A Black Sheep has a run-in with the law
by Deane Baron
DGS 2022 Writing Contest Submission: Your family’s black sheep
My Great-Grandfather, John Bagguley, was arrested for violent assault, convicted by a jury, and sentenced to 3 months hard labor in 1874 in Bolton, England, when he was about 40 years old.
From the April 11, 1874 Manchester Guardian:
John was employed at the Bolton Station of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Company. On January 3, 1874, John entered the refreshment-rooms at the Bolton Station shortly before midnight with Joseph Moss, Railway Inspector and wished to be served with some drink, but the waitress refused him. William Kirkham, manager of Messrs. Haslam and Co’s mill entered the room, and Moss pushed Kirkham down. Bagguley kicked him on the forehead. When the victim asked what it was for, Bagguley struck him on the forehead with a lamp, and knocked him down, and whilst he was on the ground, Moss kicked him on the back of the head.
The jury found the prisoners guilty but recommended them to mercy. The recorder for the jury said that both railway officers and police ought to learn to treat the public with calmness and propriety and not with ruffianism and brutality.
The 1875 baptism record of his son, William, lists his job as Laborer. He had changed jobs from Policeman at the Railway Company, so presumably lost his job through this conviction.
About 27 years later, in 1901, my Great Grandfather was charged with 4 others in the Borough Court of Bolton, England, with selling milk with 8.12% added water. The defense was that he sold the milk as he bought it. He was fined 2s. 6d. and costs.
Copyright ©2022 Deane Baron
Published by Dallas Genealogical Society with the author’s permission
