Before the meeting regarding the Heeley ghost could take place on 22 October 1870, a most curious incident took place. Mr Counsellor Hawksley heard a rumour from a member of the constabulary that a young boy of 15 years of age had been arrested. He had been seen at night, impersonating the ghost by dressing in women’s clothing and was arrested on a charge of disturbing the peace. As a result, when the counsellor walked into the Red Lion on the night of the meeting, he was not surprised to see that the place was crowded. People had also gathered outside the public house, all anxious to hear the details about the supposed phantom. Thankfully by this time Counsellor Hawksley was able to satisfy that curiosity.
He told the meeting that a young boy, whose name was Frederick Maxey had been seen in the area on the night of Saturday 15 October. He lived with his parents in Heeley and was well known to be a local prankster. Maxey had taken great delight in dressing up in his mothers white dress and shawl at midnight and had paraded around the streets of Heeley. Following this statement a discussion took place about what should be done. Counsellor Hawksley suggested that a summons should be taken out against the young man, at the very least. The nature of the boy’s charge was read out which stated:
‘For that he, on 15 October in the parish of Sheffield, did unlawfully go about the public streets and highways there situate, dressed in woman’s clothes. He was guilty of scandalous conduct, whereby her Majesty’s subjects then and there residing, passing and re-passing, were alarmed and annoyed. Decency was openly outraged and the public peace disturbed.’
After much discussion on the subject, the meeting finally agreed that Frederick Maxey could not be allowed to get off Scot-free. Eventually a deputation was appointed to look into the matter with Counsellor Hawksley elected as the chair. A resolution was then put forward, which stated that the matter should be placed in the hands of a respectable solicitor, with instructions to demand a public apology from the boy concerned. Matters took their course, but when the boy’s father, Mr Maxey heard that his son’s name had been mentioned at this very public meeting, he was furious. He wrote an angry letter to the editor of the Sheffield Daily Telegraph which was printed on Tuesday 25 October 1870. The editor reported that the boy’s father insisted that it had all been just a joke and that:
‘His son a 15 year old boy, who on Saturday evening last, had dressed himself in white for a short time, in boyish fun. He was instigated by the fact that there had, for some time been a supposed ‘Woman in White’ perambulating in the neighbourhood. Mr Maxey complained that his name and those of his family should be talked about so opprobriously in a public house, as was the case on Saturday last, at a meeting supposed to be convened to put a stop to this so-called scandal.’
Accordingly Frederick Maxey was brought before the magistrates at the Town Hall, Sheffield on the most appropriate date of Halloween itself, on Monday 31 October 1870. He was charged with having ‘alarmed the inhabitants of Heeley by appearing in ghostly attire.’ He was described as ‘an intelligent looking lad who worked as a clerk’. Mr Clegg appeared for the prosecution and he told the magistrates that for some time past, the people of the area had been ‘very much annoyed and their children were being very frightened by the circulation of stories of ghostly apparitions in the streets.’ However what the prosecution was forced to make very clear was that the boy was not responsible for any of these other sightings. Therefore he was not being asked to apologise for all the appearances of the so-called ‘ghost’ but simply the one which had taken place on the night of 15 October.
Counsellor Hawksley informed the bench about the outcome of the meeting at the Red Lion. He stressed that all he wanted was for Maxey to express regret for his actions, and to give his promise that it would not happen again. The counsellor told the court that it was of the greatest importance that such a state of things should be stopped, because he believed that if children were frightened when they were young, they might never recover for the rest of their lives. One of the magistrates, Mr Rodgers stated that in his opinion some of the legal authorities were more concerned, not by the prisoner having frightened the children, but rather of his having offended against public decency by dressing up as a woman.
The magistrate stated most emphatically that when he first read the offence ‘he had been determined to stamp out such a thing’. However, Mr Rodgers continued that once he had seen the prisoner for himself, he could not but think that it had been more of an ‘act of frolicsome mischief’ on Maxey’s behalf. The magistrate therefore felt that the case should have been dealt with as a private matter with Maxey receiving punishment at the hands of his father, rather than being brought before a court. Mr Rodgers said that it would have been a very different matter if the boy had been a bit older. He said:
‘If it had been shown that a grown up person had been going around the streets in woman’s clothing, offending public decency and those proprieties of life which ought to exist towards the opposite sex, I would take some uncommon good care that he should have difficulty in escaping a months imprisonment in Wakefield Gaol’.
The prosecution Mr Clegg then gave his opinion that the bench had no desire to punish the young lad. All that the court required was to have the prisoner express regret for what he had done, and to give assurances that he would not repeat it again. Of course the prosecution pointed out, that if similar cases were to be brought before the court, then they must be judged on their own merits and those prisoners must take the consequences. Another magistrate who had been watching Maxey stated that he had no doubt that the boy, who appeared to be very respectable, was undoubtedly very sorry for having got himself into such mischief.
Maxey’s defence solicitor Mr Binney agreed that it was clear that the prisoner was simply guilty of a one-off indiscretion for which he was very sorry, and that his father would no doubt ensure that it did not happen again. Nevertheless Mr Clegg pointed out that for some time there had been many reports which had been widely circulated in Heeley that a ‘woman in white’ had been going about in the night. The prosecution suggested therefore that there might be other persons who copied the prisoners’ indiscretion and therefore it needed to be stopped. Mr Binney interrupted at this point to re-iterate once again that that the young man had only committed this act on this one, single occasion.
He pointed out that the boy had no knowledge of any other persons going out similarly dressed, and therefore he asked that Maxey’s apology might be limited to what had happened on that one particular night. It was at this point that one of the bench asked when the apology was going to be made and Mr Clegg said the boy was prepared to do it right there and then. Frederick Maxey then stood up in the court room and made the following apology. He said ‘I am very sorry that I went out in women’s clothes on the Saturday night referred to, and I will not do it again.’ His father also volunteered to make his own public apology, but he was told there was no need.
However Mr Maxey also stated that he did not think his son was involved in any other sightings of the ‘woman in white’ which had been reported previously. The Sheffield Daily Telegraph dated Tuesday 1 November 1870 agreed with Mr Maxey’s summary and reported:
‘There had been for some time a report current of the perambulations of a ghost in Heeley at the witching hour of night, and young Maxey had been seen on the night in question in strange raiment. Therefore it was at once believed that he was this veritable ghost which had for so long a time, frightened, not only the children, but many adults of Heeley. This however was not the case. Nevertheless the demands of justice were yesterday met by the defendant making an apology’.
The magistrates considered that with this apology the summons was then withdrawn, and Frederick Maxey left the court with his father.
That seemed to satisfy the legal authorities, but nevertheless this case leaves us with more questions than answers. It would seem that at that period going out dressed in women’s clothing was seen as an offence to public decency, a fact which would be challenged in our more enlightened times. But what I find more disturbing is that it was made very clear that the spirit of the ‘woman in white’ had been seen on several different occasions in the village of Heeley. These appearances were made prior to Frederick Maxey’s arrest, so could these indeed have been genuine hauntings from a tormented spirit beyond the veil? I have been unable to find any more stories of the Heeley Ghost after this time unless of course, one of my readers knows differently!