magistrates gave the amount of the fare to the police superintendent and asked him to send Sharmon to Oldham. Upon hearing the Bench's decision the man said he was much obliged to them for their kindness. In reality the magistrates were passing a problem person onto another town, something that they often did.
During the 19th century there were many prosecutions of people who failed to turn up for work. Often these were bound apprentices who were contractually tied to a firm from the age of 14 until they turned 21 and obtained their indentures. It was a harsh agreement for very low pay.
If youths tried to leave their employment or didn't go to work, they would initially receive warnings from their employer. If that didn't work then they would be put in front of the magistrates and warned again. The final sanction would be to return to court and be given a short prison sentence of around 7 to 14 days.
It became a tradition in the late 19th and early 20th centuries for 'The Messiah' to be performed in St Helens every Christmas / New Year. During the evening of the 19th what was claimed as the very first performance of Handel's oratorio in the town took place in the Volunteer Hall in Mill Street.
On the 21st the inquest into the death of painter Joseph Simms was held at the Railway Inn at Rainhill. The 39-year-old had died from mortification, aka gangrene, which was believed to have been caused through police handcuffs being placed too tightly upon his wrists. Simms had been arrested for drunkenness and had been handcuffed while being escorted by train to Kirkdale Gaol. The police told the hearing that it was a common thing to "nip a piece of skin or flesh" out of a wrist when putting on handcuffs.
St Helens Newspaper courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the cow's head outside a butcher's that was causing an obstruction, Whiston Workhouse's Christmas tree celebration, the lengthy waits at Crank's level crossing and the new temperance movement in St Helens.
This week's many stories include the freed slaves performing at the Volunteer Hall, a call to provide an ambulance for St Helens, the Pilkington's Glassworks apprentice who tried to abscond to India, the suicidal French polisher that the magistrates passed on to Oldham, a comical row between neighbours over gossip and the Rainhill man that died after police handcuffs had been placed too tightly on his wrists.
We begin on the 15th with a meeting of the Prescot Guardians, the folk who managed Whiston Workhouse where St Helens and Prescot paupers ended up.
The house was getting increasingly crowded with 377 inmates during the previous week – of which 133 were children.
The Guardians also gave subsistence payments to the very poor in the community. This was known as outdoor relief or being on the "parish".
The amount paid was meagre and it was revealed at the meeting that during the previous week 1,193 persons in St Helens had received a share of only £75 17s 6d.
There was not much good to be said about being in the workhouse or on the parish but the paupers did receive free medical care.
Over the previous fortnight 167 cases had received attention in the workhouse hospital and 44 persons in St Helens had received free visits from a doctor.
Patients with contagious diseases were brought to the Whiston infirmary that was attached to the workhouse in a horse-drawn cab.
I'm not sure if I had been a cab driver I'd have thought the risk of having folk with smallpox and other such conditions in my vehicle was worth the fare, even if I was sat out in front or on top driving the thing – but perhaps they weren't told beforehand.
At the meeting a guardian asked why it was that an ambulance could not be provided to bring patients from St Helens.
The answer was down to the cost of the ambulance and who should pay for it with the Chairman of the Guardians saying St Helens Town Council should be the ones that provided one. Not even the new Cottage Hospital in Peasley Cross had its own ambulance.
The Local Government Board had written to the Guardians reminding them that the children of persons in receipt of outdoor relief should regularly attend school.
The Clerk to the Guardians stated that school attendance was a condition of receiving such relief and the "masters and mistresses" (i.e. teachers) were obliged to send them certificates of school attendance at regular intervals.
The Chairman of the Guardians added that a shilling per week was given for each child in such a family, but that it could be withdrawn if the parent neglected to send their child to school. That would have been the school fee, as education was not then completely free.
During the evening of the 16th the Jubilee Singers from America performed in the Volunteer Hall in St Helens.
The black ensemble was on a tour of Europe to raise funds for the creation of Jubilee Hall on the campus of Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee.
This was one of the first black colleges and universities to be established after the Civil War.
The seven females and four males that gave the concert to a crowded audience in St Helens were described as either freed slaves or their descendants.
However, the St Helens Newspaper was far from impressed with their abilities, saying: "…such an entertainment, if given by “white folk,” would only elicit expressions of disapprobation."
There was usually at least one case in every Petty Sessions hearing that the Newspaper described using rather comical, flamboyant language.
This week's was Bowles vs. Bracken in which a man was accused of threatening a female neighbour – who may have been Mary Bowles of New Cross Street. This is how the Newspaper described their dispute on the 17th:
"Mrs. Bowles, “mother of a large family,” wanted Bracken bound over, lest while in riotous freedom he might some day take it into his head to bring her children to the melancholy condition of maternal orphanage.
"Mr. Spencely [court clerk] looked very narrowly at the man who could be supposed to harbour the idea of cutting short the career of a respectable matron, and then asked him whether he was guilty or not. Bracken positively laughed, and denied his guilt.
"Mrs. Bowles then began her story, but like most of the ladies who pay suit to the magistrates, she did not appear to have been blessed with even a reasonably loud voice until their Worships declared she must “speak up” or give up.
"Then she spoke so as to be heard afar, and she said that Bracken had come with wild and terrible noises to her peaceful door; that he shouted aloud threatening her with instant death by pulling down her house; and that he also spoke to her, demanding that her children should be sent out to him, so that he might assert his superiority to them.
"Mrs. Bowles paused here, and concluded by telling the bench that she was “as quiet a woman as was to be found about the diggins.” Then came the defendant's story. “It's all spite yer Workshops,” he said to the magistrates in a mechanical sort of a way.
"It did not appear how the spite was generated; but defendant claimed to be the really aggrieved person.
"He got into a small argument with his wife – nothing more than an argument – and it went over the neighbourhood that he had used a sort of persuasion which can be applied very effectually with a fist or a poker.
"The women were very indignant of course, and it was decided at a doorstep privy council that Bracken was quite as bad as Corrigan.
"Consequently when next he appeared in public Mrs. Bowles called him by that name, and he gave her a trifle of his mind in return. The case was dismissed."
The man called Corrigan that was mentioned in the report was Thomas Corrigan from Liverpool who had been executed at Kirkdale Gaol a couple of weeks before for brutally killing his mother.
It was illegal to attempt suicide but what the magistrates did with those accused of committing the offence varied considerably.
In the case of William Sharmon – who appeared in St Helens Petty Sessions this week – the man was sent to Oldham.
A constable told the court that on the previous Saturday night he had found the French polisher on the corner of Bridgewater Street – which was just south of Bridge Street – surrounded by a crowd.
Sharmon was feeling at his throat to see if it was bleeding as he had been trying to cut it with a blunt knife.
Upon the magistrates asking what had induced him to try and "destroy himself" in such a way, he said he had been working in Oldham but had come to St Helens to live with his father.
But they didn't get on as he said his father was always going on at him. He wanted to return to Oldham but had no money to pay his train fare.
Upon hearing his explanation the magistrates gave the amount of the fare to the police superintendent and asked him to send Sharmon to Oldham.
Upon hearing the Bench's decision the man said he was much obliged to them for their kindness.
In reality the magistrates were passing a problem person onto another town, something that they often did.
During the 19th century there were many prosecutions of people who failed to turn up for work.
Often these were bound apprentices who were contractually tied to a firm from the age of 14 until they turned 21 and obtained their indentures.
It was a harsh agreement for very low pay. If youths tried to leave their employment or didn't go to work, they would initially receive warnings from their employer.
If that didn't work then they would be put in front of the magistrates and warned again.
The final sanction would be to return to court and be given a short prison sentence of around 7 to 14 days.
On the 19th William Gabriel appeared in St Helens Petty Sessions charged with absconding from Pilkington's Glassworks (pictured above) during his apprenticeship with the firm.
The young man had joined the army and was arrested just as his regiment was about to sail to India.
Gabriel was ordered to return to his job at Pilks and was not given any other penalty – but he had spent a couple of days in police custody waiting for his day in court.
It became a tradition in the late 19th and early 20th centuries for 'The Messiah' to be performed in St Helens every Christmas / New Year.
During the evening of the 19th what was claimed as the very first performance of Handel's oratorio in the town took place in the Volunteer Hall in Mill Street.
On the 21st the inquest into the death of painter Joseph Simms was held at the Railway Inn at Rainhill.
The 39-year-old had died from mortification, aka gangrene, which was believed to have been caused through police handcuffs being placed too tightly upon his wrists.
Simms had been arrested for drunkenness and had been handcuffed while being escorted by train to Kirkdale Gaol.
The police told the hearing that it was a common thing to "nip a piece of skin or flesh" out of a wrist when putting on handcuffs.
St Helens Newspaper courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the cow's head outside a butcher's that was causing an obstruction, Whiston Workhouse's Christmas tree celebration, the lengthy waits at Crank's level crossing and the new temperance movement in St Helens.
We begin on the 15th with a meeting of the Prescot Guardians, the folk who managed Whiston Workhouse where St Helens and Prescot paupers ended up.
The house was getting increasingly crowded with 377 inmates during the previous week – of which 133 were children.
The Guardians also gave subsistence payments to the very poor in the community. This was known as outdoor relief or being on the "parish".
The amount paid was meagre and it was revealed at the meeting that during the previous week 1,193 persons in St Helens had received a share of only £75 17s 6d.
There was not much good to be said about being in the workhouse or on the parish but the paupers did receive free medical care.
Over the previous fortnight 167 cases had received attention in the workhouse hospital and 44 persons in St Helens had received free visits from a doctor.
Patients with contagious diseases were brought to the Whiston infirmary that was attached to the workhouse in a horse-drawn cab.
I'm not sure if I had been a cab driver I'd have thought the risk of having folk with smallpox and other such conditions in my vehicle was worth the fare, even if I was sat out in front or on top driving the thing – but perhaps they weren't told beforehand.
At the meeting a guardian asked why it was that an ambulance could not be provided to bring patients from St Helens.
The answer was down to the cost of the ambulance and who should pay for it with the Chairman of the Guardians saying St Helens Town Council should be the ones that provided one. Not even the new Cottage Hospital in Peasley Cross had its own ambulance.
The Local Government Board had written to the Guardians reminding them that the children of persons in receipt of outdoor relief should regularly attend school.
The Clerk to the Guardians stated that school attendance was a condition of receiving such relief and the "masters and mistresses" (i.e. teachers) were obliged to send them certificates of school attendance at regular intervals.
The Chairman of the Guardians added that a shilling per week was given for each child in such a family, but that it could be withdrawn if the parent neglected to send their child to school. That would have been the school fee, as education was not then completely free.
During the evening of the 16th the Jubilee Singers from America performed in the Volunteer Hall in St Helens.
The black ensemble was on a tour of Europe to raise funds for the creation of Jubilee Hall on the campus of Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee.
This was one of the first black colleges and universities to be established after the Civil War.
The seven females and four males that gave the concert to a crowded audience in St Helens were described as either freed slaves or their descendants.
However, the St Helens Newspaper was far from impressed with their abilities, saying: "…such an entertainment, if given by “white folk,” would only elicit expressions of disapprobation."
There was usually at least one case in every Petty Sessions hearing that the Newspaper described using rather comical, flamboyant language.
This week's was Bowles vs. Bracken in which a man was accused of threatening a female neighbour – who may have been Mary Bowles of New Cross Street. This is how the Newspaper described their dispute on the 17th:
"Mrs. Bowles, “mother of a large family,” wanted Bracken bound over, lest while in riotous freedom he might some day take it into his head to bring her children to the melancholy condition of maternal orphanage.
"Mr. Spencely [court clerk] looked very narrowly at the man who could be supposed to harbour the idea of cutting short the career of a respectable matron, and then asked him whether he was guilty or not. Bracken positively laughed, and denied his guilt.
"Mrs. Bowles then began her story, but like most of the ladies who pay suit to the magistrates, she did not appear to have been blessed with even a reasonably loud voice until their Worships declared she must “speak up” or give up.
"Then she spoke so as to be heard afar, and she said that Bracken had come with wild and terrible noises to her peaceful door; that he shouted aloud threatening her with instant death by pulling down her house; and that he also spoke to her, demanding that her children should be sent out to him, so that he might assert his superiority to them.
"Mrs. Bowles paused here, and concluded by telling the bench that she was “as quiet a woman as was to be found about the diggins.” Then came the defendant's story. “It's all spite yer Workshops,” he said to the magistrates in a mechanical sort of a way.
"It did not appear how the spite was generated; but defendant claimed to be the really aggrieved person.
"He got into a small argument with his wife – nothing more than an argument – and it went over the neighbourhood that he had used a sort of persuasion which can be applied very effectually with a fist or a poker.
"The women were very indignant of course, and it was decided at a doorstep privy council that Bracken was quite as bad as Corrigan.
"Consequently when next he appeared in public Mrs. Bowles called him by that name, and he gave her a trifle of his mind in return. The case was dismissed."
The man called Corrigan that was mentioned in the report was Thomas Corrigan from Liverpool who had been executed at Kirkdale Gaol a couple of weeks before for brutally killing his mother.
It was illegal to attempt suicide but what the magistrates did with those accused of committing the offence varied considerably.
In the case of William Sharmon – who appeared in St Helens Petty Sessions this week – the man was sent to Oldham.
A constable told the court that on the previous Saturday night he had found the French polisher on the corner of Bridgewater Street – which was just south of Bridge Street – surrounded by a crowd.
Sharmon was feeling at his throat to see if it was bleeding as he had been trying to cut it with a blunt knife.
Upon the magistrates asking what had induced him to try and "destroy himself" in such a way, he said he had been working in Oldham but had come to St Helens to live with his father.
But they didn't get on as he said his father was always going on at him. He wanted to return to Oldham but had no money to pay his train fare.
Upon hearing his explanation the magistrates gave the amount of the fare to the police superintendent and asked him to send Sharmon to Oldham.
Upon hearing the Bench's decision the man said he was much obliged to them for their kindness.
In reality the magistrates were passing a problem person onto another town, something that they often did.
During the 19th century there were many prosecutions of people who failed to turn up for work.
Often these were bound apprentices who were contractually tied to a firm from the age of 14 until they turned 21 and obtained their indentures.
It was a harsh agreement for very low pay. If youths tried to leave their employment or didn't go to work, they would initially receive warnings from their employer.
If that didn't work then they would be put in front of the magistrates and warned again.
The final sanction would be to return to court and be given a short prison sentence of around 7 to 14 days.
The young man had joined the army and was arrested just as his regiment was about to sail to India.
Gabriel was ordered to return to his job at Pilks and was not given any other penalty – but he had spent a couple of days in police custody waiting for his day in court.
It became a tradition in the late 19th and early 20th centuries for 'The Messiah' to be performed in St Helens every Christmas / New Year.
During the evening of the 19th what was claimed as the very first performance of Handel's oratorio in the town took place in the Volunteer Hall in Mill Street.
On the 21st the inquest into the death of painter Joseph Simms was held at the Railway Inn at Rainhill.
The 39-year-old had died from mortification, aka gangrene, which was believed to have been caused through police handcuffs being placed too tightly upon his wrists.
Simms had been arrested for drunkenness and had been handcuffed while being escorted by train to Kirkdale Gaol.
The police told the hearing that it was a common thing to "nip a piece of skin or flesh" out of a wrist when putting on handcuffs.
St Helens Newspaper courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the cow's head outside a butcher's that was causing an obstruction, Whiston Workhouse's Christmas tree celebration, the lengthy waits at Crank's level crossing and the new temperance movement in St Helens.