84 Bastardry in Hoscar Moss Part 1, Section 2: 6 November 2024

December 1775/ January 1776

These facts are derived from the Orders. 

Catherine’s child was born on 8 January 1776 – two years and twelve weeks before the Court hearing on 2 April 1778.  When her daughter was born, Catherine was in the institutional welfare care of the Township of Lathom at the Ormskirk Workhouse.

Her parents had thrown Catherine out of her home because she was unmarried and pregnant.  Other close relatives refused to help Catherine.  Catherine was alone, friendless, desperate and without a safe place where she could give birth.

Catherine must have asked James Hankin for help, but James either did not help her.  I suspect James refused to help because he denied to the Court that he was the father of the child.  When her parents, close family members and the father of her unborn child refused to give her any help, Catherine had to seek help from the Ormskirk Workhouse.

Seeking help from the Workhouse signalled how desperate Catherine was in the period up to the birth of her child on 2 January 1776.

The Ormskirk Workhouse was established in 1732 and officially it could accommodate 114 inmates.  The philosophy of the Workhouse system was to make Workhouse conditions as grim as possible to drive people away to minimise the amount the local community had to pay to provide welfare to those in need.  People only sought help from the Workhouse if they were desperate and had no other options.

If Catherine gave birth in the Ormskirk Workhouse, she did so because there were no other alternatives available to her.

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Apart from being friendless and homeless in the weeks before her baby was born, Catherine had other reasons to feel desperate as the birth of her baby neared.  December 1775 through January 1776 was bitterly cold - much colder than usual.  The winter of 1775-1776 was one of the ten coldest winters in recorded English history.  The website Pascal Bonenfant has collated historical data about British weather.  Pascal Bonenfant says this about the winter in which Catherine gave birth to her baby.

“1775/76: Severe winter; Severe cold weather much of Europe 9th Jan to 2nd Feb: Thames frozen for some time; intensely stormy cyclonic February followed. January: A widespread and often severe frost for a large part of the month. Also snow. (The 'Great Frost' from accounts by Gilbert White). The month overall almost as cold as the record cold January of 1963. A severe/ prolonged cold spell. There were interludes of mild/ melting, but snowfall was often considerable, with frequent drifting. Considerably low temperatures over the snow-cover during the second half of the month. Minima recorded at South Lambeth were reported as 11, 7, 6 and 6 degrees Fahrenheit on the nights of 28th to the 31st. (in degrees Celsius down to about -14 degrees C). At Selborne (NE Hampshire), the figures for the same nights were: 7, 6, 10 and 0 degrees F, the 0 degrees F converts to -18 degrees C. These low values were often accompanied by fog, and some reports suggest temperatures as low as -4 degrees Fahrenheit at Chatham and -11degrees Fahrenheit at Maidstone, both Kent. Obviously daytime temperatures were very low, with sub-zero values persistent. By the CET [Central English Temperature] series, this January is in the 'top 10' of cold such-named months in that dataset, which runs from 1659. (A sudden thaw/milder weather evening 1st February.)

 

Pascal Bonenfant concentrates on the weather in London, pointing out that the River Thames froze, but Catherine lived in Lancashire not London.  Lancashire is north of London and colder than London.  Lancashire is renowned for the quantity of its rainfall. 

The website www.foreignstudents.com refers understatedly to the weather patterns in Lancashire (which it calls north west England).  It says “Generally, the further North in England you go, the colder the average temperatures get and the windier it gets. However, in terms of rainfall, it depends on where in the north you are. Whilst the North East has relatively little rain, the North West experiences quite a bit.”

However bad the weather was in London when the River Thames froze over in December 1775 to February 1776, it was much colder and wetter in Lancashire.  Anyone without shelter in that winter was likely to die very quickly.  A woman in the final weeks of pregnancy with nowhere to shelter was likely to die very quickly.  When Catherine begged for help at the Ormskirk Workhouse on or near Christmas Day in 1775, she was probably one of the many desperate and destitute needing shelter to stay alive another day.  Her situation was so bad that even the Ormskirk Workhouse was better than all of the alternatives.

The Orders tell us how long Catherine stayed in the Workhouse.

Payment at the rate of sixteen pence per week was payable to the Township of Lathom if the Workhouse was ever again burdened by having to look after Catherine’s baby – eight pence had to be paid by James and another eight pence by Catherine.  Sixteen pence per week was the equivalent of £0/1/4 (one shilling and four pence per week). 

The Orders required payment of £0/6/0 (six shillings or seventy two pence) to reimburse the Workhouse for the cost of helping Catherine from before the birth on 8 January 1776 to the time when she was evicted from the Workhouse.  At a rate of £0/1/4 per week, reimbursement of £0/6/- meant help was given to Catherine for a maximum of 4 ½ weeks.   It may have been less because the £0/6/- may have included reimbursement for the cost of a midwife to deliver the baby.

By inference, Catherine was admitted to Ormskirk Workhouse just before her baby was born, and she left after a maximum period of 4 ½ weeks.  At a maximum, Catherine entered the Workhouse for about 2 weeks before the birth and left it about 2 ½ weeks after the birth.  The approximate timeline for Catherine’s Workhouse residence was:

·         Admission on Monday 25 December 1775 (Christmas Day);

·         Birth of the baby on Monday 8 January 1776; and

·         Departure from the Workhouse with her 2 ½ week old baby on about Wednesday 24 January 1776.

After leaving the Workhouse on about 24 January 1776, Catherine was cast out into a local area that was still in the grip of one of the coldest winters in recorded English history.

As will be revealed shortly, it seems that some of Catherine’s relatives took pity on her and gave her and her baby shelter.  Those relatives did not include Catherine’s parents or my great uncle James Hankin.