On Friday, February 16th, 1827, Mrs. Squire, mother of two small children, who lived in Heavitree, came before the magistrates to charge her husband with violent assault. Her landlady, Mrs Tothill, also came along to give evidence that Mrs Squire had been ill-used by her husband for the past two years. Mrs. Squire swore that her husband had come home at midnight fighting drunk and, for no reason, had pushed her and her two-month-old child out of the marital bed and had punched her dreadfully about the face.
Mr. Squire did not deny striking his wife "but pleaded the provoking language so commonly used by scolding ladies, and that she did not provide him with comfortable meals, absenting herself to gossip with the neighbours, so that he was driven of necessity to seek recreation in an ale-house. He furthermore laid a most grievous charge against his wife of disturbing his rest whilst in bed, by working him about with her elbows and knees.
The magistrates had heard all this many times before. The pattern was established. The husband went to the pub and came home drunk, The wife protested and he beat her. Wife-beating was, for the working class, commonplace. Most such assaults never came to court but Mrs. Squire of Heavitree had suffered enough!
The Squires were taken into a room adjoining the Court where they agreed to a judicial separation. Mrs. Squire was to have the furniture, the children and six shillings a week for maintenance. Nothing more needed to be said about the violent assault.
Source: The Exeter and Plymouth Gazette, 17th February, 1827.
No comments:
Post a Comment