Throughout the nineteenth century it was quite common for very young children to be employed in a variety of positions. Parents found work for them almost as soon as they were old enough for employment, which was often as young as eight or ten years. Boys would often work with their parents in the vast number of workshops and factories of the town, many of them receiving no pay at all. Girls, if they were lucky, might be found work sewing, cleaning, taking in washing or other jobs within the domestic sphere. One such girl was Emma Allison who was aged 14 and the daughter of William Allison of Hooton Levitt near Maltby. In 1872 she had been employed for the past six months as a nurse to the children of a relative called Mr Wood, a farmer of Ravenfield. It was while she was working there that she made the acquaintance of another young person, 16 year old Alfred Hall who was employed as a farm servant. Despite their very young age the couple fell in love, and on the night of 14 May 1872 they decided to run away together. They left the home of Mr Wood at some time between 4 am and 5 am, taking with them their spare clothes in a bundle. It was barely light as they walked into the town of Rotherham, before catching a train to Doncaster, where they stayed for a few weeks living as man and wife. When the couple were missed, numerous enquiries were set in place by Emma’s distraught family and her friends. Despite their vigilance all their enquiries proved unsuccessful. Emma’s mother finally took out a warrant against Alfred Hall for the abduction of her daughter, but at that time the police were unable to find the couple.
On the morning of Monday 17 June, Emma arrived back at her mothers house at Hooton Levitt. She had gone to the house, not to re-assure her mother of her safety, but simply to pick up some more clothes. The police were called and the girl was detained at the house, where she was closely questioned about Hall’s whereabouts. She told the police and her mother that the pair had returned back to live in Rotherham, without the knowledge of anyone who knew them. Despite the local police’s diligence, the couple had continued to live as man and wife, under an assumed name at a house near Bow Bridge. Hall was now working as a miner at the Rotherham Main Colliery. Later that day, about 4.30 pm Inspector Horne of the Rotherham police force apprehended Hall as he was going home from his shift at the coal mine and he was arrested. When he was brought into court the following day, he appeared before magistrate James Yates Esq., charged with the abduction of Emma Allison without the consent of her parents. He pleaded guilty and was remanded for three days until the police made further enquiries. On Thursday 20 June 1872 Alfred Hall appeared once again in front of magistrate James Yates Esq., and Mr J Otter Esq., at the Rotherham Police Court. Mr Willis was the prosecution and Mr F Parker Rhodes acted for the prisoner.
Alfred Hall’s mother was at the court and she tried to defend her son for his actions. She told the magistrates that although he was 16 years of age, he was very immature, and that as a consequence was very easily led. Emma’s parents also gave evidence of their concern, when they were told by Mr Wood that their daughter had eloped with his farm servant. They described the search for the pair and their distress at not being able to find their daughter. The next witness was Emma’s employer Mr Wood who stated that the girl had been very well behaved whilst she had worked for him, and he truly believed that she had been strongly influenced to run away by Hall. At this point in the proceedings a private conversation took place between the two solicitors, the parents of both parties and the prisoner himself. Finally the chair of the magistrates Mr Otter addressed Alfred Hall directly. He told him:
‘Mrs Allison is disposed to withdraw this charge against you on one condition, and that is that you conduct yourself properly for the future. If ever you show the least disposition to induce, or try to induce this girl to go away with you again, depend upon it you will be severely punished and sent to prison. It will be much the worse for you if ever you attempt such a thing again. Now will you give the promise to do this?’
The prisoner told him that if he were liberated, he would never have anything more to do with Emma again. The prisoner was dismissed and it was reported that he left the court with his mother, who was taking him back to her house at Clifton near Conisborough. Once back home she kept her promise made to the magistrates that she would ‘keep an eye’ on him. The girl Emma who had not been in the courtroom, promised her parents on their return to Hooton Levitt, never to seek her amorous abductor ever again.
The previous year another little girl had been abducted and taken advantage of by a sinister man who lodged with the family. In November 1871, Benjamin Wadsworth aged 24 was staying at the Effingham Arms, Bradgate with landlord Jonas and Mary Roddis and their daughter Anne aged 13. He had been lodging at the Inn for three months and was working at a boiler works at Masbrough, but had recently become unemployed. Wadsworth had run short of money and when he asked Mary Roddis for a loan and she refused, he plotted his revenge. Anne’s mother sent her daughter for some fish around 7 pm on the evening of Tuesday 29 November and whilst she was on this errand, Anne met Wadsworth in a lane. He made certain proposals to her and induced the girl to go with him, and he kept her with him for the next two nights, wandering about in the area. Thankfully her father met the pair at 4pm on Thursday 31 November on the road between Barnsley and Sheffield, although Wadsworth quickly ran off. Jonas Roddis took the girl home and the police were called. When Anne was interviewed she told them that she did not want to go with Wadsworth, but he had used force and violence on her. Anne was asked if she had been unhappy living with her parents and she told the police that hadn’t and had ‘lived very comfortably at home with her mother and father’. A warrant was taken out for Wadsworth’s arrest and he was finally found in Sheffield on 2 December.
The following Monday he was brought before the magistrates at the West Riding Court at Rotherham Town Hall, charged with the crime of abduction. The surgeon Mr William Saville of High Street Rotherham had found no ‘marks of violence upon any portion of the girl’s person’, but he had found ‘evidence that indecent liberties had been taken with her’. Wadsworth was found guilty and sent to take his trial at the next Assizes where he appeared before judge Mr Justice Quain on Monday 1 April 1872. His Lordship told the court that:
‘This was one of the worst cases of the kind that had ever come under my notice. Because the mother refused to lend him some money, he actually out of spite, took away from her parents this little girl, defiled her in the most shameful manner and for several days dragged her round the countryside until she was rescued. A more atrocious offence than that it was difficult to conceive. I do not understand how it was that he was not charged with rape, then I would have been able to inflict an more adequate punishment.
Turning to the prisoner he told him ‘I will give you the utmost the law would allow and that is two years imprisonment’. Clearly the judges hands were tied because of the lesser charge of abduction and the medical evidence which revealed only that ‘indecent liberties’ had been taken. Nevertheless the vulnerability of these two young girls is horrific to our modern ears. Incredibly, it is a matter of fact that it was not until 1885 that the age of consent in Britain was raised to 16 years.