150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (28th SEPT. - 4th OCT. 1870)
This week's stories include the Dentons Green hen stealers, an unusual St Helens auction of railway paraphernalia, a Peasley Cross tea party, a company of volunteer soldiers enjoy a treat in Rainford and a man receives a stiff fine for not licensing his horse.
We begin in Billinge on the 30th when a boy called Henry Barton was gathering blackberries with some friends. The little lad fell into a pond and was drowned before he could be reached.
You do have to marvel at the postal service in 1870. The Liverpool Courier on the 30th stated that the letter carriers made six deliveries a day in the city, with a single delivery on Sundays. Seven collections from pillar-boxes were made daily (two on Sundays) and most letters reached their destination on the same day – depending on the time of posting. The collections and deliveries in St Helens would not have been quite as numerous but would still have greatly exceeded what we are used to today.
On October 1st a drunken miner was killed as he travelled down a coal mine at Crawford. At John Dunn's inquest in the White Lion Inn in Upholland, a policeman said he had seen the 40-year-old walking to his work and told him he was unfit. Bunn disregarded the warning and fell out of the hoppett (bucket) that was taking him down the mine and was instantly killed upon landing at the bottom of the shaft. An awful way to die.
A tea party was held in Peasley Cross on the 1st involving forty members of the Guild of the Most Blessed Sacrament. These were all Catholic schoolboys whose memberships of the society and observance of its rules entitled them to financial and medical help if they became ill. One boy was chosen to give an ingratiating speech of gratitude to the priests, as well as sing a specially composed song called "Let Us Be Happy Together".
On the same day the 3rd company of the 2nd Lancashire engineer volunteers of Croppers Hill enjoyed what was described as a treat in Rainford. The men travelled by train from St Helens to Rainford Station and then marched to a large field adjoining the Junction Hotel where a large tent had been erected. The St Helens Newspaper described how they took their dinner:
"The resulting walk in the fine air of Rainford on a bright and pleasant summer's day sharpened the appetites of the men, and about three o’clock the bugle having sounded the “assembly”, the men were soon arranged on each side of the tables and the “attack” commenced in earnest; the waiters and vivandieres were kept busily employed in supplying the peculiar ammunition most in request."
I've learnt that vivandière is an old French term for women attached to military regiments who dish up the grub. After tea a variety of flat, hurdle, sack, and wheelbarrow races took place and the soldiers all had a jolly good time!
Talking of France the war between it and Prussia continued to grip the nation with the St Helens Newspaper writing on the 1st: "All speculations with respect to the question of peace or war are now at an end. The Prussians are at the gates of Paris – the beleaguered and the beleaguerers have already met in the deathly grip of battle, and not until the pride of the invaders be humbled outside the ramparts of the city, or the streets within run crimson with the best blood of France, will the titanic struggle cease."
In their Tuesday edition the Newspaper quoted from a report from General Louis-Jules Trochu, France's de facto head of state, on a recent gun battle: "We suffered sensible losses, and believe the losses of the enemy were considerable." The Prussians reckoned that the "sensible" French losses were 1,200 and their own dead only 80 – but, as they say, the first casualty in war is the truth.
For many months I've been reporting on the many accidents involving navvies engaged in building a new railway line between Huyton and St Helens. But an advert in the Southport Independent and Ormskirk Chronicle on the 1st suggests that the death toll had, hopefully, come to an end. A contractor called Walter Smith announced that he had completed the job and was now selling off his stock of animals and tools. The auction was going to be held in Ravenhead next week at the stables of the pottery firm of Horn and Kelly.
On offer were thirteen "superior and well-formed and youthful" horses ranging from 15 to 17 hands high as well as associated harnesses, carts etc. There were 61 picks, a range of blacksmith's tools and many hammers and chains and lots of other stuff needed to manually dig out tunnels and lay down railway track. It must have been hard, physical backbreaking work before the days of mechanical diggers and electrical appliances. No wonder there was so many accidents and violent rows between the navvies.
Although attempting suicide was illegal, such individuals facing such a charge 100 years ago were usually treated sympathetically. But not so in 1870. On the 3rd in St Helens Petty Sessions a potter called George Townsend was charged with being drunk and attempting to commit suicide by severing an artery in his wrist. The St Helens Newspaper wrote: "He was sentenced to a month's imprisonment, in default of finding bail." That was very common as few people had spare cash for fines or sureties.
The Inland Revenue had more responsibilities than HMRC have today. They would investigate cases were licenses had not been obtained for everything from guns to horses. It was the latter that led Owen Conlon to court, as the Irish provision dealer from Claughton Street had been accused by Mr. Wyld – the Inland Revenue supervisor at St Helens – with keeping a horse without a licence. What was described as a "mitigated penalty" of £5 was inflicted, with the magistrates "recommending a further mitigation". I think the latter means that the magistrates wished that the law might be changed to give them the ability to further reduce the fine in future – as £5 was a considerable amount of money in 1870.
This week's word of the week is "Somnus", the personification of sleep in Roman mythology. It was used in the Newspaper's brief report on a couple of carters who had nodded off while driving – something that regularly occurred on dark, quiet streets, often aided by a considerable consumption of alcohol: "Two drowsy carters were fined 5s. each and costs for succumbing to Somnus whilst in charge of their teams."
A bound apprentice called Thomas Seddon was summoned to court for absenting himself from his work at Wilcock's provisions shop in St Helens. His employer complained that the lad was prone to smoking and drinking. Thomas said he would give up drinking but could not promise to "leave off" smoking.
The case was adjourned until the following week when Mr Wilcock asked for the apprenticeship indentures to be cancelled. He said the lad was only given sixpence a week pocket money but somehow had found the money to become an "inveterate smoker and drunkard". The boy would have been given free board and lodging with Wilcock, hence the tanner pocket money. The magistrates agreed to the request and Thomas Seddon would now have to find another job and somewhere else to live.
Hen stealing was clearly considered a very serious crime. In St Helens Police Court on the 4th John Mercer, Bridget Ward, Elizabeth Parr and Charles and Margaret Leonard were charged with having stolen five fowls. The three hens and two cocks belonged to James Rawlinson from Dentons Green and the defendants were accused of eating one and offering the others for sale. The five were all committed for trial at the Kirkdale Quarter Sessions in Liverpool. These began on November 1st and give us some impression of the levels of literacy at that time – at least among the criminal classes.
That was because it was revealed in the introduction to the Sessions that of the 64 persons to be tried, only two could read and write well. I would have thought that if you could read, you would also be able to write – but the following breakdown shows that wasn't always the case. Fifteen of the prisoners could neither read nor write; fifteen could read only; two could write only and twenty-four could read and write "imperfectly", as it was described. The literacy levels of six of them were unknown.
Just how well our Dentons Green hen thieves could read and write was not stated – but they received very stiff sentences for their fowl act. The two men were charged with the stealing of the birds and the three women with receiving them. 34-year-old John Mercer was clearly considered the ringleader and received 18 months in prison and two of the women – Elizabeth Parr and Margaret Leonard – got six months each. The other two were acquitted.
Next week's stories will include a train crash at St Helens railway station, the rogues and vagabonds that deserted their families, the Whiston Workhouse cook gets drunk (again!) and the question of a borough police force for St Helens is re-considered.
We begin in Billinge on the 30th when a boy called Henry Barton was gathering blackberries with some friends. The little lad fell into a pond and was drowned before he could be reached.
You do have to marvel at the postal service in 1870. The Liverpool Courier on the 30th stated that the letter carriers made six deliveries a day in the city, with a single delivery on Sundays. Seven collections from pillar-boxes were made daily (two on Sundays) and most letters reached their destination on the same day – depending on the time of posting. The collections and deliveries in St Helens would not have been quite as numerous but would still have greatly exceeded what we are used to today.
On October 1st a drunken miner was killed as he travelled down a coal mine at Crawford. At John Dunn's inquest in the White Lion Inn in Upholland, a policeman said he had seen the 40-year-old walking to his work and told him he was unfit. Bunn disregarded the warning and fell out of the hoppett (bucket) that was taking him down the mine and was instantly killed upon landing at the bottom of the shaft. An awful way to die.
A tea party was held in Peasley Cross on the 1st involving forty members of the Guild of the Most Blessed Sacrament. These were all Catholic schoolboys whose memberships of the society and observance of its rules entitled them to financial and medical help if they became ill. One boy was chosen to give an ingratiating speech of gratitude to the priests, as well as sing a specially composed song called "Let Us Be Happy Together".
On the same day the 3rd company of the 2nd Lancashire engineer volunteers of Croppers Hill enjoyed what was described as a treat in Rainford. The men travelled by train from St Helens to Rainford Station and then marched to a large field adjoining the Junction Hotel where a large tent had been erected. The St Helens Newspaper described how they took their dinner:
"The resulting walk in the fine air of Rainford on a bright and pleasant summer's day sharpened the appetites of the men, and about three o’clock the bugle having sounded the “assembly”, the men were soon arranged on each side of the tables and the “attack” commenced in earnest; the waiters and vivandieres were kept busily employed in supplying the peculiar ammunition most in request."
I've learnt that vivandière is an old French term for women attached to military regiments who dish up the grub. After tea a variety of flat, hurdle, sack, and wheelbarrow races took place and the soldiers all had a jolly good time!
Talking of France the war between it and Prussia continued to grip the nation with the St Helens Newspaper writing on the 1st: "All speculations with respect to the question of peace or war are now at an end. The Prussians are at the gates of Paris – the beleaguered and the beleaguerers have already met in the deathly grip of battle, and not until the pride of the invaders be humbled outside the ramparts of the city, or the streets within run crimson with the best blood of France, will the titanic struggle cease."
In their Tuesday edition the Newspaper quoted from a report from General Louis-Jules Trochu, France's de facto head of state, on a recent gun battle: "We suffered sensible losses, and believe the losses of the enemy were considerable." The Prussians reckoned that the "sensible" French losses were 1,200 and their own dead only 80 – but, as they say, the first casualty in war is the truth.
On offer were thirteen "superior and well-formed and youthful" horses ranging from 15 to 17 hands high as well as associated harnesses, carts etc. There were 61 picks, a range of blacksmith's tools and many hammers and chains and lots of other stuff needed to manually dig out tunnels and lay down railway track. It must have been hard, physical backbreaking work before the days of mechanical diggers and electrical appliances. No wonder there was so many accidents and violent rows between the navvies.
Although attempting suicide was illegal, such individuals facing such a charge 100 years ago were usually treated sympathetically. But not so in 1870. On the 3rd in St Helens Petty Sessions a potter called George Townsend was charged with being drunk and attempting to commit suicide by severing an artery in his wrist. The St Helens Newspaper wrote: "He was sentenced to a month's imprisonment, in default of finding bail." That was very common as few people had spare cash for fines or sureties.
The Inland Revenue had more responsibilities than HMRC have today. They would investigate cases were licenses had not been obtained for everything from guns to horses. It was the latter that led Owen Conlon to court, as the Irish provision dealer from Claughton Street had been accused by Mr. Wyld – the Inland Revenue supervisor at St Helens – with keeping a horse without a licence. What was described as a "mitigated penalty" of £5 was inflicted, with the magistrates "recommending a further mitigation". I think the latter means that the magistrates wished that the law might be changed to give them the ability to further reduce the fine in future – as £5 was a considerable amount of money in 1870.
This week's word of the week is "Somnus", the personification of sleep in Roman mythology. It was used in the Newspaper's brief report on a couple of carters who had nodded off while driving – something that regularly occurred on dark, quiet streets, often aided by a considerable consumption of alcohol: "Two drowsy carters were fined 5s. each and costs for succumbing to Somnus whilst in charge of their teams."
A bound apprentice called Thomas Seddon was summoned to court for absenting himself from his work at Wilcock's provisions shop in St Helens. His employer complained that the lad was prone to smoking and drinking. Thomas said he would give up drinking but could not promise to "leave off" smoking.
The case was adjourned until the following week when Mr Wilcock asked for the apprenticeship indentures to be cancelled. He said the lad was only given sixpence a week pocket money but somehow had found the money to become an "inveterate smoker and drunkard". The boy would have been given free board and lodging with Wilcock, hence the tanner pocket money. The magistrates agreed to the request and Thomas Seddon would now have to find another job and somewhere else to live.
Hen stealing was clearly considered a very serious crime. In St Helens Police Court on the 4th John Mercer, Bridget Ward, Elizabeth Parr and Charles and Margaret Leonard were charged with having stolen five fowls. The three hens and two cocks belonged to James Rawlinson from Dentons Green and the defendants were accused of eating one and offering the others for sale. The five were all committed for trial at the Kirkdale Quarter Sessions in Liverpool. These began on November 1st and give us some impression of the levels of literacy at that time – at least among the criminal classes.
That was because it was revealed in the introduction to the Sessions that of the 64 persons to be tried, only two could read and write well. I would have thought that if you could read, you would also be able to write – but the following breakdown shows that wasn't always the case. Fifteen of the prisoners could neither read nor write; fifteen could read only; two could write only and twenty-four could read and write "imperfectly", as it was described. The literacy levels of six of them were unknown.
Just how well our Dentons Green hen thieves could read and write was not stated – but they received very stiff sentences for their fowl act. The two men were charged with the stealing of the birds and the three women with receiving them. 34-year-old John Mercer was clearly considered the ringleader and received 18 months in prison and two of the women – Elizabeth Parr and Margaret Leonard – got six months each. The other two were acquitted.
Next week's stories will include a train crash at St Helens railway station, the rogues and vagabonds that deserted their families, the Whiston Workhouse cook gets drunk (again!) and the question of a borough police force for St Helens is re-considered.
This week's stories include the Dentons Green hen stealers, an unusual St Helens auction of railway paraphernalia, a Peasley Cross tea party, a company of volunteer soldiers enjoy a treat in Rainford and a man receives a stiff fine for not licensing his horse.
We begin in Billinge on the 30th when a boy called Henry Barton was gathering blackberries with some friends.
The little lad fell into a pond and was drowned before he could be reached.
You do have to marvel at the postal service in 1870.
The Liverpool Courier on the 30th stated that the letter carriers made six deliveries a day in the city, with a single delivery on Sundays.
Seven collections from pillar-boxes were made daily (two on Sundays) and most letters reached their destination on the same day – depending on the time of posting.
The collections and deliveries in St Helens would not have been quite as numerous but would still have greatly exceeded what we are used to today.
On October 1st a drunken miner was killed as he travelled down a coal mine at Crawford.
At John Dunn's inquest in the White Lion Inn in Upholland, a policeman said he had seen the 40-year-old walking to his work and told him he was unfit.
Bunn disregarded the warning and fell out of the hoppett (bucket) that was taking him down the mine and was instantly killed upon landing at the bottom of the shaft. An awful way to die.
A tea party was held in Peasley Cross on the 1st involving forty members of the Guild of the Most Blessed Sacrament.
These were all Catholic schoolboys whose memberships of the society and observance of its rules entitled them to financial and medical help if they became ill.
One boy was chosen to give an ingratiating speech of gratitude to the priests, as well as sing a specially composed song called "Let Us Be Happy Together".
On the same day the 3rd company of the 2nd Lancashire engineer volunteers of Croppers Hill enjoyed what was described as a treat in Rainford.
The men travelled by train from St Helens to Rainford Station and then marched to a large field adjoining the Junction Hotel where a large tent had been erected.
The St Helens Newspaper described how they took their dinner:
"The resulting walk in the fine air of Rainford on a bright and pleasant summer's day sharpened the appetites of the men, and about three o’clock the bugle having sounded the “assembly”, the men were soon arranged on each side of the tables and the “attack” commenced in earnest; the waiters and vivandieres were kept busily employed in supplying the peculiar ammunition most in request."
I've learnt that vivandière is an old French term for women attached to military regiments who dish up the grub.
After tea a variety of flat, hurdle, sack and wheelbarrow races took place and the soldiers all had a jolly good time!
Talking of France the war between it and Prussia continued to grip the nation with the St Helens Newspaper writing on the 1st:
"All speculations with respect to the question of peace or war are now at an end. The Prussians are at the gates of Paris – the beleaguered and the beleaguerers have already met in the deathly grip of battle, and not until the pride of the invaders be humbled outside the ramparts of the city, or the streets within run crimson with the best blood of France, will the titanic struggle cease."
In their Tuesday edition the Newspaper quoted from a report from General Louis-Jules Trochu, France's de facto head of state, on a recent gun battle:
"We suffered sensible losses, and believe the losses of the enemy were considerable."
However the Prussians reckoned that the "sensible" French losses were 1,200 and their own dead only 80 – but, as they say, the first casualty in war is the truth.
For many months I've been reporting on the many accidents involving navvies engaged in building a new railway line between Huyton and St Helens.
But an advert in the Southport Independent and Ormskirk Chronicle on the 1st suggests that the death toll had, hopefully, come to an end.
A contractor called Walter Smith announced that he had completed the job and was now selling off his stock of animals and tools.
The auction was going to be held in Ravenhead next week at the stables of the pottery firm of Horn and Kelly.
On offer were thirteen "superior and well-formed and youthful" horses ranging from 15 to 17 hands high as well as associated harnesses, carts etc.
There were 61 picks, a range of blacksmith's tools and many hammers and chains and lots of other stuff needed to manually dig out tunnels and lay down railway track.
It must have been hard, physical backbreaking work before the days of mechanical diggers and electrical appliances.
No wonder there was so many accidents and violent rows between the navvies.
Although attempting suicide was illegal, such individuals facing such a charge 100 years ago were usually treated sympathetically. But not so in 1870.
On the 3rd in St Helens Petty Sessions a potter called George Townsend was charged with being drunk and attempting to commit suicide by severing an artery in his wrist.
The St Helens Newspaper wrote: "He was sentenced to a month's imprisonment, in default of finding bail."
That was very common as few people had spare cash for fines or sureties.
The Inland Revenue had more responsibilities than HMRC have today.
They would investigate cases were licenses had not been obtained for everything from guns to horses.
It was the latter that led Owen Conlon to court, as the Irish provision dealer from Claughton Street had been accused by Mr. Wyld – the Inland Revenue supervisor at St Helens – with keeping a horse without a licence.
What was described as a "mitigated penalty" of £5 was inflicted, with the magistrates "recommending a further mitigation".
I think the latter means that the magistrates wished that the law might be changed to give them the ability to further reduce the fine in future – as £5 was a considerable amount of money in 1870.
This week's word of the week is "Somnus", the personification of sleep in Roman mythology.
It was used in the Newspaper's brief report on a couple of carters who had nodded off while driving – something that regularly occurred on dark, quiet streets, often aided by a considerable consumption of alcohol:
"Two drowsy carters were fined 5s. each and costs for succumbing to Somnus whilst in charge of their teams."
A bound apprentice called Thomas Seddon was summoned to court for absenting himself from his work at Wilcock's provisions shop in St Helens.
His employer complained that the lad was prone to smoking and drinking.
Thomas said he would give up drinking but could not promise to "leave off" smoking.
The case was adjourned until the following week when Mr Wilcock asked for the apprenticeship indentures to be cancelled.
He said the lad was only given sixpence a week pocket money but somehow had found the money to become an "inveterate smoker and drunkard".
The boy would have been given free board and lodging with Wilcock, hence the tanner pocket money.
The magistrates agreed to the request and Thomas Seddon would now have to find another job and somewhere else to live.
Hen stealing was clearly considered a very serious crime.
In St Helens Police Court on the 4th John Mercer, Bridget Ward, Elizabeth Parr and Charles and Margaret Leonard were charged with having stolen five fowls.
The three hens and two cocks belonged to James Rawlinson from Dentons Green and the defendants were accused of eating one and offering the others for sale.
The five were all committed for trial at the Kirkdale Quarter Sessions in Liverpool.
These began on November 1st and give us some impression of the levels of literacy at that time – at least among the criminal classes.
That was because it was revealed in the introduction to the Sessions that of the 64 persons to be tried, only two could read and write well.
I would have thought that if you could read, you would also be able to write – but the following breakdown shows that wasn't always the case.
Fifteen of the prisoners could neither read nor write; fifteen could read only; two could write only and twenty-four could read and write "imperfectly", as it was described.
The literacy levels of six of them were unknown.
Just how well our Dentons Green hen thieves could read and write was not stated – but they received very stiff sentences for their fowl act.
The two men were charged with the stealing of the birds and the three women with receiving them.
34-year-old John Mercer was clearly considered the ringleader and received 18 months in prison and two of the women – Elizabeth Parr and Margaret Leonard – got six months each. The other two were acquitted.
Next week's stories will include a train crash at St Helens railway station, the rogues and vagabonds that deserted their families, the Whiston Workhouse cook gets drunk (again!) and the question of a borough police force for St Helens is re-considered.
We begin in Billinge on the 30th when a boy called Henry Barton was gathering blackberries with some friends.
The little lad fell into a pond and was drowned before he could be reached.
You do have to marvel at the postal service in 1870.
The Liverpool Courier on the 30th stated that the letter carriers made six deliveries a day in the city, with a single delivery on Sundays.
Seven collections from pillar-boxes were made daily (two on Sundays) and most letters reached their destination on the same day – depending on the time of posting.
The collections and deliveries in St Helens would not have been quite as numerous but would still have greatly exceeded what we are used to today.
On October 1st a drunken miner was killed as he travelled down a coal mine at Crawford.
At John Dunn's inquest in the White Lion Inn in Upholland, a policeman said he had seen the 40-year-old walking to his work and told him he was unfit.
Bunn disregarded the warning and fell out of the hoppett (bucket) that was taking him down the mine and was instantly killed upon landing at the bottom of the shaft. An awful way to die.
A tea party was held in Peasley Cross on the 1st involving forty members of the Guild of the Most Blessed Sacrament.
These were all Catholic schoolboys whose memberships of the society and observance of its rules entitled them to financial and medical help if they became ill.
One boy was chosen to give an ingratiating speech of gratitude to the priests, as well as sing a specially composed song called "Let Us Be Happy Together".
On the same day the 3rd company of the 2nd Lancashire engineer volunteers of Croppers Hill enjoyed what was described as a treat in Rainford.
The men travelled by train from St Helens to Rainford Station and then marched to a large field adjoining the Junction Hotel where a large tent had been erected.
The St Helens Newspaper described how they took their dinner:
"The resulting walk in the fine air of Rainford on a bright and pleasant summer's day sharpened the appetites of the men, and about three o’clock the bugle having sounded the “assembly”, the men were soon arranged on each side of the tables and the “attack” commenced in earnest; the waiters and vivandieres were kept busily employed in supplying the peculiar ammunition most in request."
I've learnt that vivandière is an old French term for women attached to military regiments who dish up the grub.
After tea a variety of flat, hurdle, sack and wheelbarrow races took place and the soldiers all had a jolly good time!
Talking of France the war between it and Prussia continued to grip the nation with the St Helens Newspaper writing on the 1st:
"All speculations with respect to the question of peace or war are now at an end. The Prussians are at the gates of Paris – the beleaguered and the beleaguerers have already met in the deathly grip of battle, and not until the pride of the invaders be humbled outside the ramparts of the city, or the streets within run crimson with the best blood of France, will the titanic struggle cease."
In their Tuesday edition the Newspaper quoted from a report from General Louis-Jules Trochu, France's de facto head of state, on a recent gun battle:
"We suffered sensible losses, and believe the losses of the enemy were considerable."
However the Prussians reckoned that the "sensible" French losses were 1,200 and their own dead only 80 – but, as they say, the first casualty in war is the truth.
But an advert in the Southport Independent and Ormskirk Chronicle on the 1st suggests that the death toll had, hopefully, come to an end.
A contractor called Walter Smith announced that he had completed the job and was now selling off his stock of animals and tools.
The auction was going to be held in Ravenhead next week at the stables of the pottery firm of Horn and Kelly.
On offer were thirteen "superior and well-formed and youthful" horses ranging from 15 to 17 hands high as well as associated harnesses, carts etc.
There were 61 picks, a range of blacksmith's tools and many hammers and chains and lots of other stuff needed to manually dig out tunnels and lay down railway track.
It must have been hard, physical backbreaking work before the days of mechanical diggers and electrical appliances.
No wonder there was so many accidents and violent rows between the navvies.
Although attempting suicide was illegal, such individuals facing such a charge 100 years ago were usually treated sympathetically. But not so in 1870.
On the 3rd in St Helens Petty Sessions a potter called George Townsend was charged with being drunk and attempting to commit suicide by severing an artery in his wrist.
The St Helens Newspaper wrote: "He was sentenced to a month's imprisonment, in default of finding bail."
That was very common as few people had spare cash for fines or sureties.
The Inland Revenue had more responsibilities than HMRC have today.
They would investigate cases were licenses had not been obtained for everything from guns to horses.
It was the latter that led Owen Conlon to court, as the Irish provision dealer from Claughton Street had been accused by Mr. Wyld – the Inland Revenue supervisor at St Helens – with keeping a horse without a licence.
What was described as a "mitigated penalty" of £5 was inflicted, with the magistrates "recommending a further mitigation".
I think the latter means that the magistrates wished that the law might be changed to give them the ability to further reduce the fine in future – as £5 was a considerable amount of money in 1870.
This week's word of the week is "Somnus", the personification of sleep in Roman mythology.
It was used in the Newspaper's brief report on a couple of carters who had nodded off while driving – something that regularly occurred on dark, quiet streets, often aided by a considerable consumption of alcohol:
"Two drowsy carters were fined 5s. each and costs for succumbing to Somnus whilst in charge of their teams."
A bound apprentice called Thomas Seddon was summoned to court for absenting himself from his work at Wilcock's provisions shop in St Helens.
His employer complained that the lad was prone to smoking and drinking.
Thomas said he would give up drinking but could not promise to "leave off" smoking.
The case was adjourned until the following week when Mr Wilcock asked for the apprenticeship indentures to be cancelled.
He said the lad was only given sixpence a week pocket money but somehow had found the money to become an "inveterate smoker and drunkard".
The boy would have been given free board and lodging with Wilcock, hence the tanner pocket money.
The magistrates agreed to the request and Thomas Seddon would now have to find another job and somewhere else to live.
Hen stealing was clearly considered a very serious crime.
In St Helens Police Court on the 4th John Mercer, Bridget Ward, Elizabeth Parr and Charles and Margaret Leonard were charged with having stolen five fowls.
The three hens and two cocks belonged to James Rawlinson from Dentons Green and the defendants were accused of eating one and offering the others for sale.
The five were all committed for trial at the Kirkdale Quarter Sessions in Liverpool.
These began on November 1st and give us some impression of the levels of literacy at that time – at least among the criminal classes.
That was because it was revealed in the introduction to the Sessions that of the 64 persons to be tried, only two could read and write well.
I would have thought that if you could read, you would also be able to write – but the following breakdown shows that wasn't always the case.
Fifteen of the prisoners could neither read nor write; fifteen could read only; two could write only and twenty-four could read and write "imperfectly", as it was described.
The literacy levels of six of them were unknown.
Just how well our Dentons Green hen thieves could read and write was not stated – but they received very stiff sentences for their fowl act.
The two men were charged with the stealing of the birds and the three women with receiving them.
34-year-old John Mercer was clearly considered the ringleader and received 18 months in prison and two of the women – Elizabeth Parr and Margaret Leonard – got six months each. The other two were acquitted.
Next week's stories will include a train crash at St Helens railway station, the rogues and vagabonds that deserted their families, the Whiston Workhouse cook gets drunk (again!) and the question of a borough police force for St Helens is re-considered.