|
John
Duffield 1800-1872 and the Darlaston Riot
John, the second son of John and Maria, was baptised in
Darlaston on 1st June, 1800. On the 15th July, 1822 John Duffield married Phoebe Simkin (or Simpkin) in Tipton.
They had eleven children, all born in Darlaston, as
shown in Appendix 2. John must have been a Wesleyan for
a time, as their first four children were baptised
at St. Lawrence, and the next three, Phoebe (1831), Jabez
(1833),
and Miranda (1835) were baptised in the Darlaston Wesleyan
Chapel.
John worked variously as an ironfounder, stamper,
piercer and lockmaker in Darlaston. White’s Directory of
1834 shows John Duffield as a Gun Cock Stamper of
Bilston Street, Darlaston. In about 1836 John bought
some houses and a yard on Bilston Street. The 1841
Census shows, living at Bilston Street, Darlaston, John
Duffield, 40, Ironfounder, his wife Phoebe, 35, and
children Silas, 15, John, 15, James, 14, Miriam, 12,
Phoebe, 10, Jabez, 7, Saml, 2, Wm., 9m, plus two
apprentices David and Sam Mason both 15.
In
1846 their son James married Miriam Groves and his
family is discussed in more detail below.
In
1851 John and Phoebe were still living in Bilston
Street, Darlaston and now had two more children. In the
household were John Duffield, 50, Stamper and Piercer,
his wife Phoebe, 47 and children John, 25, Maria, 21,
Phebe, 19, Jabez, 17, Samuel, 12, William, 10, Israel,
7, Alfred, 5, There was also William Price, 5mo,
Grandson, the son of their daughter Phoebe who was to
marry the father, William Price, in 1853.
White’s Directory of 1851 shows John Duffield as a
Stamper and also as a Beer House Keeper of Bilston
Street. In about 1860 John Duffield sold his Public
House on Bilston Street to Job Haynes, a butcher of
Bilston Street. Later disputes centre on whether an
adjacent Yard of about 450 square yards was included in
this sale. Haynes does not appear to have run the pub
himself, probably letting “The Bolt Makers Arms” in
Bilston Street to Thomas Wilkes who appears there in the
1861 Census as a Bolt & Nut Forger and Retail Brewer.
In
the 1861 Census the Duffield family is shown in Cramp
Hill, Darlaston. This may be the same property as
previously, as it seems that before the sale of the Pub
their original property fronted both Bilston Street and
Cramp Hill that runs at right angles to it. John
Duffield was now aged 60 and worked as a Stamper and
Piercer with his sons Samuel, William, Israel and Alfred
all living at home and following the same trade. Phoebe
Duffield, wife of John, died of cancer on 30th October,
1861 at Cross Street, Darlaston and the death was
reported by her daughter Phoebe Price.
In
1864 Job Haynes, owner of the ex-Duffield pub on Bilston
Street died. Soon after this his widow Mrs. Miranda
Haynes let the pub and yard to Daniel Harper. Daniel
Harper was a bricklayer, who in 1855 had married Mary
Wilkes, daughter of the Thomas Wilkes who held the pub
at the time of the 1861 Census. It was thus just a
transfer of the tenancy from Thomas Wilkes to his
son-in-law, still under the ownership of the Haynes
family.
In
1865 John Duffield’s son Israel married Mary Ann
Steward, daughter of William Steward a tailor. At about
the same time John Duffield sold the yard, adjoining the
pub that he had previously owned, to this William
Steward. The Duffields (who lived on Cramp Hill) were
described as living in houses to the rear of this land
so the yard must have lain between the pub in Bilston
Street and the Duffield houses on Cramp Hill.
Thus, both Daniel Harper and William Steward thought
that they had the right to the yard. Being a bricklayer,
Daniel Harper built a wall around the yard, and the Duffields knocked it down.
This was repeated several
times over the following months. There was a County
Court case over the ownership of the land that was due
to be heard in April 1866 but the Court decided that
they had no jurisdiction in the matter and referred it
to the Assizes that were not due until July.
On
16th April, 1866 Daniel Harper again built the wall. He
was in the yard at 5 in the morning of 23rd April with a
labourer named Samuel Bevington when William Steward
leading a mob including several Duffields and many
others, came over the wall. They were armed with various
weapons and had their pockets filled with stones.
Steward had a stick, James Duffield had a crowbar, Price
had a plumber’s hammer and many of the others carried
sticks. Harper was armed with a besom-stale (broom
handle) and Bevington with a pikel (pitchfork). There
was some evidence that Harper had started the violence
by hitting one of the Duffields over the head with the
besom-stale that was broken by the impact. Steward then
hit Bevington over the head with his stick, cutting his
head open and knocking him down. Israel, Alfred and
Samuel Duffield then began to kick and punch Bevington
and Steward called out “Kill the *******”. James
Duffield put the crowbar into the wall and overturned
it. Bevington recovered his senses but Israel Duffield
hit him with half a brick that stretched him senseless
on the ground. It was thought that Bevington was killed
but Mrs. Haynes fetched a doctor to him and he was
revived, although at the time that the protagonists
appeared before the Magistrates, he still remained under
the surgeon’s care. Price hit Harper with a plumber’s
hammer that rendered him unconscious for some minutes
and he was also struck with a brick. The whole incident
took about 15 minutes and by the end a crowd of 50 or 60
people had gathered “and there was great alarm in the
neighbourhood”.
On
1st May, 1866, some two weeks after the fracas, the main
protagonists were brought before the Wednesbury
Magistrates. The headline in the Staffordshire
Advertiser was “A BLACK COUNTRY METHOD OF ASSERTING
LEGAL RIGHTS”. James, John, Israel, Samuel and Alfred,
all sons of old John Duffield, together with William
Price (married to John’s daughter Phoebe) and William
Steward (whose daughter was married to Israel Duffield)
were all charged with having on 23rd April, 1866
forcibly entered upon a certain tenement and
appurtenances in Bilston Street, Darlaston, in the
occupation of Daniel Harper; with having at the same
time and place unlawfully assembled and created a great
riot and disturbance to the terror and alarm of Her
Majesty’s subjects; with having wilfully damaged a wall
belonging to Daniel Harper; and with violently
assaulting Samuel Bevington. After hearing the evidence
of Harper and Bevington (who was accommodated with a
seat in consequence of his weakly condition) it was
decided that there was a prima facia case and all
the defendants were committed for trial at the Quarter
Sessions. They were bailed on their own recognisances if
householders and the others had to find a surety of £20.
Those charged were brought to trial at the Staffordshire
Quarter Sessions on 4th July, 1866. The headline in the
Staffordshire Advertiser was now “RIOT AND
FORCIBLE EJECTMENT AT DARLASTON”. The charges were
somewhat reduced and they were now indicted for
“Unlawfully and riotously assembling together for the
purpose of demolishing a wall and taking forcible
possession of a certain piece of land in Darlaston, in
the occupation of Daniel Harper, on the 23rd April
last”. It is interesting and probably highly relevant to
the eventual sentence that there is no mention in the
charge of the assault on Bevington, who it must be
assumed had made a reasonable recovery from his injuries
– he lived until 1874. At the trial, Counsel for the
Defendants applied to have the case held over to the
next Sessions, by when the Assizes case regarding
ownership of the property would have been heard. This
application was rejected and the trial proceeded with
Harper giving evidence as to his having occupied the
Public House and Yard for the last two years as tenant
to Mrs. Haynes, and then describing the events of the
23rd April. Mrs. Haynes was in court but declined to
give evidence in case she should prejudice the
forthcoming Assizes case seeking to establish the
ownership of the yard in question. A number of witnesses
testified to their belief that the yard in question had
belonged to John Duffield for many years, but there was
no legal evidence brought forward regarding the sale. It
was contended by the defence that Steward had not used
unreasonable force in taking possession of the yard and
that the prisoners had first been assaulted by Harper
and Bevington. After consultation with Counsel for both
sides the Assistant Chairman of the court directed the
Jury to find the prisoners guilty. Addressing the
prisoners the Assistant Chairman said that it was a pity
to see so many respectable young men placed in their
position, but considering all the circumstances of the
case, he thought that the demands of justice would be
met by their paying a fine of £1 each and entering into
their own recognisances of £20 each to keep the peace
for six months. It seems likely that the Assistant
Chairman had decided that who actually owned the land
was of no particular relevance to the charges.
On 27th July,
1866 the case of Ejectment brought by Steward and
Duffield v. Haynes and Harper was tried at the
Staffordshire Assizes before Mr. Shee. The trial was
reported in the Birmingham Daily Post. The
action was brought to recover possession of a piece
of land, about 450 square yards, adjoining a public
house at Bilston Street, Darlaston. The plaintiffs
(Steward and Duffield) claimed under a purchase made
in 1836 of the piece of land in question, and some
houses adjoining. The defendants (Haynes and Harper)
held possession under a mortgage of the whole
property, as they alleged, but not including this
piece of land, according to the plaintiffs; and for
the defendants it was set up that the plaintiff’s
only claim to the land was possession for twenty
years. The verdict of the jury was for the
defendants (Haynes & Harper). The Oxford Circuit
Books (that cover Staffordshire) note that when at
Monmouth, Mr. Shee “gave leave to Pltff.” It is
likely that this means that the plaintiffs, Steward
and Duffield, were given leave to appeal against the
Assizes verdict, but no record has been found of such
an appeal taking place.
One must assume
that the adverse finding of the Assizes, and the
costs associated with the case, was a severe
financial blow to John Duffield and his family. All
his sons moved away from Cramp Hill indicating that
the family had perhaps lost or had to sell these
houses as well, as a result of the court cases. The
1871 Census shows John Duffield as a pauper inmate
and widower aged 72, by profession a Lock Maker, in
the Walsall Union Workhouse.
Darlaston had its
own workhouse until it was closed in 1838 on the
formation of the Walsall Poor Law Union, after which
Darlaston residents were sent to the Workhouse in
Walsall. This was hardly a desirable place to end
one’s days as an inspection by The Lancet in
1867 found that although superficially in good
order, the workhouse had many serious defects. The
casual ward, intended for seven inmates, was
“something like a hound-kennel, though neither half
so clean or comfortable" and occasionally housed
twenty-seven; the sick wards were ill-ventilated and
overcrowded; a single wash-hand basin served the
whole workhouse and inmates washed themselves in
dirty looking wooden buckets; only two towels a week
were supplied to a ward of ten patients; medications
for up to 160 patients were not written down and
relied on the memories of the two nurses.
Significant improvement did not take place until
1896 when a new Infirmary Block was built.
|
