Poachers in 1820

And so we reach the dawn of a new decade! Seems like only yesterday we were hailing in a new millennium - how time flies.

It seems that the beginning of January 1820 was the time when newspapers reported on the insurance companies, as many premiuims appear to have been due at the beginning of each year. A note of the agents for various parts of the country is also included in the reports - so people knew who to deal with in their local area. 

• William Daulby was an insurance agent in Loughborough for the Royal Exchange Assurance company which was established by Royal Charter in the reign of George I, and assured houses, buildings, corn, hay goods etc., and also the assurance of lives. Annual payments were now due.
• At the same time William Palmer was the Loughborough agent for Globe Insurance, Pall Mall and Cornhill, fire, life and annuities, to whom anyone wishing to become an agent in Leicestershire should apply. Annual payments were now due.
• Mr. C. Lacey was the Loughborough agent for the Pelican Office, for insurance on lives and granting annuities. The company had been created in 1797 in Lombard Street, London. 

Meanwhile, on the turnpike road from Market Harborough to Loughborough, the tolls were up for let by auction for one year from 4th April 1820 in line with the regulations which were introduced in the 13th year of the reign of the current king, George III. Whoever was the highest bidder was expected to give security and sufficient sureties to the satisfaction of the trustees, for the payments of rents and performance of the contracts of the respective takers. The Loughborough gate toll was set at £946.

Also in January 1820, Thomas and Matthew Pickford & Co. Caravans, were advertising their service that ran from Harrington Street and Castle Ditch in Liverpool, which would leave at 11 in the morning and arrive in London 2 days later. This was a goods only service which called at Preston, Warrington, Manchester, Stockport, Macclesfield, Leek, Ashbourne, Derby, Loughborough, Leicester, Market Harborough, Northampton, Newport, Woodburn, Dunstable, Market Street, St Alban's and Barnet. There are some pictures available on the Liverpool Picture Book blog which shows what Castle Ditch would have looked like at the time. An 1824 directory lists the Pickfords as carriers and wharfingers. I wonder if they have any connection to Pickfords the house removal company?

By 10th January 1820, newspapers were reporting on the audacity of a group of 25 poachers from Loughborough who made their way to Prestwould Hall [sic], the seat of Charles James Packe, esquire. They shot game, and fired very close to the hall itself and to the keeper's lodge:

"Colonel Packe had a force of eight keepers ready to repel this impudent sort of inroad, but seeing that desperate violence and bloodshed were inevitable if he allowed his men to do out against the party, he humanely restrained them, in the expectation of being able to bring to punishment some of so numerous a gang of desperadoes by their own impeachment of one another. In this he has not been disappointed: one of the ruffians having been apprehended a day or two afterwards, charged with robbery committed some months ago, has, for a reward which was publicly offered, made some disclosures respecting the poachers which are likely to put a stop to their daring career. In the attack on the coverts of Prestwould [sic] the gang were dressed in a sort of uniform, each having on a blue smock frock, and a white band round his hat, for the purpose of better identity of their party in any mortal affray that might happen with the keepers, for which the poachers, it seems, were fully prepared - and they were marshalled and called by numbers according to the old system of the Luddites."  

Never a dull moment around our area really, despite the emphasis in January on insurance payments!

You are welcome to quote passages from any of my posts, with appropriate credit. The correct citation for this looks as follow:

Dyer, Lynne (2020). Poachers in 1820. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2020/01/poachers-in-1820.html [Accessed 5 January 2020]

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