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Pestiferous Mendicant

 


Birmingham Daily Post, 29th December 1883

As the search continues I have found what is likely another instance of my ancestor William Wheelock before the stipendiary. The Birmingham Daily Post  published the account on 29th December 1883, when William would have been 65. Unfortunately my last known residence for William is The Gullet, Stafford Street, in May 1874. I have been unable to find him in the 1881 census, though I do get a glimpse of him in 1880, but only as the victim of an assault in a pub in Aston. In 1883 William's wife, Ann died. I doubt this would have caused much turmoil though as I believe they were seperated by this time. In the 1881 census she is living on Sun Street with her children and has reverted to her previous married name of Maydon. It seems she has distanced herself from William, perhaps wisely. The 1880 newspaper report called William a labourer, however, the latest report I have discovered calls William a pestiferous mendicant - or a nuisance beggar in modern terms. 

William's employment prospects were not good in later life. A lifetime of violent behaviour and repeat visits to prison left him with a dreadful reputation and it would have been increasingly difficult to find work. It is unsurprising that he was repeatedly sent to the workhouse, but he never stayed long. No job meant no home and his reluctance to stay in the workhouse left him with the harsh choice between sleeping rough or prison. He did both. This is not the first report of him sleeping rough, but it is the first time I've found him described as 'dirty and 'wretched-looking'. In this instance he was sleeping in an outhouse (in the other I found him sleeping in a doorway). It is also stated that he was a great nuisance to the people of the neighbourhood, though frustratingly it doesn't say which neighbourhood. It is hard to say whether the nuisance he was causing was a result of his begging, or if it is making reference to his previous, more volatile troublemaking. The result of William's arrest was a month in prison, which he makes plain was preferable to returning to the workhouse. He even seems appreciative of the constable who made the arrest. 

It all feels very cruel. William is to be punished for being homeless, but also laughed at and made to stand outside the dock as the Inspector did not want to be near him. It reads as just another sad episode in William's brutal life. 

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