Trouble at the steel mill, and divorce at Westminster

Episode 11. Content Warning: descriptions of domestic violence in the second half of this episode. Discovering how the global depression effected Sheffield and if Fred still had a job, and finding out how Janie’s sister Emma had to go to the Houses of Parliament to get a divorce so she could be freed from her abusive husband.

Transcript

[cold open]
Before we begin I just want to say hi and welcome to all my new listeners to My Love Letter Time Machine - you are so so welcome. If this is the first episode you’ve clicked on, this podcast tells Fred and Janie’s story chronologically so I suggest you might like to travel back in time all the way to 1878 and start with the very first podcast. If you’ve been here for a while, thank you so much for your support, this podcast is now being listened to right around the world and I’m delighted you are enjoying it so much. Perhaps you’d like to click the ratings in whatever podcast app you are listening with or even leave a review - that would really help other like-minded people discover My Love Letter Time Machine. Thanks again, now back to Janie and Fred.


[Intro]
Hello and welcome back to My Love Letter Time Machine, a podcast were we are discovering the Victorian love story told through the letters of two ordinary people from Sheffield, Yorkshire. Fred Shepherd and Janie Warburton, who were courting in the 1880s. I’m Ingrid Birchell Hughes, and I just happen to be their great great grand daughter, 
and this time we’ll be discovering how the global depression effected Sheffield and our Fred, and finding out how Janie’s sister Emma was freed from her abusive husband.

Please be aware there are descriptions of domestic violence in the second half of this episode.

Last time, back in August 1880, we, well rather Fred, was enjoying the delights of Blackpool - sharing all its diversions with Janie in his letters, and for the pair of them it seems their days at that time were sunny and full of optimism. Unfortunately, back in Sheffield, clouds were gathering and Fred and Janie were about to be caught up in economic and emotional storms not of their own making.

[Trouble at Steel Mill]
I’ve mentioned before that Fred’s employers, Brown Baley & Dixon was one of the world’s foremost producers of steel – and they particularly specialised in the production of railway tracks, but being market leaders could not protect them from global events.  “Between 1870 and 1890, iron production in the five largest producing countries more than doubled, steel production increased twentyfold and railroad development boomed.” — But at the same time prices were collapsing globally and in particular, the price of iron halved. 

Between 1873 and 1896 the globe was in the grip of what is sometimes known as the ‘Long Depression’ but has largely been forgotten because the Great Depression of the 1930s came to eclipse it. Sheffield, being the world’s largest producer of steel at the time, was particularly vulnerable. The combined loses for the city were over two and half million pounds (which is over three billion in modern terms) and must have been a devastating impact for so many people. In 1881, thirty nine companies based in the city were placed in liquidation. And among their number was Brown Bayley & Dixon.

It’s possible Fred and the rest of the employees didn’t really get wind of what might be about to happen until an article appeared in the Sheffield Daily Telegraph in December 1880. I’’ll just read you some of the highlights - it talks a lot about the companies predicament, and it’s a fascinating look at business set up of a Steel Mill:

23rd of December 

MESSRS. BROWN, BAYLEY, AND DIXON, LIMITED. APPLICATIONS CHANCERY. Yesterday two petitions were filed Chancery praying for the winding-up of Mesers. Brown, and Dixon, Limited, the Sheffield Steel and Iron Works, Attercliffe. … Both petitions are be heard January' next. On soliciting information regard to these proceedings we were informed that some time ago a schema was elaborated the practical effect of which would have been that the creditors would have had their debts paid by instalments with interest. This scheme was submitted to a meeting called for the purpose, when it was found that a majority of the creditors … were in favour of the proposal. Several of the creditors, however, did not assent … 
The public would do well to remember that the course taken chancery yesterday does not involve the stoppage the works, the operations of which will be carried as usual; and it is earnestly to hoped that after the gallant work done during the years prolonged depression, and which gave much brilliant promise in 1879. the company, with its able and zealous head, Mr. C. Holland, may not be prevented from reaping the reward of hard work in the time revival which has decidedly set in. [the article then quotes from a report  describing the history of the companies profit and loses over the last 7 years and continues:] The report went to mention the difficulties encountered manufacturing businesses, and stating that important economies had been effected, and the directors felt assured that the company was in a good position to meet the severe competition of the day. Special mention was also made additions to the Bessemer plant, and the erection machinery and plant for making the patent weldless steel chains and cables, for which the directors had secured the sole right of manufacture for the United Kingdom and the Colonies. 

…Special mention [in the meeting] was made of the falling off in the Russian trade, which was stated to be owing to the unsettled state affairs that country, and to the resolution the Russian Government to make much of their [own] railway material possible. In consequence of the depressed condition of trade during the past nine months of the year, the directors had experienced the greatest difficulty in obtaining orders anything like remunerative but they were pleased to state that there were more favorable prospects for the next year. 

Before the petitions are brought before the court it is to be hoped that arrangements may be made whereby the ability and energy, and hard work of years, may not be sacrificed, and that Messrs. Brown, and Dixon, Limited, may find the future that favourable condition of industrial affairs, which they would promptly take advantage, and which would bring them the commercial prosperity they have striven so hard to secure. 

Sadly in January 1880 at another special meeting of the shareholders, the motion to liquidate passed in order to repay the creditors. The only glimmer of hope for the employees of Brown Bayley and Dixon, as that the creditors agreed that that selling it as a going concern was preferable to usual route of breaking it up and asset stripping. So for the time being the works were permitted to continue operations.  

For now this meant that our Fred still had a job - however the letterheads he uses from work to write to Janie now have ‘In Liquidation’ rubber stamped across the company’s logo. Given Fred was a clerk, seeing that stamp every time he sent a company letter, it must have added to the general sense of insecurity about the future. 

And while all this was going on for Fred, Janie and her family were also having an unsettling time. It’s time to return to the story of Jane’s sister, Emma, who had been abandoned by her abusive husband John George Herrod.


[Divorce at Westminster]
Please be aware this part of the episode contains descriptions of domestic violence

But first we start with a letter from Fred - where it looks like Fred and Janie had stayed out far too late and Fred had gotten hauled over the coals for it - I presume by his mother Annie.

B. B. + D’s
January 20th/81

My Darling

I feel that I must see you before Sunday , or I shall be non-existent; so I propose to come up on Friday evening (if it is fit) about 8.45 pm. (W.P.) it will be 8.0 before I shall have done working. We can then have at least an hour together, I won’t say how much more as I had strict injunctions last night at 11:30pm. to “turn over a new leaf, at once”, + shall endeavour to do so. I hope you escaped the “new leaf” business, love.

You forgot to tell me if they said anything last Sunday after your little excursion to Darnall. I hope they did not. — You also did not mention whether you are going to London on Saturday or Monday; perhaps you did not think it worth while to say anything about it after my strongly expressed opinions of last Sunday? In that of course you please yourself, tho’ it would be extremely awkward if I were to come up on Sunday + find you gone. Ichabod ! “The glory would have departed”.

My darling I sincerely hope I did not offend you last night, I really had no intention of doing so. This morning came the usual reaction + I felt that I should not wish a recurrence of any of the incident of last night, as our mutual respect if not our love might become lessened, which would be nothing less than a calamity. I have not doubt that my feelings are fully reciprocated by you.

I thought it might inconvenience you to come out tomorrow night only I remember that you may possibly get out with Miss Revitt as usual + we might take advantage of the opportunity. If you do not come out I suppose I should not be intruding if I come in.
I remain
My darling Janie
Yours “till death”
Fred.
P.S. I think I may hint that the nearer I meet you to Darnall, the farther I shall have to walk with you.

Fred asking Jane about her trip to London coincides with the records of the High Court of Justice in the divorce case of Herrod v Herrod. The two Herrods in questions being Emma Herrod - Janie’s sister and John George Herrod, Emma’s husband. The case appeared in newspapers up and down the country and Jane has been quoted in some of the reports as a witness. That it was in so many newspapers shows that while not exactly a cause célèbre, an abusive jewel thief being divorced by his wife was still quite the scandal.

In the period between 1857 and 1882 the number of divorces in England rarely went over 300 a year. The great majority of these would have been men divorcing women – for adultery. At that time, for a woman to divorce a man on the grounds of just adultery would have been impossible, the law was blatantly discriminatory in this regard. She would have had to prove either cruelty (and that would have had to be extreme) or desertion. For a woman of Emma’s station, to get divorced was extremely unusual. It would have required irrefutable evidence and a small fortune.  

Emma had no idea of Herrod’s whereabouts after his desertion until she read in the newspaper that he was being tried for stealing jewellery from a hotel in Southport, just north of Liverpool. Not only that, but the article also included details of his having got a young woman pregnant as well as his having left his wife and three children in Sheffield.

I can not imagine the shock Emma must have felt. The household (to say nothing of the village of Handsworth) must have been in something of an uproar. The Warburtons would have been horrified. However this was also an opportunity – after Herrod was detained at Her Majesty’s Pleasure in Liverpool, they knew exactly where he was going to be for the next twelve months.

Against a background of divorce being rare and an option really only for the rich, the Warburtons somehow decide that this is the right course of action. If after his release Herrod had ever decided to come back to his wife, there was nothing in law to stop him, and no doubt they wanted her protected from that. There is also the consideration that being so closely connected to the Staniforths, a prominent family in Sheffield, the need to get shot of a convicted criminal was pressing. Although we don’t have much evidence for this it’s clear from Jane’s letters that, her father, James, had used whatever fortune he had to pay for the divorce. It seems strangely coincidental that while all this was going the following advertisement appeared in the for sale section of the newspaper: It reads: “Seven-roomed HOUSE, plenty of Water and Gas laid in.—Apply James Warburton, Cross Keys, Handsworth.” I don’t know what property James owned other than the Cross Keys - but the timing here suggests that this could be funding Emma’s divorce. 

After obtaining the services of a solicitor, it was William, Jane and Emma’s brother, who took on the job of serving the citation papers to Herrod at Liverpool Prison. James, as well as a publican, was also the constable for Handsworth and I wonder if his connections are why William was able to have as his witness, Herrod’s original arresting officer, Mr Kershaw, Chief Constable of Southport. Alternatively, the solicitor, wanting to create a watertight case, could have been ensuring that by having the Chief Constable as a witness to the serving of the papers, he could then be called upon as a witness to the High Court – and having Herrod’s arresting officer standing before the judge would make certain that Herrod would be seen as the scoundrel he quite clearly was.

There is the further coincidence that the people Herrod originally stole from were a Mrs Kershaw – the proprietress of the hotel in Southport – as well as her daughter, and her niece. I’ve not yet been able to establish a family connection – but it’s possible that Mr Kershaw is related, and Herrod hit some rather bad luck thieving from relatives of Southport’s Chief Constable.

I confess to feeling a deep schadenfreude for this next moment. With his ‘fiancee’ Eliza Whithers in attendance, Herrod, has to meet with his brother-in-law and the policeman that arrested him to receive a divorce citation, in prison. Was the meeting fraught with angry words between William and Herrod? Was poor Eliza tearful at having to be the person cited in a case of adultery – knowing that she had been used and left with a child by a man who had never been free to marry her? Or was it all done in a steely calm fashion, everybody just getting through it as best they could?

In the 1880s, there was only one divorce court in England, and that was held in chambers adjacent to Westminster Hall in London, part of the Houses of Parliament. This was a natural legacy from the fact that until The Matrimonial Causes Act 1857, in order to get divorced, one had to get a private bill through the House of Commons.

Presiding over each and every petition for divorce was Sir James Hannen, President of the Probate, Divorce and Admiralty Division. While not considered particularly brilliant or eloquent, he was known to be clear, accurate and painstaking. This seems to have been reflected in his meticulousness regarding Emma’s petition, when he adjourned the case for a second hearing after requiring that Eliza Whithers needed to be called as a witness to prove that adultery had taken place. This meant that not only did Emma, Jane and William have to travel from Sheffield to London in the October of 1880, they had to do it all over again in the following January.

The newspaper reports of the case paint a disturbing picture of how bad things had been. Emma, under oath, reported that to begin with, the marriage had been a happy one until Herrod took to drinking. That he had been a cabinet maker but “latterly he had followed the occupation of a betting man”. He frequently assaulted his wife and notable examples Emma gave were that “in the month of July, 1876, the respondent stuck her a violent blow because she had remonstrated with him for coming home late. He afterwards faced her such a blow as to cause her to have a couple of black eyes. During the month of February, 1877, the respondent struck her with a stick and hit her a severe blow in the back with his fists.”

Jane is there to provide evidence of cruelty, and as such must have witnessed some of the brutal treatment Herrod meted out first-hand. I mentioned before that Jane was a Sunday School teacher and this would have leant valuable weight to her reliability as a witness.

Satisfied that the desertion, cruelty and adultery boxes had all been ticked, Sir James Hannen granted the decree nisi. Emma was finally free.

Jane sent Fred a letter when she back: 

in haste 
nearly tea

Handsworth
Janr 30/1881

My Darling Fred
You will think it's strange that I have not written according to promise I have not had the shadow of a chance before now

Owing to the telegram being late on Thursday we did not leave Sheffield until 6 o'clock it was 10 o'clock when we got to Saint Pancras and after 11 when we got to our lodgings. Next morning we had to be in court by 10:30 and had to wait until our case came on that was between one and two you would see by Saturday papers how it went on but I will tell you all particulars when I see you.

After it was over we went straight to our lodgings and came home by five train from King's Cross due in Sheffield at quarter to nine but was half an hour late we caught the 9 to Darnel and arrived home at 10:45 very tired.

I thought if I wrote then and let our John post it on Saturday you would have gone from the works when it got there. 

I was very disappointed tonight at not seeing laugh but suppose would think I had not got back I walked down the street this afternoon thinking I might meet you but did not I must see you on Tuesday night darling at quarter to eight if you are not working late.

From your darling Janie

B.B. & D.
Janry 31st. 1881

My Darling
Was glad to hear from you, in fact, I was anxiously  awaiting a letter. Had no idea you came home on Friday else should have come up on Saturday night even if I could have seen you for five minutes. I expected from reading the newspaper that you would have to stay in London for an indefinite period.

John Meays came over yesterday + stayed until 1/2 past 5. After that, thinking that you had not returned I went to Attercliffe Church + promised Fred + Ted to see them on Tuesday night after finishing work. Fred goes back on Wednesday + as Tuesday is his last day here, I could not very well refuse. So that unfortunately I shall not be abel to see you then. 
Wednesday Night is my club night so that is another day spoilt.

However if the fates are propitious shall be with you on Thursday night, love + will contrive somehow to be at your house by Half past seven (D.M. W. P.) I wish tonight were Thursday night!

I hope you have quite recovered from your fatigue, my darling, I wish I could have come up with you on Friday night I might have cheered you up a little?

It’s been a dreary time since last Wednesday my darling, especially Sunday. I wish it were Thursday (again) I want so much to kiss you.
Believe me to be
my darling Janie
Your own!
Fred

It would be wonderful to be able to tell you that after being granted a divorce, Emma never looked back, but I have no happy ending for you. I know you can’t diagnose people in the past, but I don’t doubt that Emma ended up with some kind of PTSD after this. Given the blow to the head she received, it’s really not too far fetched to wonder if she’d sustained some damage to her brain. The two black eyes after a blow suggest at the very least concussion. Maybe it’s for this reason Emma finds it almost impossible to pick herself up. As we’ll discover in future podcasts, Jane’s letters paint a picture of a very damaged woman. Emma herself turns to drink and the family all end up having to watch her and not leave her alone because she repeatedly steals alcohol – something of a challenge when you are living in a pub. Emma pretty much gives up taking responsibility for anything and it is left up to Jane and her mother Maria, to be the caretakers of Emma’s three kids.

As far as Jane and Fred’s story goes, it looks a lot like the situation with Emma contributed to how the Warburtons view of Fred’s prospects as a husband to Jane start to change. Even though Emma’s divorce would have vindicated her and shown her to be the victim of a deeply unpleasant man, her reputation would have been badly damaged and by association, so would have Jane’s.

We are very familiar with Austen style dramas and discussions of class reputations in the upper echelons of society but it’s important to understand that ordinary people were just as concerned with status. I mentioned the Staniforths before – Maria – Emma and Jane’s mother, was the daughter of John Carnall and Jane Staniforth. James Warburton was a respected man of the community and constable for Handsworth. Fred, despite being self-educated and having a secretarial job, was from the much rougher area of Attercliffe.

However I don’t think it is just the damage to the family reputation that will have improved the Warburtons view of Fred. As we shall see from Fred’s letters, in the next podcast, he was going places and rose up in everyone’s estimation by his own endeavours and reputation. While John George Herrod was probably the worst thing that had ever happened to my family at that time, I think we’ll see that Fred was one of the best, and that Jane was completely vindicated in choosing him as the one for her.

Before I go, I wanted say that I’m hoping to do a Q n A episode in the next couple of weeks - so if you have any questions or outstanding mysteries about Janie and Fred’s story that I can answer - without giving away too many spoilers - you can email me at my love letter time machine @ gmail.com

We’ll leave it there for now, thanks for listening to My Love Letter Time Machine. 

We’ll be back next time when we discover how the recession in Sheffield finally caught up with Fred and Janie and how everything had to change. 

In the meantime you can follow me sharing excerpts of Fred and Janie’s letters on instagram at my love letter time machine all one word. or on the blog mydarlingjanie.co.uk. And as I said, if you’d like to write to me you can at my love letter time machine @ gmail.com

Until next time. Take care. 
© Ingrid Birchell Hughes 2022