Saturday 15th November, 2008
John Bird, out of work handloom weaver
In 1840, Thomas Marsh, a barber who lived in Wigan Lane, was sufficiently concerned about the death of his friend, John Bird, to bring the matter to the attention of the authorities.
On Friday 3rd December, 1840, an inquest was held before J. Rogerson, Esq., coroner, “on the body of John Bird” who was sixty years old when he died.
Mr. Marsh's concerns were about the appalling conditions in which his friend had been living for several months. John Bird had been a weaver who, despite being “a hard-working, sober, industrious man” had been unable to find work and for several months had been “wretchedly short of food”. Thomas Marsh thought his friend had died from “neglect and want of food”.
John was probably a hand loom weaver who worked in his own home, which was “the 2nd cellar in Lord Street”, near Wigan Lane. The mid-19th century was not a good time for such workers. By the time of John Bird's death, factory based power-looms had largely superseded hand looms and domestic workers had seen their wages cut to a small fraction of their previous value.
This may have resulted in John Bird's demise. His daughter, Ann Sherry, wife of William Sherry, said that her father had not worked for twenty-five weeks. Sometimes he went out begging.
Ann, and her husband William and their five children, had lived with John for five years before he died. They all appeared to have lived in one cellar, which was damp, and had only two beds. They had no bedding but covered themselves with a sheet and two sacks.
William, unlike his father-in-law, was in work, but as a hand loom weaver he was only earning 5s 6d (27½p) per week, out of which they paid 1s 3d (6½p) for the rent of the cellar. It is worth mentioning at this stage that, in the late 18th century, some hand weavers earned about £1-10s (£1-50) per week – about five times more than William was receiving fifty years later. There was not enough income to eat regularly. Sometimes they had been without food for two days.
William had not told the neighbours of their circumstances “...for he was ashamed of their coming in”. Eventually he applied to the relieving officer of the Poor Law Union. But this application was too late as John died on that day.
Mr. Pearson, the dispensary surgeon had been called to see John five days before his death. He considered him to be dangerously ill with diarrhoea, which was probably caused by “follicular ulceration of the intestines”. This was almost certainly the result of living in a damp cellar, lack of food and lack of warm clothes.
Mr. Scowcroft, the union surgeon, had also seen John Bird. He confirmed the findings of Mr. Pearson.
The inquest jury returned the verdict that “John Bird met with his death from disease, caused by privation, or improper food.”
Thoughts
This is a sad story of “a hard-working, sober, industrious man” whose inability to find work forced him to live in appalling conditions and deprivation which eventually caused his death.
It is also the story of Thomas Marsh, his good friend of seventeen years standing, who regularly gave him a “sup of broth”, when they had it, in an attempt to relieve his starvation: and who was sufficiently concerned to alert the authorities.
The demise of John Bird was of sufficient national interest to be reported in the "Lancet" in 1841.
see also:
hand weavers 1842