THE KEEPER OF EXETER CASTLE, 1872.

In July 1872 the business of the County was being examined by a large gathering of Worthies at the commencement of  the Exeter City Quarter Sessions,   Mr Snow, the keeper of Exeter's Castle and its town-crier, had died and a new keeper needed to be appointed.

 "In answer to Mr Coleridge as to the emoluments of the office, Sir J. DUCKWORTH said the fees as crier amounted to something under £37 a year, and the allowances as Castle keeper was £28 8s, besides which the County Court paid him £12 a year for cleaning the court for County Court purposes; besides that he had a house, candles, fire and garden."

It was a dream of a job! Three names were put forward including that of William Peter, "a policeman who had been in the force 14 years" and whose conduct had been exemplary.   His proposers argued that it would be a good precedent to establish, and one that would do good to the police force- to know that when there were such vacancies, claims of long and good servitude on their part should be fully considered and recognised."   William Peters was elected keeper of the Castle by a healthy majority and then was unanimously elected crier also.  The Castle of Exeter had a new keeper.  I hope he was happy living in his castle and dining by fire and candlelight at the City's expense.

Servitude is an odd word to have used here.  My 1895 dictionary gives: servitude:  the quality or condition of a slave; slavery, bondage.  Well,  I dare say police-service must feel like that sometimes.

What fun if the city of Exeter still had a Castle Keeper!

What fun if the city of Exeter still had a Castle!

Alas, we have sold our birthright for a mess of pottage!

Source: The Western Times, 5th July 1872.

  

THE BLESSED RESTORATION, EXETER, 1857.

On Oak Apple Day, 29th May, in 1857, the city remembered the  Restoration of the Monarchy but an Exeter custom that had lasted almost two hundred years was discontinued:  

"the bells of the cathedral and those of several of the parish churches in the city, according to the annual custom, rang merry peals in commemoration of the Restoration.  The ringing of the bell at the St. Katherine's Almhouse, Catherine-street, as was the practice on such occasion, and which was a source of annoyance to the residents in the neighbourhood, was discontinued.  The bell had been rung by one of the junior choristers of the cathedral, and a sum of money - half of which went to the occupiers of the almshouse, and the other half to the ten junior choristers - was received from funds left for that purpose by the will (proved 1663) of Edward Young, D.D., Dean of Exeter.  It was believed that the money was given only on the condition that the bell of the almshouse was rung, but this proved to be incorrect and the practice of ringing it has been discontinued.  The will in question provides that 40s. a year be given to the almshouses and 40s a year to the choristers, on the day of the blessed restoration of his sacred Majesty."

I would bet it was some big-wig residents in the Cathedral Close who complained about the noise and thus spoiled the fun of one of the junior choristers  for ever after. What's more I suspect some legal chicanery here.  I would recommend that someone re-examine the good Dean Young's will but it is hardly worth the effort seeing that, in Catherine Street, there is no longer an almshouse bell worth ringing, 

Source, The Exeter and Plymouth Gazette, 6th June 1857

TALE OF A HAT, EXETER, 1859.

This is a second story of this kind but I publish it because I think it re-inforces the essential daftness of some Victorian parsons.  To me, these silly tales of hats &c. echo faintly the sea of faith's melancholy, long, withdrawing roar.  (- Matthew Arnold's Dover Beach was being composed just about this time.) : 

"At the Mary Steps Easter meeting, when the business was concluded, Mr Upright put on his hat, The Rector (Rev. R Shutte) exclaimed 'Take off your hat, my good fellow!'  

Mr.U.- Never mind my hat. 

The Rector - Do take it off. 

Mr. U - Will you hold it then?  

The Rector - Yes, with pleasure.

Mr Upright took off his hat and handed it to the Rector, who dropped it on the floor at the foot of the font.

The incident caused a good laugh in the church.  Very shortly after, another amiable parishioner clapped his tile on and grinned, in expectation that the Rector would remove it, but his reverence took no notice of the offender."

One has to feel sorry for the grinning parishioner who was deemed unworthy of the rector's notice.

Source The Western Times, 30th April 1859.

HITTING A PROSTITUTE, EXETER, 1853.

At the Exeter Guildhall in March, 1853:

 "JANE WILLIAMS, a prostitute. was charged with using indecent language in the public streets.  P.C. Moore heard the cry of 'Stop Thief," whilst on duty in High-street; and presently he saw the defendant turn the corner of Paris-street, in full speed after a gentleman, who took refuge in the Bude Haven Hotel.  The door was shut, and defendant evinced great violence in attempting to push it open.  Mr. Southcott, landlord of the Bude Haven, stated that the defendant's conduct was very violent, and that it had caused much annoyance to his lodgers.

"In her defence, Williams said that she had accosted the gentleman in the street, who instead of replying to her kind enquiries after his health, had struck her twice across the head with his stick.  Being enraged at this assault upon her she followed the gentleman, who ran into the Bude Haven; and she now expressed contrition for having evinced such violent behaviour.

"The Bench fined her 5s and the expenses, informing her that if she came there again for a similar offence. she would be imprisoned, without being afforded the opportunity of paying a fine." 

These days we are more considerate of sex-workers.  The policeman, the landlord and the Bench seem to have been oblivious to the fact that an assault was alleged to have taken place.  They did not for a moment consider asking the 'gentleman', who perhaps was an incipient Jack the Ripper who got his kicks by hitting the women-of-the-streets over the head with a stick and then running like smoke to escape their wrath, to account for his extraordinary behaviour.

Source: The Western Times, 5th March 1853.                 

MISCHIEVOUS FOLLY, EXETER, 1811.

On Wednesday , 30th January 1811,  readers of the Exeter Flying Post could read, right at the top of the social column, the following announcement:

"On Monday last was married, at St. Paul's church by the Rev. J. P. Carrington, the Rev. William Warren of Ottery St. Mary, to Miss Hicks, only daughter of Mr. William Hicks, of this city, builder."

A week later they were informed by the Flying Post: 

"The Paragraph inserted in our last paper, announcing the marriage of Miss Hicks of this city, to the Rev, Mr Warren of Ottery, is totally void of foundation.  The editors of both the Exeter papers were imposed upon by the mischievous folly of a young man, of this city, who has since expressed his sorrow for having been guilty of so great an impropriety, and of having been the cause of so much unpleasantness to the parties concerned."

There are mysteries to be winkled out here!

 Of  William Warren I can find no trace.  (I haven't looked very closely)  A  Rev. John Warren was the head master of the King's school in Ottery and his wife was, at least by 1815, a Frances Hicks.  Can this be a coincidence?  

Was perhaps the young man a King's scholar?  He sounds to me like he might have been a younger brother. 

In any case the announcement in the papers must have given rise to much shaking of heads and, I hope, quite a lot of giggling, both at Exeter, especially in  the congregation of St. Paul, and at Ottery St. Mary.

Source: The Exeter Flying Post, 31st January/6th February, 1811. 

SPLASHING JOCKIES, EXETER, 1806.

 "Our lammas fair commenced yesterday,  there was a large shew of cattle, but the expectations of peace rendered the sale heavy at reduced prices.  The price of leather also experienced a considerable fall.  Good horses were scarce, those of the middling and inferior order abounded, and were cutting capers in all directions, to catch the eye of the inexperienced purchasers, but in general, the whip, the spur and the ginger were equally unavailing, as, tho' the spectators were many, the buyers were few.

"Two of  these splashing jockies, galloping to catch the eye of a customer, rode against each other. and were thrown; one of them had his thigh broken, the other was severely wounded on the head, and was otherwise much bruised.  - They were both taken to the Devon and Exeter hospital, where the formerr lies, in a fair way of recovery; the latter was soon enabled to be moved under the care of his own friends, his wounds being not dangerous.  We could wish this accident might operate as a caution, to deter others from such improper conduct in future." 

The tanning industry and the sale of hides were among the city's major sources of income.  A fall in the price of leather was therefore significant,   The Lammas Fair was the high spot of the year and people came in their thousands to Exeter.  What with horses cutting capers and splashing jockeys and ginger, in the sense of high spirits, the fair must have been an animated occasion even when sales were depressed.

I wonder if Lammas (traditionally 1st August) was, from the first, a particular holiday in Exeter because it coincides with the festival of Saint Peter in Chains.  Saint Peter being the patron of our city.

Source: The Exeter Flying Post. 31st July 1806.

A PLAIN CLOTHES POLICEMAN, EXETER, 1848.

 In February 1848 at the Exeter Guildhall before the Mayor and a full Bench of magistrates:

"several Irish and other vagrants, men, women and chldren, were brought up by Fulford, who had been sent out in civilian clothes to catch them, for begging in the streets.  The city is over-run with vagrants and charitable people act injudiciously in giving to persons whom they do not know.

"One or two persons were summoned for using obscene language in the public streets;  and the magistrates, having expressed their determination to put a stop to this disgusting practice, imposed heavy fines.

For example, the cases of Tom and Jerry.  First,  the case of Tom Hamlin and family:

"THOS. HAMLIN, MARY HAMLIN, and MARGARET HAMLIN, were charged with offering needles and laces for sale in Magdalen-road, on Saturday last.  The case was proved by Policeman Fulford, who had been perambulating the streets in private clothes for the last two or thee days for the purpose of detecting vagrants.  The Defendant complained that Fulford had not taken other beggars into custody, but had pounced on him and his family because they were Irish.  Fulford said he could not catch them, or he should have teken them into custody.   Sent to prison for a week, hard labour."

The case of Jeremiah Macarthy:

"A very old offender, who, Mr Justice Kingdon said had been before them 100 times, was brought up on this 101st time for vagrancy.  He had been convicted of using abusive language on the 7th and fined 5s. or a week's imprisonment, with a hint to make himself scarce.  He had not done so but had been found begging on Sunday.  He was sent to prson for a week, on the previous conviction at the expiratin of which he is to be brought up again."

And so on ad infinitum.  The truth would seem to be that there is no easy answer to clearing the streets of vagrants.  

Vagrant and beggar have both become boo-words these days but the 'homeless' are still with us.  Let's face it, they are still begging and still vagranting but at least nowadays they don't bring their little ones with them..  The injudicious giving by citizens to persons whom they do not know seems also to be a constant. .   How some other countries manage to keep their city streets clear of the homeless I do not know but I suspect their methods must be un-English.  Mind you, sending that Policeman Fulford out in civilian clothes to round them up also seems pretty un-English.

Source: The Western Times, 19th February 1848. 

 

DEALING WITH THE PAUPERS, EXETER, 1863.

 At a weekly meeting of the board of the Exeter Corporation of the Poor in Januay 1863 certain circumstances connected with the discipline of the workhouse were being considered:

"The master of the workhouse had reported that Caroline Gauntley had thrown a bucket of hot water over him. and used very offensive language towards him.  The woman accused the master of having had ciminal intercourse with her.  The committee had examined into the matter but thought the bulk of the evidence unfit for publication,  It appeared, however, that the alleged misconduct on the part of the master had taken place two years since, and taking into consideration the character of the witness in connnection with other circumstances, they did not think the charge against him had been proved.

"They, however, thought that the master had not used due forethought in dealing with the paupers.  The management of the female ward was the exclusive duty of the matron, and the master should only go there when urgent duty required his attendance.  The committee trusted that in future the master would give his orders with firmness, yet in such a manner as not to irritate those who were under him.

"The committee had unanimously come to the conclusion that the evidence should be laid before the general body of guardians"

The women in the workhouse were separated from the men but the master had access to the 'female ward.'   No good could come of that!  Life at 'the Union' was very dark and dreary.  How delighted the other workhouse 'females' must have been when Caroline Gauntley emptied her bucket over the master! 

It would seem that in 1863 some thought that crimes committed two years since didn't count for much and the thing to do with 'evidence unfit for publication' was to suppress it. 

Source, The Exeter and Plymouth Gazette, 23rd January 1863.

DESTITUTION, EXETER, 1856.

 Thomas Huxtable ,'a miserable, dirty-looking man', was a tin-plate worker who lived, 'immediately over the mill-leat' in Ewings' Lane.  In December, 1856, he appeared before the magistrates at the Guildhall in Exeter charged with neglecting his children.  His eldest child, his thirteen year old daughter, Jessy, had  gone to the Office of the Corporation because their father had neither provided sufficient food for her, nor for her three little brothers, for a week.  

Jessy Huxtable gave evidence that she had received from her father since Monday for herself and her brothers 'a half-quartern loaf, (a quartern loaf weighed four pounds) a conger, three cods' heads, a pennyworth of fat, and threepence in money.'

Mr Shutte, rector of Saint Mary Steps, said he knew the Huxtable's home.  "The winter before last there was a hole through the room which led to the mill-leat, and a great number of rats used to come up from the stream and carry off what food there was in the house."

Daniel Fildew, beadle to the Corporation, gave evidence that he had visited the Huxtables and "he found  nothing in the house for the children to make use of.  There was no bed for the children to sleep in, and no fire  (this was in December) - in fact there was no furniture in the house.....There were rags in the house in a very filthy state, for the children to lie on"  Huxtable had said to Daniel Fildew: ; I cannot help it - I have unfortunately broke out the whole of the week.'  ('breaking out' meant giving in to the demon drink.)

Thomas Huxtable said to the Bench: 'I cannot keep the children as clean as a woman;  but they are never without  bread and meat from Monday morning to Saturday night.'

"The MAYOR said the bench considered it a most shocking case. He thought the defendant should be ashamed of himself for squandering almost all his earnings in drink, he having four children dependent on him for maintenance.  The bench had come to the determination to commit him to prison for two months, and he hoped when he came out he would have some knowledge of what is due from a parent towards his children."

Source: The Western Times, 6th December 1856.

"THE SPEED OF TERROR", EXETER, 1847.

The Exeter and Plymouth Gazette of 27th November 1847 published this little cautionary tale:

"CAUTION. - A few days since, the servant of a respectable family in this city, being in North-street with her master's children, went into a shop to make a trifling purchase, which did not detain her many seconds.  A little one, four years of age, was left at the door, when, it appears, a woman enticed her away with an apple, enveloping her in her cloak, at the same time promising to take her to her papa's house, which the frightened girl implored her to do.

On coming out of the shop, the eldest girl missing her sister, in indescribable distress, not knowing in what quarter to direct her search, ran up the street, crossed the Fore-street, and with the speed of terror soon reached Combe-street, where she detected, from beneath a woman's cloak the dress of her little sister.  She immediately insisted on the child being given up; but too much occupied with the joy of the recovery, no attention was paid to the woman, who, it is supposed, fearful of detection, ran off towards the low haunts of Westgate."

This tale reads to me like it comes from Charles Dickens' notebooks (he was writing Dombey and Son at the time}:  the mysterious woman from the low haunts ominously cloaked who has brought a ,rosy surely, apple into the city and found the child 'of a respectable family' and whisked her away, the feisty elder sister running blind across the busy Fore-street and then, in distant Combe-street, miraculously recognising the hem of her sister's dress and rescuing the 'little one', the boundless 'joy of the recovery, why! -, all that's enough drama for a chapter or two. 

I do enjoy stories with  happy endings.  

A HOUSE OF CHARITY AND MERCY, EXETER, 1816.

The Governors of Exeter's, St Thomas's, Lunatic Asylum met on the first day of October 1816 to elect a new Resident Apothecary.  Mr. S. F. Milford addressed the meeting and referred to how in the course of the "investigations which had lately been set on foot by Committees of the House of Commons, relative to Institutions of a similar nature to this, many deeds of darkness had been brought to light, and scenes of the grossest abuse and most cruel inhumanity had been publicly revealed."

Mr. Milford, however, went on to say that he was persuaded:  

"there did not anywhere exist an Institution in which decorum, humanity and successful skill were more conspicuous than in this Asylum.  If anyone doubted the accuracy of this representation, he could only wish him to visit, as he had done this morning, every bed-chamber, every sitting-room, and every patient in the house, and, Mr. Milford said, he was sure that person would return convinced that the statement he had made was founded in sincerity and fact, and that it rather fell short of the truth.

"He did not say this to compliment any man, or set of men, but merely to do justice to ascertained merit; and to advance , as far as any feeble efforts of his could do so, the reputation of an Institution so honourable to this county; and so powerfully calculated to relieve human misery, and promote the public welfare."

"During the comparatively short period that this establishment had existed, he was happy to state, that in considerably more than three hundred instances where the lamp of reason had been extinguished in the human mind, it had been re-kindled within these walls.  In addition to this, it was a most gratifying circumstance to reflect on its being by no means an unusual thing for the patients, after they had returned home in the perfect enjoyment of their intellect, to re-visit this house of charity and mercy for the sole purpose of extending their gratitude for the humanity and kindness they had experienced under its roof."

Source: The Exeter Flying Post, 3rd October 1816.

A SUICIDE NOTE, EXETER, 1834.

 Mary Anne Tilour was a young woman, a servant, who 'made a hole in the water' in June 1834.  Hers was one of many such suicides.  She was found floating in the Exe near the Head weir.  An inquest was held at the Barnstaple Inn in North Street, Exeter.

Mary Anne could not write.  She had gone to the trouble of visiting an old shoemaker of her acquaintance, Charles Baker. in Brookgreen, St. Sidwell's, to ask him to write a note for her.  He was not too great a writer either.   The newspaper report claimed  'he  appeared to be one of the stupidest of men.'  No doubt he was offended.  He gave evidence at the inquest:

"She was a friendless girl, but had two uncles living at Heavitree.  I was writing when she came in; she asked me to write a note for her.  It did not excite my suspicion, she said she was going to send it seven miles away,  There had been stories that she was in the family way, and I thought this was to contradict it."

This was the bizarre note that was unpinned from Mary Anne's stays when she was taken from the river.:

"Mary an Tillor - this is Don be cose I  stated she is not in the famley waie when this you see you will now [know] what is bee come of me.   I have nothing Extr.y for the Present so this is the last fare well to you Aall."

An examination of Mary Anne's body confirmed she had not been pregnant.   The reasons for her suicide were largely unexplained  but  the jury needed no explanation.   Who cared?  They returned a verdict of found drowned. 

Whenever I read these pathetic stories of drowned women, and there are many of them, I find myself asking myself the question, warped no doubt: was this tragic young woman  pretty and charming?  Did she float on the waters like Ophelia in the Millais painting?

OK, Probably not!" 

Source: The Western Times, 7th June 1834.