Internal Furnishing of a Victorian Home

The Bedfordshire and Luton Archive and Record Service have just published their document of the month for May.  Click here to visit

The article looks at the contents of various Victorian homes in Bedfordshire as listed in various documents held by the archives. This includes the case of George & Edwin Palmer which came to court in Michaelmas QSR1886.  What on the surface seemed to be a typical bankruptcy case actually reveals some underhand dealing and reveals a fabulous long list of the content of Palmer's home in Liverpool Street, Luton.

QSR1886/4/5/13-14

The double-dealing Innkeeper

The struggle of the small businessman is very topical at the moment but the case of James Clarke shows what a timeless issue it is. 

James Clarke came before the court in January 1886 accused of obtaining the sum of £20 by false pretences.  At the time Clarke was the tenant of the Sportsman Inn in Shefford.  The depositions in the case reveal that an agreement was made between Clarke and Moses Cakebread & Isaac Harris for the purchase of the barley Clarke was growing on his land.  A written agreement was made in another local public house, the White Hart in Shefford, and signed by the parties.  Cakebread gave £5 up front for the barley and a receipt for the payment was written and signed on the reverse of the agreement.  Next day, Clarke was paid a further £15 by Cakebread.  Regrettably for Cakebread & Harris, Clarke had already sold the barley as means of clearing debt he had with the Cardington Brewery Company.  

 In April 1885 the defendant was indebted to the company for £67 4s 0d for beer supplied and rent.  They pressed him for payment.  Clarke met with Charles Hickman, a director of the Cardington Brewery, at the office of debt collect Julius Jacobs. Hickman asked him what arrangement he could make to settle his account.  Clarke said “you shall have every farthing of your money as soon as I can get it”.  Clarke said he had 6 or 7 acres of barley and nearly an acre of onions, which would more than pay the debt as soon as harvest came.  Hickman said that was not satisfactory as Clarke may have other loss by then; a statement which Clarke denied.  Hickman proposed they take the onions and barley as settlement of the debt. Clarke said he would not do it as it would leave the other landlord out in the cold.  Hickman said that if he assigned them the crops they would pay the landlord the rent.  Clarke agreed on that condition and later signed a deed to that affect.

 

Unfortunately for Cakebread and Harris, the Cardington Brewery came to them to claim the barley and they were forced to pay the full value of it.

James Clarke was sentenced to imprisonment for 3 calendar months with hard labour for obtaining money by false pretences.

For more information on the Sportman Public House in Shefford, visit BLARS Community Archives - Shefford

More details of the case of James Clarke can be found at QSR1886/1/5/1 

Wrest Park - Lunchtime Talk

In case news hadn't spread, we thought we'd let you know of a talk taking place on Friday 11th May between 1pm and 2pm at the Bedfordshire and Luton Archives Service.   The talk is titled "Grand Designs - the conservation of Wrest Park Architectural Drawings".

Just call the service to book a place.

Reformatory Ship

When boys were convicted of crimes from the 1840s onwards they were typically given a short gaol sentence followed by a period of years in a Reformatory School. At the Epiphany Sessions in 1871 Henry Tuck, a 13 year old apprentice to a shoemaker at Husborne Crawley, was convicted of stealing a coat, a hat, a scarf and a pair of shoes from his master Alfred Faulkner before absonding. He was apprended two weeks later at Huntingdon and sentenced to one month of hard labour in Gaol followed by 5 years at a Reformatory. The gaol database tells us that after his release from Bedford Gaol he was sent to the Akbar Reformatory Ship. This sounded intriguing, so I did a little research.

The informative website of the E Chambré Hardman Archive includes several pages about the Akbar. From 1855 to 1907 two school ships named Akbar were moored on the Mersey by a charitable organisation, the Liverpool Juvenile Reformatory Association. Henry Tuck would have served his time on the second Akbar, a former Royal Navy vessel which replaced its predecessor in 1862. The ship was funded by a grant from Liverpool Council, the Reformatory Association, charitable donations and parental contributions, which could be up to 5 shillings a week. Up to 200 boys could be held on the ship, where they were to receive a combination of discipline and education intended to equip them with skills for later life. The E Chambré Hardman Archive website tells us that:

Life on board the Akbar was harsh and dangerous. Food was in short supply and not very healthy. In the summer ventilation was inadequate and in the winter temperatures on board were very low. This was particularly so in 1894 when parts of the River Mersey froze for around thirteen weeks. It is no surprise that many boys fell ill and that some died. In 1893 an inspector criticised the Akbar’s health record and as a result the boys were evacuated to New Ferry Cholera Hospital on the Wirral while the ship was cleaned. Life on board any ship was by its very nature dangerous. The Akbar’s minute books record a number of accidental deaths and injuries amongst its boys.

A little research on Henry Tuck himself threw up some more interesting information. In the 1871 census a Henry Tuck, aged 13, was in the Bedford Union Workhouse. Henry had been born in Thrapston in Northamptonshire and was described as "deserted". In 1861 he had been living in Thrapston with his father Henry Tuck, a 31 year old "engine smith" born in Dunmow (Essex), his mother Maryann, aged 25 from Thrapston and a 5 year old sister Jane. The death of a Mary Ann Tuck is recorded in the Bedford registration district in 1865. It seems likely that this was Henry's mother and that some time between 1865 and 1871 the older Henry abandoned his children and disappeared. There is no trace of him on later censuses - possibly he changed his name to avoid being prosecuted for desertion. Unfortunately I was not able to find out anything about young Henry's life after he left the Akbar, as he also disappears from the censuses.

Drunk and Disorderly

The Easter quarter of 1883 introduced us to the character of Alfred Hirdle.  Alfred was married to Sarah and appeared in court charged with a violent assault on his wife.  She had taken a warrant out against him and in revenge he broke into their house in the early hours of the morning.  He went to his wife’s bedroom and violently hit her about the head with a stick.   He was sentenced to 5 year penal servitude.

Cases of assault appear regularly in the Quarter sessions, but we were curious to see if he was still with his wife at the time of the next census.  A little investigation saw that the couple had only been married approaching 4 years at the time of the attack.  It’s likely his wife knew the type of man she was marrying, as Alfred had been convicted (mostly of drunkenness) over 20 times before they married.  He was only 27.  He was even in trouble on the night of the 1871 census, being listed as a prisoner at Woburn police station.

We did find Sarah in the 1891, living with her mother in Ridgmont and she appears to have continued to have children in these years.  By 1901 she was still with her mother in Ridgmont with her mother, but this time she was described as a widow.   Obviously this meant we wanted to see what had become of Alfred.

A quick bit of Googling brought up the excellent MK Heritage site.  They have a section dedicated to the Fir Tree inn at Woburn Sands, where it appears Alfred Hirdle had become a frequent visitor.  The site talks of another case involving Alfred which was reported in local paper.  Once again it revolved around drunken behaviour.  The article adds an interesting footnote which solves the mystery of what became of Alfred:

 “Alfred Hirdle eventually passed away, whilst serving a sentence in Bedford Prison in 1900, aged 49. The doctors said cause of death was 'Profound Disturbance of the Brain and Apoplexy'.  Hirdle was infamous in the area, as his total of 59 convictions, mostly for being 'Drunk and Disorderly' bear testimony. Every landlord for miles around must have breathed a quiet sigh of relief!”

QSR1883/2/5/1
 

(with thanks to www.mkheritage.co.uk)

And your name is?

Occasionally the Quarter Sessions don’t seem completely aware of who they are dealing with. In the November 1880, 23 year old man by the name of Davis sought lodgings in the Bedfordshire village of Clifton. He claimed to be a clerk to lawyers in Oxford Street, London. He said he was down on business and would remain for about a month, or most likely until Christmas. Mrs Elizabeth Ensdersby, his new landlady, made the agreement with him that he would pay guinea a week for board and lodging. He made himself at home and moved freely around the house. After he had taken dinner he said he was off to the Woolpack Inn to see if the beer was better there than that he had been served at dinner. He did not return and she did not see him again until he was in custody. Within an hour of his leaving she went into her bedroom and missed a silver watch. She had seen it safe earlier that afternoon.

On arrest he gave his name as Herbert Clarence Percy Duroy, but refused an address and he claimed to be respectably connected and he did not wish his friends to know. He claimed to be an actor and is later described on the Calendar of Prisoners as a Comedian. He was tried in the Epiphany Quarter Session under this name, with the aliases of John Wright, Davis and William Burchell also listed. He was sentenced to 12 months hard labour in the House of Correction. However, interestingly a previous conviction was found for him under the name of Charles Edward Buckwell. In that instance he served 6 months in Cold Bath Fields, for obtaining money by false pretences.

His statement upon arrest showed he had a way with words. He said he was guilty of the charge and he wished to add that starvation was the reason he had done what he had. “Having through one fatal error blighted any prospects in my life and not being able to obtain an engagement and further having parted with all I possessed in the world for food”. He found himself “utterly penniless and destitute and therefore resorted to despicable means to save himself from starvation”.

He served his sentence under the name of Herbert Clarence Percy Duroy and appears under this name on the 1881 census (whilst in the House of Correction in Bedford). That appears to be the only record under that name. What this mans correct name was remains a mystery to us. We’d love to hear if anyone has a theory on what became of him.

QSR1881/1/5/3

Letter from Bedford Gaol

At the Epiphany Quarter Sessions of 1871 James Drage of Harrold was tried for being found at night in the dwelling house of William Bithrey at Turvey with intent to commit a felony. He was found by Bithrey's lodger Thomas Shelton on a sofa, hidden under the cover. While in Bedford Gaol waiting for his trial Drage wrote a letter which was not addressed, but was presumably intended for the Justices of the Peace who would hear his case. In the letter Drage claimed that he did not know what he was doing as he had had "a little too much drink". It was a wet afternoon on the day in question amd he had started drinking early. By the late evening he had no idea what he was doing and says "if I was a going to be hung for it I can't tell how I got in that house". He claims that if he had his wits about him he would have made his escape when discovered but he was too drunk. When Shelton and other men called in to help tried to restrain him they pulled him about which had the effect of sobering him up. Eight years earlier he had suffered from a very bad neck for 14 months which caused him to be discharged from the army. Since that time whenever he had too much to drink it went to his head. He ends by saying that when released he will join the teetotal society. The letter is beautifully written in a clear, even script, but his spelling leaves something to be desired: "it shall be a warning to me it shant be drink that shall get me into haney trubel haney more Gentlemen I jine the teatotle sursitety the very day I get my liberty".

Unfortunately for Drage the constable George Mardlin said he did not appear drunk; he had also previously been convicted at the Northampton Quarter Sessions of June 1869 for stealing more than £5 from the house of Elizabeth Copson at Wellingborough (Northants), for which he had served 12 months in the House of Correction at Northampton. This time he was sentenced to 6 months imprisonment with hard labour, to be followed by 7 years supervision by the police. 

The letter is written on a standard form issued by the Gaol to prisoners awaiting trial which includes printed instructions on the front cover:

  Persons writing to Prisoners are to TAKE NOTICE that the permission to write and receive Letters is not given to Prisoners for the purpose of hearing the news of the day, but to keep up a correspondence with their Relatives, and to address them on the subject of their trials; they will not be allowed to give or receive any improper advice or hints, or use or receive any unbecoming language.
  As all Letters sent into the Prison are read by the Governor, they ought not to be of unnecessary length.
  Visiting days are Wednesdays and Saturdays from 10 to 12 in the morning and from 2 to 4 in the afternoon; the visits must not exceed twenty minutes.

QSR1871/1/5/3/b; QSR1871/1/6/3/b