JANE SCARGILL 1833-1902
... an interesting life ...
Main photo: Greene, Iowa, in 1915. Jane lived in Greene County in 1885.
NOTE: I do not usually post incomplete research, but if anyone is able to access the relevant American records and fill in the text I have marked in red, please let me know.
Jane was born in the Yorkshire town of Barnsley in 1833 to Christopher Scargill, a man who was in and out of prison, and Hannah Winterbottom, a woman who already had two (maybe three) illegitimate children before her marriage to Christopher in 1831.
Jane went on to have 11 children, three of whom were born before she married. Her third child died when still a baby, and was the subject of a Coroner’s Inquest. Her husband was killed in an accident, and he too was the subject of an inquest. After his death she had three more children out of wedlock – at least one of them to her husband’s brother – before marrying again. Another child was born before she abandoned this husband and made her way, with most of her children, across the Atlantic to live in Iowa. She married again, then left this husband and returned to live with her daughter Sarah Ann Roebuck in Stocksbridge. The 1901 census records her as being “imbecile, feeble minded” and she died in 1902 at the age of 68. What a lot she packed in to those 68 years, and what a lot of descendants she has today, both in England and in the United States.
JANE’S PARENTS
Christopher Scargill was a weaver by trade. He was also a bit of a rogue, a well-known prize fighter, and a thief, being in trouble with the law and no stranger to the Wakefield House of Correction. In 1833 he served two months (with 14 days’ solitary confinement) for stealing a winding wheel, a winding wheel frame and a wooden barrel worth 4 shillings from William Oxley of Barnsley. The following year he committed a felony [in English law, this means a more serious crime] at Huddersfield and was sentenced to six months. Two years later, in 1836, he and a man called Thomas Cherryholme were in trouble for stealing valuable plants and pots from the garden of a Mr. Haxworth; a reward of £3 had been offered. A Constable found the items at the house of a Martha Haigh, and a lodger in that house, Henry Winterbottom (most likely Christopher’s step-son) stated that the two men were out most of the night in question, and he had seen them putting some plants into the pots the next morning. The two men were committed to Wakefield prison for six months with hard labour. Christopher was back in Wakefield prison when the 1841 census was taken (though I have been unable to find out why), and his wife and three children were living at West Gate, North Pavement, in Barnsley (behind where the Town Hall now stands). Hannah was taking in washing to make ends meet. He appeared at the Petty Sessions in 1842 and 1842 charged with being “idle and disorderly” and for being a “rogue and vagabond.” There is no trace of the family on the 1851 census, perhaps because a lot of the Barnsley pages are illegible. In 1861 Hannah was living with her daughter Harriet and her family, but there is no sign of Christopher. He wasn’t in the Barnsley Union Workhouse, and I don’t think he was in Wakefield prison (the entries only have initials, but nothing matches CS and his age). He was perhaps living on the streets; in 1863 he appeared at the Petty Sessions for unspecified offences against the Poor Law Act, which could include being a “rogue and vagabond.” He died in the Barnsley Workhouse in 1869 at the age of 67.
JANE’S 1st THREE CHILDREN
In 1852, when she was about 18 years old, Jane gave birth to an illegitimate daughter, Sarah Ann. She was living in Barnsley town centre, in Richardson’s Yard on Church Street. Two years later, in 1854, she had an illegitimate son, Alfred, naming the father as George Gaskin when she applied for an affiliation order at the Barnsley Petty Sessions. He was ordered to pay, but was back at the Sessions four months later for disobeying the Order. On 18 January 1856 Jane went to lodge with a woman called Mary Smith who lived in a house in a yard behind the Three Crowns Inn on Shambles Street. Shambles Street was once full of pubs and music hall venues, and it was said to be impossible to have a drink in every one and be able to find your way home afterwards. Jane gave birth to her third illegitimate child, a boy she named William, on the day she moved in. She was working as a winder at Thomas Taylor’s linen mill in Peel Street, and her arrangement was to leave the baby in the care of her landlady whilst she went to work. Even though the baby was only a few weeks old, Jane was in the habit of giving him a teaspoon of cordial (a calming syrup) at night when she went to bed. On Sunday morning, 24 February, Mary Smith got up and went downstairs to light a fire. She heard Jane scream out, “Oh! My child’s dead.” She went upstairs, and saw Jane kissing the baby. There was said to have been a fair bit of gossip in the neighbourhood about this and a post-mortem was ordered to be carried out. Mary was called to give evidence. She said that in her opinion Jane had “always seemed very fond of her child” and that he’d had a fit about two weeks previously but had recovered.
Coroner’s Inquests were often held in public houses, and this one was held at the Three Crowns Inn. The inquest heard how the child had been found dead in bed. The surgeon who performed the post-mortem said that the child had died from “congestion of the brain,” (an excessive accumulation of blood in the brain) but he couldn’t say whether this had been brought on by a disease. It was thought that the cordial could have hastened the congestion. After some further evidence the jury retired, and after about a quarter of an hour’s deliberation returned a verdict of “Died from natural causes, hastened by the administration of cordial.” The death certificate seemed to point the finger at Jane, although she faced no action over the death. The Coroner registered the death a month after the inquest, giving the cause of death as “Gastritis Duodenitis. Liver and spleen healthy. Apoplexy from constant use of cordial.” There was no mention of “congestion of the brain,” which was a conclusion of the post mortem, and which could possibly have been meningitis. As to Cordial – well the Science Museum has an interesting theory.[1] In the early Victorian Period opium was readily used as a cure for a bad cough, or aches and pains, but it was also given to children and even babies. Restless or teething babies and small infants would be given concoctions such as Mrs. Winslow’s Soothing Syrup, which contained morphine (an opium derivative). There were at least ten brands of mixtures aimed at children and infants including Atkinson’s Royal Infants’ Preservative, and Street’s Infants Quietness. The most famous preparation of children’s opiates was Godfrey’s Cordial, which was a mixture of opium, treacle, water and spices. Perhaps the child was accidentally given too much of something to keep it quiet?
[1] https://blog.sciencemuseum.org.uk/the-addictive-history-of-medicine-opium-the-poor-childs-nurse/
MARRIAGE TO MATTHEW DAY
A year after the death of her baby, Jane married Matthew Day at Silkstone Church. She was pregnant when she married Matthew on 1 Feb 1857; a son, Edward, was born six months later, in August. Jane and Matthew lived at Duke Street, Barnsley, when they were first married. They were here from 1857 until about 1860 when they moved to Wood Street (which led off Duke Street). Three more children were born to the couple after Edward; George Henry (1859), Samuel (1861) and Mary Ann (1862). If Jane had found stability and perhaps happiness from being married to Matthew, it was not to last, because he was killed in an accident in 1865 aged just 34 years. He had been employed as a dray man at Clarkson’s brewery, which was on the end of Wood Street, and lived in a house adjoining the brewery, which could have come with the job. One night he was reportedly drunk whilst in charge of the dray, and fell into the road, hitting his head. The death was investigated by the Coroner and once again Jane found herself giving evidence at an Inquest, which was held at the Gardeners Arms Inn, Barnsley, on the day he died, Monday 7 August. On the previous Saturday, Matthew had left home at 8.30am, returned home at 8.30pm, had something to eat, and gone out again, telling his wife that he had to go to deliver beer to Burton Grange (a village in Monk Bretton), where there was a “feast” taking place, and that he would be late home. In the West Riding of Yorkshire, a feast was an annual holiday or festival, often on the anniversary of the dedication of the parish church. Feast days or “tides” were days for celebrating and having fun, and often the workers got a day’s holiday. Matthew was seen by witnesses in Union Street, Barnsley, leaning against the end of his wagon and standing on the shafts. One witness said that he was smoking and that he appeared to be “tipsy.” Apparently one of the wheels hit a stone and he was thrown forwards, his feet becoming tangled in the harness. His right foot was under the wagon and his leg was over the shaft and he had dropped the reins. He was dragged some distance until the horse stopped, sustaining serious head injuries. He was taken home at just past midnight, and died at 8am on the Monday. A verdict of “Accidental death” was returned by the Jury.
A son, Matthew, was born at Wood Street on 7 August 1866 and Jane named him Matthew, after her husband, but Matthew was not his father; he was born a year to the day on which his father died. His birth certificate names George Day, a railway labourer, as his father – Matthew senior’s brother! Jane and George did not marry, but when Jane registered the birth she gave her name as Jane Day late Day formerly Scargill. At this period in time, a couple were supposed to be married in order for the father to appear on the birth certificate. Jane and George had fully intended to get married, and got as far as the Register Office. The Registrar, however, refused to marry them because at that time it was illegal for a woman to marry her deceased husband’s brother. Jane then tried to obtain an affiliation order in order that George would provide for the child. The case was brought before the magistrates at the Barnsley Petty Sessions on 20 March 1867, but was adjourned for a fortnight so that witnesses could be found. When the case came up again on 2 April an order was made against George to pay 1 shilling and 6 pence [it doesn’t say if this was to be a regular payment, and if so, how often it had to be paid]. George fell behind with his payments, and three years later, on 24 August 1870, Jane appeared at the Petty Sessions again to sue for the arrears. George was given one month to pay up, or presumably he would face imprisonment.
Just over two weeks after Jane was granted maintenance at the Petty Sessions, she attacked a woman who she seemed to see as a rival for George’s attentions. On the night of Saturday 20 April 1867 Elizabeth Senior had gone out shopping, and on the way home she met George Day, to whom she spoke for about a minute. A short while afterwards she was accosted by Jane. The magistrates heard that Jane used “a foul expression,” and demanded to know “what she had been stuffing his head up with.” Jane then hit Elizabeth in the face with her umbrella, the point of which went into her eye and nearly blinded her. Jane said it was an accident, and that Elizabeth was drunk. She also courteously informed the Bench that she was in receipt of parochial relief and had seven children to support, and that she ought not to be fined because any fine they might impose would have to come out of the rates! The Bench decided she should be kept on bread and water for forty-eight hours, presumably in the cells.
In 1867 or 1868 Jane had another child, Harriet. She does not appear to have registered the birth, which would not have been illegal at the time. It was not until 1875 that compulsory registration was introduced.
In 1868 two of Jane’s children, Sarah Ann Scargill (my great-great grandmother) and Edward Day, were doing their bit to bring in some money, working for a Mr. Norris at his fireworks factory, about a 7 minute walk from their home in Wood Street. On Wednesday morning, 7 October, there was a fatal explosion in one of the sheds. Someone had put something they shouldn’t on the stove, and it exploded. People were thrown through the roof, and suffered terrible burns. Sarah Ann, who was a few weeks short of her 16th birthday, had overslept that day and consequently she was late for work – something which very probably saved her life. She was just entering the door when the explosion occurred. It's a sobering thought that I might not be here if she hadn't overslept. Her brother Edward was hit on the head by debris but survived, and had to give evidence at the Coroner's Inquest. Edward had just turned 11 years old and had been working at the factory for about two years. One of Sarah Ann’s co-workers, a girl called Caroline Robinson, who was about the same age as Sarah Ann, gave evidence at the inquest and said she worked with Sarah Ann but that she herself had not gone to work that day because she too had “over-laid,” being “tired and weary” because she had worked until 11pm the previous night. Eleven men, women and children lost their lives in the explosion, some on the day and others not long afterwards.
Jane and her family had been living in a cottage adjoining Clarkson’s Brewery, which was perhaps related to her late husband having worked for them. At some point after his death, she was requested to leave this house, either because Matthew had died or because she was a bad tenant. She was probably living there at the time of the explosion in the firework factory on 7 October 1868, but a new tenant called William Simpson was in residence by 1 December, and Jane was not happy about this. A report appeared in the Barnsley Independent in December 1868 informing readers that Jane Day, “a violent woman,” had been in court charged with wilful damage on the evening of 1 December. After Mr. Simpson had got his house newly papered, she opened the door and threw a handful of dirt on the wall. The damage was estimated at 3 shillings and 6 pence, but when a summons was served against her she returned to the house and repeated the offence. She was ordered to pay the damages and expenses, or be committed to the Wakefield House of Correction for seven days – a place her father had also been imprisoned in. At the rising of the Court the sentence was remitted to 48 hours’ imprisonment on bread and water.
A MOVE TO DEEPCAR
Jane moved her family to Deepcar, about nine miles away, sometime between 1868 and 1871. This could have been because her sister Ann was living in Deepcar at Wood Royd with her husband Henry Padgett, who had probably moved to find work. Whilst living in Deepcar, Jane had Matthew and Harriet baptised at Bolsterstone Church on 7 April 1871. The vicar wouldn’t have known her, and she gave wrong information; the baptism register records that Matthew and Harriett were the children of Matthew & Jane Day of Deepcar.
Later that year, on 14 December, a son, William, was born. Jane would have fallen pregnant in about March of that year. Was George the father? He was not recorded with her when the 1871 census was taken on 2 April, and I cannot find him at all on this census. Jane did not marry George, and he continued to be single until his death in 1894. William was not baptised at Bolsterstone but at Gawber in Barnsley, which is about 2 miles away from where Jane had previously lived at Wood Street. He was baptised 13 April 1873 to Jane Day of Higham [Barugh Green area], singlewoman. Jane had family living at Higham at this time – her aunt Harriet Howarth nee Winterbottom. William’s father was said to be one William Andrews, and in June 1873 Jane sought maintenance from him at the Barnsley Petty Sessions. The case was adjourned for a week so that witnesses could be found, and on 2 July William Andrews was ordered to pay 2 shillings per week until the child reached the age of thirteen. In adult life young William adopted the middle name Andrew, obviously choosing to recognise his father.
BACK TO BARNSLEY; MARRIAGE TO THOMAS SIMPSON - a bigamous marriage?
Jane’s eldest daughter Sarah Ann married Walter Roebuck in 1872 and stayed in Stocksbridge but Jane moved back to Barnsley after marrying for a second time to Thomas Simpson of Worsbrough. Jane moved over to Worsbrough with her family, adding to her growing brood with the birth of her 11th child Fred in 1878. He was born 26 years after his oldest sibling Sarah Ann. In 1881 the family were living at George Street, Worsbrough where Thomas worked as a coal miner. It was quite a household – as well as Thomas and Jane, six of Jane’s children were living with them, as well as young Fred, Jane’s grandson Ernest Roebuck and a lodger. Thomas had been married before, to Eleanor Hill nee Woodhead. They wed in 1861 and on the 1871 census they were living with three lodgers, James and William Padgett (probably brothers) and a Mr. Collins. What is odd is that when Thomas married Jane Scargill in 1875 he said he was a widow and did not name a father, but in fact his wife was still alive. Coincidentally, one of the witnesses was a Henry Padgett, Jane’s brother-in-law. Two years later, in 1877, the Barnsley Independent published a marriage notice for Mrs. Eleanor Simpson to James Padgett. Findmypast holds these registers but there are five missing years - 1875-1879! So I can’t check the details. In 1881 Eleanor and James were living at Ilkeston in Derbyshire. All the facts match up to this being Thomas’s first wife. In 1881 Thomas Simpson was living with Jane and her children at Worsbrough; Jane emigrated in about 1883 and I can find no trace of Thomas in later records. I suppose there’s always the possibility that he emigrated and died soon after, but I can find no evidence of this either and I think the fact that she reverted to her earlier married name of Day might be significant.
ACROSS THE POND TO IOWA
Jane seems to have abandoned her husband Thomas Simpson, but I have been unable to find out what happened to him despite an extensive search. In 1882 Jane’s son George Henry Day emigrated to the States; one source says that he was the first of the Day siblings to do so. Jane’s daughter Harriet and her sons Samuel, Matthew and William followed on in 1883, sailing from Liverpool to Philadelphia aboard the SS Pennsylvania, arriving in July. At some point between 1882 and 1885 Jane and her youngest son Fred Simpson joined them, but I have been unable to find them on any passenger list, nor have I found George Henry. I have checked the passenger list for the ship that the others took, and I cannot find Jane or Fred under any surname but they were definitely in residence by 1885 because they were recorded on the 1885 Iowa State Census; Samuel (24) and Matthew (19) were employed as coal miners. William was 14 and Frederick 6. I can’t find Harriet on this census. They all settled in Polk County, Iowa, but Jane came back home in 1897. She had reverted to her previous married name of Day, and occasionally her maiden name of Scargill (and its variants) crops up in the records.
Some of the Day siblings emigrated to the U.S. aboard this ship in 1883, the SS Pennsylvania, which had been built in 1872, a 3,104-ton ship belonging to the American Line. The engraving above is by Lauderbach. The ship is seen here embarking on her trial voyage on the 5th May 1873. The citizens of Philadelphia were given a half-day holiday, and 50,000 people are said to have attended. Note: There were two other ships with this name. One was built in 1896 and was a ship of the Hamburg-American Line and the other was built in 1929 for the Panama Pacific Line.
Below is a painting of the same ship by Alexander C. Stuart (1831-1898). Source: Independence Seaport Museum, public domain
THE DANGERS OF CROSSING THE OCEANS
I don’t think I would have relished sailing the Atlantic on this ship. Perhaps first-time passengers, especially from far inland, were unaware of the perils of crossing the sea or they might never have set out. In 1874, only a few years before the Days sailed, the Pennsylvania was almost destroyed in a hurricane. The ship had left Liverpool bound for Philadelphia on the 21st February. As was usual in winter, it carried less passengers; two saloon and twelve steerage-class as opposed to the 389 passengers in July 1883 when four of the Day siblings travelled. It was also carrying $250,000 of cargo. Six days later, on the night of the 27th, the ship ran into a hurricane on the open sea. Giant waves swept everything from the decks and flooded the passenger saloon, and the ship struggled to retain headway. Around midnight a gigantic wave slammed down upon her, sweeping away all the lifeboats and life rafts, and causing structural damage. The wheelhouse, the mate’s house and part of the wooden bridge were swept away, taking with them the captain and four crew members, none of whom were ever seen again. Water began pouring into the holds.
After the loss of the Captain, command of the ship passed to the 3rd officer, Charles Rivers, but he was said to have been in a state of shock and proved incapable of action. Fortunately, one of the ship’s passengers, Cornelius L. Brady, was a ships’ master himself, with recent experience of such a crisis. Brady had been the hero in the shipwreck of the SS Atlantic less than a year before, where his courageous action in personally establishing a rope to shore was credited with saving as many as 250 lives. He quickly ordered the crew of the Pennsylvania to secure the damaged hatches with hatches from elsewhere in order to stop more water coming in. A delegation of the crew then implored Brady to take command, which he did. He made his way on deck to the midships wheelhouse, where he ordered the helmsman to turn the ship into the wind. He then rang the engine room to reduce the ship's speed to dead slow. The ship was to survive another five days of battering from high seas until February 28, when the storm finally broke, after which Brady brought the ship home safely to Philadelphia, albeit a week late.
Despite Brady having saved a $600,000 ship and its $250,000 cargo along with the passengers and crew from destruction, Brady felt insulted when the American Steamship Company offered him a mere $1,000 in thanks, so he sued them for the full salvage value of the vessel, and in the subsequent court case, in which one witness after another testified in his favour, he was eventually awarded $4,000 plus $200 expenses, which after legal fees had been deducted gave him the much improved sum of $2,550.
In 1878, The Pennsylvania was involved in a collision with the schooner H. B. Hume in which the latter was sunk. Judgement in the case was rendered against Pennsylvania in 1882. On 3 March 1880, she ran aground and had to be re-floated.[1]
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Pennsylvania_(1872)#cite_note-16
MARRIAGE TO JOSEPH BEDDOE
In November 1891, Jane married for a third time, to Joseph Beddoe, at Polk County, Des Moines, Iowa. Jane would have been 58 years old. I have only seen a transcript not original. Joseph, a miner, had been born in Merthyr Tydfill in about 1834 and had emigrated in 1868. He appears to have previously married Sarah Rush Van Auken at Polk County on the 15th April 1890, but I can find no further mention of her.
BACK TO ENGLAND
In 1897 Jane sailed out of New York and headed home, landing at Liverpool under the name Jane Day. The passenger lists records her as being married, 65 years old, profession Matron (a lot of the women on the list were so called). She was accompanied by her son George Henry, who later returned to the States. This must have been a daunting venture, leaving her children behind; we don’t know what she thought of leaving her husband behind. Jane headed for Stocksbridge, to live with her eldest daughter Sarah Ann Roebuck. Joseph Beddoe meanwhile was recorded as a lodger in the house of Thomas Wilson in Polk County in 1900, describing himself as divorced.
When the 1901 census was taken, Jane, who was recorded under the surname Day, was living at Glass House, Stocksbridge, with Walter and Sarah Ann Roebuck, six of their children, a visitor and a boarder. Jane was said to be a “widow,” 69 years old and “imbecile feeble minded.” After a rather eventful life, Jane died on the 27th April 1902. Her death certificate noted the cause of death as “apoplexy 6 years.” This would mean that she had a stroke in about 1896, which was the year before her son George Henry brought her back to England. He stayed for Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee and took some souvenirs home with him. We don’t know if Jane was ill before she travelled, during, or after, because the “6 years” could have been an approximation.
When the Iowa State Census was taken in 1905 Joseph Beddoe was recorded as widowed, which would be true, because Jane had died in 1902. He had perhaps heard about her death from her family.
There is a poem written by Linda Ellis which is often read out at funerals called “The Dash,” referring to the way we write dates of birth and death on a tombstone, with a dash in between the two dates and that, “what mattered most of all / was the dash between those years.” The final line reads, “would you be proud of the things they say, about how you lived your dash?” I am not sure what Jane’s friends and family would have said about her life - I expect it was scandalous at times - but one thing is certain; she certainly packed a lot in to her 68 years on this earth!
JANE’S CHILDREN – BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES
1. SARAH ANN SCARGILL: 1852-1920
Sarah Ann, my great-great grandmother, married Walter Roebuck at Bolsterstone church in 1872. Sarah Ann’s mother and siblings had moved back to Barnsley after the 1871 census was taken, but she and Walter settled in Stocksbridge where they raised nine children. They stayed put whilst Sarah’s half-siblings and mother Jane emigrated, and looked after Jane when she returned to these shores in 1897. Most of the Roebucks lived in the Stocksbridge area but a few of Sarah Ann’s descendants emigrated to Canada.
Sarah Ann and Walter had the following children:
Mary Elizabeth (my great grandmother), Ernest, Lily, Alfred, Lucy Ann, Emmeline, James, Priscilla and Sam Edward. Please get in touch if you can help with any photographs of these people.
Lily married Abner Pearson, and there is a story about him here:
2. ALFRED SCARGILL: 1854-1931
His father was allegedly called George Gaskin. Alfred took the surname Day after his mother married Matthew Day in 1857. Worked as a coal miner. Married Elizabeth Oxley in 1876 and they lived at Worsbrough. Like his older sister, Alfred did not emigrate with his younger siblings but stayed in Barnsley.
3. WILLIAM SCARGILL: 1856-1856
William was found dead in bed when he was 5 weeks old from congestion of the brain, gastritis, duodenitis and apoplexy from the constant use of cordial.
4. EDWARD DAY: 1857-1901
Edward was born soon after his parents’ marriage on the 9th August. He would have been about eight years old when his father Matthew died in an accident in August 1865. He married Sarah Rushforth in 1880 and they lived in Worsbrough where he worked as a miner before emigrating in 1887 a few years after his mother and siblings. Their first child Isaac died in 1882 aged 1 year, and when they emigrated they took three children Matthew, James and Frances aged 5, 3 and 1 respectively. They sailed from Liverpool aboard the Queen, arriving in New York in September 1887. A biography of Edward on Ancestry states that he was “the last of the Day siblings to come to Des Moines.” Together with a man called William Robinson he ran a Saloon in Des Moines at 220 Court Avenue called Robinson and Day. His wife died in 1900 and he married again to Mary Jackson, but it was a short-lived marriage because he died the following year in Arkansas whilst visiting the region. Cause of death was Bright’s Disease, an archaic term for what is now referred to as “nephritis,” an inflammation of the kidneys caused by toxins, infection or autoimmune conditions.
Below: photo of Edward Day and Sarah Rushforth taken in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1894 or 1895
5. GEORGE HENRY DAY: 1859-1932
George Henry was a miner and had been working in coal mines since at least the age of 12. After his mother Jane married Thomas Simpson in 1875, the family moved to Worsbrough. George Henry lived with them at 3 George Street, and he was employed at the Worsbrough Park Colliery. In 1878 he was arrested for assaulting another miner and was sentenced to nine months’ imprisonment with hard labour.
The previous year the men employed at the Church Lane Colliery in Dodworth had been laid off. It was one of many pits that were being “set down” because of the depressed and unprofitable state of the coal trade in south Yorkshire. There was some dispute about pay, and when the owners decided to re-open the pit in August, the men refused to go back and a strike ensued, which rumbled on for over a year. The Directors decided to set on “new hands,” providing them with accommodation and amenities, which obviously caused a lot of trouble, and extra police had to be stationed at the works to protect them. Around 25 Welsh miners who had been brought in declared that they had been deceived and did not intend to work; they left the area on good terms and in solidarity with the “old hands.”
On Monday 10th June 1878, 18-year-old George Henry Day, Alfred Cawthorne and a man called Jones, known as “Welsh Bill,” attacked one of the new hands, a Durham man called William Briscoe, who was said to be a “Black Sheep” (in later miners’ strikes this term becomes “Black Leg.”) Trouble had begun to build on the previous day when around 500 people assembled before a row of houses occupied by the new hands at the Church Lane Colliery, patrolling up and down and throwing missiles at the houses, and at some police officers who were stationed there, two of whom were injured. More police were sent for from Barnsley, and ultimately peace was restored. Briscoe had been standing against his house when he saw 8 or 10 men coming along the road towards him. The first to accost him was Cawthorne. Jones asked him why he had come to take the bread out of their mouths by taking their work. He then pointed to the Church Lane Colliery and asked, “Dost thou work down yonder,” and when he replied that he did, he was asked “Is ta at coal?” He replied that he was. Cawthorne and Jones then struck him with their fists. An onlooker called out “Kill the black b---” and Cawthorne took a running kick at him whilst Day kicked him in the head. Bristow remembered no more, and woke up on the kitchen floor at his house. He was confined to bed for three days and then taken in a cab to give information to the police.
When arrested, Cawthorne remarked, “The b--- ought to have been smothered. We ought to have given him more,” and Day denied everything, saying, “I was there, but I did nothing.” Welsh Bill had not been found, but Day and Cawthorne appeared in court charged with malicious wounding. Both men pleaded not guilty and were bailed to appear at the Rotherham Sessions in July, which was where the most serious cases were tried. The Defence was that Day took no part in the assault; rather, a fight took place between Jones and Briscoe, with Cawthorne trying to separate them and protect Jones, who was a much smaller man. It was alleged that Briscoe’s injuries came about when, during the ensuing scuffle, he fell against a wall. It was said that Day was not present at the fight but standing about 20 yards away. The jury found both prisoners guilty. Cawthorne was sentenced to 12 months’ imprisonment and Day to 9 months’, both with hard labour.
George went back to live with his mother and Thomas Simpson at George Street before marrying Emily Elizabeth Parry in 1881. He was the first of the Day siblings to emigrate to the U.S., sailing there with Emily in 1882. His mother, four of his brothers and a sister followed later, and his older brother Edward joined them in 1887. George Henry settled in Polk County, Iowa. When his mother Jane decided to return to England in 1897 George accompanied her aboard the Umbria. The ship’s manifest describes him as being 38 years old and a saloon keeper. I am not sure how long he spent in England before returning but presumably he accompanied his mother to Yorkshire. His brothers Edward, Samuel and Matthew also ran saloons.
6. SAMUEL DAY: 1861-1949
Like his brothers, Samuel worked as a miner before emigrating in 1883. The 1885 census for Iowa records him as a coal miner. He married Annie Mathilda Holliday in 1888 and his parents were listed as Matthew Day and Jane “Scagzle.” His occupation on the 1895 census was given as Merchant. He was living with his mother Jane as well as his wife and children. A newspaper report from 1898 said that he was a “saloonman.” As in England, running a bar could cause trouble for the owner. In 1898 a lady called Mrs. Burns sought to recover damages from him, alleging that he sold liquor to her son “in such quantities that he became intoxicated,” and that he came home to her in a drunken condition while she was in feeble health. She alleged that the sight of her son in such condition was more than she could stand and that it had a marked effect on her health, making her much worse and resulting in disabilities from which she has never fully recovered. She had sued for $500 in damages but was allowed only $6. In 1902 Sam was gashed across the hand and forehead by a “notorious colored character” called John Dimmitt, who had been released from the penitentiary a year before. Then in 1907 Sam, who was the proprietor of a saloon at the corner of East Fourth and Walnut Streets, accused a customer of stealing whisky glasses. In 1914 Samuel sold property for around $13,000. This was a fairly substantial amount of money, and perhaps it was this that funded his trip in June 1914 from New York to Liverpool, although I am not sure which class they travelled in. He travelled with his wife Matilda aboard the Cunard vessel SS Aquitania. He was recorded on the manifest as a Traveller (salesman) by occupation, aged 53, and Matilda was recorded as a housewife aged 49. They returned two months later, sailing on another Cunard ship the Mauretania. It arrived in New York after a journey of just over two weeks.
In the spring of 1913, a westbound transatlantic passage aboard the Mauretania cost about $17 for third class passengers. On the 26th January 1914, the Mauretania was having its annual refit in Liverpool when a gas cylinder exploded, killing four men and injuring six, who had been working on one of her steam turbines. Damage to the ship was minimal, and she was back in service two months later. The Mauretania had been built on the River Tyne in 1906 and was the world’s largest ship until the launch of the Olympic in 1910. She captured the eastbound Blue Riband on her maiden return voyage in December 1907.
Britain declared war on Germany on the 4th August 1914 and both the Mauretania and the Aquitania were requisitioned by the British government to become armed merchant cruisers, but they were found to be unsuitable and they resumed their civilian service on the 11th August. Samuel and Matilda sailed on the 20th August. Later, due to a lack of passengers crossing the Atlantic, the Mauretania was laid up in Liverpool until 7 May 1915, at the time that the Lusitania was sunk by a German U-boat. The Mauretania served as a troop ship carrying British soldiers during the Gallipoli campaign, and managed to avoid becoming prey for German U-boats because of her high speed and the seamanship of her crew. As a troopship, she was painted in dark greys with black funnels, known as “dazzle camouflage.” She also served as a hospital ship. She was scrapped in 1935.
Matilda died in 1921 and Samuel married again to Margaret Elizabeth McDonald. He died of arthritis in 1949 at the age of 88. His obituary said he had been a resident of Des Moines for 60 years and had been a night watchman at a swimming pool.
Below: a section of the passenger list for the SS Pennsylvania which arrived at the port of Philadelphia on the 23rd July 1883. Samuel Day was the lead passenger, and with him were his siblings Matthew, Harriet and William.
Also shown is the ship's Arrival Report: no sickness; passengers’ physical and mental health was good; there were 389 passengers; no lunatics or feeble minded passengers; no immigrants sent by the English government; no deaths; no births; no stowaways; no convicts; no very old or feeble persons, no cripples; no females who were pregnant, destitute and alone.
The bottom photograph is the Cunard Ship the Mauretania, which is the ship that Samuel and Matilda travelled back to the States on after a trip to England in 1914.
7. MARY ANN DAY: 1863-1899
Mary Ann married William Heatherglen in 1881. She did not emigrate, and settled with her family at Worsbrough where William worked as a coal miner. They had ten children: Florence Selina, Thomas Edward, Wilfred, Rosa, Lily, William, Blanche, Eva, Ina and Bruce. Mary Ann was only 36 years old when she died in 1899, less than a year after Bruce was born. William married again to Catherine Barker in 1900. Eva was only about six years old when she was admitted to the South Yorkshire Asylum on the 2nd May 1899, two weeks before her mother died. She was there when the 1901 census was taken, aged 7; “lunatic” has been dittoed but “Ch” – presumably “child” has been written in the same column. She was never discharged and died there on the 23rd November 1904 at the age of 12.
William Heatherglen’s younger years were rather traumatic. He had been born in Barnsley in 1848 to John, a tailor, and Sarah. John had been born in Scotland and in January 1860 he and his family were living at Pall Mall, Barnsley when he was charged with being drunk and setting fire to his house one Sunday morning. His wife had run out to find a policeman and told him that her husband was being violent and had started a fire. P.C. Batty went to the house where he found a crowd of at least 200 people gathered round and saw John behaving violently. This was not his first offence; the court heard that he had once placed his child on the fire. This seems extremely shocking, and it appears even more shocking that the Bench simply gave John a reprimand and let him off on payment of costs. [I cannot find a report of the child on the fire]. Three months later John was in court again, charged with neglecting his wife and family. The Leeds Intelligencer’s headline was “Bad Husbands on the Increase” and the article called him a “sottish-looking man.” The court heard from one of the relieving officers (one of the Guardians of the Poor) that Heatherglen’s wife and family were “literally starving,” whilst he spent all the money he could get hold of on drink. When he had spent all his money he would go home and beat his wife and children. He was described as “an inhuman monster.” Once again the story of him putting one of his children upon the fire was brought up, as was the time he set his furniture on fire. Mr. Thomas Ayre, a surgeon, said that John’s wife was in a bad state of health, brought on by want of food. She died of Phthisis [pulmonary tuberculosis or a similarly progressively wasting or consumptive condition] in 1863 aged only 35. Her nine-year-old daughter died about the same time. John Heatherglen was sent to the Wakefield House of Correction for one month with hard labour.
John and Sarah had eight children, but only William married and had children. Three of John and Sarah's children died as infants. Daughter Selina died at the age of 9, son Henry was killed in the coal mine at the age of 11 or 13, and I can find no trace of the final child, Matthew. Daughter Sarah moved to Scargill Croft in Sheffield, a notorious slum; in 1868 she was convicted of stealing a watch and sent to the Wakefield House of Correction for 1 month with hard labour. When the 1871 census was taken she was an inmate of the female penitentiary at Chorlton in Lancashire. After this she vanishes from the records.
Not long after his wife's death John was once more in court, this time for inciting his son William to steal a pair of boots. William was about 15 years of age and gave evidence. He said that he had been at home without shoes when his father took him down New Street in Barnsley; he pointed to a pair of boots hanging near a door, and told him that if he did not take them he would kill him. William managed to get the boots and take them home without being detected. He wore them part of the next day, when his father got a neighbour called Elizabeth Winter to lend him a shilling on security of them. She told the court that William was crying, and begged her to lend his father the shilling, or he would never see the boots again. His father had promised to redeem the boots, but didn’t. A policeman was sent to fetch the boots from Mrs. Winter, and John Heatherglen absconded. When he returned he was arrested. His defence was that William had told him that he had found the boots near to the Shades public house. He denied having encouraged him to steal but he was not believed and once again he found himself at the Wakefield House of Correction, this time for three months with hard labour. He was committed as “a rogue and vagabond.” He obviously did not mend his ways, because he is recorded at Wakefield Prison in 1890 after being sent there for being drunk and riotous. This time his sentence was 10 days with hard labour. The record tells us that he was aged 71, was 5’ 9½” tall, had brown hair, a scar on his right eyebrow, of poor education and that he was a tailor by trade. Additional information was that he was born in Glasgow and was a Roman Catholic. Three previous convictions were noted. After such a terrible childhood we can only hope that William had a happy marriage, having escaped from his abusive father. He died in 1915 aged 64.
Henry, Killed in the Coal Mine: After his mother’s death, Henry Heatherglen spent some time in Barnsley Workhouse, coming out in about September 1867. He lived at Huningley Lane, Ardsley. He found – or was found – a job at Wombwell Main colliery, and started there on Friday 13th December. According to his brother William, who gave evidence at the Coroner’s Inquest, Henry was 13 years old, but I think he’d be 11 or 12 years old. On the day of the accident, Saturday 21 December 1867, he was taking full corves (coal tubs) away from the miners and taking empty ones back. He was working with a pony driver called Fred Walker. Henry’s job was to fetch the empty corves and “scotch” or wedge the full ones and then hang a rope to them so that they could be pulled up by the pony. He then had to follow the full corve up, laying a wedge across the rails to stop it going backwards. He would shout “scotched” when it was done. However, something went wrong, and as soon as the pony was taken off, the corve began to go backwards and Fred heard Henry call out “oh dear.” Men went running when they heard Henry’s screams. The scotch was lying lengthways between the rails and not across them and Henry was wedged between the side of a full corve and a chock. Blood was coming from his mouth, and he appeared to be choking. His ribs had penetrated his lungs. They initially thought he was dead, but he rallied and was taken to the surface. His brother told the Inquest that he saw him at 3pm lying on a bed on the floor of the kitchen, and that he was complaining of a pain in his chest. He died about 4pm. The verdict was that he was “accidentally crushed.”
8. MATTHEW DAY: 1866-1931
Matthew’s father was George Day, his mother's brother-in-law. He emigrated to the U.S. with two of his brothers and a sister in 1883. Like his brothers, he was a coal miner back in England and also when he arrived in Iowa. He settled in Polk with his siblings and married Catherine Dugan in 1890. Three of his brothers kept saloons, and this is something Matthew did too. He was also reported to be a prominent politician but I'm told he was never in politics. Over the years his drinking became a problem and one night in 1910 he was taken from his bed at his home, on 821 East Market Street and imprisoned in the city jail at the request of his wife, three sons and two grown daughters. The newspaper reported that, “while a family has grown up about him Matt has fallen down and down until he became a despised porter in a low saloon and recently lost his last job.” He apparently made a “pitiful spectacle” in the police court, bloated with liquor and trembling violently. The Judge advised the relatives to file charges alleging habitual drunkenness. Three years later Matthew, now of 217 South East Sixth Street, was arrested and held in jail overnight. He was arrested on a charge of wife-beating, and apparently it took three officers to arrest him. In October 1931 he fell down some cellar steps at his home and he passed away the following month at the age of 66.
Below: Matthew Day at the back, taken in Des Moines c1916, with his son George Edward Day in front. Also Matthew's Naturalization card of 1888 [his name was sometimes spelt Mathew]
9. HARRIET DAY: 1867/8-1926
There is no record of Harriet’s birth, and no clue as to who her father was. In 1883, at the age of 14 (according to the passenger list), Harriet emigrated to the US with some of her siblings. For some reason she wasn’t listed with them on the 1885 Iowa State census, and I haven’t been able to find her – perhaps her name was just missed off the list. She married John Francis Harty at Polk, Iowa in 1889. One of their sons was called Frank Harty, who went on to become assistant chief of police at Des Moines. A local newspaper described him as “one of the heaviest men who ever wore a police uniform here,” once weighing in at 25 stones [350lbs]. Despite his job, he was on the wrong side of the law at times, and he resigned from the force in 1921 after coming under fire from the Sheriff. In 1933 he was one of 5 men arrested on two charges of larceny of a motor vehicle. Detectives called it a highly organised ring of automobile thieves. There are reports of him being in trouble with the law before he resigned. On one occasion Harty, who was the night captain of police, and a man called Brophy, chief of detectives, were accused by the Sherriff of permitting criminal conditions to exist in Des Moines and of wilfully failing to suppress them, and that they had counselled with criminals and made arrangements with such persons to protect them. As he got older, his health declined, and he died from gangrene in 1935. He had been asleep in the back room of a barber shop and a stove burnt the bottoms of his feet while he slept, the fire burning the skin though his shoes. He hadn’t felt it because his diabetes had deadened the feeling in his feet. Gangrene set in after two weeks. Harriet had died in 1926 from gall stones.
Below: Harriet's obituary 1926
Harriet and John Harty headstone at Glendale Cemetery, Des Moines. Harriet's obituary says she was born 1 January 1868, her headstone says 187 and her baptism says 25 December 1868. No birth registration has been found.
Her son Frank Harty
10. WILLIAM (Andrew) DAY: 1871-1910
William’s father was said to be William Andrews, and in June 1873 his mother Jane sought maintenance from Mr. Andrews at the Barnsley Petty Sessions. The case was adjourned for a week so that witnesses could be found, and on 2 July William Andrews was ordered to pay 2 shillings per week until the child reached the age of thirteen. William emigrated in 1883 and settled in Polk County, Iowa. In adult life he adopted the middle name Andrew, obviously choosing to recognise his father. This middle name does not occur in any of the English records. When he married in 1894 to Mary J. MaDonough, he gave his father’s name as Matthew Day (which it was not) and his mother’s name as Jane “Scogle.” The 1905 census records him as working as a painter, presumably of houses. He died of pneumonia in 1910.
Photo below: William (Andrew) Day, taken in Des Moines c1903
11. FRED SIMPSON: 1878-1905
Fred was the son of Thomas Simpson of Worsbrough. He was only a child when he went to live in the US sometime between 1882 and 1885. I cannot find him or his mother on any passenger list under any surname. He would have been about 5 years old. He used the surname Day from then on. The 1905 census states that he had been in the US for 17 years, giving a date of around 1888, but he and his mother were already in Iowa when the 1885 census was taken. His worked as a driver. Fred died young when he collapsed suddenly one day from heart trouble; he died in the arms of his wife before help could be summoned.
SOURCES:
* English vital records and census returns at Findmypast and Ancestry
* English Newspapers from Findmypast. I also used American newspapers which were at Findmypast, but they have now removed all foreign newspapers from their site. American newspapers are available through https://www.newspapers.com/ at Ancestry for an extra payment. I was sent some clippings from by my American correspondents and also used several free sites including https://www.familysearch.org/en/ and https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/newspapers/.
* Passenger lists and US census returns from https://www.familysearch.org/en/ and from Findmypast
* Wikipedia for information on passenger ships crossing the Atlantic
*Coroner’s Notebooks from Ancestry
* Criminal records, Sessions records etc. from Ancestry and Findmypast
With thanks to Sean Day in the U.S.A. for kindly sharing his family stories and photographs of the Day family