\u2018Penrith brothel\u2019 is not something I want in my search history, so I don\u2019t know how things are today. And I trust anyone reading this won\u2019t be disappointed to find this post relates to a story that was in the news in 1888!<\/p>\n
In April 1888, widow Isabella English was charged knowingly permitting her house in Burrowgate, Penrith, to be used as a brothel.<\/p>\n
She denied the charge.<\/p>\n
Police Sergeant McGuffie told the court he and \u2018PC Ashbourne\u2019 had heard singing coming from the house just after midnight: a bawdy song. The language being used was \u2018both profane and obscene\u2019.<\/p>\n
On entering, they found Isabella English, women called Robertshaw, Wilson, Ann Hill, and one they didn\u2019t know. And eight men.<\/p>\n
All were under the influence of drink, and of immoral character.<\/p>\n
The bench decided the eight young men should not be named in court.<\/p>\n
Sergeant McGuffie said the hair of the women was hanging down over their shoulders, and their dresses were disordered.<\/p>\n
The back door of the property led to a yard shared with the Red Lion. He had not seen any drink in the house,<\/p>\n
Isabella English had lived at Little Dockray at Christmas, when police had found a number of men fighting in her house.<\/p>\n
\u2018PC Ashbourne\u2019 said the blinds hadn\u2019t been shut and he\u2019d seen one of the men \u2018coddling, kissing and pulling one of the women about\u2019.<\/p>\n
Isabella English said she kept a pie shop and the men and women were all in there to buy pies.<\/p>\n
She\u2019d never seen two of the women before. The other two had come to buy pies to take home, but she\u2019d sold out.<\/p>\n
A young man had offered to treat them to a shortcake, and they\u2019d gone into the kitchen.<\/p>\n
William Johnstone (who affirmed, as he objected to taking the oath) said he\u2019d gone there for a pie and had seen nothing immoral.<\/p>\n
One young man had sung a song called \u2018Far Away,\u2019 which was not obscene.<\/p>\n
Isabella English\u2019s servant, Sarah Nicholson, aged 15, said the defendant sold pies, buns, shortcake and other things. She\u2019d never seen any improper behaviour.<\/p>\n
The bench found the \u2018Penrith brothel\u2019 wasn\u2019t, and acquitted Isabella English of the charge. They did say there had been \u2018disorderly conduct as a most improper hour\u2019.<\/p>\n
The fight referred to in the court case took place on Christmas Day 1887, at five to one in the morning. John Nanson, labourer, John Wilson, printer, Thomas Nicholson, fireman, and fitters Joseph Simpson and Robert Crossland, all of Penrith, were all bound over to keep the peace for six months for committing a breach of the peace. Namely fighting each other in Isabella English\u2019s \u2018house\u2019 (likely pub, though I don\u2019t know which).<\/p>\n
There\u2019s an Isabella English, grocer, on the 1881 census, living in King Street, Penrith. It looks like husband William English, a clogger, died in 1886.<\/p>\n
Isabella, born Melmerby, was 28 and a grocer.<\/p>\n
In 1889, an Isabella English married a Richard Mattinson.<\/p>\n
On the 1891 census. Isabella Mattinson is \u201935\u2019 (three years older than her husband, so she may have knocked three years off her actual age). Born Melmerby. They were living in Keswick, where Richard Mattinson was a (wood bobbin) turner.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Isabella\u2019s occupation was \u2018cook\u2019: so she was perhaps still making pies.<\/p>\n Sergeant James McGuffie was, unsurprising, born in Scotland, around 1841.<\/p>\n Police Constable George Ashburn (as it appears on the 1891 census, rather than \u2018Ashbourne\u2019), was born at Loweswater, circa 1852. He doesn\u2019t look to have ever risen beyond the rank of constable.<\/p>\n The Penrith brothel that wasn\u2019t was just one of many cases they investigated, and they may well pop up again in future posts.<\/p>\n The woman Sergeant McGuffie didn\u2019t know was a Mrs Boak. Who said she and Ann Hill had simply gone to the shop for pies.<\/p>\n Assuming this was Jane Boak, she will feature in a future post. She led an eventful life, to say the least \u2013 but nothing to do with immoral earnings!<\/p>\n In 1888, she\u2019d have been 50. And if she fancied a pie at midnight \u2013 well, who are we to judge her for that?<\/p>\n The Penrith brothel that wasn\u2019t, or\u2026 who ate all the pies (and shortcake)? \u2018Penrith brothel\u2019 is not something I want in my search history, so I don\u2019t know how things are today. And I trust anyone reading this won\u2019t be disappointed to find this post relates to a story that was in the news in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1230,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[186],"class_list":["post-1229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cumbria-history","tag-penrith"],"yoast_head":"\nThe police<\/h2>\n
The fourth woman<\/h2>\n
Given that the Penrith brothel was actually just serving baked goods, I’ve illustrated it with a photo of shortcake!<\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"