150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (15th - 21st FEBRUARY 1871)
This week's stories include the posh St Helens Catholic Charity Ball, the mockery of the Chinese hawker, the threatened Parr grocer and the great "looby" accused of being afraid of an old woman.
We begin in the Volunteer Hall (shown above in later times) on the 15th when the annual St Helens Catholic Charity Ball was held with music provided by a quadrille band. The proceeds of the event went to fund the Catholic schools in the district, although the ticket prices at 4 shillings each would have excluded the vast majority of scholars' parents.
In fact the Newspaper wrote that tickets for the event had been secured by "the most respectable families in the town and neighbourhood". So no riff-raff then! One of the high-class folk expected to be in attendance was Sir Robert Gerard of Garswood Hall who had been an equerry to Queen Victoria at the recent opening of Parliament. The advertisement for the ball said that the room would be perfumed by "Rimmel's patent oderisers".
I quite like the fact that the St Helens Newspaper would often tell its readers what they already knew – what the weather had been like, as opposed to a weather forecast. Otherwise we would not get these little insights: "We were visited with a heavy snow-storm on Saturday night, and the ground presented a thick white garb on Sunday morning, hence then the weather has improved, a rapid thaw removing all traces of winter, and the genial warmth of spring is now felt."
In the St Helens Petty Sessions on the 21st John Plant and James Caher were charged with drunkenly creating a disturbance in Liverpool Road. Plant denied the charge claiming he was only a "looker-on" but the Newspaper wrote: "It however turned out when the police records were turned up that his name was a Plant of more than biennial growth in the bobby's books, he having been pruned before the “beak” six times previously." The pair was bound over to keep the peace.
This is how the Newspaper described another case in the Sessions: "John Moning, Chinese, the colour of spent tea, who managed, although he could speak “very leetle” English, to inform the bench that he was a native of Singapore, was charged with hawking a few small articles from house to house. The bench took a lenient view of his case, considering that our licence regulations were not familiar to the lower classes in Singapore, and discharged the prisoner, after explaining to him the licence law in English, which, of course, he did not understand, though he evidently understood the nature of a discharge from custody."
There was an international aspect to the next case too. It involved John Doyle who, together with his wife, had travelled to America and deserted their five children. The kids were currently in Whiston Workhouse but looking after paupers cost brass and if the Guardians in charge could dump any inmates onto another workhouse, they certainly would. Thomas Martin, the clerk to the Prescot Union, applied for an order to transfer the Doyle children to Liverpool Workhouse as he said they came from that city and the request was granted.
The Newspaper was clearly in an impish mood this week and also waxed lyrical in this court case in which a woman was charged with making threats to assault: "Betsy Hardman, an elderly female, was summoned by a young man named William McCall, charged with having threatened to assault him. Mr Swift appeared for the defendant. Complainant said he was going to his work when the defendant called to him and intimated that her feelings in his regard were so strong that nothing could give her greater pleasure than to “pull his liver out,” and “to put a nail in his coffin.”
"He told her he was delighted with the expression of her kind regards, at the same time he would prefer a little “talk” with her son on the subject. She, however, was so pressing in her attentions to him that she actually followed him to Mill-street, and he now said that he feared she intended to “mill” [assault] him. Mr. Swift [defence counsel] appealed to the bench whether it was at all likely that that great “looby” could be afraid of an old woman like his client, who, of course, was looking all the while a pattern of quietness, the most inoffensive. The Bench dismissed the case."
Every Tuesday the St Helens County Court sat in its premises in East Street (shown above) and on some days adjudicated on as many as 150 disputes. I always find that extraordinary considering the small population of the town at that time. Passions in these civic cases could quickly get enflamed leading to the two parties transferring over to the criminal court in the Town Hall. That happened in Billinge vs. Glover last week in which grocer John Billinge summoned James Glover to the County Court for non-payment of a longstanding debt.
The 50-year-old from Park Road obtained an order from the judge that Glover must pay off his arrears at 4 shillings a month. The defendant wanted to pay in instalments of two shillings a month. However the grocer contended that Glover kept a racing dog and could easily afford the higher amount. That infuriated Glover who upon leaving the court seized Billinge by his waistcoat breast and after raising his fist said he would "do for him" there and then if he wasn't "on the club" receiving sick pay.
But once he was well again, he said he would kill the Parr grocer. Glover's conduct before the magistrates did nothing to improve his situation and they said he had to be put under restraint. So Glover was bound over to keep the peace but needed to pay a bond of £10 and find two people prepared to put up sureties of £5 each. That was a lot of money and put the argument of whether his debt should be repaid at 2 shillings a month or 4 shillings a month firmly in the shade.
Later that day George Saunders drowned in the St Helens Canal. The 63-year-old was the captain of a barge that was lying near the bridge at Smithy Brow. Saunders was reported to have been drinking and then went to board his vessel. Nobody saw what happened but it was assumed that he had slipped and fallen into the water.
It could be extremely tough being unemployed. Although some men obtained payments for a short period through belonging to friendly societies or from insurance policies, most received nothing. On the 21st Francis Killaney was summoned to the St Helens Petty Sessions for neglecting to support his wife and two children who had become chargeable to the Prescot Union. That could mean they were being kept in Whiston Workhouse or were receiving subsistence payments from a relieving officer in their own home. The latter was unlikely if there was a fit man of working age in the house.
Relieving officer James Fowler told the Bench that he had sent the family to the workhouse on January 25th. Soon afterwards Francis Killaney got them out by promising to provide for his wife and kids. However Mr Fowler said he had failed to keep his word and the family was again receiving relief.
The money for this "relief" came from the Poor Rate that the town's ratepayers had to fork out and people objected to their cash going to the families of fit men. Rather like many employed people today object to their taxes going to so-called benefit scroungers.
But there was a lot of unemployment in the town in 1871, with the recent long period of severe weather having led to the laying off of many men. Francis Killaney promised to repay the amount that his family had cost the Prescot Union as soon as he could obtain work. He suggested payments of 5 shillings a week but the relieving officer James Fowler told the Bench that the man's promises could not be relied upon. So Killaney was sent to Kirkdale Gaol for 21 days. How that would help him pay off the debt I don't know but punishment rather than pragmatism was very much a Victorian value.
Thomas Higgins was an ostler at Sherdley Hall in charge of the horses and he appeared in court charged with stealing a clock from Pilkingtons brickworks. Blacksmith William Unsworth lived not far from Sherdley Hall in what was then called Hell Bess Lane. The road was named after beerhouse keeper Elisabeth Seddon who was said to have been given the nickname of "Hell Bess" because of her prowess in dealing with rowdy drunks! It seems that protestations from the clergy about the use of the word "Hell" led to the street becoming Ellbess Lane before finally being renamed Sherdley Road in 1902.
William Unsworth told the court that he had found Thomas Higgins "rambling about" late at night and he had showed him the way home. The town was then so dark at night – especially on its outskirts – that people could do a lot of rambling about if they were strangers or had been out drinking and took a wrong turn.
Unsworth said that when he saw Higgins he had in his possession a clock which he claimed to have won in a raffle and he offered to sell it to him for 5 shillings. The clock was found in the saddle room at Sherdley Hall and Higgins said the theft couldn't be helped because he was drunk. The Bench sentenced him to 7 days in prison, which was quite lenient for the time.
Next week's stories will include St Helens Fire Brigade's handcart and hose, the new urinals planned for the town, the Prescot ghost and the Eccleston woman prosecuted after being chased out of her home by her husband carrying a poker.
In fact the Newspaper wrote that tickets for the event had been secured by "the most respectable families in the town and neighbourhood". So no riff-raff then! One of the high-class folk expected to be in attendance was Sir Robert Gerard of Garswood Hall who had been an equerry to Queen Victoria at the recent opening of Parliament. The advertisement for the ball said that the room would be perfumed by "Rimmel's patent oderisers".
I quite like the fact that the St Helens Newspaper would often tell its readers what they already knew – what the weather had been like, as opposed to a weather forecast. Otherwise we would not get these little insights: "We were visited with a heavy snow-storm on Saturday night, and the ground presented a thick white garb on Sunday morning, hence then the weather has improved, a rapid thaw removing all traces of winter, and the genial warmth of spring is now felt."
In the St Helens Petty Sessions on the 21st John Plant and James Caher were charged with drunkenly creating a disturbance in Liverpool Road. Plant denied the charge claiming he was only a "looker-on" but the Newspaper wrote: "It however turned out when the police records were turned up that his name was a Plant of more than biennial growth in the bobby's books, he having been pruned before the “beak” six times previously." The pair was bound over to keep the peace.
This is how the Newspaper described another case in the Sessions: "John Moning, Chinese, the colour of spent tea, who managed, although he could speak “very leetle” English, to inform the bench that he was a native of Singapore, was charged with hawking a few small articles from house to house. The bench took a lenient view of his case, considering that our licence regulations were not familiar to the lower classes in Singapore, and discharged the prisoner, after explaining to him the licence law in English, which, of course, he did not understand, though he evidently understood the nature of a discharge from custody."
There was an international aspect to the next case too. It involved John Doyle who, together with his wife, had travelled to America and deserted their five children. The kids were currently in Whiston Workhouse but looking after paupers cost brass and if the Guardians in charge could dump any inmates onto another workhouse, they certainly would. Thomas Martin, the clerk to the Prescot Union, applied for an order to transfer the Doyle children to Liverpool Workhouse as he said they came from that city and the request was granted.
The Newspaper was clearly in an impish mood this week and also waxed lyrical in this court case in which a woman was charged with making threats to assault: "Betsy Hardman, an elderly female, was summoned by a young man named William McCall, charged with having threatened to assault him. Mr Swift appeared for the defendant. Complainant said he was going to his work when the defendant called to him and intimated that her feelings in his regard were so strong that nothing could give her greater pleasure than to “pull his liver out,” and “to put a nail in his coffin.”
"He told her he was delighted with the expression of her kind regards, at the same time he would prefer a little “talk” with her son on the subject. She, however, was so pressing in her attentions to him that she actually followed him to Mill-street, and he now said that he feared she intended to “mill” [assault] him. Mr. Swift [defence counsel] appealed to the bench whether it was at all likely that that great “looby” could be afraid of an old woman like his client, who, of course, was looking all the while a pattern of quietness, the most inoffensive. The Bench dismissed the case."
The 50-year-old from Park Road obtained an order from the judge that Glover must pay off his arrears at 4 shillings a month. The defendant wanted to pay in instalments of two shillings a month. However the grocer contended that Glover kept a racing dog and could easily afford the higher amount. That infuriated Glover who upon leaving the court seized Billinge by his waistcoat breast and after raising his fist said he would "do for him" there and then if he wasn't "on the club" receiving sick pay.
But once he was well again, he said he would kill the Parr grocer. Glover's conduct before the magistrates did nothing to improve his situation and they said he had to be put under restraint. So Glover was bound over to keep the peace but needed to pay a bond of £10 and find two people prepared to put up sureties of £5 each. That was a lot of money and put the argument of whether his debt should be repaid at 2 shillings a month or 4 shillings a month firmly in the shade.
Later that day George Saunders drowned in the St Helens Canal. The 63-year-old was the captain of a barge that was lying near the bridge at Smithy Brow. Saunders was reported to have been drinking and then went to board his vessel. Nobody saw what happened but it was assumed that he had slipped and fallen into the water.
It could be extremely tough being unemployed. Although some men obtained payments for a short period through belonging to friendly societies or from insurance policies, most received nothing. On the 21st Francis Killaney was summoned to the St Helens Petty Sessions for neglecting to support his wife and two children who had become chargeable to the Prescot Union. That could mean they were being kept in Whiston Workhouse or were receiving subsistence payments from a relieving officer in their own home. The latter was unlikely if there was a fit man of working age in the house.
Relieving officer James Fowler told the Bench that he had sent the family to the workhouse on January 25th. Soon afterwards Francis Killaney got them out by promising to provide for his wife and kids. However Mr Fowler said he had failed to keep his word and the family was again receiving relief.
The money for this "relief" came from the Poor Rate that the town's ratepayers had to fork out and people objected to their cash going to the families of fit men. Rather like many employed people today object to their taxes going to so-called benefit scroungers.
But there was a lot of unemployment in the town in 1871, with the recent long period of severe weather having led to the laying off of many men. Francis Killaney promised to repay the amount that his family had cost the Prescot Union as soon as he could obtain work. He suggested payments of 5 shillings a week but the relieving officer James Fowler told the Bench that the man's promises could not be relied upon. So Killaney was sent to Kirkdale Gaol for 21 days. How that would help him pay off the debt I don't know but punishment rather than pragmatism was very much a Victorian value.
Thomas Higgins was an ostler at Sherdley Hall in charge of the horses and he appeared in court charged with stealing a clock from Pilkingtons brickworks. Blacksmith William Unsworth lived not far from Sherdley Hall in what was then called Hell Bess Lane. The road was named after beerhouse keeper Elisabeth Seddon who was said to have been given the nickname of "Hell Bess" because of her prowess in dealing with rowdy drunks! It seems that protestations from the clergy about the use of the word "Hell" led to the street becoming Ellbess Lane before finally being renamed Sherdley Road in 1902.
William Unsworth told the court that he had found Thomas Higgins "rambling about" late at night and he had showed him the way home. The town was then so dark at night – especially on its outskirts – that people could do a lot of rambling about if they were strangers or had been out drinking and took a wrong turn.
Unsworth said that when he saw Higgins he had in his possession a clock which he claimed to have won in a raffle and he offered to sell it to him for 5 shillings. The clock was found in the saddle room at Sherdley Hall and Higgins said the theft couldn't be helped because he was drunk. The Bench sentenced him to 7 days in prison, which was quite lenient for the time.
Next week's stories will include St Helens Fire Brigade's handcart and hose, the new urinals planned for the town, the Prescot ghost and the Eccleston woman prosecuted after being chased out of her home by her husband carrying a poker.
This week's stories include the posh St Helens Catholic Charity Ball, the mockery of the Chinese hawker, the threatened Parr grocer and the great "looby" accused of being afraid of an old woman.
We begin in the Volunteer Hall (shown above in later days) on the 15th when the annual St Helens Catholic Charity Ball was held with music provided by a quadrille band.
The proceeds of the event went to fund the Catholic schools in the district, although the ticket prices at 4 shillings each would have excluded the vast majority of scholars' parents.
In fact the Newspaper wrote that tickets for the event had been secured by "the most respectable families in the town and neighbourhood". So no riff-raff then!
One of the high-class folk expected to be in attendance was Sir Robert Gerard of Garswood Hall who had been an equerry to Queen Victoria at the recent opening of Parliament.
The advertisement for the ball said that the room would be perfumed by "Rimmel's patent oderisers".
I quite like the fact that the St Helens Newspaper would often tell its readers what they already knew – what the weather had been like, as opposed to a weather forecast. Otherwise we would not get these little insights:
"We were visited with a heavy snow-storm on Saturday night, and the ground presented a thick white garb on Sunday morning, hence then the weather has improved, a rapid thaw removing all traces of winter, and the genial warmth of spring is now felt."
In the St Helens Petty Sessions on the 21st John Plant and James Caher were charged with drunkenly creating a disturbance in Liverpool Road.
Plant denied the charge claiming he was only a "looker-on" but the Newspaper wrote:
"It however turned out when the police records were turned up that his name was a Plant of more than biennial growth in the bobby's books, he having been pruned before the “beak” six times previously." The pair was bound over to keep the peace.
This is how the Newspaper described another case in the Sessions:
"John Moning, Chinese, the colour of spent tea, who managed, although he could speak “very leetle” English, to inform the bench that he was a native of Singapore, was charged with hawking a few small articles from house to house.
"The bench took a lenient view of his case, considering that our licence regulations were not familiar to the lower classes in Singapore, and discharged the prisoner, after explaining to him the licence law in English, which, of course, he did not understand, though he evidently understood the nature of a discharge from custody."
There was an international aspect to the next case too. It involved John Doyle who, together with his wife, had travelled to America and deserted their five children.
The kids were currently in Whiston Workhouse but looking after paupers cost brass and if the Guardians in charge could dump any inmates onto another workhouse, they certainly would.
Thomas Martin, the clerk to the Prescot Union, applied for an order to transfer the Doyle children to Liverpool Workhouse as he said they came from that city and the request was granted.
The Newspaper was clearly in an impish mood this week and also waxed lyrical in this court case in which a woman was charged with making threats to assault:
"Betsy Hardman, an elderly female, was summoned by a young man named William McCall, charged with having threatened to assault him. Mr Swift appeared for the defendant.
"Complainant said he was going to his work when the defendant called to him and intimated that her feelings in his regard were so strong that nothing could give her greater pleasure than to “pull his liver out,” and “to put a nail in his coffin.”
"He told her he was delighted with the expression of her kind regards, at the same time he would prefer a little “talk” with her son on the subject.
"She, however, was so pressing in her attentions to him that she actually followed him to Mill-street, and he now said that he feared she intended to “mill” [assault] him.
"Mr. Swift [defence counsel] appealed to the bench whether it was at all likely that that great “looby” could be afraid of an old woman like his client, who, of course, was looking all the while a pattern of quietness, the most inoffensive. The Bench dismissed the case."
Every Tuesday the St Helens County Court sat in its premises in East Street (shown above) and on some days adjudicated on as many as 150 disputes.
I always find that extraordinary considering the small population of the town at that time.
Passions in these civic cases could quickly get enflamed leading to the two parties transferring over to the criminal court in the Town Hall.
That happened in Billinge vs. Glover last week in which grocer John Billinge summoned James Glover to the County Court for non-payment of a longstanding debt.
The 50-year-old from Park Road obtained an order from the judge that Glover must pay off his arrears at 4 shillings a month.
The defendant wanted to pay in instalments of two shillings a month. However the grocer contended that Glover kept a racing dog and could easily afford the higher amount.
That infuriated Glover who upon leaving the court seized Billinge by his waistcoat breast and after raising his fist said he would "do for him" there and then if he wasn't "on the club" receiving sick pay.
But once he was well again, he said he would kill the Parr grocer. Glover's conduct before the magistrates did nothing to improve his situation and they said he had to be put under restraint.
So Glover was bound over to keep the peace but needed to pay a bond of £10 and find two people prepared to put up sureties of £5 each.
That was a lot of money and put the argument of whether his debt should be repaid at 2 shillings a month or 4 shillings a month firmly in the shade.
Later that day George Saunders drowned in the St Helens Canal. The 63-year-old was the captain of a barge that was lying near the bridge at Smithy Brow.
Saunders was reported to have been drinking and then went to board his vessel. Nobody saw what happened but it was assumed that he had slipped and fallen into the water.
It could be extremely tough being unemployed. Although some men obtained payments for a short period through belonging to friendly societies or from insurance policies, most received nothing.
On the 21st Francis Killaney was summoned to the St Helens Petty Sessions for neglecting to support his wife and two children who had become chargeable to the Prescot Union.
That could mean they were being kept in Whiston Workhouse or were receiving subsistence payments from a relieving officer in their own home. The latter was unlikely if there was a fit man of working age in the house.
Relieving officer James Fowler told the Bench that he had sent the family to the workhouse on January 25th.
Soon afterwards Francis Killaney got them out by promising to provide for his wife and kids.
However Mr Fowler said he had failed to keep his word and the family was again receiving relief.
The money for this "relief" came from the Poor Rate that the town's ratepayers had to fork out and people objected to their cash going to the families of fit men.
Rather like many employed people today object to their taxes going to so-called benefit scroungers.
But there was a lot of unemployment in the town in 1871, with the recent long period of severe weather having led to the laying off of many men.
Francis Killaney promised to repay the amount that his family had cost the Prescot Union as soon as he could obtain work.
He suggested payments of 5 shillings a week but the relieving officer James Fowler told the Bench that the man's promises could not be relied upon.
So Killaney was sent to Kirkdale Gaol for 21 days. How that would help him pay off the debt I don't know but punishment rather than pragmatism was very much a Victorian value.
Thomas Higgins was an ostler at Sherdley Hall in charge of the horses and he appeared in court charged with stealing a clock from Pilkingtons brickworks.
Blacksmith William Unsworth lived not far from Sherdley Hall in what was then called Hell Bess Lane.
The road was named after beerhouse keeper Elisabeth Seddon who was said to have been given the nickname of "Hell Bess" because of her prowess in dealing with rowdy drunks!
It seems that protestations from the clergy about the use of the word "Hell" led to the street becoming Ellbess Lane before finally being renamed Sherdley Road in 1902.
William Unsworth told the court that he had found Thomas Higgins "rambling about" late at night and he had showed him the way home.
The town was then so dark at night – especially on its outskirts – that people could do a lot of rambling about if they were strangers or had been out drinking and took a wrong turn.
Unsworth said that when he saw Higgins he had in his possession a clock which he claimed to have won in a raffle and he offered to sell it to him for 5 shillings.
The clock was found in the saddle room at Sherdley Hall and Higgins said the theft couldn't be helped because he was drunk.
The Bench sentenced him to 7 days in prison, which was quite lenient for the time.
Next week's stories will include St Helens Fire Brigade's handcart and hose, the new urinals planned for the town, the Prescot ghost and the Eccleston woman prosecuted after being chased out of her home by her husband carrying a poker.
The proceeds of the event went to fund the Catholic schools in the district, although the ticket prices at 4 shillings each would have excluded the vast majority of scholars' parents.
In fact the Newspaper wrote that tickets for the event had been secured by "the most respectable families in the town and neighbourhood". So no riff-raff then!
One of the high-class folk expected to be in attendance was Sir Robert Gerard of Garswood Hall who had been an equerry to Queen Victoria at the recent opening of Parliament.
The advertisement for the ball said that the room would be perfumed by "Rimmel's patent oderisers".
I quite like the fact that the St Helens Newspaper would often tell its readers what they already knew – what the weather had been like, as opposed to a weather forecast. Otherwise we would not get these little insights:
"We were visited with a heavy snow-storm on Saturday night, and the ground presented a thick white garb on Sunday morning, hence then the weather has improved, a rapid thaw removing all traces of winter, and the genial warmth of spring is now felt."
In the St Helens Petty Sessions on the 21st John Plant and James Caher were charged with drunkenly creating a disturbance in Liverpool Road.
Plant denied the charge claiming he was only a "looker-on" but the Newspaper wrote:
"It however turned out when the police records were turned up that his name was a Plant of more than biennial growth in the bobby's books, he having been pruned before the “beak” six times previously." The pair was bound over to keep the peace.
This is how the Newspaper described another case in the Sessions:
"John Moning, Chinese, the colour of spent tea, who managed, although he could speak “very leetle” English, to inform the bench that he was a native of Singapore, was charged with hawking a few small articles from house to house.
"The bench took a lenient view of his case, considering that our licence regulations were not familiar to the lower classes in Singapore, and discharged the prisoner, after explaining to him the licence law in English, which, of course, he did not understand, though he evidently understood the nature of a discharge from custody."
There was an international aspect to the next case too. It involved John Doyle who, together with his wife, had travelled to America and deserted their five children.
The kids were currently in Whiston Workhouse but looking after paupers cost brass and if the Guardians in charge could dump any inmates onto another workhouse, they certainly would.
Thomas Martin, the clerk to the Prescot Union, applied for an order to transfer the Doyle children to Liverpool Workhouse as he said they came from that city and the request was granted.
The Newspaper was clearly in an impish mood this week and also waxed lyrical in this court case in which a woman was charged with making threats to assault:
"Betsy Hardman, an elderly female, was summoned by a young man named William McCall, charged with having threatened to assault him. Mr Swift appeared for the defendant.
"Complainant said he was going to his work when the defendant called to him and intimated that her feelings in his regard were so strong that nothing could give her greater pleasure than to “pull his liver out,” and “to put a nail in his coffin.”
"He told her he was delighted with the expression of her kind regards, at the same time he would prefer a little “talk” with her son on the subject.
"She, however, was so pressing in her attentions to him that she actually followed him to Mill-street, and he now said that he feared she intended to “mill” [assault] him.
"Mr. Swift [defence counsel] appealed to the bench whether it was at all likely that that great “looby” could be afraid of an old woman like his client, who, of course, was looking all the while a pattern of quietness, the most inoffensive. The Bench dismissed the case."
I always find that extraordinary considering the small population of the town at that time.
Passions in these civic cases could quickly get enflamed leading to the two parties transferring over to the criminal court in the Town Hall.
That happened in Billinge vs. Glover last week in which grocer John Billinge summoned James Glover to the County Court for non-payment of a longstanding debt.
The 50-year-old from Park Road obtained an order from the judge that Glover must pay off his arrears at 4 shillings a month.
The defendant wanted to pay in instalments of two shillings a month. However the grocer contended that Glover kept a racing dog and could easily afford the higher amount.
That infuriated Glover who upon leaving the court seized Billinge by his waistcoat breast and after raising his fist said he would "do for him" there and then if he wasn't "on the club" receiving sick pay.
But once he was well again, he said he would kill the Parr grocer. Glover's conduct before the magistrates did nothing to improve his situation and they said he had to be put under restraint.
So Glover was bound over to keep the peace but needed to pay a bond of £10 and find two people prepared to put up sureties of £5 each.
That was a lot of money and put the argument of whether his debt should be repaid at 2 shillings a month or 4 shillings a month firmly in the shade.
Later that day George Saunders drowned in the St Helens Canal. The 63-year-old was the captain of a barge that was lying near the bridge at Smithy Brow.
Saunders was reported to have been drinking and then went to board his vessel. Nobody saw what happened but it was assumed that he had slipped and fallen into the water.
It could be extremely tough being unemployed. Although some men obtained payments for a short period through belonging to friendly societies or from insurance policies, most received nothing.
On the 21st Francis Killaney was summoned to the St Helens Petty Sessions for neglecting to support his wife and two children who had become chargeable to the Prescot Union.
That could mean they were being kept in Whiston Workhouse or were receiving subsistence payments from a relieving officer in their own home. The latter was unlikely if there was a fit man of working age in the house.
Relieving officer James Fowler told the Bench that he had sent the family to the workhouse on January 25th.
Soon afterwards Francis Killaney got them out by promising to provide for his wife and kids.
However Mr Fowler said he had failed to keep his word and the family was again receiving relief.
The money for this "relief" came from the Poor Rate that the town's ratepayers had to fork out and people objected to their cash going to the families of fit men.
Rather like many employed people today object to their taxes going to so-called benefit scroungers.
But there was a lot of unemployment in the town in 1871, with the recent long period of severe weather having led to the laying off of many men.
Francis Killaney promised to repay the amount that his family had cost the Prescot Union as soon as he could obtain work.
He suggested payments of 5 shillings a week but the relieving officer James Fowler told the Bench that the man's promises could not be relied upon.
So Killaney was sent to Kirkdale Gaol for 21 days. How that would help him pay off the debt I don't know but punishment rather than pragmatism was very much a Victorian value.
Thomas Higgins was an ostler at Sherdley Hall in charge of the horses and he appeared in court charged with stealing a clock from Pilkingtons brickworks.
Blacksmith William Unsworth lived not far from Sherdley Hall in what was then called Hell Bess Lane.
The road was named after beerhouse keeper Elisabeth Seddon who was said to have been given the nickname of "Hell Bess" because of her prowess in dealing with rowdy drunks!
It seems that protestations from the clergy about the use of the word "Hell" led to the street becoming Ellbess Lane before finally being renamed Sherdley Road in 1902.
William Unsworth told the court that he had found Thomas Higgins "rambling about" late at night and he had showed him the way home.
The town was then so dark at night – especially on its outskirts – that people could do a lot of rambling about if they were strangers or had been out drinking and took a wrong turn.
Unsworth said that when he saw Higgins he had in his possession a clock which he claimed to have won in a raffle and he offered to sell it to him for 5 shillings.
The clock was found in the saddle room at Sherdley Hall and Higgins said the theft couldn't be helped because he was drunk.
The Bench sentenced him to 7 days in prison, which was quite lenient for the time.
Next week's stories will include St Helens Fire Brigade's handcart and hose, the new urinals planned for the town, the Prescot ghost and the Eccleston woman prosecuted after being chased out of her home by her husband carrying a poker.