News snippets from Wolferlow
1850 – Man accused of Fathering Illegitimate Child at Wolferlow
Robert Phillips was charged by Elizabeth Phillpotts with being the father of her child.
Elizabeth told the court that she gave birth to a son at Wolferlow, and that Robert Phillips was the father. He had been her boyfriend for four years, and on many occasions he called on her at her parent’s house; he promised her marriage and she willingly slept with him once her parents retired to bed.
Elizabeth and Robert started having rows, and they returned each others love tokens; she then forbade him to come back to the house.
When it became clear that Elizabeth was expecting a child, her mother went to see Robert demanding what he intended to do. Robert was not convinced that the child was his.
The article winds up saying that Elizabeth’s mother should not have interfered, but the court understood why she did……then it says “ordered to pay 2s a week and £1 5s expenses.
I assume that this refers to Robert and not Elizabeth’s mother!
1854 – Swedes stolen at Wolferlow
Edward Redfern was a farmer at Wolferlow, and he began to notice that swedes were going missing so he secretly marked 115 of them.
He suspected Thomas Potter, and later went to his house where he spotted the swedes in his garden, some of which had been given to sheep belonging to Thomas.
It seems that there was a bridle path through the swede field, which also ran alongside Thomas’s garden.
Mr. Skinner, defending Thomas gave a very humourous speech to the jury, saying that it was not possible to say who put the swedes in the defendant’s garden, and told of the game played with a thimble and pea….where it is impossible to know which thimble hides the pea. Similarly he said, it was impossible for anyone to say which hand placed the swedes in Thomas’s garden.
Thomas was acquitted!
1855 – Death of Child at Wolferlow
Josiah Cooper, a five year old lad was with his mother in a field where she was apple picking.
The details are sketchy, but it appears that his clothes caught fire by some means, and he died before help could be summoned.