"A MOST AWFUL OCURRENCE," EXETER, 1845.

"A most awful occurrence took place in the Penitentiary in this city on Monday morning, by which five young women, inmates of the establishment, met with a death as horrific as it was untimely.

"It is the custom, when any male persons enter the establishment, for the inmates to be removed out of sight - a precaution considered to be a necessary portion of the discipline to which this unfortunate class of persons are subjected before they return to honest courses.

"On this occasion, Messrs. Garton and Jarvis having been called on to repair a stove, Mr. Garton had to pass through a laundry in which the inmates were working.  They being directed to 'clear',  immediately went to an open closet in the yard, and to the number of eighteen were huddled into it.

"The door was hardly closed upon them when the floor gave way, and they were all precipitated into a cesspool, of the existence of which the the inmates of the establishment were ignorant.

"The screech  and yell of consternation which was instantly set may be more easily imagined than described; and contrasting as it did with the merry bells ringing to greet the arrival of the Sheriff,  it had a sudden and fearful effect upon the household.

"Rushing out to see what was the cause,  they were dicovered scrambling over each other in the horrid filth, some gasping for breath, others clinging to the floor or vainly trying to climb up to the top, and the weaker trodden down.

"They were drawn out as quickly as possible; but so instantaneous was the suffocation, that five were already dead."

*

These truly horrific deaths would make national headlines these days and would be given many columns in print.  Eighteen young women herded and locked into a building who fall through a rotten floor into a cesspit where five of them drown in ordure!  This story would  hit the papers and there would be demands for an enquiry, resignations, names of the 'victims', ages, expert opinions and so on.  In The Western News of 22nd March 1845 we read only this short account.   There will be an inquest.  I shall look out for it.   

Open closet sounds like oxymoronic gobbledegook.  What could this place have been?  I suspect a lavatory.

The Penitentiary was, I think, in Bartholomew Street.  If so, it was a Church of England institution, essentially a prison to which you were 'recommended' by the magistrates, where fortunate persons hoped to save members of this unfortunate class of persons from sin through industry, that is to say, forced labour in a laundry.

This is one of the most disturbing reports that I have read.  It is alarming to think that if Mr.Garton had been permitted to walk through the laundry, the girls would have had a bit of fun and so, perhaps would Mr. Garton. Instead of which.....  

I shall not sleep tonight.

 

"I'LL STAB YOUR GUTS OUT," EXETER, 1845.

Richard Parish was a lodging house keeper who was imprisoned for two years with hard labour for using a knife in a fight with a bricklayer, a navigator, named Henry Poole, and wounding him in the head.  The fight took place on the 7th March, was judged at the Spring Assizes and was reported in The Western Times of 22nd March 1845.

Parish and Poole had been drinking together at The Black Dog Tavern near Exeter's new Iron Bridge.  They had quarrelled bout the reckoning. Later, Henry Poole turned up at Parish's house, which was near St. John's Bow, which, being a lodging-house had a public room.  We learn from the report that the room where the fight took place had two tables and four chairs, a fire burning, two candles, one on the mantle piece and one on a table.  There were words between the two men which led to a fight which led to the stabbing.   One of the witnesses, Harriet Murphy, was sitting quietly by the fire making a cap when the fight took place.  She gave evidence: 'I was not much frightened till the blood spouted over me.'

Below is her account:  

"I saw the struggle which took place.  When prisoner came in he ordered Poole out, but the latter said "I don't want to go out in a hurry."  Then Parish said, 'If you don't go. I'll stab your guts out.'  They then began fighting, and continued so for a few minutes.  Mr. Parish had more beer in him than the other man.  Poole said, 'You must have been a rogue not to have rubbed out those two chalks at the Black Dog.'  After one of the rounds Poole was getting up, when Parish ran over to him and took his hand from his pocket and struck him on the head. Then Poole cried out, 'My God, I am stabbed.'  The blood then gushed out, and some flowed over a cap I was making...  Poole was on one knee when he was struck on the head.  I saw a cut in his head afterwards.

"Cross-examined.  I have lived three months in the house, and lodged there then, but had not received orders to leave it, except at one time, when I interfered with Parish about kicking his boy.  Mrs. Parish told me to take no notice of him.  He did not accuse me of living with another man, not being married to him.  I don't like Parish; I don't think anybody likes him; no body gives him a good name.  I cried 'murder' but no body takes notice of that - murder is often called there."

*

St. John's Bow was yet another church on the High Street. It was next to a 'bow', a covered way, like the one at St. Stephens, which crossed John St,. hurch and Bow were demolished in 1937 and there is now no trace of either,

The chalks at the Black Dog,  were, of course, records or tallies showing how much beer had been drunk.  I take Poole's words to mean that Parish had miserably failed to cheat the landlord of his due!

A navigator, here means a labourer, one who worked digging canals or building railways, a navvy.   

This whole scene seems to be wonderfully infused with Dickensian gloom.  Richard Parish , who kept a house where murder was often called and whom no body liked and who kicked his boy occasionally is a type we all know from the novels.   Harriet Murphy was probably a needlewoman by profession.  She was working with her needle, sewing a cap in the half-light and quite inured to the follies of drunken navvies &c. until the blood spouted over her.  She seems to me an ideal type of  a Victorian woman of the humbler classes.

 

  

A BONE TO PICK, EXETER, 1845.

On 26th January, 1845, a fist-fight between Isaac Taylor and Charles Derrick was arranged at the  Victory Inn in St. Sidwells, Exeter.  It was not between known pugilists and, no doubt, would have passed unnoticed had not Charles Derrick died as a consequence.  Isaac Taylor together with James Jackson and Sambo (a black), the seconds to the combatants, were charged with manslaughter.   

Maria Moore,  a servant to Mr. Balkwill, the landlord of the Victory witnessed the challenge. She gave evidence to the Assize Court when the case came to trial, two months later:

" I was present and heard them talk about fighting,  Taylor sat near the fire, and Derrick sat opposite to him, but afterwards went and sat behind him.  Derrick said  'I.m damned if I won't give you a bone to pick to-morrow.'  Taylor replied  'Then meet me to-morrow morning at 10 o'clock for 10s. or for 20s. meet me in good fellowship, and come back and drink with us like a man.'  There was no appearance of a quarrel.

"Cross-examined:  I heard that Derrick challenged Taylor - not Taylor Derrick.  The first words I heard were from Taylor who said 'Charley did you mean what you said just now.'"

The fight took place the next morning. John Woollacott, an ostler at the White Lion, St. Sidwell's witnessed the fight:

"I was at a field near the Barracks between 11 and 12, there were many people looking at a fight between Derrick and the prisoner Taylor, who were both stripped.  They fought half an hour. Jackson seconded Taylor, and Sambo seconded deceased. They fought  for 10s.  Taylor threw Derrick several times - they fell together, Derrick being under, thrown by the 'fore-hip'. Derrick did not seem beat at all when the fight was over.  During the fight Taylor struck Derrick several times in the head.  They struck each other , but I did not see Taylor strike Derrick anywhere but in the head.  I left them both in the field  after the fight was over - they shook hands - Derrick was then standing up by Sambo.  I saw Derrick in the hospital next day and, after that, I saw the dead body of Derrick in the Hospital.

"Cross-Examined - I went to the field to see the fight - it was a fair stand up fight.  Derrick hit Taylor many times.  The ground  was very wet and slippery; and Derrick fell twice without a blow, from it being so slippery.  I heard no cries of  'shame, take the man away.'"

The Grand Jury found this a case difficult to judge.   They were away for a quarter of an hour. Of course the meeting itself was a breach of the peace and therefore an offence but everyone in England accepted that, as Mr. Slade, who defended Taylor and Jackson, (but not Sambo the black) said: "This was a fair stand up fight, without malice - there were no knives or deadly weapons used, which had occasionally of late disgraced the name of Englishmen.  It was a manly stand up fight, carried on according to the style which was characteristic of the English nation." 

The Jury returned a verdict of guilty against all, but recommended mercy, as the fight was fair and no advantage was taken of the deceased by the prisoners.

The judge sentenced all three to one month's imprisonment without hard labour.

*

Englishmen do not fight with knives.   It's just not done. That's the thing about all this knife-crime one reads about today - it's just not English!

I feel sorry for Sambo the black.  He had only gone along to see the fight but was roped in to be Derrick's second at the last moment.  He, presumably, could not afford to be represented in Court but perhaps had satisfaction in  finding that he, nevertheless, fared no worse than the others.

The place where they fought was called Snow's Field. It was beside the Cavalry (Higher) Barracks and a favourite place for such meetings.

The fight seems to have been as much fall-down as stand-up - a mixture of boxing and wrestling.

The White Lion Hotel and The Victory Inn were both on Sidwell St.  The former was bombed away in the Blitz;  the latter is an inn no longer.

Source: The Western Times, 22nd March, 1845.