A horse whipping hits the Norwich headlines as our family start to move away

When Laura and Job move to Gloucester to start an ironmongery shop, in 1882, they take their first baby, Letitia with them. My aunt Nancy met her cousin, Letitia's son Michael Hardy in Norwich in the 1980s. They delved into family history together.

   Sadly, Jane Betsy's first grandchild, Harry's daughter Gertrude Emma died in March 1883. The same month her eldest surviving daughter, my great grandmother Emma Jane married Joe Joyce  at the Wesleyan Chapel, Lady Lane, Norwich. Brother Harry and sister Rosa May attended the wedding. Initially Emma Jane moved  to live with Joe and his widowed mother, Elizabeth, in Mildmay Park, London, where my grandmother was born. Emma Jane's mother-in-law, Elizabeth Joyce, was a nurse, she also wrote poems to commemorate family events, which are among the things Emma Jane kept.

   In February 1883, there was a resolution at St Andrews Hall, Norwich, reported in the local press. It was  in favour of legalising marriage with a deceased wife's sister. But Sherwood William Page and Louisa still kept their marriage a secret. It was not until the early 20th century, such a marriage was legalised.

   There were a few cases in the magistrates courts involving the maverick solicitor Stanley. I mention them, because our Norwich solicitors have offices, at that time, near the publishers of the Daylight. Our solicitors are invariably on their side in some way, whether it is to defend them or prosecute the opposition.

   On 10th February, the Daylight publishes a cartoon of the mayor depicted among ruined railway carriages and  prints "derogatory" statements about him. The solicitor Stanley, took exception to the cartoon and article. He horse whipped one of the publishers (the one who was also on the school board) in London Street. After the initial shock of the attack the publisher managed ward off the blows with an umbrella and knock Stanley's hat off. The altercation attracted quite an audience, according to newspaper reports. In the resultant case brought by the publisher against the solicitor for assault, he was found guilty, heard to say "it served them right" and fined one shilling.

    On 24th February, a local artist broke a plate glass window at the Daylight premises for publishing a caricature of himself. The publishers took him to court, he was sentenced to three hours imprisonment, (which he had already served) and the publishers had to pay the costs of the case.

   In April,  solicitor Stanley brings a prosecution against a Mr Turner for issuing death threats to him. Mrs Turner brings a cross summons for assault. In court, Stanley said she had scratched his face and hands, bit his thumb and broken his watch chain. The tables were turned and she was fined five shillings and had to pay the costs of the case.

   Also in April, McCormack, waiter of Yarmouth, is back in court claiming he was tricked into paying the Eastern Counties Loan Office the insurance money for his furniture after the fire, because the proprietor made him drunk.

    At the end of the month, the publishers of the Daylight are taken to court for libel and win the case, as previously mentioned. I have been following these cases for various reasons. They make entertaining reading, but also they involve one of our Norwich solicitors and other members of the school board who decided how to spend the rates raised for a new school. I am trying to understand why our Norwich solicitors made Jane Betsy and Rosa May defendants in a chancery case in the year in which our Norfolk family's fortunes plummeted. The case is taken out by our Norwich solicitor's London agent at Staple Inn, (who is originally from Norwich). He appears in court opposite our Norwich solicitors in a major case of alleged libel and corruption involving the solicitor Stanley and the publishers of the Daylight in 1886.

   In 1883 the activities of the money lenders feature a lot in court cases. In August, a debtor of the Norwich Loan and Discount Office is subjected to a seizure of furniture and a donkey cart at 4.00 am. Taking the goods is bailiff for the money lenders, Mainwaring, who is subsequently sacked for seizing the wrong cow.

   In the same month a Francis Allard in is court for being drunk and disorderly and behaving in an uproarious manner, shortly after which, he shook hands with the police officer and then began abusing him. I'm not sure if this is our Francis Allard, but he claimed he was neither incapable or riotous, but fined 10 shillings and costs all the same.  

    By September cousin James Thomas Skinner has given up the farm at Tunstall. He marries Clarisssa Postle, of Blofield on 6th September and takes a farm at Reedham.

      As far as I know, Jane Betsy and Rosa May are still in Norwich at this time. Harry is farming at Burlingham. He is mentioned in a report of a meeting at the Wesleyan Chapel at Wickhampton in September, where 60 guests partook of a "Harvest Tea." As the report notes, dissenting chapels have been built in many of the surrounding villages, which has reduced the congregation at Wickhampton. Harry chairs a meeting after the tea, to effect necessary repairs to the chapel, which will be undertaken in the near future with the £60 which has been raised. A further £5 was added at the event.