Preston ‘vagabond’ jailed after trying to steal brandy from pub

In the 1850s the Preston Borough Police force was 30 strong and one young delinquent who attracted their attention was Charles Blackburn who was accused of three felonies in June 1853.

He was reported to have entered a provisions shop in Pitt Street, lent over the counter while the assistant was distracted and taken a handful of coppers from the till.

There was a similar complaint from Elizabeth Baines of the King’s Arms on Stanley Street where a tin dish containing silver shillings had gone missing after he had been seen in the bar parlour.

Whilst a shop assistant on East View claimed Blackburn had been about to empty the shop till when he was disturbed and ran off.

Blackburn was subsequently brought before the magistrates who sent him for trial at the Midsummer Quarter Sessions in early July. However, the Grand Jury after considering all the submissions decided to cut the bill and Blackburn walked free.

In October 1854 Charles Blackburn, by then aged 18, appeared before the magistrates again along with James Nicholas, aged 19, the pair accused of stealing a hen and seven eggs. A lack of evidence once more led to the case being dropped.

Two months later Blackburn was again before the magistrates charged with attempting to steal a shoulder of mutton from Mr. Hothersall a butcher on North Road.

Publican Mr. Mashiter testified that he was passing the shop and seeing Blackburn take down the joint he dashed inside and as he charged him with theft he ran off. It was enough evidence for the magistrates to convict Blackburn, who they described as a rogue and vagabond, sending him to the House of Correction for three months.

In mid-December 1856 Blackburn called in the Barley Mow Inn on New Hall Lane and asked the barmaid if he could speak to her father the landlord James Whittle. While she went to fetch her father Blackburn grabbed a decanter full of brandy and attempted to flee with it. Alert customers who realised what he was up to tried to stop him, but he brushed them aside barging his way out. Despite an alibi from his parents the magistrates were unimpressed and he was sent for trial at Preston Sessions of January 1857 where he was sentenced to 18 months in prison.

In mid-July 1858 as Blackburn was about to leave the House of Correction after serving his sentence he was searched and found to have secreted upon h

is person two pairs of stockings and a bible the property of the county. In consequence an appearance before the magistrates meant his day of freedom was delayed until March 1859.

Within weeks he was accused of assaulting Mary Ann Middleton of the Lamb & Packet Inn. He had been drinking and was alleged to have punched three jugs of ale she was carrying sending them crashing to the floor.

Remanded in custody he was a week later accused of robbing the till at the Welcome Inn. Further investigations led by chief constable Joseph Gibbons led to other charges, including stealing a pair of shoes in a Fishwick burglary and of stealing half a crown the monies of John Singleton, being laid against him. This latest catalogue of crime saw him eventually appear at the Preston Sessions of October 1859 where he was sentenced to 6 years penal servitude.

It seems old habits die hard because in early January 1869, by then aged 33, he was caught stealing a pair of boots from the shop doorway of Mr. Rowbotham’s shoemaker’s shop in the Market-place.

After his arrest, despite being handcuffed, he fled from the constable’s grasp and was only recaptured after a lengthy chase. Within days he was convicted and sent back to the House of Correction for two more years.