The competency of the Rotherham police force was seriously brought into question during the years of 1838-9, due to the large numbers of robberies were taking place around Rotherham which legal authorities seemed powerless to stop. One spate which took place in Rawmarsh, seemed to indicate the presence of a local gang to the point that many people didn’t even bother to make a report. In fact the crime wave was eventually stopped, not by the police, but by the inhabitants of the village itself. One of the first to be robbed was William Roberts, a farmer and shopkeeper of Rawmarsh on 3 December 1838. A few days previous, a customer Mr Samuel Barker of Mexborough had sent him a £10 note and requested him to buy some cheeses for him at the Rotherham market. When he was next in town he went to the shop of George Beaumont and purchased three thick cheeses and five thin ones and noted that all of them were marked with an ‘R’. Some days later the eight cheeses were delivered to his shop at Rawmarsh, ready for collection by Mr Samuel Barker. That same night the shop was broken into, and the cheeses were among other items that had been stolen. A servant of Mr Barker, Mary Flint noted the following morning that the robbers had entered the property through a cellar window. This had been pointed out to her by the neighbours opposite, who saw that the cellar window had been removed and the glass had been propped up against the wall. She found all the cheeses were missing, along with a ham and some bottles of port wine.
The next theft which was reported was from a farmer called Mr John Whitaker who stated that on 7 January 1839 he had gone to Rotherham market and due to the business he undertook there, went home with about £120 in his pocket. The money consisted of gold, silver and some bank notes. One was a £5 Leicester bank note, which had been given to him by a man called Proctor in part payment for some bullocks that he had sold. Mr Whitaker told the police authorities at the time he had been suspicious of the man as he did not know him, and had marked the bank note. He also had a bill of exchange for £18.11.9d, so when he returned back home about 4pm he carefully locked up the money, the marked bank note and the bill of exchange. When he got up the next morning, he found that the house had been broken into, and the money drawer broken open and its contents gone. Like the robbery at Mr Roberts, Mr Whitaker found that the robbers had entered through a part of the kitchen window, which again had been taken out of its frame. Also he found that the inner door from the kitchen into the sitting room, which had been locked, had also been broken open. Mr Whitaker searched the outside of the building and found the inner fastenings of the kitchen door laying on the ground, along with two hams which had been stolen from his pantry. His servant Mr William Crommack also complained that he had a blue smock which had been stolen. He had purchased the smock the previous Martinmas, which he had last worn on Saturday 6 January. Because it had been snowing, the garment had become very heavy and wet and so he left it drying all night before the fire in the kitchen at Mr Whitakers house. It was still there on the Monday, now hanging on the banisters at the house, but by Tuesday morning it had gone.
On Sunday 23 January 1839 yet another burglary took place at the premises of butcher and innkeeper Mr Joseph Marcroft at Rawmarsh. On the Sunday night he had gone to bed about 10.30 pm having first seen that the house was secure. In his cellar he had a barrel with a brass tap in it, which held about four gallons of brandy. Another barrel contained four and a half gallons of rum and a third containing about 12 gallons of gin. Marcroft discovered the robbery the following morning about 9.30 am when like the other victims he went into the cellar and noted the glass from a window had been removed. There he found that the brandy and rum barrels had gone. He examined the gin barrel and he found that the greatest part of the gin had been drawn off and taken away. The following day he and his brother in law, Mr Broughton of the Star Inn, Rawmarsh and the constable of that place, Thomas Clarke went into the town of Rotherham to speak with Mr John Bland the chief constable. There they made a formal protest at the amount of burglaries, the lack of action by the police and complained about their inability to catch what seemed to be a gang operating in the area. Mr Bland promised better patrolling around Rawmarsh by his constables, but apart from that there was little he could do. Unsatisfied with the chief constables statement, Mr Marcroft, Mr Broughton and Thomas Clarke had no option but to return home. However shortly afterwards Marcroft gained some information which gave him the idea of how to take the law into his own hands and hopefully the return of his property.
He had long suspected that a local man called Dutton knew more about the robberies than he was letting on, and after plying him with drink, Dutton told Marcroft that if some of the outbuildings at a farm owned by John Liversedge could be searched, he might find something of great interest. The Liversedge family was well known to the Rotherham police and consisted of George aged 55, a shoemaker by trade, who lived in a cottage with his wife and family. Just three or four hundred yards away was another farmhouse which was occupied by his son, John Liversedge, who was aged about 28 years and had been married a few years previously to an aged widow of property. On the farm he kept a horse and three cows and supposedly earned a living as a farmer. His brother William aged 24 also lived in the farmhouse. After hearing the information which Dutton had told him, Marcroft was determined to watch the farm and to see if they could get enough evidence to force the Rotherham police to organise a search of the property. Consequently about two thirty in the morning of Wednesday 25 January 1839, Marcroft’s brother-in-law Broughton and another Rawmarsh man called Mr Thomas Chambers, went to John Liversedge’s farm, which was situated about a quarter of a mile from the village. The farm was silent as Thomas Chambers climbed over a hedge into the croft and approaching the farmhouse. The garden of the farmhouse was oblong in shape and inside it was a garden house, which was situated at a far corner and backed onto the North Midland railway line. Chambers listened for a moment to assure himself that everything was still and quiet, before trying the door of the garden house but it was locked. The men deliberated before Broughton told Chambers to break it open which he did.
Inside the two men were vindicated when they found a barrel of rum and some of the property which they knew had been stolen from Marcroft’s premises. As they stood before the barrel, Chambers indicated that there seemed to be something under the floor where he was stood. The floorboards were warped and they were easily pulled up. There the two men found more stolen loot including twenty four glass bottles of brandy and three stone bottle of spirits. Under the bottles, they found two canvas bags containing a large number of skeleton keys and other tools for housebreaking. At this point the men were very excited as they went to the house of Joseph Marcroft and woke him out of his bed. They told him to come to John Liversedge’s house and bring some men with him, and also to alert the local constable, Thomas Clarke. Chambers and Broughton then went back to the Liversedge farm to continue to keep watch. A short time later Joseph Marcroft and a man called Samuel Taylor joined them along with the constable Clarke. The men deliberated for a minute or two, before it was decided that Broughton and Clarke would go into Rotherham and return with the chief constable Mr Bland. They arrived back about 4am and Mr Bland immediately took charge. He went straight to the garden house where he saw the stolen items for himself. At this point Mr Bland left Samuel Taylor guarding the stolen goods, and went with Marcroft and Chambers to the farmhouse to arouse the family. John Liversedge heard the banging of the farmhouse door and got up to find the chief constable on his doorstep. Bland quickly handcuffed him to Mr Marcroft, in order that he and Chambers could make a further search of the house. As Bland was going upstairs, another man appeared at the top. He was Liversedge’s brother, William who immediately grabbed a poker and made towards an upstairs window as if to escape. He was seized and also handcuffed to his brother and Mr Marcroft.
In an upper chamber Bland opened a drawer and found a bag containing two five pound notes. When he asked John Liversedge if they were his, at first he denied it and then said that he had given ten sovereigns for them from a man he did not know. Bland and Chambers then searched the rest of the house where they found articles from various local robberies which had been committed some time previously. More stolen property was concealed under the floorboards of the farmhouse and other places. When they searched the outhouses and farm buildings as Dutton had indicated to Marcroft, they found many more stolen items. Much of the booty however was discovered in a chamber over the stables. There Bland found articles which he knew had been stolen in a succession of burglaries in the area. The chief constable asked John Liversedge about the key for the garden house, but he claimed that it was locked and that it had never been opened. Bland then informed him that they had broken in and a large amount of spirits had been found, which had been recently stolen from the premises of Mr Marcroft. When asked what he knew about this, John Liversedge told the chief constable that he knew nothing at all about it. Still searching the outhouses, Mr Bland found the door of the corn chamber was locked, so he returned back to the house and asked John for the keys. Resignedly now the prisoner indicated a nail with a key hanging from it and told Bland ‘it hangs there, take it’. The men searched the chamber and at the bottom of a tub they found the frock smock which had been reported stolen by William Crummock. When Bland showed it to the two male prisoners, John said it was his brother’s. William Liversedge agreed that it was his and claimed that he had bought it, but could not remember from whom or from where.
In the same chamber was a large porter cask and anxious to see what was inside, Bland bored a hole in it with a hand drill. When nothing came out he knocked off some of the hoops and the cask fell apart. Inside were some of the large cheeses that had also been reported as stolen by William Roberts. The two brothers stated that they had bought the cheeses at a shop in Rotherham and had put them into the cask for safe keeping. Also in the same chamber were several sacks of malt and some corn. Just then Sergeant Henry Womack arrived from Rotherham with other officers and told Bland that word of the finding of the stolen property was already circulating around the village of Rawmarsh. It was by now around 5am and rapidly getting lighter and as a result almost the whole population of Rawmarsh had gathered outside the farm to watch the capture of these most notorious thieves. All of the property and the two prisoners were placed into a large farm cart and Bland instructed Sergeant Womack to continue searching the premises, whilst he accompanied the prisoners into Rotherham. Bland also instructed police constable Thomas Wilson to watch the house of the father of the two prisoners, Mr George Liversedge who was thought to be an accomplice. Wilson was watching the house when he saw the old man come out and he just walked a short way down the path, before he met John’s wife. They had a short conversation before both the man and woman turned back to the house he had just left. Wilson went after them and when he asked George why he had turned back, he told him that he was going for the garden house key. PC Wilson and George Liversedge then went to the farmhouse occupied by his sons, but they had already been taken to Rotherham. Sgt.Womack then searched George Liversedge’s house and found half of a thin cheese marked with an ‘R’ which was later identified by William Roberts as one of those that had been stolen. When confronted with it, George said that his daughter had bought it at Sheffield. At this point Bland returned and Womack showed him the other property which had been uncovered under the floor, and George Liversedge too was arrested.
It was no exaggeration to say that the people of Rawmarsh and districts were absolutely delighted that this most notorious gang had finally been caught. A report in the Sheffield Independent dated 9 February 1839 joyfully stated that:
‘The detection of so formidable a gang of systematic burglars, the discovery of such an ingenious place for the wholesale deposit of stolen property and the recovery of so much property stolen from various places, have caused a great sensation in the neighbourhood. It is to be hoped that one of the most active and dangerous gangs of burglars which have infested the neighbourhood, and which has carried on its depredations for some years, has finally been broken up’.
The detection was made more timely, as paperwork found at the farm indicated that the family were on the point of emigrating to America the following spring. On Saturday 2 February 1839 the three Liversedge’s were brought into the Rotherham Town Hall charged with three counts of burglary. The first witness was Mr Whitaker who told the court that he had been shown some of the property that had been recovered from the stables of the farmhouse at Rawmarsh, and had positively identified the Leicester banknote. Mary Marriot, his housekeeper was also called to give evidence, and she confirmed the details of the state of the house after the burglary. She told the magistrates that the previous night she had herself locked all the doors and windows and made everything secure before going to bed. Mr William Crommack the servant of Mr Whitaker told the court that he had been shown the frock smock by Mr Bland and he identified it as his own. As proof he had shown Mr Bland the holes which he had cut in the garment.
William Roberts also identified the cheeses that had been recovered as being the ones he bought for Samuel Barker from Rotherham. Sergeant Womack at that point showed the cheeses to the court, and the marking of ‘R’ could clearly be seen by the jury and magistrates. Sergeant Womack identified them as the same cheeses that had been recovered from the farmhouse of John Liversedge. The next to give evidence was Mr Marcroft who described for the court how he had gone to the Liversedge’s farm and finding his property among the other stolen items. He told the magistrates
‘I can swear the barrel produced by Mr Bland is the one which contained the four and a half gallons of rum, which I last saw in my cellar on the Sunday night about 7pm. I know it partly from having the number 1907 on it, which corresponds with the invoice of the rum sent with the barrel’.
After hearing all the evidence, the magistrates remanded George Liversedge whose case would be heard separately to the following Monday, and the two sons were sent to take their trial at the assizes. On Monday the father of the two men was again brought before the magistrates. Evidence was heard from shop man George Beaumont regarding the cheeses, and he identified those he had sold marked with the ‘R’. The magistrates ordered George Liversedge to take his trial with his sons on the charge of receiving stolen goods. Solicitor Mr Joseph Badger asked for bail, but it was refused.
On Saturday March 9 1839 George, John and William Liversedge appeared at the Yorkshire Assizes before Thomas Starkie Esq., QC. The were tried firstly on ‘having feloniously and burglariously entered the dwelling house of Mr John Whittaker on 7 January 1839 and stealing £120’. After hearing all the evidence the jury found John and William Liversedge guilty, but their father George Liversedge was found not guilty of receiving the stolen cheeses and discharged. The sentence on the two sons was deferred to the following day, when they were informed that they would be transported for life. The Secretary of State ordered that on Monday 6 May 1839 that John and William Liversedge, with a group of other prisoners were sent to the Justicia hulk at Woolwich to await a ship to transport them across the seas. Life in these hulks were grim, as they were usually old vessels and no longer sea worthy. Seen as worse than prisons, the condition in these hulks were dirty and unsanitary. Outbreaks of disease such as typhoid and cholera were common, and consequently there was a high death rate. We know however that John and William survived these conditions, as on 31 July the two men were among 336 other convicts who went aboard the Barossa to serve out the rest of their life in New South Wales. No doubt during this sentence they had plenty of time to reflect on their nefarious activities in and around Rawmarsh and the country they had left behind.