150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (21st - 27th SEPTEMBER 1870)
This week's stories include the man who claimed a policeman robbed him near Bridge Street, a street attack outside the Nag's Head, a big athletics competition is held in Dentons Green and the Vicar of St Helens laments how the people of the prospering town were losing interest in religion.
We begin on the 21st with the St Helens Flower Show at Victoria Gardens in Thatto Heath. The gardens' location was close to present day Whittle Street, which appears to have been named after its proprietor Charles Whittle. This is how the Liverpool Daily Post covered the event:
"The St. Helen's Floral and Horticultural Society held their annual show yesterday, at the Victoria Grounds, Thatto Heath, about a mile and a half from St. Helen's. The grounds are the property of Mr. Charles Whittle, and are situated in a hollow to the left of the highway leading from St. Helen's. They are laid out with remarkable care and taste, and the garden plots and bowling green, together with the shaded nooks and romantic bowers around the grounds, form an agreeable retreat from the mirky [sic], smoky neighbouring town. The weather yesterday was exceptionally fine, and consequently a large number of people from St. Helen's and the neighbouring country visited the show. Notwithstanding the late season of the year there was an exhibition in all the classes, and some of them were exceptionally good."
The Prescot Board of Guardians met on the 22nd and they were told that at present 324 people were in the workhouse, including 136 children.
There was a lengthy piece in the St Helens Newspaper on the 24th criticising the practice of chopping off dogs ears. This had been routinely carried out by "ignorant men governed by depraved fancies" and although now illegal the practice still continued, although to a lesser extent.
An athletics competition took place on that day on the field of St Helens Cricket Club in Dentons Green. One might have thought that such events happened all the time – after all you don't need much in the way of resources to be able to run – just a good, strong pair of legs. However this was the St Helens Newspaper's introduction to their report:
"The first athletic sports of any importance that ever came off in St. Helens were held on Saturday. An old apothegm has it that “every beginning is weak,” but in this instance there is no necessity to introduce the adage, by way of excuse or encouragement, because the beginning sports of Saturday were, in every respect, about the most successful of the kind that we have ever witnessed, and the arrangements were such as would be creditable in veteran caterers for the public amusement. The novelty of the sports and the fineness of the weather attracted to the cricket ground a large number of spectators."
Nobody appears to have lived in Victoria Passage (pictured above), although it gets mentioned regularly in these articles. The passage was an entry in the town centre between Bridge Street and Naylor Street and was a popular place for drunks to hang out. The head of St Helens Police lived close by and many offenders committing nuisances would end up in court. One was Patrick Coonan who appeared in the Petty Sessions on the 26th accused of being helplessly drunk in Victoria Passage.
Coonan told the magistrates that he was only "a little drunk" and claimed that the arresting officer had knocked him down, kicked him and robbed him of thirty shillings. PC 836 said he had used no more violence than was necessary to get Coonan to the bridewell (police lock up). There had been another constable with him and they had not seen any money on their prisoner. Patrick Coonan was fined 5 shillings and costs or must serve 7 days in prison.
James Farrell was charged with committing a breach of the peace in Bolton Street in Parr. The man had been stripped to the waist, making a great noise and looking for someone to fight. Farrell was bound over.
If someone was found guilty of stealing clothes, a prison sentence was inevitable. It was simply a question of the length of sentence and this depended on the value of the stolen items and whether the offender had previous convictions. Stealing from lodgings was very common and William Bell had been staying at Margaret Binns' house in Thomas Street in Eccleston. At six o’clock one morning Mrs Binns saw Bell leave her house with a bed-sheet stuffed under his arm.
A flannel petticoat, pair of trousers, socks, pillow slip and tin box had also been taken with the lot valued at 20 shillings. William Bell claimed that her son John had allowed him to borrow the pants to pawn them for bread, although this was strenuously denied. The man decided to plead guilty and was sent to prison for a month, which was fairly lenient for clothes stealing and suggests no prior convictions.
If I had got into trouble with the law in 1870, I would certainly have hired Thomas Swift as my counsel in court. Swift must have been the rudest solicitor that St Helens ever had and he'd only recently settled a claim for defamation made by a magistrate that he'd insulted in court. However the man had an in-depth knowledge of the law and the knack of getting his clients off charges, as in the following example.
It seemed an open and shut case against William Fillingham and Edward Gee when the pair appeared in the Sessions accusing of robbing John Carling in Boundary Lane. The man was returning to his home in Eccleston and told the Bench that he was near the Nag's Head when Fillingham and Gee set upon him:
"They knocked me down and kicked me. I had in my waistcoat pocket at the time 4s 6d. I distinctly felt Gee put his hand in my pocket from behind at the time Fillingham had hold of me by the collar of my coat. I was up against the rails with my right shoulder. Gee's fingers were in the pocket where the money was. I called out murder and an officer came up, to whom I gave Gee in charge."
PC William McLaren gave corroborative evidence of hearing the man shout "Murder; don't kill me and I'll give you all I have". When he arrived at the place the officer told the court that he found Gee with his arms wrapped around John Carling, who told him that he'd been beaten and robbed.
But the defendants had hired Thomas Swift and he questioned the reliability of the evidence against his clients. He said the robbed man had been drinking, did not recall the time that the incident took place and was not certain of the amount that he had lost. Despite the constable's evidence, sufficient doubt was placed in the magistrates' minds for them to dismiss the case.
It was against the law to remove your "goods and chattels" from a house if you owed your landlord rent. That was in case the latter sought a court order allowing him to seize your property in lieu of the cash. So Bernard Cassidy – who appeared to live in Pocket Nook – was summoned to the Sessions for doing exactly that, while having rent arrears of £6 15s 4d. As his rent was only three shillings a week, that meant Cassidy had got himself almost a year behind.
It was unusual for a landlord to allow so much back rent to accrue but Cassidy had been out of work for a long time and so his landlord was probably hoping he'd get work and be able to start paying off the arrears. After all if the landlord had obtained a court order to kick out his tenant, then it was likely that the debt would have been lost. However Bernard Cassidy had got greater worries than the rent. His wife told the magistrates that her husband was in the debtor's prison at Lancaster Gaol and for some reason the Bench decided to issue another summons against him.
Although Bernard Cassidy was clearly not enjoying much prosperity in his world, the Vicar of St Helens seemed to think that others in the town were. During the evening of the 26th the Rev. Dr. Carr chaired a meeting of the parish church Missionary Society in the girls schoolroom. The attendance was not great and the society's fundraising was doing even worse, with Rev. Carr saying: "It is very much to be regretted that whilst the town is advancing in worldly prosperity, its people did not seem to have taken as much interest in religious matters as formerly."
Next week's stories will include the Dentons Green hen stealers, an unusual St Helens auction of railway paraphernalia, a company of volunteer soldiers enjoy a treat in Rainford and a man receives a stiff fine for not licensing his horse.
We begin on the 21st with the St Helens Flower Show at Victoria Gardens in Thatto Heath. The gardens' location was close to present day Whittle Street, which appears to have been named after its proprietor Charles Whittle. This is how the Liverpool Daily Post covered the event:
"The St. Helen's Floral and Horticultural Society held their annual show yesterday, at the Victoria Grounds, Thatto Heath, about a mile and a half from St. Helen's. The grounds are the property of Mr. Charles Whittle, and are situated in a hollow to the left of the highway leading from St. Helen's. They are laid out with remarkable care and taste, and the garden plots and bowling green, together with the shaded nooks and romantic bowers around the grounds, form an agreeable retreat from the mirky [sic], smoky neighbouring town. The weather yesterday was exceptionally fine, and consequently a large number of people from St. Helen's and the neighbouring country visited the show. Notwithstanding the late season of the year there was an exhibition in all the classes, and some of them were exceptionally good."
The Prescot Board of Guardians met on the 22nd and they were told that at present 324 people were in the workhouse, including 136 children.
There was a lengthy piece in the St Helens Newspaper on the 24th criticising the practice of chopping off dogs ears. This had been routinely carried out by "ignorant men governed by depraved fancies" and although now illegal the practice still continued, although to a lesser extent.
An athletics competition took place on that day on the field of St Helens Cricket Club in Dentons Green. One might have thought that such events happened all the time – after all you don't need much in the way of resources to be able to run – just a good, strong pair of legs. However this was the St Helens Newspaper's introduction to their report:
"The first athletic sports of any importance that ever came off in St. Helens were held on Saturday. An old apothegm has it that “every beginning is weak,” but in this instance there is no necessity to introduce the adage, by way of excuse or encouragement, because the beginning sports of Saturday were, in every respect, about the most successful of the kind that we have ever witnessed, and the arrangements were such as would be creditable in veteran caterers for the public amusement. The novelty of the sports and the fineness of the weather attracted to the cricket ground a large number of spectators."
Coonan told the magistrates that he was only "a little drunk" and claimed that the arresting officer had knocked him down, kicked him and robbed him of thirty shillings. PC 836 said he had used no more violence than was necessary to get Coonan to the bridewell (police lock up). There had been another constable with him and they had not seen any money on their prisoner. Patrick Coonan was fined 5 shillings and costs or must serve 7 days in prison.
James Farrell was charged with committing a breach of the peace in Bolton Street in Parr. The man had been stripped to the waist, making a great noise and looking for someone to fight. Farrell was bound over.
If someone was found guilty of stealing clothes, a prison sentence was inevitable. It was simply a question of the length of sentence and this depended on the value of the stolen items and whether the offender had previous convictions. Stealing from lodgings was very common and William Bell had been staying at Margaret Binns' house in Thomas Street in Eccleston. At six o’clock one morning Mrs Binns saw Bell leave her house with a bed-sheet stuffed under his arm.
A flannel petticoat, pair of trousers, socks, pillow slip and tin box had also been taken with the lot valued at 20 shillings. William Bell claimed that her son John had allowed him to borrow the pants to pawn them for bread, although this was strenuously denied. The man decided to plead guilty and was sent to prison for a month, which was fairly lenient for clothes stealing and suggests no prior convictions.
If I had got into trouble with the law in 1870, I would certainly have hired Thomas Swift as my counsel in court. Swift must have been the rudest solicitor that St Helens ever had and he'd only recently settled a claim for defamation made by a magistrate that he'd insulted in court. However the man had an in-depth knowledge of the law and the knack of getting his clients off charges, as in the following example.
It seemed an open and shut case against William Fillingham and Edward Gee when the pair appeared in the Sessions accusing of robbing John Carling in Boundary Lane. The man was returning to his home in Eccleston and told the Bench that he was near the Nag's Head when Fillingham and Gee set upon him:
"They knocked me down and kicked me. I had in my waistcoat pocket at the time 4s 6d. I distinctly felt Gee put his hand in my pocket from behind at the time Fillingham had hold of me by the collar of my coat. I was up against the rails with my right shoulder. Gee's fingers were in the pocket where the money was. I called out murder and an officer came up, to whom I gave Gee in charge."
PC William McLaren gave corroborative evidence of hearing the man shout "Murder; don't kill me and I'll give you all I have". When he arrived at the place the officer told the court that he found Gee with his arms wrapped around John Carling, who told him that he'd been beaten and robbed.
But the defendants had hired Thomas Swift and he questioned the reliability of the evidence against his clients. He said the robbed man had been drinking, did not recall the time that the incident took place and was not certain of the amount that he had lost. Despite the constable's evidence, sufficient doubt was placed in the magistrates' minds for them to dismiss the case.
It was against the law to remove your "goods and chattels" from a house if you owed your landlord rent. That was in case the latter sought a court order allowing him to seize your property in lieu of the cash. So Bernard Cassidy – who appeared to live in Pocket Nook – was summoned to the Sessions for doing exactly that, while having rent arrears of £6 15s 4d. As his rent was only three shillings a week, that meant Cassidy had got himself almost a year behind.
It was unusual for a landlord to allow so much back rent to accrue but Cassidy had been out of work for a long time and so his landlord was probably hoping he'd get work and be able to start paying off the arrears. After all if the landlord had obtained a court order to kick out his tenant, then it was likely that the debt would have been lost. However Bernard Cassidy had got greater worries than the rent. His wife told the magistrates that her husband was in the debtor's prison at Lancaster Gaol and for some reason the Bench decided to issue another summons against him.
Although Bernard Cassidy was clearly not enjoying much prosperity in his world, the Vicar of St Helens seemed to think that others in the town were. During the evening of the 26th the Rev. Dr. Carr chaired a meeting of the parish church Missionary Society in the girls schoolroom. The attendance was not great and the society's fundraising was doing even worse, with Rev. Carr saying: "It is very much to be regretted that whilst the town is advancing in worldly prosperity, its people did not seem to have taken as much interest in religious matters as formerly."
Next week's stories will include the Dentons Green hen stealers, an unusual St Helens auction of railway paraphernalia, a company of volunteer soldiers enjoy a treat in Rainford and a man receives a stiff fine for not licensing his horse.
This week's stories include the man who claimed a policeman robbed him near Bridge Street, a street attack outside the Nag's Head, a big athletics competition is held in Dentons Green and the Vicar of St Helens laments how the people of the prospering town were losing interest in religion.
We begin on the 21st with the St Helens Flower Show at Victoria Gardens in Thatto Heath.
The gardens' location was close to present day Whittle Street, which appears to have been named after its proprietor Charles Whittle. This is how the Liverpool Daily Post covered the event:
"The St. Helen's Floral and Horticultural Society held their annual show yesterday, at the Victoria Grounds, Thatto Heath, about a mile and a half from St. Helen's. The grounds are the property of Mr. Charles Whittle, and are situated in a hollow to the left of the highway leading from St. Helen's.
"They are laid out with remarkable care and taste, and the garden plots and bowling green, together with the shaded nooks and romantic bowers around the grounds, form an agreeable retreat from the mirky [sic], smoky neighbouring town.
"The weather yesterday was exceptionally fine, and consequently a large number of people from St. Helen's and the neighbouring country visited the show. Notwithstanding the late season of the year there was an exhibition in all the classes, and some of them were exceptionally good."
The Prescot Board of Guardians met on the 22nd and they were told that at present 324 people were in the workhouse, including 136 children.
There was a lengthy piece in the St Helens Newspaper on the 24th criticising the practice of chopping off dogs ears.
This had been routinely carried out by "ignorant men governed by depraved fancies" and although now illegal the practice still continued, although to a lesser extent.
An athletics competition took place on that day on the field of St Helens Cricket Club in Dentons Green.
One might have thought that such events happened all the time – after all you don't need much in the way of resources to be able to run – just a good, strong pair of legs.
However this was the St Helens Newspaper's introduction to their report:
"The first athletic sports of any importance that ever came off in St. Helens were held on Saturday.
"An old apothegm has it that “every beginning is weak,” but in this instance there is no necessity to introduce the adage, by way of excuse or encouragement, because the beginning sports of Saturday were, in every respect, about the most successful of the kind that we have ever witnessed, and the arrangements were such as would be creditable in veteran caterers for the public amusement.
"The novelty of the sports and the fineness of the weather attracted to the cricket ground a large number of spectators."
Nobody appears to have lived in Victoria Passage (pictured above), although it gets mentioned regularly in these articles.
The passage was an entry in the town centre between Bridge Street and Naylor Street and was a popular place for drunks to hang out.
The head of St Helens Police lived close by and many offenders committing nuisances would end up in court.
One was Patrick Coonan who appeared in the Petty Sessions on the 26th accused of being helplessly drunk in Victoria Passage.
Coonan told the magistrates that he was only "a little drunk" and claimed that the arresting officer had knocked him down, kicked him and robbed him of thirty shillings.
PC 836 said he had used no more violence than was necessary to get Coonan to the bridewell (police lock up).
There had been another constable with him and they had not seen any money on their prisoner.
Patrick Coonan was fined 5 shillings and costs or must serve seven days in prison.
James Farrell was charged with committing a breach of the peace in Bolton Street in Parr.
The man had been stripped to the waist, making a great noise and looking for someone to fight. Farrell was bound over.
If someone was found guilty of stealing clothes, a prison sentence was inevitable.
It was simply a question of the length of sentence and this depended on the value of the stolen items and whether the offender had previous convictions.
Stealing from lodgings was very common and William Bell had been staying at Margaret Binns' house in Thomas Street in Eccleston.
At six o’clock one morning Mrs Binns saw Bell leave her house with a bed-sheet stuffed under his arm.
A flannel petticoat, pair of trousers, socks, pillow slip and tin box had also been taken with the lot valued at 20 shillings.
William Bell claimed that her son John had allowed him to borrow the pants to pawn them for bread, although this was strenuously denied.
The man decided to plead guilty and was sent to prison for a month, which was fairly lenient for clothes stealing and suggests no prior convictions.
If I had got into trouble with the law in 1870, I would certainly have hired Thomas Swift as my counsel in court.
Swift must have been the rudest solicitor that St Helens ever had and he'd only recently settled a claim for defamation made by a magistrate that he'd insulted in court.
However the man had an in-depth knowledge of the law and the knack of getting his clients off charges, as in the following example.
It seemed an open and shut case against William Fillingham and Edward Gee when the pair appeared in the Sessions accusing of robbing John Carling in Boundary Lane.
The man was returning to his home in Eccleston and told the Bench that he was near the Nag's Head when Fillingham and Gee set upon him:
"They knocked me down and kicked me. I had in my waistcoat pocket at the time 4s 6d. I distinctly felt Gee put his hand in my pocket from behind at the time Fillingham had hold of me by the collar of my coat.
"I was up against the rails with my right shoulder. Gee's fingers were in the pocket where the money was. I called out murder and an officer came up, to whom I gave Gee in charge."
PC William McLaren gave corroborative evidence of hearing the man shout "Murder; don't kill me and I'll give you all I have".
When he arrived at the place the officer told the court that he found Gee with his arms wrapped around John Carling, who told him that he'd been beaten and robbed.
But the defendants had hired Thomas Swift and he questioned the reliability of the evidence against his clients.
He said the robbed man had been drinking, did not recall the time that the incident took place and was not certain of the amount that he had lost.
Despite the constable's evidence, sufficient doubt was placed in the magistrates' minds for them to dismiss the case.
It was against the law to remove your "goods and chattels" from a house if you owed your landlord rent.
That was in case the latter sought a court order allowing him to seize your property in lieu of the cash.
So Bernard Cassidy – who appeared to live in Pocket Nook – was summoned to the Sessions for doing exactly that, while having rent arrears of £6 15s 4d.
As his rent was only three shillings a week, that meant Cassidy had got himself almost a year behind.
It was unusual for a landlord to allow so much back rent to accrue but Cassidy had been out of work for a long time and so his landlord was probably hoping he'd get work and be able to start paying off the arrears.
After all if the landlord had obtained a court order to kick out his tenant, then it was likely that the debt would have been lost.
However Bernard Cassidy had got greater worries than the rent.
His wife told the magistrates that her husband was in the debtor's prison at Lancaster Gaol and for some reason the Bench decided to issue another summons against him.
Although Bernard Cassidy was clearly not enjoying much prosperity in his world, the Vicar of St Helens seemed to think that others in the town were.
During the evening of the 26th the Rev. Dr. Carr chaired a meeting of the parish church Missionary Society in the girls schoolroom.
The attendance was not great and the society's fundraising was doing even worse, with Rev. Carr saying:
"It is very much to be regretted that whilst the town is advancing in worldly prosperity, its people did not seem to have taken as much interest in religious matters as formerly."
Next week's stories will include the Dentons Green hen stealers, an unusual St Helens auction of railway paraphernalia, a company of volunteer soldiers enjoy a treat in Rainford and a man receives a stiff fine for not licensing his horse.
We begin on the 21st with the St Helens Flower Show at Victoria Gardens in Thatto Heath.
The gardens' location was close to present day Whittle Street, which appears to have been named after its proprietor Charles Whittle. This is how the Liverpool Daily Post covered the event:
"The St. Helen's Floral and Horticultural Society held their annual show yesterday, at the Victoria Grounds, Thatto Heath, about a mile and a half from St. Helen's. The grounds are the property of Mr. Charles Whittle, and are situated in a hollow to the left of the highway leading from St. Helen's.
"They are laid out with remarkable care and taste, and the garden plots and bowling green, together with the shaded nooks and romantic bowers around the grounds, form an agreeable retreat from the mirky [sic], smoky neighbouring town.
"The weather yesterday was exceptionally fine, and consequently a large number of people from St. Helen's and the neighbouring country visited the show. Notwithstanding the late season of the year there was an exhibition in all the classes, and some of them were exceptionally good."
The Prescot Board of Guardians met on the 22nd and they were told that at present 324 people were in the workhouse, including 136 children.
There was a lengthy piece in the St Helens Newspaper on the 24th criticising the practice of chopping off dogs ears.
This had been routinely carried out by "ignorant men governed by depraved fancies" and although now illegal the practice still continued, although to a lesser extent.
An athletics competition took place on that day on the field of St Helens Cricket Club in Dentons Green.
One might have thought that such events happened all the time – after all you don't need much in the way of resources to be able to run – just a good, strong pair of legs.
However this was the St Helens Newspaper's introduction to their report:
"The first athletic sports of any importance that ever came off in St. Helens were held on Saturday.
"An old apothegm has it that “every beginning is weak,” but in this instance there is no necessity to introduce the adage, by way of excuse or encouragement, because the beginning sports of Saturday were, in every respect, about the most successful of the kind that we have ever witnessed, and the arrangements were such as would be creditable in veteran caterers for the public amusement.
"The novelty of the sports and the fineness of the weather attracted to the cricket ground a large number of spectators."
The passage was an entry in the town centre between Bridge Street and Naylor Street and was a popular place for drunks to hang out.
The head of St Helens Police lived close by and many offenders committing nuisances would end up in court.
One was Patrick Coonan who appeared in the Petty Sessions on the 26th accused of being helplessly drunk in Victoria Passage.
Coonan told the magistrates that he was only "a little drunk" and claimed that the arresting officer had knocked him down, kicked him and robbed him of thirty shillings.
PC 836 said he had used no more violence than was necessary to get Coonan to the bridewell (police lock up).
There had been another constable with him and they had not seen any money on their prisoner.
Patrick Coonan was fined 5 shillings and costs or must serve seven days in prison.
James Farrell was charged with committing a breach of the peace in Bolton Street in Parr.
The man had been stripped to the waist, making a great noise and looking for someone to fight. Farrell was bound over.
If someone was found guilty of stealing clothes, a prison sentence was inevitable.
It was simply a question of the length of sentence and this depended on the value of the stolen items and whether the offender had previous convictions.
Stealing from lodgings was very common and William Bell had been staying at Margaret Binns' house in Thomas Street in Eccleston.
At six o’clock one morning Mrs Binns saw Bell leave her house with a bed-sheet stuffed under his arm.
A flannel petticoat, pair of trousers, socks, pillow slip and tin box had also been taken with the lot valued at 20 shillings.
William Bell claimed that her son John had allowed him to borrow the pants to pawn them for bread, although this was strenuously denied.
The man decided to plead guilty and was sent to prison for a month, which was fairly lenient for clothes stealing and suggests no prior convictions.
If I had got into trouble with the law in 1870, I would certainly have hired Thomas Swift as my counsel in court.
Swift must have been the rudest solicitor that St Helens ever had and he'd only recently settled a claim for defamation made by a magistrate that he'd insulted in court.
However the man had an in-depth knowledge of the law and the knack of getting his clients off charges, as in the following example.
It seemed an open and shut case against William Fillingham and Edward Gee when the pair appeared in the Sessions accusing of robbing John Carling in Boundary Lane.
The man was returning to his home in Eccleston and told the Bench that he was near the Nag's Head when Fillingham and Gee set upon him:
"They knocked me down and kicked me. I had in my waistcoat pocket at the time 4s 6d. I distinctly felt Gee put his hand in my pocket from behind at the time Fillingham had hold of me by the collar of my coat.
"I was up against the rails with my right shoulder. Gee's fingers were in the pocket where the money was. I called out murder and an officer came up, to whom I gave Gee in charge."
PC William McLaren gave corroborative evidence of hearing the man shout "Murder; don't kill me and I'll give you all I have".
When he arrived at the place the officer told the court that he found Gee with his arms wrapped around John Carling, who told him that he'd been beaten and robbed.
But the defendants had hired Thomas Swift and he questioned the reliability of the evidence against his clients.
He said the robbed man had been drinking, did not recall the time that the incident took place and was not certain of the amount that he had lost.
Despite the constable's evidence, sufficient doubt was placed in the magistrates' minds for them to dismiss the case.
It was against the law to remove your "goods and chattels" from a house if you owed your landlord rent.
That was in case the latter sought a court order allowing him to seize your property in lieu of the cash.
So Bernard Cassidy – who appeared to live in Pocket Nook – was summoned to the Sessions for doing exactly that, while having rent arrears of £6 15s 4d.
As his rent was only three shillings a week, that meant Cassidy had got himself almost a year behind.
It was unusual for a landlord to allow so much back rent to accrue but Cassidy had been out of work for a long time and so his landlord was probably hoping he'd get work and be able to start paying off the arrears.
After all if the landlord had obtained a court order to kick out his tenant, then it was likely that the debt would have been lost.
However Bernard Cassidy had got greater worries than the rent.
His wife told the magistrates that her husband was in the debtor's prison at Lancaster Gaol and for some reason the Bench decided to issue another summons against him.
Although Bernard Cassidy was clearly not enjoying much prosperity in his world, the Vicar of St Helens seemed to think that others in the town were.
During the evening of the 26th the Rev. Dr. Carr chaired a meeting of the parish church Missionary Society in the girls schoolroom.
The attendance was not great and the society's fundraising was doing even worse, with Rev. Carr saying:
"It is very much to be regretted that whilst the town is advancing in worldly prosperity, its people did not seem to have taken as much interest in religious matters as formerly."
Next week's stories will include the Dentons Green hen stealers, an unusual St Helens auction of railway paraphernalia, a company of volunteer soldiers enjoy a treat in Rainford and a man receives a stiff fine for not licensing his horse.