Swavesey & District History Society
October 2024 Meeting
Gill Shapland from Bar Hill entertained over 40 members and visitors with a lively talk on Bastardy, Bigamy, Brawling and Brothels! This is the result of her research into stories from the Isle of Ely Quarterly Sessions over the period 1726 to 1775. She read, organised into a system and catalogued 2,800 individual sheets of paper held in the university library and which, incidentally, provide a rich alternative source of names for family history research. 16% of cases involved assault, 13% felony, 12% civil cases, 3% bastardy and 3% vagrancy, along with removal orders, inquests, debtors, prostitution etc. Brothels were rife because they provided women with some protection.
In 1750 a girl working for a wealthy farmer was made pregnant by the son of the family. The farmer’s wife didn’t want the baby and persuaded the girl to accuse the local tailor. The girl ended in up in court for saying it was the tailor’s fault but the farmer’s wife and son were prosecuted.
Esther of Whittlesey was supposed to live in the workhouse but she was often absent and had four illegitimate children. However, each year in winter she went back to the workhouse.
Stourbridge Fair produced much trouble, mainly drunkenness. Three men went into town the night before market day in Wisbech. After being thrown out of two pubs they tried to drag a lady from her husband but the constable threw them into jail.
Soldiers returning to England from military service abroad had to make their own way home but they were provided with a pass allowing them to sleep in a police cell each night provided they reported to the local constable each day. Wives often accompanied husbands to port before they left to go abroad but only a few wives were allowed to travel with them. Then she would have to do housework for a group of soldiers. If her husband was killed, the soldiers drew lots to marry her. On return to England, she had to make her own way back to her home parish.
A young girl in Wisbech got a job in a kitchen pub but she ran away when her employers encouraged here to be a prostitute using their upstairs rooms. The landlady found her and dragged her back by her hair but instead of complying she went to the magistrates and the landlady was arrested.
Three lads in Whittlesey got drunk and were imprisoned for breaking tombstones. Edward Gray, a brickmaker in Ely, was arrested for openly exposing himself in the town.
Next meeting-
19 November. Agricultural Labourers in the 19th Century. Mike Muncaster.
