| Description | Inscribed on the fly leaf: 'Some personal reminiscences of my Police Court and Prison Gate Mission Work, and record of some of the miracles God hath wrought'. The writer is anonymous, but was a member of the British Women's Temperance Association Derby branch.
Contains detailed descriptions of cases of named women, most dealing with alcoholism, who appeared before the Police Court and/or were in Derby Gaol. The reminiscences give the women's family backgrounds and history, recount their struggles with alchoholism and measures taken to help them, including occasional admissions to a Salvation Army Inebriates Home and the asylum.
The cases are numbered in the volume as follows:
1. E Keech, a laundry maid from Wales
2. Mrs Potts, a 'habitual drunkard' from Stretton
3. Fanny Wood, aged 16, convicted of theft
3A. Fanny Shore, a young girl convicted for receiving stolen goods
4. Mrs Cox, proprietress of The Grand Stand Hotel, Derby
5. Mrs Brown, wife of a travelling photographer
6. Ellen Jones, a single woman of 33 charged with drunkenness
7. Mrs Shipp, from Birmingham
8. An anonymous woman
9. Nellie Rodbourne, a domestic servant
10. Mrs Hasland, a widow and domestic servant
11. Ethel Hall, of Sheffield, aged 19, a domestic servant imprisoned for theft
12. Agnes Davis, who first appeared in court at the age of 12 as the victim of a 'criminal assault' [sexual assault], and at the age of 17 was charged with soliciting and prostitution.
13. Emma Ripon of Sheffield, sentenced for theft.
14. Mrs Esther Maria Dann, charged with drunk and disorderly conduct
15. Ruth Bateman (married name Ruth Balston), charged with drunk and disorderly conduct
16. Kate Forest of Sheffield, imprisoned for keeping a disorderly house
17. Mary Ellen Hicks, with multiple convictions for drunkenness and vagrancy
18. Annie Minshull of Long Eaton, charged with attempted suicide
19. Jane Oliver, charged with theft, and her married sister, Jessie Ludwig |
| Custodial History | This item was found in the Derbyshire Constabulary collection at Buxton Museum and Art Gallery, and formed part of records which were transferred and added to the Derbyshire Constabulary archive at Derbyshire Record Office (D3376). It is presumed that it was donated to the former Police Museum and has been separated from the Derbyshire Constabulary collection as it was not created by the Constabulary or a former police officer. |