A STURDY VAGABOND, EXETER, 1840.

 "William Stevens was brought up before the bench, charged with an act of vagrancy.  He was a stout able bodied person, with a dark shock head and some five or six weeks beard.   He had a small bundle of brimstone matches under his arm, and a few shreds of shirt under his waistcoat but it sadly wanted mending, as it did not extend much below his throat, and the public , if so minded, had a full opportunity of judging the colour of his skin by actual inspection - for with the exception of an old waistcoat nothing covered the upper part of the matchman, so that his shirt wanted about as extensive a repair as Paddy's knife, which merely required a new blade and a new handle to make it complete.

"His trousers....with the repair of a leg up one side, and a leg down the other, some addition to the seat, and a few repairs in the front would still have been passable. He had shoes on - slashed and cut through to give air to his feet, and also to show that he had no stockings - his whole garb and garbage being so contrived as to give the appearance of great destitution and consequent suffering, which contrasted strongly with his able well coditioned frame which was equally significant of the fine feeding of cadger's hall....

"He was an incorrigible vagrant and had been sent home to his parish - some distance off - by Topsham at an expence of sixteen pounds. 

"Having nothing to say for himself save that he mumbled out that he could get no work, and had only a few matches.  He was sentenced to fourteen days imprisonment and hard labour.

"The Superintendent of Police said that much mischief was done by the 'relief' which cadgers were certain of finding in this city, having a billet always prepared for them on application to any of the Relief Society, whose humanity was often imposed upon by sturdy vagabonds of this class"  

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William Stevens must have been one of the last of brimstone matchsellers.  Such matches were on the way out in 1840.   He carried a few sticks dipped in brimstone (sukphur) which could  only be used in conjunction with flint and steel to create a flame.  He probably carried them only to escape a charge of vagrancy but the Exeter magistrates were having none of that. 

No-one in Exeter, certainly not newspaper reporters, went around wearing T shirts with the logo 'BE KIND!' in those days.  

Source: The Western Times,  17th October 1840.