CRIME IN OLD ROTHERHAM: A Schoolmistress in Court

She saw assistant mistress Annie Marshall and explained that her son had injured his hand when it had been trapped in a door by another boy. As a result two of the boys finger ends had been cut off. She requested Marshall to make sure that the other boys did not knock against him when he was playing.

The next day she sent her son to school slightly later than normal, as he had been to see the doctor, and was therefore surprised when he returned home and informed his mother that the teacher had thrashed him for being late. The marks of the cane were still visible across his wrist. Her husband was furious and directed his wife to see the schoolmistress the following day and explain the position.

On May 15 she went again to the school and when she sent her son inside to say that his mother wished to speak to Miss Marshall, the teacher struck him on the hand with a thick cane. When she heard what had happened Mrs McLaughlin strode into the school and confronted the teacher in her classroom.

The irate mother asked her if that was the treatment she subjected all the children to? and called her ‘an ignorant fool’. As she was in the middle of this tirade another teacher, who happened to be Miss Marshall’s brother, entered the classroom, and ordered Mrs McLaughlin out threatening to summon her for trespass. Instead Mrs McLaughlin summoned Miss Marshall for ill-treating her son, and the two women attended the magistrates court at Rotherham on Thursday May 23 1878.

The magistrates were the mayor, Alderman Morgan and Mr H Jubb Esq, and also attending was a solicitor for the School Board, Mr Peagam. Mrs McLaughlin told the magistrates that she sent her children to school because she wished them to have an education. She was questioned by Mr Peagam, who asked her about a previous incident when she had gone to the school following  her daughter’s complaints that she was unable to eat her food. When Mr Peagam pointed out that the boy had only been slightly injured on May 15, Mrs McLaughlin stated that it was only because she had gone into the classroom and prevented her from doing so.

She reminded the magistrates that it had been the day before when he had been badly beaten after going to school with an injured hand. Miss Marshall’s brother also gave evidence and said that he had instructed Mrs McLaughlin to take the children to another school and he would refund the money which she had already paid for their tuition. Mr Peagam told the magistrates that this was a very important case, so far as the regulation of the Eastwood School was concerned. He claimed that Mrs McLaughlin was: “A woman of a lively temper who had gone to the school on the 15th instant in an exasperated state, to see if she could not get up a case against the defendant. The child entered the school and upon going up to the mistress he was rapped on the knuckles for having been late. Under the law as it stood at present, that reasonable chastisement could be administered.”

He concluded therefore that it was not necessary for other witnesses to be called.

The mayor disagreed however and told the court that it was the first case of the kind that he had tried, and therefore it might form a precedent for future cases.

Mr Firth, the school attendance officer, stated that the teacher Miss Marshall had been at Eastwood School for the past 12 months and there had been no previous complaints made against her regarding the treatment of the children in her classes. Another teacher Miss Hennalls confirmed that it was school policy that children would be flogged if they came late to school late, without a note from their parents. After some consultation, the mayor said that the case was a very weak one and the bench concluded that the chastisement in this instance was justifiable. The Mayor stated that order must be maintained in school by the teachers.

In a flippant remark he added that ‘if the working classes knew the chastisement that went on in the middle and higher schools, they would not be so free in making complaints without cause’. The solicitor for the School Board Mr Peagam agreed stating that ‘they don’t know anything of the life of a fag at Oxford, sir’, to which the mayor nodded and smiled. The courtroom was then cleared.