Dear Simon and Linda My heartfelt wishes for you on this your wedding anniversary. May you have an enjoyable day and as many anniversaries as I have had up to now. Best wishes Johno

Have a great Anniversary Simon & Linda. Jenny K. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Diane Kirby" <graceland@xnet.co.nz> To: <GEN-TRIVIA-ENG-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Thursday, August 24, 2006 12:23 AM Subject: [TRIVVIES] Happy Anniversary!! > Happy Anniversary Simon and Linda. I hope you both have a very good day > :) > > DiDi > http://photobucket.com/albums/d100/didi_45 > > > > > ==== GEN-TRIVIA-ENG Mailing List ==== > RANDOM TAGLINE - GEN-TRIVIA-ENG - MAILING LIST > Comparison stories between Countries are always most welcome. These help > to make the list interesting as well as educational. > > > > -- > No virus found in this incoming message. > Checked by AVG Free Edition. > Version: 7.1.405 / Virus Database: 268.11.4/424 - Release Date: 21/08/2006 > >

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY Simon and Linda I hope you have a lovely day Hugs John xxxx Have a great Anniversary Simon & Linda. Jenny K. Happy Anniversary Simon and Linda. I hope you both have a very good day :) DiDi _________________________________________________________________ Be the first to hear what's new at MSN - sign up to our free newsletters! http://www.msn.co.uk/newsletters

Posted with permission of the transcriber, Ann Selchick. Geo SICKNESS & POVERTY IN Nineteenth Century Whitehaven. # 58. COURTS AND PASSAGES IN CONFINED PLACES. ______ There are 937 houses in courts and passages, more or less confined; most of them are entered from the street by a covered passage, seldom more than three feet wide, and 7 feet in height, frequently not more than 2 feet, nine inches wide. Then there is a second passage round a block of houses erected in what was originally a court, and this I have measured and found did not exceed, in some instances, 2 feet, 9 inches in width. It was quite impossible for the sun to shine into many of these places, and as the upper ends are generally blocked up with an ash midden, there can be no proper ventilation; if a strong wind should blow over the place it spread the fined dust from the refuse heap through the houses; during wet, the ashes and dirt are washed down over the surface. In some of these places I found privies, curiously contrived under stairs and bedrooms, and close adjoining the living rooms; but, in a vast majority of instances, such a place does not exist. There is no water supply but from fountains at a distance and the pumps in a few instances, most of which were broken or otherwise out of order. About 6,000 persons inhabit these courts and passages. ________ To be continued.

Posted with permission of the transcriber, Ann Selchick. Geo SICKNESS & POVERTY IN Nineteenth Century Whitehaven. # 57. CELLAR TENEMENTS. ______ There are about 281 cellar tenements, 89 of which were unoccupied at the time of my visit, 192 being tenanted; 12 of these have their ceilings below the level of the street, in one instance as much as two feet, and there are many level with the street, or only a few inches above it. Few of these places have the means of ventilation other than by one fireplace; that which was a window originally, rarely contains any remains of its glass, but is either stuffed fill of rags or straw, or blocked up with a shutter or boards; if there is a second cellar, there is seldom any opening out of it, either in the form of a fireplace or a window, but it is as true a dungeon as ever has been formed. 715 persons were residing in these places, few having either beds or furniture which can be said to leave a money value; a few broken chairs and stools, a crippled table and bedstead, was all that I found in the best furnished; but very many have no form of furniture, and rotten straw and dirty rags form their only bed. I visited many of these places at night, and the confined atmosphere was most offensive. Some of the inhabitants complain of the state of things, which they say they cannot help; they have no water supply, privies, or convenience for ashes, but they get rid of their refuse as best they can, most frequently immediately in front of their door. Some of these places are most difficult to get into to, they are so confined, steep and low. 152 pigs are kept, some actually in the cellars, but the principal portion in the immediate vicinity so that the refuse runs close past them. ____________________ To be continued.

Posted with permission of the transcriber, Ann Selchick. Geo SICKNESS & POVERTY IN Nineteenth Century Whitehaven. # 63. MODE FOR PRESERVING MILK FOR LONG VOYAGES. _______ As the season of the year is now arrived when hundreds of mechanics are induced to cross the Atlantic, in hope of bettering their fortune, and to those who carry young families with them, milk may be an important article of diet, perhaps the following extract from an old newspaper of the date of 1822 setting forth a simple and easy method of preserving it, may be of importance: - 'Provide a quantity of pint or quart bottles (new ones are perhaps best) they must be perfectly sweet and clean, and very dry before they are made use of. Instead of drawing the milk from the cow into the pail as usual, it is to be milked into the bottles. As soon as any of them are filled sufficiently, they should be immediately well corked with the very best cork, in order to keep out the external air, and fastened tight with packthread or wire, as the corks in the bottles contain cider generally are. Then on the bottom of an iron or copper boiler, spread a little straw; on that lay a row of bottles filled with milk, with some straw between them to prevent them from breaking, and so on, alternately, until the boiler has sufficient quantity in; then fill it up with cold water. Heat the water gradually until it begins to boil, and as soon as that is perceivable draw the fire. The bottles must remain undisturbed in the boiler until they are quite cool. Then take them out, and! afterwards pack them in hampers, either with straw or saw dust, and stow them in the coolest part of the ship. Milk preserved in this way has been to the West Indies and back, and at the end of that time was as sweet as when first drawn from the cow.' _______________

Posted with permission of the transcriber, Ann Selchick. Geo SICKNESS & POVERTY IN Nineteenth Century Whitehaven. # 60. REPORT FROM THE LOCAL BOARD OF HEALTH JANUARY 4, 1848. ______ In every district throughout the town, it is the painful duty of your Committee to state that there is a very inadequate supply of water, and as this is so essential for the comfort, cleanliness, and even the health of the inhabitants, they cannot too strongly urge upon the Board that no efforts be left untried to obtain such a supply, as may be adequate, in the fullest extent of its application, to the wants of the people. In those districts in which these wants has been alluded to the detail, we find that in Charles-street alone, which is part of the No. 2 district, there is a population of about 418 people without a single pump in the street. In No. 6, the Strand-street district, for instance, there is no less than 216 families, comprising a population of 700 people, without water on their premises, and only 2 fountains at all conveniently situated for their supply, which it must be borne in mind are also visited by an equally unprovided number of people from adjoining di! stricts. In District No. 8, comprising Albion-street, Swing Pump-lane, &c., in which is contained 170 families, comprising a population of the poorer classes, amounting to upwards of 800 people, we find that there are only 15 pumps, which belong to private individuals; consequently there is a very great want for water in this neighbourhood, sometimes felt to a serious extent by the numbers that may be seen waiting at the fountain near the Fish Market, at untimely hours, which fountain is the only one in the district. The Ginns District, No. 12, comprising a population of 865 people, or thereabouts, is equally unprovided with water, only four pumps were met with, and these were private property. There is no fountain in the neighbourhood, and the poor have a long way to fetch their water. In Mount Pleasant District, No. 13, containing 108 houses, with a population upwards of 500 people, there are no pumps, and the water has to be brought from a considerable distance, and at great inconvenience to the to the poor people, up a long range of steps from the fountain in Quay-street. In looking over the entire town, comprising a population, along with that part in Preston Quarter, of about 16,000 people, we find that there are only 11 public fountains; and during the dry seasons, all classes of the inhabitants have frequently to be waiting at them for a scanty supply of water to very untimely hours; indeed, in times of great scarcity, which do not infrequently occur, parties may be seen at the fountains for their turn to obtain a supply all night long. __________

Posted with permission of the transcriber, Ann Selchick. Geo SICKNESS & POVERTY IN Nineteenth Century Whitehaven. # 59. VAGRANTS' LODGING HOUSES. ______ There are 24 houses of this class which have in the whole 68 rooms and 120 beds. There are 7 beds in one room, and 3 and 4 in the others; 117 are very dirty, and there are three which can be described as clean. These lodging houses are in most towns the worst form of residence to be found in the district; but in Whitehaven it is not so, here they can only take rank with the better conditioned room tenements. They are, however, crowded, dirty, and ill ventilated; 12 cases of fever were taken to the fever house in three months from one lodging house in Harmless-hill. Fever is common in all of them. These house are not under local inspection or control; vagrants and improper characters resort to them; the beds are let off at 3d per night to each person, or 6d per bed; but I have seen 7 persons in one bed, and 9 beds in one room; men, women and children, frequently strangers to each other, are crowded into the same room, and there is not the slightest attempt at privacy or division betwixt the beds; the persons in one may lay their hands upon those in the bed adjoining, with ease. ____________________ SCAVENGING AND CLEANSING. The Trustees have power to scavenge, pave, sewer and cleanse the streets, and to levy rates to defray the expense of such works. They employ a surveyor of roads and streets, four scavengers, and four horses and carts, besides masons and laborers employed on the harbour and in paving and repairing streets. In addition to the scavengers carts there two night soil carts belonging to the Trustees, and one belonging to a private individual. The expenditure in 1848 on the town department, as distinguished from the harbour department, for lighting, police, paving, and cleansing amounted to £2261-10s-11d; but £670 of this had been refunded from the harbour funds. ____________________

Posted with permission of the transcriber, Ann Selchick. Geo SICKNESS & POVERTY IN Nineteenth Century Whitehaven. # 58. COURTS AND PASSAGES IN CONFINED PLACES. ______ There are 937 houses in courts and passages, more or less confined; most of them are entered from the street by a covered passage, seldom more than three feet wide, and 7 feet in height, frequently not more than 2 feet, nine inches wide. Then there is a second passage round a block of houses erected in what was originally a court, and this I have measured and found did not exceed, in some instances, 2 feet, 9 inches in width. It was quite impossible for the sun to shine into many of these places, and as the upper ends are generally blocked up with an ash midden, there can be no proper ventilation; if a strong wind should blow over the place it spread the fined dust from the refuse heap through the houses; during wet, the ashes and dirt are washed down over the surface. In some of these places I found privies, curiously contrived under stairs and bedrooms, and close adjoining the living rooms; but, in a vast majority of instances, such a place does not exist. There is no water supply but from fountains at a distance and the pumps in a few instances, most of which were broken or otherwise out of order. About 6,000 persons inhabit these courts and passages. ________ To be continued.

Posted with permission of the transcriber, Ann Selchick. Geo SICKNESS & POVERTY IN Nineteenth Century Whitehaven. # 57. CELLAR TENEMENTS. ______ There are about 281 cellar tenements, 89 of which were unoccupied at the time of my visit, 192 being tenanted; 12 of these have their ceilings below the level of the street, in one instance as much as two feet, and there are many level with the street, or only a few inches above it. Few of these places have the means of ventilation other than by one fireplace; that which was a window originally, rarely contains any remains of its glass, but is either stuffed fill of rags or straw, or blocked up with a shutter or boards; if there is a second cellar, there is seldom any opening out of it, either in the form of a fireplace or a window, but it is as true a dungeon as ever has been formed. 715 persons were residing in these places, few having either beds or furniture which can be said to leave a money value; a few broken chairs and stools, a crippled table and bedstead, was all that I found in the best furnished; but very many have no form of furniture, and rotten straw and dirty rags form their only bed. I visited many of these places at night, and the confined atmosphere was most offensive. Some of the inhabitants complain of the state of things, which they say they cannot help; they have no water supply, privies, or convenience for ashes, but they get rid of their refuse as best they can, most frequently immediately in front of their door. Some of these places are most difficult to get into to, they are so confined, steep and low. 152 pigs are kept, some actually in the cellars, but the principal portion in the immediate vicinity so that the refuse runs close past them. ____________________ To be continued.

Posted with permission of the transcriber, Ann Selchick. Geo SICKNESS & POVERTY IN Nineteenth Century Whitehaven. # 56. NEW HOUSES. These cottages stand on the outskirts of town, on sloping ground, and at an elevation considerably above the low part of town; they were erected by a former Lord Lonsdale, for the use of his miners and laborers. They are built on the side of a hill, and form three rows or streets, the roofs at the back being, in many instances level with the road way in the front of the houses behind, and the roofs of the highest run full against the hillside. There are no sewers or drains, and consequently the roads and houses are damp. On the front row there are 77 tenements and 5 ash pits; in the middle row 111 tenements and 9 ash pits; and on the back row there are 78 tenements and 7 ash pits; total number of houses 266; total number of ash pits, 21. There is not a single privy belonging to the whole property. The ashes are taken away every week by the Earl of Lonsdale's carts for agricultural purposes. The water supply is very inadequate. It is not uncommon to see twenty women waiting at the standpipe for water. In the summer months this frequently fails, and the inhabitants are then obliged to fetch their water for domestic use more than a mile; or they resort to any other nearer place if it can be obtained, even when of inferior quality.. Many of the tenants on the front row complain of the ash pits belonging to the middle row, as these being on level with their roof of their houses behind, the refuse sinks down into their back kitchens, and causes a very bad smell through the whole house; the wind also blows the dust and dirt about. Pigsties and stagnant water in contact with the houses are common. These houses are very seldom clear of fever. The whole surfaces around the houses and roads is covered with human dirt; and on Sundays 10 or 12 men can be seen exposing themselves at one time; with the children, this is the case throughout the week. This property might be perfectly drained, and provided with water closets at a cost not exceeding £3 per house, or £798, which might be made into an annual rent charge of less than 1d a week rental. This would be the extreme cost if the refuse produced no income, but standing as the houses do at an elevation, and all the land in the neighbourhood being the property of Lord Lonsdale, a proper system of water closets and drains with covered tanks to receive the refuse would yield a considerable clear income above the rent charge, or interest of capital, whichever it might be considered or termed. In these 266 houses, there is a population of about 6 persons to one house, or in the whole, 1,596 inhabitants, men, women, and children. ______________________ To be continued.

Posted with permission of the transcriber, Ann Selchick. Geo SICKNESS & POVERTY IN Nineteenth Century Whitehaven. # 55. HARMLESS HILL. Harmless Hill is an open yard on a sloping ground, as it's name "hill" denotes; it is bounded by cottage tenements, the windows from which look over it; the yard accommodates a congregation of pigs, in sties ranged round or near the cottages, and over its surface are the open middens, the liquid refuse from which drains down against the walls of the houses, and into them. ****** ROSEMARY LANE. Rosemary-lane is a narrow lane which are many tenements without privy or water supply; the confined yards at the back are covered with human dirt, and the odour of the whole place is abominable. Amidst these scene of utter destitution, misery, and extreme degradation in Whitehaven, there are, however, instances of desire for cleanliness, even in some of the worst places; and it is most painful to contemplate the hopeless position of such persons, who are generally English, and have known better times and happier days, confined in narrow courts or crowded rooms, and surrounded with dirt and neglect, striving to keep their own particular place clean and neat. It is far otherwise, however, with many of the Irish residents, their only care appears to be, as much as possible, to block up all means of ventilation and light. The odour of their rooms is most peculiar and offensive. When I have spoken about the dirt and confined rooms to one of these families, I have had a string of complaints from the mother as to the rent being demanded for "Stich a dog-hole, your honour?" I have asked, "What rent do you pay?" "Tin pence a week, your honour, for this." "Why don't you keep it clean?" would be answered by a peculiar smile and shrug and the question, "How would I do that your honour?" and this I felt, under the circumstances I could not fully explain. __________________ To be continued.

Posted with permission of the transcriber, Ann Selchick. Geo SICKNESS & POVERTY IN Nineteenth Century Whitehaven. # 54. MOUNT PLEASANT. Mount Pleasant is a congregation of most wretched dwellings, situated on the side of a hill, and they are principally approached by steps much worn, broken, and in a ruinous condition; dangerous in daylight and summer, and necessarily much more dangerous in winter during the long, dark nights and frost. Many of the tenements cannot be called rooms, they are so dreary, black and loathsome; some of them were formerly used as nail maker's shops, and without any alteration or cleansing from that time. They have been let off as tenements at a low rental of 6d or 9d a week; in one instance to an old couple, recipients of out-door parish relief. There are about 1,825 inhabitants in Mount Pleasant, without any form of privy accommodation, or any regular supply of water. There are no public or private lamps throughout the year. __________ SOLOMON'S TEMPLE. Solomon's Temple is a ruinous pile of building left off into room tenements; there is a confined yard behind covered with human refuse; pigs are kept in such cellars as are not occupied as tenements, and for years the attics were made a receptacle for all the ashes of the place and the refuse from the children. Latterly a public privy and ashpits has been erected in front; but, like most other public privies, it is the filthiest spot about the place, inasmuch as it is totally unfit for use, and serves merely to concentrate the former nuisance. To be continued.

Posted with permission of the transcriber, Ann Selchick. The following articles #53 through #60 contain fairly graphic descriptions of the living conditions of the poor. I shudder to think that many of my own ancestors must have lived, or rather endured, such conditions. It's a wonder I'm here.... <g> Geo SICKNESS & POVERTY IN Nineteenth Century Whitehaven. # 53. PRESENT CONDITION OF TOWN. ________ To an ordinary and careless observer, Whitehaven may appear a clean town; in fact, in the Parliamentary Gazette of 1845-6 it is described as follows, "The town itself is one of the most handsome in all the Northern Counties; the streets being regular and spacious and crossing each other at right angles, many of the buildings are very neat, and the shops exhibit a degree of elegance seldom, till recently, seen in the North." This may apply to the main streets, such as Lowther-street, Duke-street, King-street, Scotch-street and some others which are wide and open, with convenient foot walks flagged, and the road way either paved or macadamized. These streets are tolerably "clean, and may be called convenient for purposes of business," but even the houses here, and the street themselves have no useful sewers or drains; they are generally confined at the back, and crowded with a poorer class of property; few have privies or ash pits, and the inhabitants are compelled either to keep their refuse on the premises until removed by the scavenger's cart, or it is thrown out into the street. But a casual examination of this portion of the town alone will give no indication of its true state and condition; the back streets must be noticed, the courts and passages in confined places examined, the room and cellar tenements visited, the public lodging houses inspected, and then such an amount of human wretchedness and misery will be revealed, as few persons in better circumstances would believe existed. Words written or spoken cannot convey to the mind the whole state of things, there must be sight and smell to aid and inform the imagination. The pen of novelist never yet depicted such depth of utter wretchedness. There is a grim facetiousness about the names of the town and places "Whitehaven," "Mount Pleasant," "Solomon's Temple," "Harmless Hill," and "Rosemary Lane." To be continued.

Posted with permission of the transcriber, Ann Selchick. Geo SICKNESS & POVERTY IN Nineteenth Century Whitehaven. # 48. WORKHOUSE. ____ WHITEHAVEN. There has been no new workhouse built here since the formation of the Union, the old workhouse for the town of Whitehaven, and at Ginns, for Preston Quarter, being considered sufficiently capacious. The former of these is situated in Scotch street, and was built in 1743, at the cost of a considerable sum, "borrowed upon tickets not exceeding £25 each, bearing interest for thirty-one years," after which the payment of the principal commenced, and was all paid off in 1780. It was considerably enlarged in 1795, so that it is now capable of containing two hundred persons, and is appropriated for the reception of female paupers. The Preston Quarter Workhouse is appropriated to the male paupers, and in consequence of some recent alterations is now calculated to hold about two hundred inmates. The Union comprises the following 23 townships and parishes, vis., Arlecdon, Cleator, Distington, Egremont, Ennerdale and Kenniside, Gosforth, Haile, Harrington, Hensingham, Lamplugh, Lowside Quarter, Moresby, Nether Wasdale, Parton, Ponsonby, Preston Quarter, Rottington, St. Bridget's, St. Bees, St. John's, Sandwith, Weddicar, and Whitehaven, containing in 1841, a population of 30,202 souls, and covering an area of 81,109 acres. The population and area of each district is as follows: - Egremont, 6623 souls, 34,217 acres Harrington, 6944 souls, and 43,422 acres. The Board of Guardians consists of 32, viz., six for Whitehaven, three for Preston Quarter, two for Egremont, two for Harrington and all the rest one guardian each. The following are the officers: -Chairman, William LUMB, Esq Vice Chairman, Mr. Wm. WILSON Treasurer, Mr. Peter CAMERON, manager of the Joint Stock Bank, Whitehaven. Auditor, R. F. YARKER, Esq., Ulverstone Clerk & Superintendent Registrar, Mr. Jno. B. POSTLETHWAITE, Solicitor, Whitehaven Chaplain, Revd. John HODGSON Relieving Officer and Registrar of Births and Deaths for Whitehaven District, Mr. John MAWSON, Church Street. Relieving Officer for St. Bees District, Mr. John WALKER, Gill. Registrar, Mr. MOSSOP, Hale Long, 15 Preston street. Registrar for Cleator, W. KITCHEN. Relieving Officer and Registrar for births and deaths for Distington, Jeremiah GUNSON Registrar for Marriages, John JACKSON and Richd. S. WHITESIDE, Spirit Merchants, Whitehaven. Medical Officers, Robert LUMB, Church Street for Whitehaven District. Isaac MOSSOP, Queen Street for Preston Quarter, William Maxwell JOHNSTON for Harrington district; William REEVES for Egremont District; James BRYDEN for Gosforth District. Master and Matron for Workhouses, Henry and Mrs. STURGEON Sub-matron for Whitehaven Workhouse, Jane WILSON William BENSON is schoolmaster for Preston Quarter workhouse and Barbara WATTERS is schoolmistress for the other. All the magistrates of the district are ex officio guardians and the meetings are held every Thursday at the Savings Bank, Whitehaven. There were for the quarter ending Dec. 24th, 1846, 1914 paupers relieved, at an expense of £1579 3s 7d exclusive of £38 19s 0d registration, and £10 7s 0d vaccination fees. The total expenditure of the Union for the year ending March 1844, was about £6830; for 1845, £7620; for 1846. £7470; and for 1847, £7800. The number of paupers now (July 1847) in the workhouses is 127 males and 150 females, and the number of children in the schools is about 130, viz., 70 boys and 60 girls. ___________

Posted with permission of the transcriber, Ann Selchick. Geo SICKNESS & POVERTY IN Nineteenth Century Whitehaven. # 47-B . TO MR. JOHN SPENCER Spirit Merchant and Poor Law Guardian. You thus follow up the system of which you gave a notable a specimen in the severe winter of 1838, when for a paltry half guinea subscribed you gave away by wholesale to pamper the same bad passion the subscriptions of scores of more liberal contributors than yourself. But let that pass; and with respect to your present career at the Board of Guardians if the gentlemen composing that body do not strip you of the power of doing mischief I shall at no distant day call them to account for gross and shameful neglect of duty. Let me however come to closer quarters with you. As you are a sort of poor law oracle you will not venture to plead ignorance I presume of the most trifling enactments of the new law, much less would you stultify yourself by pleading ignorance of what is required at your hands as a guardian. I will take it for granted them that you are cognizant of the fact that no guardian of the Poor can, except under heavy penalty, furnish any article whatever for the use of the poor in the Union Workhouse. Of this you are well aware as I am, yet notwithstanding, your love of "filthy lucre" prompts you to transgress the laws you profess to administer! I am not aware that a single quarter passes in which we may not find an account for spirit furnished by you for the Union Workhouse - all of which of course is used by the paupers - to the exclusion of every other spirit dealers in the town; and that you are conscious of the illegality of the step you are taking I need adduce no other fact a! s proof beyond your attempt to screen yourself by making your son the vendor to the Workhouse of what a teetotaller like yourself would call the "liquid fire of damnation." This stale and weak attempt to shelter yourself from the consequences of the law is as paltry as it is unworthy of any man who has the least pretensions to even common understanding. If your son be your partner in business he cannot sell without you being as legally responsible for his acts as he is himself; and then again if he be not a partner you must show that he is a licensed spirit dealer, otherwise you make him infringe the law of license, so that in either case the shuffle would avail you nothing. I may perhaps be asked why that pink of poor house governors with the Union is blessed, gives you the preference for the Union Workhouse spirits. I will not mention the reason which instantly stares me in the face, but merely remark, knowing as I do the part you took in that man's appointment, that he betrays at least one good quality - gratitude. Perhaps the Board of Guardians generally will take cognizance of this. And now Sir, do you perceive if the Assistant Overseer were anxious to retaliate for your repeated acts of kindness towards him that he has it in his power to do so effectually. I believe he entertains no such unworthy disposition towards you, though he cannot with ordinary feelings of our nature respect the man who has with so much relentless perseverance sought to deprive him of a means of supporting himself and a numerous family. I have perhaps said enough to you for the present, in order to attract attention to the subject; but if not my next letter shall be addressed to the Board of Guardians generally, in order that what I cannot but regard as a most extravagant and iniquitous career may be arrested. I am, Sir, your obedient servant, A. Z. Roper Street, Nov. 18, 1840. ___________________

Posted with permission of the transcriber, Ann Selchick. Geo SICKNESS & POVERTY IN Nineteenth Century Whitehaven. # 47-A. TO MR. JOHN SPENCER Spirit Merchant and Poor Law Guardian. _______ Sir, - As you have now been a candidate for notoriety for some time past upon terms, with becoming deference to your own judgment, that do not well accord with the garb you wear, and are completely at variance with my own notions of good citizenship, or what is due from one man to another, I do not think it necessary to offer any apology for thus addressing you through the medium of a public journal. I have no relish for long preliminary remarks and will therefore at once start my game. The part you took on the appointment of the Assistant Overseer for this township under the new poor law act will yet be fresh upon your recollection, and the reason you assigned for your hostility towards him; and granting that those reasons were what you professed them to be, though I hardly need tell you that nine-tenths of the inhabitants did not believe your averments on that subject, you might ere this have allayed those doubts you entertained of his competency to discharge the duties pertaining to his office. You are so peculiarly sensitive, however, lest the town should suffer, that even up to this time you appear to think that all is not right - or at all events you seem yet anxious to hunt him down with a degree of relentless hostility, which, let me assure you, is not attributed to pure motives on your part by the public. If therefore you think you deceive the public you labour under a mistake; it is yourself alone that is deceived. Your mode of bringing Quirk's case against the Assistant Overseers before the Board of Guardians on Thursday last, was in the first place, unhandsome, and in the next it was no business of yours - you had in fact nothing to do with it, your interference in the matter was therefore pure officiousness prompted no doubt by the hope that you would thus have the opportunity of wreaking a malicious and bad feeling upon an unoffending individual - a person whom I believe never did you wrong either by word or action in the whole course of his life. The overseers are surely competent to manage their own affairs without your interference; and if you had made QUIRK's case known to them, as was your duty to have done if you had lent an ear to his representations at all, you would have been informed, without the humiliation of exposure before the Board of Guardians, that you had been the dupe of a stubborn and designing man. As you are so scrupulously watchful over another man's concerns - so anxious to discover a mote in your neighbor's eye, you would no doubt take especial care that no one should be put to the trouble of exacting a beam from your own. In my intercourse with society I cannot say that I have often found the busy meddler any better than those whom he may have sought to vilify and injure, and with all my charity I have no inclination to make you an exception, but in common fairness I ought perhaps to give reasons for the faith that is in me. This I have no objections to do, and will therefore hastily glance at your conduct as a Poor Law Guardian, for it is in that capacity alone in which I claim any right to scrutinize your actions. It would require more space than I can reasonably look for in the columns of the Pacquet even to glace at the extravagant manner in which you advocate the expenditure of the public money in the shape of out-door relief to able bodied paupers; to particularize the decisions of the Board one week reversed by you the next, and all for what? - popularity - to be accounted humane and charitable, not at your own expense, but at that of the rate-payers of the township. To be continued.

Just been talking to Pam, and Big Dave has asked me to post another Greeting Reminder..for tomorrow the 24th .. tis a Wedding Anniversary for Simon and Linda in Jormany. Marlene ```````````````````````` ___________________________________________________________ Copy addresses and emails from any email account to Yahoo! Mail - quick, easy and free. http://uk.docs.yahoo.com/trueswitch2.html

Posted with permission of the transcriber, 'Ann'. Geo. SICKNESS & POVERTY IN Nineteenth Century Whitehaven. # 42. WIGTON POOR LAW UNION _____ We have had another Dietary Table sent us for publication, and if we may be allowed to form our judgment by comparison, we need not hesitate to say that the paupers' bill of fare, as here represented, is by far the best we have yet seen. In Caldbeck Workhouse the provisions are not only good, wholesome, and substantial; but, what is almost as beneficial to the pauper, he is not stinted, it appears, as in oher Unions. There is here an ample allowance of bread, and no doling out of provisions by ounces and half ounces - no soup by the pint and milk by the gill, as we have noticed to be the case elsewhere. The sick, too, are allowed to be dieted as directed by the medical officer. We present the table as follows, and feel assured that the reader will observe a pleasing contrast between it and others we have lately published: DIETARY FOR CALBECK WORKHOUSE IN THE WIGTON UNION. Table is a graphic. I have deleted it for this Rootsweb message but you should be able to see it on the SmartGroup Trivvies copy. Geo.

Posted with permission of the transcriber, 'Ann'. Geo. SICKNESS & POVERTY IN Nineteenth Century Whitehaven. # 46-B. INCREASED POOR RATES. ______ To the EDITOR of the CUMBERLAND PACQUET. Since the year 1834, up to the period of establishing the Union, there has been alternately two and three rates in a year; but since the establishment of the Union, two years ago, there has been six rates, including of course, the one levied this day, which, being eighteen pence in the pound, is equivalent to a rate and a half. The three rates in 1839 were wholly expended. The fact, no inconsiderable portion of the first rate levied in the year, 1840, went to discharge obligations before the late overseers could put themselves in a position to hand over their accounts to their successors. This is a fact that will admit no dispute; and it is also a fact that the present overseers have more than once, as I have before stated, had no advance money upon the rates. I shall also state broadly as a fact, and I think it is one with which every Guardian of the Union must be acquainted, that the rate, or rather rate and a half, which has just been published, will not enable the presen! t officers to hand the books over to their successors at the end of the official year, which, of course, expires on the 25th of March next. Another rate must therefore be levied before that period arrives, and yet we are gravely told by your contemporary that we pay no more money now than we did before the introduction of the new law into Whitehaven! When I contrast the statement above with the rates collected before the introduction of the new law into this town, I must confess that I am bound to come to an opposite conclusion. On looking over my accounts I find that in the year 1835 there were three rates; in 1836, two rates; in 1837, three rates; in 1838 two rates; in 1839, (the first year under the new law,) three rates; and in 1840 (with only about two-thirds of the year gone - of course I speak of the official year which does not terminate till the 25th of March) there have been two rates and a half! If any intelligent man will take the trouble to show me that I am wrong, I will cheerfully, with your permission, meet him in the columns of the Pacquet. I trust I shall be found as open to conviction as I am to the admission of truth. It will not, however, be sufficient for your contemporary, or any other person, to tell me what is paid to this officer of the Union, or how much is given to that. I profess not to know how much money is expended; it is enough for me to prove that more money has been paid since the new poor law came into operation than used, in the same period, to be collected during the existence of the old system; and that neither the pauper nor the ratepayer have, in the slightest degree benefited by the introduction of the new poor law into Whitehaven. The condition of the pauper, I contend, is unaltered - the condition of the rate-payer is considerately worse. Upon this ground sir, I stake my stand against all comers, and let my opponents spring up in what quarter they may I will be found at my post in defence of the position I have laid down. Political friends, I have none and therefore I need not be afraid of doing wrong to any one on that score, and let me not be told about provoking resistance to the new law - this law like every other has its merits and demerits; and I shall speak of them, if they are brought into question, as I find them, and upon them in public estimation, at least, it must either stand or fall. - I am, Sir, your's most respectfully, MENDICUS. NOV. 21, 1840