Charged with attempting to strangle her child

[pottoka]

In The Liverpool Mercury of Tuesday April 24th 1866, there is a short article about an ancestor's attempt to strangle her child.

It says that she was "in drink but not drunk", that she had put a rope round the 17-month-old child's neck in order to hang it (but had possibly found nothing to hang him from) and that her husband, formerly a cattle drover, was in Chester Castle for burglary. She was remanded until the next day so that her father, with whom she lived, could attend court.

I had very little information about her, as she seemed to disappear from the Censuses very quickly. Her name is Jane Gaunt, and she was born in Birkenhead in October 1841. In 1851, she is living with her parents, Samuel and Mary, in Liverpool (Class: HO107; Piece: 2176; Folio: 376; Page: 14). After that, nothing.

Yesterday, I tried to find out more on A* with their new criminal records. They demanded more money if I wanted to see a trial of a Jane Atherton (her married name): one in 1868 and one in 1869. Both seemed distant from the event.

I looked instead for Census records and realised that she was on the 1861 Census, in Everton, with her parents, under the name of Ann. This has to be a mistake on the part of the enumerator as the couple had no children called Ann. The birth place isn't right, but the age is. (Class: RG9; Piece: 2718; Folio: 70; Page: 35)

There appears to be no marriage for a Jane Gaunt to an Atherton in the 1860s. Samuel, the child who could have died, was born in 1864; I thought that Jane could not have been given a long sentence as, on the 1881 Census, there is a Mary Atherton, born in about 1869 living with Jane's father, but this child's birth doesn't seem to be registered, and I can't find her on the 1871 Census.

Maybe this should be on brickwalls? Wherever, can any of the B-G demolition team help me find who Jane's husband is, where they are in 1881 and later, and whether Jane did time for her attempted crime. |help| http://www.millan.net/minimations/smileys/pwettybunny.gif (http://www.millan.net)

[Astoria]

County of Lancaster Quarter sessions Liverpool
13 Feb 1868
Housebreaking, before convicted of felony - 6 months
30 Aug 1869
Larceny, before convicted of felony - 9 months

[pottoka]

County of Lancaster Quarter sessions Liverpool
13 Feb 1868
Housebreaking, before convicted of felony - 6 months
30 Aug 1869
Larceny, before convicted of felony - 9 months

Not Jane, then - at least, not for attempted infanticide.

Thank you, Astoria :)

[pennydog]

Other to those that Astoria has posted Jane Atherton was also convicted as follows:-
4/4/71 Larceny - 6mth prison + 7years supervision
8/1/72 Larceny 7 years penal servitude
3/1/81 Larceny with the following statement "Recognicance in £10 to appear & receive judgement when called on" - there is no follow up to show if she was call!
What a naughty girl!!
Don't know if these are all the same person, but they were all at the Lancashire quarter sessions in Liverpool.

[pottoka]

Other to those that Astoria has posted Jane Atherton was also convicted as follows:-
4/4/71 Larceny - 6mth prison + 7years supervision
8/1/72 Larceny 7 years penal servitude
3/1/81 Larceny with the following statement "Recognicance in £10 to appear & receive judgement when called on" - there is no follow up to show if she was call!
What a naughty girl!!
Don't know if these are all the same person, but they were all at the Lancashire quarter sessions in Liverpool.

If any of these are "my girl", I would expect to find her on the Censuses, especially in 1871 when she would have been in custody (I suppose).

I'm beginning to wonder if she and her husband didn't abandon their children with Grandad (Grandma also seems to have disappeared, rather than died [no death registration in the right area] after 1871, too - what a family!) and leave the country.

[carolchipp]

Hi Pottoka,
Check the Liverpool Mercury 4th May 1866. Jane was discharged after her father entered ' into his recognisances for her good behaviour during the next three months..' and was warned by the magistrate about her future conduct.
Hope that helps.
Carol

[pottoka]

Hi Pottoka,
Check the Liverpool Mercury 4th May 1866. Jane was discharged after her father entered ' into his recognisances for her good behaviour during the next three months..' and was warned by the magistrate about her future conduct.
Hope that helps.
Carol
http://www.topsmileys.net/smilies/sign0201.gif (http://www.topsmileys.net) It most certainly does, Carol http://www.topsmileys.net/smilies/sign0092.gif (http://www.topsmileys.net) I wonder why I didn't get a hit on that date when I was trawling the Liverpool Mercury.

Now, though, this becomes a brick wall |banghead|:


What on earth happened to Jane after 1866?

[Jane Gee]

This appears to be yours but Jane is being elusive

RG10/3816 Lanacshire Liverpool 1871


Samuel Gaunt Head age 55
Mary " Wife 56
Samuel Gaunt Son 19
Thomas Gaunt son 16
Frederick Reed grandson age 12
Samuel Atherton grandson 7

Have tried for prison but the info for the inmates is initials only. If there is more than one prison then I can try looking there.

Jane

[pottoka]

This appears to be yours but Jane is being elusive

RG10/3816 Lanacshire Liverpool 1871


Samuel Gaunt Head age 55
Mary " Wife 56
Samuel Gaunt Son 19
Thomas Gaunt son 16
Frederick Reed grandson age 12
Samuel Atherton grandson 7

Have tried for prison but the info for the inmates is initials only. If there is more than one prison then I can try looking there.

Jane

Yes, that's them in 1871. This is what's left in 1881:

Samuel Gaunt - Boarder - 76
Samuel Atherton - Boarder - 16
Mary Atherton - Boarder - 12

Reference: Class: RG11; Piece: 3659; Folio: 100; Page: 45; Everton, Lancashire

They are boarding with another family; Samuel is out of work; his wife has disappeared (she isn't on the death register in that district or even close). And miraculously, there is another child of Jane's, who appears neither to have been registered nor to have been anywhere in physical form when the 1871 Census was taken.

[pottoka]

Have tried for prison but the info for the inmates is initials only. If there is more than one prison then I can try looking there.

Jane

Which prison have you tried? I've googled Lancashire prisons and come up with:
Walton Prison (now HMP Liverpool) 68 Hornby Road, Liverpool, built 1850-54
Kirkdale Prison, North Dingle Lane, Liverpool (formerly the House of Correction), repairs and enlargement of which money was raised in 1866
Liverpool Borough Gaol, Great Howard Street, designed in 1785

I wonder why Jane's husband was in Chester Castle?

[pottoka]

I decided to send for Samuel Atherton's birth certificate, he being the "strangled baby", to find out the name of his father.

Very helpful: John. Lots of them about, and I have no dates for him.

Samuel was born at the end of November 1864 in the Workhouse, Brownlow Hill in the Mount Pleasant district of Liverpool. His father is given as a Cattle Drover, as in the newspaper report in message n° 1, and presumably wasn't in the workhouse with them. Jane made her mark to register the birth.

I've looked in the Criminal Registers for a trial in either Cheshire or Lancashire for burglary by John Atherton which got him sent to Chester Castle, but have only found acquittals for larceny so far. I did reduce the dates to make it possible for him to really be Samuel's father; I suppose it might be possible that Jane was going to pass off someone else's baby on him and even that that is why she turned to drink ...

Would a Cattle Drover live in a city?

Any and all ideas welcome.

[pottoka]

I can't find a marriage entry for John Atherton and Jane Gaunt, either.

[Jane Gee]

Hi
The criminal record indexes that went on to A*y seemed to have got us all excited but I think that is all we will get ie trial records have not survived. Further information will probably come from newspaper articles.
I would however be interested to hear if anyone found any criminal files in record offices relating to trials for larceny. The more serious crimes for murder might have survived but I seem to get the idea from my own search that they probably wont have survived for the last century.
Jane

[pottoka]

Hi
The criminal record indexes that went on to A*y seemed to have got us all excited but I think that is all we will get ie trial records have not survived. Jane

I think you're very probably right, and unless the criminal in our family had a very unusual name, we're hardly likely to find him/her or to be sure we've got the right person from the A* records.

I can't say that putting those lists on their site is a con, but I do feel that, with my two criminals, I've been somewhat "had", even if I didn't sign up just for that. So http://www.emoticonland.net/smileys/Humour/10_6_8.gif (http://www.emoticonland.net) to A* (I've always wanted to use one of those smileys!)

[Jane Gee]

Hi
I think that is fab I would love to have access to that one.
Jane