I for the Infamy of Aaron Armitage, Miner : A-Z Challenge 2020.

INFAMY  is my topic this day, with the dictionary describing it as :

"The state of being well known for some bad quality or deed."

I have a number of ancestors in my extended lines who fit this bill and could  be termed my "black sheep".  These include John Danson, subject of a bastardy bond in 1810 (document sourced through Lancashire Archives);   and Henry Lounds, brother in law of a later John Danson, who as a butler married in secret the heiress of the house - originally a family anecdote,  backed up by the  discovery of newspaper reports when the marriage  came to light. 

Butin this post, I am profiling my husband's ancestors - miners and miscreants, with the local press,  prolific in reporting their criminal activity.

Aaron Armitage (1850-1889),  a miner in West Yorkshire    was my husband's great grandfather and with his own father Moses, made frequent appearances before local courts. The charges -  breach of the peace, assault,  and thefts,  which included such items as a canary, six cabbages, a pig  and a woman’s dress;  also the pursuit of game and rabbits.

A photograph of Moses Armitage, courtesy of an internet contact

who was also a descendant of Moses.  

Aaron was the eldest son of Moses Armitage  and Sarah Galloway, with census returns  confirming  the births of a growing family.    By 1861 it was a household of parents and six children under 12 years old - Mary Elizabeth 12, Aaron 10,   Moses, 8, William 6, John 3 and Ann 6 months.  The 1871 census saw  four more siblings on the scene – Sarah Ann 8, Benjamin 6, Ada 5 and Albert 3; a household of eleven with eldest daughter Mary Elizabeth no longer living at home. The three eldest sons  - Aaron 20, Moses 18 and William 16 were all coal miners, like their father.

A search on the  British Newspapers Online at FindMyPase was revealing on the  criminal activity of both  Moses and his sons

1857 - "The Sheffield Daily Telegraph"  of 8th December reported that Moses Armitage  was charged with stealing "a favourite canary", the property of Mr Jeremiah Fisher at the Horse and Jockey Inn, Dodworth.  He was sentenced to Wakefield House of Correction for two months, hard labour. 

1858 -  Moses Armitage andhis brother Joseph Armitage were charged with assaulting P.C. Richards at Dodworth.  Fined 5 shillings with costs.

1864  - Moses eldest son Aaron had an early brush with the law.  At the age of 13, he was charged and found guilty  of  causing an obstruction on the railway, with Leeds Assizes sentencing him  to one  month's  imprisonment and six strokes of the birch. 

 

Sheffield & Rotherham Independent:  16th August 1864  

His conviction was recorded in the England and Wales Criminal Register (available on Ancestry).  

1867 - "The Barnsley Chronicle" of 21st September reported that  "Moses Armitage and Thomas Sykes were charged with being drunk  and fighting at Dodworth - the occasion the marriage of Moses eldest daughter Mary to Thomas's son Fergus.  It appeared that they were having a friendly spar in celebration of the happy event.  Fined 5 shillings with costs."

1868  - "The Barnsley Chronicle" of 18th July reported Aaron as being charged with the pursuit of game.  He was fined 20s plus costs or 14 days imprisonment by default.

1869  - Aaron was a witness in the case of three men  charged with breach of the peace . In the witness box, Aaron admitted that " he had been charged many times with various offences". As reported in  "The Barnsley Chronicle".

1869 -  In this instance Aaron was the victim of "violent intimidation" in a dispute at the coal pit, where reductions in wages resulted in many miners had gone on strike, and violence erupted between-union and non-union members.  Aaron and his brother William were attacked as they left their home at 5am to go to work. The attackers were sent to prison. ("The Sheffield Daily Telegraph"  29th July)

1870 - "The Barnsley Chronicle": 18th June   reported  Aaron being charged with  trespassing a field and doing damage.

 1872 - "The Sheffield Independent" of 6th January reported "Two Scrapes" involving  Aaron - for leaving his employment without giving notice and for pursuing rabbits.

1874 - Sheffield and Rotherham newspapers of  June 1874 reported that Moses Armitage of Dodworth (Aaron's brother)   was charged with  throwing a bottle at a policeman.   He was fined 10 shillings plus costs, or two months detention by default.

1875 - Aaron Armitage was charged with assault and biting a man on the nose  at a Dodworth pub.  He was described as "a bulldog of a man".  Fined £5 which he could not pay so was sentenced to prison for two months. (Barnsley Chronicle: 3rd April)

1875 Aaron Armitage "an old offender" was charged with  stealing a pig, value £2 15s.  Committed to Wakefield Prison for six months.  (Sheffield Daily Telegraph: 9th November).

Moses, senior,  died 26th February 1878, aged 54, with  his son Aaron continuing his downward spiral into crime.

1884  - On  June  7th 1884, "The Barnsley Chronicle" reported  that Aaron Armitage was charged with assaulting Fergus Sykes (his brother-in-law)  and was  fined 1s plus costs - total 17s.
 
1884 - A month later the same newspaper on 5th July reported  that Aaron had been charged with assaulting Charlotte Lawson  and fined 10 shillings  plus costs.

1884 -"The Sheffield Independent" of 9th September noted that Moses Armitage (Aaron's brother), a miner of Dodworth  was charged with stealing six cabbages, the property of John Smith.  The house where the prisoner lodged was searched and three cabbages were found in the cellar, which being compared with the stalks left in the garden, exactly corresponded.  Fined 20 shillings with  3 shillings costs or one month detention in default.  

 

1885 - A more serous charge was to follow when Aaron was accused of  violently assaulting Sarah Ann Cuthbert, and with  his brother John stealing a dress to pawn, the property of Sarah Ann Cuthbert - as reported in "The Leeds Times" of 6th June. 

Aaron was sent to Wakefield Prison, with the description of him as "5’6” in height with brown hair and with a cut on his forehead and burn marks on his shoulders." 

"The Barnsley Chronicle" gave a particularly detailed graphic, blow by blow  account of this domestic assault. 

Yet two years later, 36 year old Aaron  married the same Sarah Ann Cuthbert, (at 21 years old, fifteen years his junior) on the 16^th of May, at All Saints South Kirkby - Sarah's  mother being Charlotte Lawson.  On 3rd of January 1888  Aaron's daughter Alice was born, (my husband's grandmother) but before she marked her third birthday, her father was dead.  

Aaron died 26th October 1889 with his certificate giving the cause of death as Fracture of the Lumbar Vertebrae, one year and eight months a Lumbar Abcess"   - which sounds a very painful condition. I did wonder if  Aaron had suffered the fracture as a result of a mining accident, but have found nothing to bear this out - or had it resulted from one of his many brawls?  

This was a classic case of the newspapers online being  an invaluable  source of information on an ancestor.

Further Research 

It would be interesting  to find out more about mining in the Barnsley area in the late  19th century.  Some of the thefts committed by Moses and Aaron seem to us today a bit laughable, but were some of those thefts a consequence of a large family going hungry?     Both working  and living conditions must have been very, very harsh.

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