The 1840 Crediton Workhouse Enquiry

William Lock and William Dart were two inmates of the Crediton Workhouse who died there on 11th and 12th January 1840.

William Lock was born in Sandford in 1807. He suffered from fits, which started after he had measles when aged about 18, although they had become worse since he ate some poison, probably arsenic, after which he was in hospital with no feeling in his hands and feet. He then lived with his older brother George and his family but left because of his frequent fits and the danger of falling onto George’s young children.

He had been an apprentice in Sandford but seems to have been unemployable, did odd jobs for farmers and received Parish Pay when there was no work. In about 1832 he went into Sandford Workhouse until it closed and its inmates were transferred to the new Crediton Workhouse in 1838. Before he died he had suffered from diarrhoea.

William’s brother George and his wife Jane lived in Sandford. They had five children, and at the time of William’s death the youngest two aged 12 and 8 were at home, the rest were “apprenticed out”.

The afternoon before William died George heard that he was seriously ill so he and his wife walked from Sandford to the Crediton Workhouse, arriving at 4 pm. There he found his brother shut in an outhouse in a smelly dark cold room, lying on a blanket on some straw. When the porter brought a candle they noticed another man, William Dart, barely conscious, also lying in that room.

William Dart (b 1811) was a pauper from Colebrooke, where his parents still lived. He was the eldest of six children. His mother Elizabeth (née Drake) was born in Bow in 1777. She married John Dart in Colebrooke in 1803. William’s sister Mary b 1806 was also an inmate in the workhouse while he was there. Dart used to get aggressive when teased, and throw stones at people, and had been to prison. He was probably the Wm Dart sentenced to 12 months in gaol in July 1832 "...charged with having on Saturday the 9th June instant, assaulted, with intent carnally to know, Hannah, the daughter of John and Eleanor Taylor, of the parish of Colebrook, being a child under ten years of age". [Hannah Taylor (1823-1879) married John Stoneman of Colebrooke in 1848: they lived at Furzeland Cottages in Copplestone.]

Grace Tucker described how William was apprenticed to her father, John Lee of Braggs in Colebrooke, until he was 21. He did not get wages as he didn’t work like the others. He was a “strong lusty chap” but “weak in mind”. She told how the July before he died, he escaped from the workhouse and came to her house begging for food, and started eating the food she had put out for her ducks and pigs. She noticed that “his knees and legs were much bruised”, possibly a sign of scurvy. Another inmate, Mary Ann Bater from Chawleigh recalled how while in the workhouse William was frequently punished e.g. for not washing his face and hands, or for being late for breakfast, by not being allowed meals.

By next morning, both Lock and Dart were dead.

Word got around that there had been ill-treatment at the workhouse. George Tanner, a solicitor in Crediton, who had had a previous brush with the Crediton Guardians, fed the information to Edward Woolmer, owner and editor of the Exeter and Plymouth Gazette, who published an article about the deaths on 9 May 1840, titled “Death Of Paupers In The Crediton Poor Law Union”.

The main complaints were that the men – who were both incontinent - had been washed with a mop and bucket of cold water in the yard in the middle of winter, had not been given enough to eat, and just had straw to lie on. The temperature in the week before their deaths ranged from 21-32 degrees F.

The publication led to a libel action against Woolmer’s paper before the King’s Bench but there was a technicality with the paperwork – the actual newspaper article was not attached to the court papers, so the case was thrown out. The Poor Law Commission in London agreed that he costs of the failed case, £260 3s 4d, should be paid by the public purse

After several requests from Tanner, the Poor Law Commissioners came to Crediton to hold an enquiry at the workhouse. After an adjournment the enquiry proper got under way at the end of August – in private. Tanner and other members of the public were excluded, but reporters were allowed. Apart from the commissioners, the only others able to participate, strangely, were the master of the workhouse, William Comyns Leach, and the surgeon who was responsible for it, Thomas Howell Stevens, who were allowed to question witnesses. The chairman and vice-chairman of the Guardians resigned.

A group of six doctors from Exeter inspected the workhouse in June. They criticised Mr Stevens's use of beer in cases of diarrhoea, suggesting that brandy or wine were more appropriate.

The hearings continued for three weeks, and the decision reached by the Poor Law Commissioners in October was there was not the slightest ground of complaint against the Guardians, and their officers were re-appointed.

From the evidence George Lock gave at the enquiry we have a rough idea of how he eked out an existence:

His wages were 7 shillings and eight pence a week, his wife sometimes earned half a crown. Rent came to 1 shilling each week

He never bought tobacco. They paid 8 shillings a bushel (=63 lbs of wheat), barley half that price. It cost 3 pence per bushel to have it ground. A peck and a half of wheat would make five or six loaves. (A peck is a quarter of a bushel.)

They ate meat and potatoes every day, some butter ½ lb a month and 2lbs of cheese a week at 3½ – 4 pence a pound. Scalded milk was 3 pints a penny, they would consume about a halfpenny’s worth a day.

They grew their own potatoes in a vegetable garden, which they rented.

They would use about a pound of candles each week. His shoes cost 9 shillings and by repairing them would last 18 months.

George paid the bearers of his brother's coffin about ten shillings, but the coffin itself was provided by the Poor Law Union.