150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (30th MAY - 5th JUNE 1872)
This week's stories include the blacksmith wrongly charged with indecently assaulting a child in Parr, the 150-hour working week in Whiston, the Westfield Street doctor who sued a patient for not paying his bill, the Rainford sister-in-law defamation case, the start of Newton Races and how the courtroom biter ended up being bitten.
We begin on June 1st when the St Helens Newspaper described a couple of curious court cases that had taken place this week. The first concerned Mary Cullen who was charged with stealing £14 in notes and gold from James Turner. The couple had been staying together at a lodging house in Greenbank, the mainly Irish district around Liverpool Road.
For some reason the woman decided to leave her "paramour" – as the Newspaper described the boyfriend – and after missing some of his money, Turner jumped to the conclusion that Mary must have taken it. And so he had the woman arrested at the railway station, just as she was about to catch a train for Manchester. When the case came up in the Petty Sessions on the following day, the man was so drunk that the hearing had to be postponed for a few days.
But in the meantime the police decided to search Turner's room at the lodging house and found most of the supposedly stolen money. It became clear that no robbery had taken place and the woman had needlessly spent several days in custody. So when the hearing was resumed, Mary Cullen was formally discharged but Turner was now prosecuted for coming to court in a state of intoxication and fined five shillings. The Newspaper called it "the biter bitten".
The second case concerned a blacksmith called Francis Cosgrove who was charged with indecently assaulting a child called Mary Rigby. The 24-year-old from Duke Street was accused of interfering with the 6-year-old outside her home at Parr Flat. However, when Mary was placed in the witness box with her mother put outside the room, the little girl insisted that Cosgrove had not touched her. The girl said the man had simply walked past and not even spoken to her.
Mr Cosgrove's solicitor told the court that after the complaint had been made, his client had gone to the mother's house to discuss it. In the man's presence the girl denied that he had done anything wrong, which led to the woman boxing her daughter's ears. The charge was subsequently dismissed. What the woman's motivation had been for seemingly fabricating the story was not stated in the report – but perhaps had been a scheme to obtain money from the man.
When the National Health Service was created in 1948, patient numbers boomed as people took advantage of the free treatment on offer. But the lawyers did less well, with doctors having a reduced need to sue their patients. Until the NHS came along, there were all sorts of issues with doctors' bills.
Patients sometimes refused to pay up, as they hadn't been the one who'd summoned the doctor. That led to St Helens police having a policy of not calling for medical assistance in emergencies in case they ended up liable for the bill. There could be other reasons too for non-payment.
The Newspaper described a County Court hearing in which Dr David Lyon had brought an action against a pub landlord called Parker for reneging on his bill. The doctor from Westfield Street had been treating Mr Parker's wife and child, as well as the man's sister-in-law. Having heard that Parker was vacating his Liverpool Street beerhouse and also leaving St Helens, the doctor immediately despatched two bills and on the following day sent a collector to the beerhouse demanding payment.
Parker paid the account for his wife and child's treatment but refused to pay his sister-in-law's bill. That was on the basis that her treatment for bronchitis was unfinished. The doctor subsequently refused to attend the woman anymore and a few weeks later she died of the wasting disease consumption (TB).
During the court hearing, Parker said he'd told the bill collector that he considered it unprofessional for a doctor to give up on a patient on the verge of death. And so it became a point of principle for him and he continued to refuse to pay the £1 19s 6d bill. The County Court judge said he could not comment on what he called the "etiquette" of Dr Lyon's conduct – but ruled the medic had been entitled to demand payment for attending the woman at any time and so a verdict was given in his favour.
A potato engine was a large, portable, steam-driven device for selling hot potatoes in the street. They were very popular during the second half of the 19th century but were not great for the environment. This letter appeared in the Liverpool Mercury in February 1869 complaining about public nuisances in the city:
"…I would draw particular attention to the corners of Warwick-street. Three of them are almost daily occupied by some of the most disgusting and filthy of the class of traders…and in the evening there is the additional “nuisance” of a hot potato engine, vomiting forth clouds of smoke, soiling and damaging the goods of the already sufficiently burdened shopkeepers round about."
The engines were placed on a cart and towed around by a horse or donkey, with the corner of Hall Street and Church Street in St Helens seemingly a popular trading location. George Harrison had previously been fined for obstructing the street by leaving his potato engine at that spot. It was also the place where George Kirk was booked for leaving his engine standing for two hours and in the Petty Sessions this week, the hot potato man was fined 20 shillings.
It only cost about six shillings to take out a summons against someone who had rubbed you up the wrong way – although when the family income was just 15 to 20 shillings a week, that amount would not have been easy to find. If a solicitor was hired then his fee had to be paid too. So I expect many women did what Elizabeth Manchester admitted doing in the Petty Sessions and raised the cash by visiting the pawn shop.
The 30-year-old from Reeds Brow in Rainford appeared to be trying to save her marriage after her sister-in-law had "charged her publicly with a gross indiscretion", as the Newspaper politely put it. And it had not been the first time that Margaret Manchester had made such an allegation. Six weeks earlier after she had first "scandalled" Elizabeth, the latter's husband had kicked her and their children out of the house and burned her clothes.
Now after the second alleged slander by Margaret, Elizabeth had pawned her shawl to pay for a summons to try and get the courts to shut her dear sister-in-law up. However, the defendant Margaret had wisely engaged hard-nosed solicitor Thomas Swift to fight the defamation charge. And in his cross-examination, Elizabeth was forced to admit that she'd said some pretty nasty stuff about her sister-in-law too. So, as far as the magistrates were concerned, it was just a women's quarrel and so the case was dismissed.
Also in court this week was Joseph Seddon who was charged with stealing 10 shillings from William Fildes in Juke's beerhouse in Brook Street in St Helens. The Ravenhead Glassworks foreman had treated Seddon to a drink and he showed his gratitude by placing his hand inside the man's pocket in an attempt to steal his money. However, a commercial traveller called George Spedding had witnessed the act and alerted Fildes, who grabbed the man's hand causing a quantity of silver to drop to the floor.
When Fildes was asked in court how much he had drunk, he replied that he was "just nicely" at the time, having knocked back a glass or two of beer. The 30-year-old Joseph Seddon denied the charge and was sent for trial at the Quarter Sessions in Liverpool where he was cleared.
St Helens Town Council met on the 5th and were in cost-cutting mood. Members criticised plans to pave some minor roads in St Helens with tarmac and setts, arguing that using crushed boulders would be far cheaper, although less safe for horses. The high wages bill at the Whiston waterworks also led to comment, particularly the huge overtime that a chap called Tinsley had accrued while boring the new well.
It was revealed that he had been in charge of the engine and at times had worked night and day. During one particular week he had only been away from his job for 15 hours. Tinsley was described as the only man capable of working the large engine and so needed to be on site while important boring work took place. The health and safety aspects of a man working 150 hours in a week were not, however, discussed!
And finally, it was the annual Newton summer race meeting on the 5th, which was the highlight of the year for many. Special trains were put on from St Helens for the 3-day event that stopped to collect Sutton passengers at Peasley Cross, Sutton Oak and St Helens Junction stations.
In 1835 the Rev. Thomas Pigot, the minister of St. Helen's – as he described himself – wrote to the Liverpool Mercury from the St Helens Parsonage about the "sad excesses" of the meeting. The vicar claimed that: "very many poor sinners have confessed to me on their death beds that they commenced their wicked career at Newton races". Horse racing had taken place on Newton Common from at least 1678 and continued until 1899 when Lord Newton accepted an offer from a Manchester-based syndicate to rent land in Haydock to establish a new course that we know today as Haydock Park.
Next week's stories will include the highway robbery in Pocket Nook, the violent assaults on police in Parr and Thatto Heath, the feckless Feigh family and the judge that claimed that the St Helens working class were the most well off in the country.
We begin on June 1st when the St Helens Newspaper described a couple of curious court cases that had taken place this week. The first concerned Mary Cullen who was charged with stealing £14 in notes and gold from James Turner. The couple had been staying together at a lodging house in Greenbank, the mainly Irish district around Liverpool Road.
For some reason the woman decided to leave her "paramour" – as the Newspaper described the boyfriend – and after missing some of his money, Turner jumped to the conclusion that Mary must have taken it. And so he had the woman arrested at the railway station, just as she was about to catch a train for Manchester. When the case came up in the Petty Sessions on the following day, the man was so drunk that the hearing had to be postponed for a few days.
But in the meantime the police decided to search Turner's room at the lodging house and found most of the supposedly stolen money. It became clear that no robbery had taken place and the woman had needlessly spent several days in custody. So when the hearing was resumed, Mary Cullen was formally discharged but Turner was now prosecuted for coming to court in a state of intoxication and fined five shillings. The Newspaper called it "the biter bitten".
The second case concerned a blacksmith called Francis Cosgrove who was charged with indecently assaulting a child called Mary Rigby. The 24-year-old from Duke Street was accused of interfering with the 6-year-old outside her home at Parr Flat. However, when Mary was placed in the witness box with her mother put outside the room, the little girl insisted that Cosgrove had not touched her. The girl said the man had simply walked past and not even spoken to her.
Mr Cosgrove's solicitor told the court that after the complaint had been made, his client had gone to the mother's house to discuss it. In the man's presence the girl denied that he had done anything wrong, which led to the woman boxing her daughter's ears. The charge was subsequently dismissed. What the woman's motivation had been for seemingly fabricating the story was not stated in the report – but perhaps had been a scheme to obtain money from the man.
When the National Health Service was created in 1948, patient numbers boomed as people took advantage of the free treatment on offer. But the lawyers did less well, with doctors having a reduced need to sue their patients. Until the NHS came along, there were all sorts of issues with doctors' bills.
Patients sometimes refused to pay up, as they hadn't been the one who'd summoned the doctor. That led to St Helens police having a policy of not calling for medical assistance in emergencies in case they ended up liable for the bill. There could be other reasons too for non-payment.
The Newspaper described a County Court hearing in which Dr David Lyon had brought an action against a pub landlord called Parker for reneging on his bill. The doctor from Westfield Street had been treating Mr Parker's wife and child, as well as the man's sister-in-law. Having heard that Parker was vacating his Liverpool Street beerhouse and also leaving St Helens, the doctor immediately despatched two bills and on the following day sent a collector to the beerhouse demanding payment.
Parker paid the account for his wife and child's treatment but refused to pay his sister-in-law's bill. That was on the basis that her treatment for bronchitis was unfinished. The doctor subsequently refused to attend the woman anymore and a few weeks later she died of the wasting disease consumption (TB).
During the court hearing, Parker said he'd told the bill collector that he considered it unprofessional for a doctor to give up on a patient on the verge of death. And so it became a point of principle for him and he continued to refuse to pay the £1 19s 6d bill. The County Court judge said he could not comment on what he called the "etiquette" of Dr Lyon's conduct – but ruled the medic had been entitled to demand payment for attending the woman at any time and so a verdict was given in his favour.
A potato engine was a large, portable, steam-driven device for selling hot potatoes in the street. They were very popular during the second half of the 19th century but were not great for the environment. This letter appeared in the Liverpool Mercury in February 1869 complaining about public nuisances in the city:
"…I would draw particular attention to the corners of Warwick-street. Three of them are almost daily occupied by some of the most disgusting and filthy of the class of traders…and in the evening there is the additional “nuisance” of a hot potato engine, vomiting forth clouds of smoke, soiling and damaging the goods of the already sufficiently burdened shopkeepers round about."
The engines were placed on a cart and towed around by a horse or donkey, with the corner of Hall Street and Church Street in St Helens seemingly a popular trading location. George Harrison had previously been fined for obstructing the street by leaving his potato engine at that spot. It was also the place where George Kirk was booked for leaving his engine standing for two hours and in the Petty Sessions this week, the hot potato man was fined 20 shillings.
It only cost about six shillings to take out a summons against someone who had rubbed you up the wrong way – although when the family income was just 15 to 20 shillings a week, that amount would not have been easy to find. If a solicitor was hired then his fee had to be paid too. So I expect many women did what Elizabeth Manchester admitted doing in the Petty Sessions and raised the cash by visiting the pawn shop.
The 30-year-old from Reeds Brow in Rainford appeared to be trying to save her marriage after her sister-in-law had "charged her publicly with a gross indiscretion", as the Newspaper politely put it. And it had not been the first time that Margaret Manchester had made such an allegation. Six weeks earlier after she had first "scandalled" Elizabeth, the latter's husband had kicked her and their children out of the house and burned her clothes.
Now after the second alleged slander by Margaret, Elizabeth had pawned her shawl to pay for a summons to try and get the courts to shut her dear sister-in-law up. However, the defendant Margaret had wisely engaged hard-nosed solicitor Thomas Swift to fight the defamation charge. And in his cross-examination, Elizabeth was forced to admit that she'd said some pretty nasty stuff about her sister-in-law too. So, as far as the magistrates were concerned, it was just a women's quarrel and so the case was dismissed.
Also in court this week was Joseph Seddon who was charged with stealing 10 shillings from William Fildes in Juke's beerhouse in Brook Street in St Helens. The Ravenhead Glassworks foreman had treated Seddon to a drink and he showed his gratitude by placing his hand inside the man's pocket in an attempt to steal his money. However, a commercial traveller called George Spedding had witnessed the act and alerted Fildes, who grabbed the man's hand causing a quantity of silver to drop to the floor.
When Fildes was asked in court how much he had drunk, he replied that he was "just nicely" at the time, having knocked back a glass or two of beer. The 30-year-old Joseph Seddon denied the charge and was sent for trial at the Quarter Sessions in Liverpool where he was cleared.
St Helens Town Council met on the 5th and were in cost-cutting mood. Members criticised plans to pave some minor roads in St Helens with tarmac and setts, arguing that using crushed boulders would be far cheaper, although less safe for horses. The high wages bill at the Whiston waterworks also led to comment, particularly the huge overtime that a chap called Tinsley had accrued while boring the new well.
It was revealed that he had been in charge of the engine and at times had worked night and day. During one particular week he had only been away from his job for 15 hours. Tinsley was described as the only man capable of working the large engine and so needed to be on site while important boring work took place. The health and safety aspects of a man working 150 hours in a week were not, however, discussed!
In 1835 the Rev. Thomas Pigot, the minister of St. Helen's – as he described himself – wrote to the Liverpool Mercury from the St Helens Parsonage about the "sad excesses" of the meeting. The vicar claimed that: "very many poor sinners have confessed to me on their death beds that they commenced their wicked career at Newton races". Horse racing had taken place on Newton Common from at least 1678 and continued until 1899 when Lord Newton accepted an offer from a Manchester-based syndicate to rent land in Haydock to establish a new course that we know today as Haydock Park.
Next week's stories will include the highway robbery in Pocket Nook, the violent assaults on police in Parr and Thatto Heath, the feckless Feigh family and the judge that claimed that the St Helens working class were the most well off in the country.
This week's stories include the blacksmith wrongly charged with indecently assaulting a child in Parr, the 150-hour working week in Whiston, the Westfield Street doctor who sued a patient for not paying his bill, the Rainford sister-in-law defamation case, the start of Newton Races and how the courtroom biter ended up being bitten.
We begin on June 1st when the St Helens Newspaper described a couple of curious court cases that had taken place this week.
The first concerned Mary Cullen who was charged with stealing £14 in notes and gold from James Turner.
The couple had been staying together at a lodging house in Greenbank, the mainly Irish district around Liverpool Road.
For some reason the woman decided to leave her "paramour" – as the Newspaper described the boyfriend – and after missing some of his money, Turner jumped to the conclusion that Mary must have taken it.
And so he had the woman arrested at the railway station, just as she was about to catch a train for Manchester.
When the case came up in the Petty Sessions on the following day, the man was so drunk that the hearing had to be postponed for a few days.
But in the meantime the police decided to search Turner's room at the lodging house and found most of the supposedly stolen money.
It became clear that no robbery had taken place and the woman had needlessly spent several days in custody.
So when the hearing was resumed, Mary Cullen was formally discharged but Turner was now prosecuted for coming to court in a state of intoxication and fined five shillings. The Newspaper called it "the biter bitten".
The second case concerned a blacksmith called Francis Cosgrove who was charged with indecently assaulting a child called Mary Rigby.
The 24-year-old from Duke Street was accused of interfering with the 6-year-old outside her home at Parr Flat.
However, when Mary was placed in the witness box with her mother put outside the room, the little girl insisted that Cosgrove had not touched her.
The girl said the man had simply walked past and not even spoken to her.
Mr Cosgrove's solicitor told the court that after the complaint had been made, his client had gone to the mother's house to discuss it.
In the man's presence the girl denied that he had done anything wrong, which led to the woman boxing her daughter's ears. The charge was subsequently dismissed.
What the woman's motivation had been for seemingly fabricating the story was not stated in the report – but perhaps had been a scheme to obtain money from the man.
When the National Health Service was created in 1948, patient numbers boomed as people took advantage of the free treatment on offer.
But the lawyers did less well, with doctors having a reduced need to sue their patients.
Until the NHS came along, there were all sorts of issues with doctors' bills.
Patients sometimes refused to pay up, as they hadn't been the one who'd summoned the doctor.
That led to St Helens police having a policy of not calling for medical assistance in emergencies in case they ended up liable for the bill.
There could be other reasons too for non-payment.
The Newspaper described a County Court hearing in which Dr David Lyon had brought an action against a pub landlord called Parker for reneging on his bill.
The doctor from Westfield Street had been treating Mr Parker's wife and child, as well as the man's sister-in-law.
Having heard that Parker was vacating his Liverpool Street beerhouse and also leaving St Helens, the doctor immediately despatched two bills and on the following day sent a collector to the beerhouse demanding payment.
Parker paid the account for his wife and child's treatment but refused to pay his sister-in-law's bill. That was on the basis that her treatment for bronchitis was unfinished.
The doctor subsequently refused to attend the woman anymore and a few weeks later she died of the wasting disease consumption (TB).
During the court hearing, Parker said he'd told the bill collector that he considered it unprofessional for a doctor to give up on a patient on the verge of death.
And so it became a point of principle for him and he continued to refuse to pay the £1 19s 6d bill.
The County Court judge said he could not comment on what he called the "etiquette" of Dr Lyon's conduct – but ruled the medic had been entitled to demand payment for attending the woman at any time and so a verdict was given in his favour.
A potato engine was a large, portable, steam-driven device for selling hot potatoes in the street.
They were very popular during the second half of the 19th century but were not great for the environment.
This letter appeared in the Liverpool Mercury in February 1869 complaining about public nuisances in the city:
"…I would draw particular attention to the corners of Warwick-street. Three of them are almost daily occupied by some of the most disgusting and filthy of the class of traders…and in the evening there is the additional “nuisance” of a hot potato engine, vomiting forth clouds of smoke, soiling and damaging the goods of the already sufficiently burdened shopkeepers round about."
The engines were placed on a cart and towed around by a horse or donkey, with the corner of Hall Street and Church Street in St Helens seemingly a popular trading location.
George Harrison had previously been fined for obstructing the street by leaving his potato engine at that spot.
It was also the place where George Kirk was booked for leaving his engine standing for two hours and in the Petty Sessions this week, the hot potato man was fined 20 shillings.
It only cost about six shillings to take out a summons against someone who had rubbed you up the wrong way – although when the family income was just 15 to 20 shillings a week, that amount would not have been easy to find.
If a solicitor was hired then his fee had to be paid too. So I expect many women did what Elizabeth Manchester admitted doing in the Petty Sessions and raised the cash by visiting the pawn shop.
The 30-year-old from Reeds Brow in Rainford appeared to be trying to save her marriage after her sister-in-law had "charged her publicly with a gross indiscretion", as the Newspaper politely put it.
And it had not been the first time that Margaret Manchester had made such an allegation.
Six weeks earlier after she had first "scandalled" Elizabeth, the latter's husband had kicked her and their children out of the house and burned her clothes.
Now after the second alleged slander by Margaret, Elizabeth had pawned her shawl to pay for a summons to try and get the courts to shut her dear sister-in-law up.
However, the defendant Margaret had wisely engaged hard-nosed solicitor Thomas Swift to fight the defamation charge.
And in his cross-examination, Elizabeth was forced to admit that she'd said some pretty nasty stuff about her sister-in-law too.
So, as far as the magistrates were concerned, it was just a women's quarrel and so the case was dismissed.
Also in court this week was Joseph Seddon who was charged with stealing 10 shillings from William Fildes in Juke's beerhouse in Brook Street in St Helens.
The Ravenhead Glassworks foreman had treated Seddon to a drink and he showed his gratitude by placing his hand inside the man's pocket in an attempt to steal his money.
However, a commercial traveller called George Spedding had witnessed the act and alerted Fildes, who grabbed the man's hand causing a quantity of silver to drop to the floor.
When Fildes was asked in court how much he had drunk, he replied that he was "just nicely" at the time, having knocked back a glass or two of beer.
The 30-year-old Joseph Seddon denied the charge and was sent for trial at the Quarter Sessions in Liverpool where he was cleared.
St Helens Town Council met on the 5th and were in cost-cutting mood. Members criticised plans to pave some minor roads in St Helens with tarmac and setts, arguing that using crushed boulders would be far cheaper, although less safe for horses.
The high wages bill at the Whiston waterworks also led to comment, particularly the huge overtime that a chap called Tinsley had accrued while boring the new well.
It was revealed that he had been in charge of the engine and at times had worked night and day. During one particular week he had only been away from his job for 15 hours.
Tinsley was described as the only man capable of working the large engine and so needed to be on site while important boring work took place.
The health and safety aspects of a man working 150 hours in a week were not, however, discussed!
And finally, it was the annual Newton summer race meeting on the 5th, which was the highlight of the year for many.
Special trains were put on from St Helens for the 3-day event that stopped to collect Sutton passengers at Peasley Cross, Sutton Oak and St Helens Junction stations.
In 1835 the Rev. Thomas Pigot, the minister of St. Helen's – as he described himself – wrote to the Liverpool Mercury from the St Helens Parsonage about the "sad excesses" of the meeting.
The vicar claimed that: "very many poor sinners have confessed to me on their death beds that they commenced their wicked career at Newton races".
Horse racing had taken place on Newton Common from at least 1678 and continued until 1899 when Lord Newton accepted an offer from a Manchester-based syndicate to rent land in Haydock to establish a new course that we know today as Haydock Park.
Next week's stories will include the highway robbery in Pocket Nook, the violent assaults on police in Parr and Thatto Heath, the feckless Feigh family and the judge that claimed that the St Helens working class were the most well off in the country.
We begin on June 1st when the St Helens Newspaper described a couple of curious court cases that had taken place this week.
The first concerned Mary Cullen who was charged with stealing £14 in notes and gold from James Turner.
The couple had been staying together at a lodging house in Greenbank, the mainly Irish district around Liverpool Road.
For some reason the woman decided to leave her "paramour" – as the Newspaper described the boyfriend – and after missing some of his money, Turner jumped to the conclusion that Mary must have taken it.
And so he had the woman arrested at the railway station, just as she was about to catch a train for Manchester.
When the case came up in the Petty Sessions on the following day, the man was so drunk that the hearing had to be postponed for a few days.
But in the meantime the police decided to search Turner's room at the lodging house and found most of the supposedly stolen money.
It became clear that no robbery had taken place and the woman had needlessly spent several days in custody.
So when the hearing was resumed, Mary Cullen was formally discharged but Turner was now prosecuted for coming to court in a state of intoxication and fined five shillings. The Newspaper called it "the biter bitten".
The second case concerned a blacksmith called Francis Cosgrove who was charged with indecently assaulting a child called Mary Rigby.
The 24-year-old from Duke Street was accused of interfering with the 6-year-old outside her home at Parr Flat.
However, when Mary was placed in the witness box with her mother put outside the room, the little girl insisted that Cosgrove had not touched her.
The girl said the man had simply walked past and not even spoken to her.
Mr Cosgrove's solicitor told the court that after the complaint had been made, his client had gone to the mother's house to discuss it.
In the man's presence the girl denied that he had done anything wrong, which led to the woman boxing her daughter's ears. The charge was subsequently dismissed.
What the woman's motivation had been for seemingly fabricating the story was not stated in the report – but perhaps had been a scheme to obtain money from the man.
When the National Health Service was created in 1948, patient numbers boomed as people took advantage of the free treatment on offer.
But the lawyers did less well, with doctors having a reduced need to sue their patients.
Until the NHS came along, there were all sorts of issues with doctors' bills.
Patients sometimes refused to pay up, as they hadn't been the one who'd summoned the doctor.
That led to St Helens police having a policy of not calling for medical assistance in emergencies in case they ended up liable for the bill.
There could be other reasons too for non-payment.
The Newspaper described a County Court hearing in which Dr David Lyon had brought an action against a pub landlord called Parker for reneging on his bill.
The doctor from Westfield Street had been treating Mr Parker's wife and child, as well as the man's sister-in-law.
Having heard that Parker was vacating his Liverpool Street beerhouse and also leaving St Helens, the doctor immediately despatched two bills and on the following day sent a collector to the beerhouse demanding payment.
Parker paid the account for his wife and child's treatment but refused to pay his sister-in-law's bill. That was on the basis that her treatment for bronchitis was unfinished.
The doctor subsequently refused to attend the woman anymore and a few weeks later she died of the wasting disease consumption (TB).
During the court hearing, Parker said he'd told the bill collector that he considered it unprofessional for a doctor to give up on a patient on the verge of death.
And so it became a point of principle for him and he continued to refuse to pay the £1 19s 6d bill.
The County Court judge said he could not comment on what he called the "etiquette" of Dr Lyon's conduct – but ruled the medic had been entitled to demand payment for attending the woman at any time and so a verdict was given in his favour.
A potato engine was a large, portable, steam-driven device for selling hot potatoes in the street.
They were very popular during the second half of the 19th century but were not great for the environment.
This letter appeared in the Liverpool Mercury in February 1869 complaining about public nuisances in the city:
"…I would draw particular attention to the corners of Warwick-street. Three of them are almost daily occupied by some of the most disgusting and filthy of the class of traders…and in the evening there is the additional “nuisance” of a hot potato engine, vomiting forth clouds of smoke, soiling and damaging the goods of the already sufficiently burdened shopkeepers round about."
The engines were placed on a cart and towed around by a horse or donkey, with the corner of Hall Street and Church Street in St Helens seemingly a popular trading location.
George Harrison had previously been fined for obstructing the street by leaving his potato engine at that spot.
It was also the place where George Kirk was booked for leaving his engine standing for two hours and in the Petty Sessions this week, the hot potato man was fined 20 shillings.
It only cost about six shillings to take out a summons against someone who had rubbed you up the wrong way – although when the family income was just 15 to 20 shillings a week, that amount would not have been easy to find.
If a solicitor was hired then his fee had to be paid too. So I expect many women did what Elizabeth Manchester admitted doing in the Petty Sessions and raised the cash by visiting the pawn shop.
The 30-year-old from Reeds Brow in Rainford appeared to be trying to save her marriage after her sister-in-law had "charged her publicly with a gross indiscretion", as the Newspaper politely put it.
And it had not been the first time that Margaret Manchester had made such an allegation.
Six weeks earlier after she had first "scandalled" Elizabeth, the latter's husband had kicked her and their children out of the house and burned her clothes.
Now after the second alleged slander by Margaret, Elizabeth had pawned her shawl to pay for a summons to try and get the courts to shut her dear sister-in-law up.
However, the defendant Margaret had wisely engaged hard-nosed solicitor Thomas Swift to fight the defamation charge.
And in his cross-examination, Elizabeth was forced to admit that she'd said some pretty nasty stuff about her sister-in-law too.
So, as far as the magistrates were concerned, it was just a women's quarrel and so the case was dismissed.
Also in court this week was Joseph Seddon who was charged with stealing 10 shillings from William Fildes in Juke's beerhouse in Brook Street in St Helens.
The Ravenhead Glassworks foreman had treated Seddon to a drink and he showed his gratitude by placing his hand inside the man's pocket in an attempt to steal his money.
However, a commercial traveller called George Spedding had witnessed the act and alerted Fildes, who grabbed the man's hand causing a quantity of silver to drop to the floor.
When Fildes was asked in court how much he had drunk, he replied that he was "just nicely" at the time, having knocked back a glass or two of beer.
The 30-year-old Joseph Seddon denied the charge and was sent for trial at the Quarter Sessions in Liverpool where he was cleared.
St Helens Town Council met on the 5th and were in cost-cutting mood. Members criticised plans to pave some minor roads in St Helens with tarmac and setts, arguing that using crushed boulders would be far cheaper, although less safe for horses.
The high wages bill at the Whiston waterworks also led to comment, particularly the huge overtime that a chap called Tinsley had accrued while boring the new well.
It was revealed that he had been in charge of the engine and at times had worked night and day. During one particular week he had only been away from his job for 15 hours.
Tinsley was described as the only man capable of working the large engine and so needed to be on site while important boring work took place.
The health and safety aspects of a man working 150 hours in a week were not, however, discussed!
Special trains were put on from St Helens for the 3-day event that stopped to collect Sutton passengers at Peasley Cross, Sutton Oak and St Helens Junction stations.
In 1835 the Rev. Thomas Pigot, the minister of St. Helen's – as he described himself – wrote to the Liverpool Mercury from the St Helens Parsonage about the "sad excesses" of the meeting.
The vicar claimed that: "very many poor sinners have confessed to me on their death beds that they commenced their wicked career at Newton races".
Horse racing had taken place on Newton Common from at least 1678 and continued until 1899 when Lord Newton accepted an offer from a Manchester-based syndicate to rent land in Haydock to establish a new course that we know today as Haydock Park.
Next week's stories will include the highway robbery in Pocket Nook, the violent assaults on police in Parr and Thatto Heath, the feckless Feigh family and the judge that claimed that the St Helens working class were the most well off in the country.