Hey! That's My Sheet!

The Epiphany 1877 Quarter Sessions include the case of a wronged housewife who demonstrated a certain lack of human sympathy for another woman. On Thursday 26th October 1876 Ellen Charles of Stotfold left five sheets and a tablecloth drying on the line. During the day one calico sheet and one linen sheet went missing. On Friday 27th she found the calico sheet on the bed of a certain George Seymour. In the course of cross-examination it became apparent that on that Friday Seymour's wife was confined in childbirth. Ellen Charles went to the house with PC Thomas Hebbes and was given permission by the woman nursing Mrs Seymour to go upstairs to the bedroom. Apparently ignoring the fact that the occupant was either in labour or had just given birth, Ellen Charles identified the sheet as her own, removed it from the bed and gave it to the policeman, who at least had the tact to wait on the landing outside the room. George Seymour was arrested that evening. When the missing linen sheet was found the next day at the house of a Thomas Morris the charge against Seymour of stealing this item was dropped, but the prosecution for stealing the calico sheet went ahead. Fortunately for his family Seymour was acquitted. Maybe the jury possessed a little more sympathy than Mrs Charles!

The baby born to Mrs Seymour appears to have been a little girl, Emily, whose birth was registered at Biggleswade during the December quarter of 1876. It seems she survived for only a few months as her death was registered in the June1877 quarter.

References: QSR1877/1/5/5; QSR1877/1/4/4/c

The Great Bedfordshire Bicycle Chase

In October 2011 our Paths to Crime document of the month told the story of Richard William Webb, who was accused of stealing a penny-farthing bicycle from a mechanic at Leighton Buzzard, Hyde Edward Dightam. I have just catalogued the Michaelmas Sessions for 1876 which included this case. Intrigued by the Keystone Cops style chase across Bedfordshire described in the depositions I did a little digging for additional information about the protagonists.

"Hyde" Edward Dightam was in fact Hyla Edward Dightam, whose bankruptcy was reported in the London Gazette for 19 May 1865. Formerly of Aston Clinton in Buckinghamshire, he was then a watch and clock maker living at Markyate Street. He was discharged from bankruptcy on 23rd June 1865. His financial difficulties did not prevent him practicing his trade as in the 1871 census he was again described as a watchmaker. He was aged 32, had been born in Mursley (Buckinghamshire) and was living with his wife and four young children in Dunstable. In the 1876 Quarter Sessions depositions Dightam is described as a general mechanic, presumably he was using his watchmaker's mechanical skills on a larger scale. By 1881 he was again in Dunstable working as a watch and clockmaker, now with eight children whose birth places indicate his travels. Florence Maud, aged 8, and Gertrude Elenor, aged 5, had both been born in Leighton Buzzard, and Walter Ambrose, aged 3, in Leeds, Yorkshire. The family were back in his wife's home town of Dunstable for the birth of their six month old baby, Olive Adelaine. He seems to have been both a wanderer and something of a jack-of-all-trade. In 1891 he was again living in Dunstable, but his trade was now cabinet maker, and in both 1901 and 1911 he was an upholsterer at Aston in Warwickshire.

Richard William Webb proved elusive. I was not able to find any references to a Richard Webb in Bedfordshire at that date. The gaol register does not give a place of birth but gives his age as 21. In his deposition to the Quarter Sessions James Siratt said that Webb told him he had been riding bicycles for eight years, but in these very early days of cycling it seems rather improbable that he would have been riding at the age of thirteen. Another deposition dismissed Webb's claim that he had discussed bicycle wheel sizes with his "uncle" Thomas Hopkins, the landlord of the Plume and Feathers at Leighton Buzzard. Hopkins said he did not know Webb, was not related to him, and had never discussed bicycles with him. Webb also said he was ready to pay for the bicycle, but had no money on him. It seems that Webb may have been something of a fantasist. The court acquitted him of stealing the penny-farthing. Was this justice? Or luck?


Woburn Cycling Club 1885

Diamond Jubilee

The June Document of the month at The Bedfordshire & Luton Archives and Record Service relates to a document discovered in the Quarter Sessions in 1841.  A young Queen Victoria was on a visit to Woburn Abbey when an offence took place.  A member of the 11 Hussars who was escorting the Queen committed an offence whilst under the influence of alcohol.  The supporting documents include a lengthy letter of apology from the solider.  Click here for the BLARS document of the month.

As yet we haven't catalogued the Diamond Jubilee year of Queen Victoria.  However, out of curiosity we have peeked forward at the QSM (Quarter Session Minutes) book which covers the year 1897.   We found an official response from Whitehall thanking the Justices of Bedfordshire for their congratulatory message sent to the Queen.  Looking back in the QSM we found the original message sent to the Queen by the Justices in November 1886.  We've attached an extract below. 

“We the Justices of the Peace of the County of Bedford in Quarter Sessions assembled desire to offer Your Majesty our humble and heartfelt congratulations upon the attainment by Your Majesty of a Reign which exceed in length the years that of any other Sovereign who has occupied the throne, not only of the United Kingdom, but of England.

We beg to assure Your Majesty that in common with all Your Majesty’s subjects we most deeply appreciate the benefits which had accrued to the Empire during the unprecedented reign, throughout the whole of which, with all its troubles and trials, Your Majesty has laboured with so much anxiety for the welfare of your people.

We earnestly hope that Your Majesty may yet be spared for many years to come to preside over the destinies of the vast Empire, and that the blessing of the Almighty may rest upon Your Majesty and all Your Majesty’s family.”

None of us are likely to see another Diamond Jubilee in our lifetimes, emphasising what an amazing achievement it was for both Queen Victoria and our present Queen Elizabeth to reach such a landmark.  We hope you all enjoy the Jubilee weekend.

QSM48 p590/1 & p605

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.