X THE LIFE OF CHARLES LAXTON1815 ~1882High Constable Nantwich.Early Life in PinchbeckCharles Laxton was born in the village ofPinchbeck, Lincolnshire on the 16th April, 1815,at a time when the whole of Europe was in turmoilfollowing the return of Napoleon to France. Readon and you will discover that, although born intothe bosom of a large family in a quiet fenlandvillage, Charles's life unfolded against abackground of political and industrial unrest,which was to have a great effect upon him.Charles was the eldest child of Matthew and MaryLaxton, nee Rayner. They also had six daughtersbut Charles was the only son. Matthew was acarpenter in the village of Pinchbeck, a tradesmanin much demand. His work was varied, new doors andwindow frames for houses, new gates, ladders andsheep troughs for the farmers, besides repairs tobarns, hoppers etc. In his workshop at home hewould work on making stout travelling chests usedby young women for their clothes when leaving homeand going into domestic service. He would alsohave wheelbarrows and rat traps and coffins, thelatter usually made to instructions specified in awill. His wife often assisted in making thelinings for them.The family was very much involved with the church,all the children being baptised at the parishchurch of St. Mary's, pictured above. The Laxtonfamily held the office of sexton from 1784 to1908, the office passing from father to son ineach case, the first being Matthew Laxton,Charles's grandfather who was sexton for thirty-five years from 1784 to 1819, during which time heattended 1574 burials. The office then passed toCharles's uncle, Thomas Laxton who attended 2516burials between 1819 and 1866. He was succeeded byhis son James Laxton, Charles's cousin, who serveduntil 1901 attending 1160 burials. Lastly James'sson Henry was sexton from 1901 to 1908, attending147 burials.Pinchbeck was a village mainly involved in mixedfarming and agriculture when Charles lived there.A live stock market was held near the Red LionInn, where a cross stood. In April the stock wasmarked and then allowed to roam free on theCommon.The animals were driven back in October to theMarket Cross and claimed by the owner who had topay duty for the use of the land. The village pondwas at the entrance to Horse Pit Lane and thetwenty to thirty horses which went daily down thislane to work the land, would stop at the pond toquench their thirst. Cattle and pigs were raisedand herded to Spalding market, held on Tuesdays.On market days the farmers wives took the butterto the Butter Cross outside the Spalding CornExchange. Potatoes and cereals of various kindswere grown on the arable fields. The mills in theparish used for grinding the corn were windpowered, Pinchbeck not having any streams powerfulenough to drive a water wheel.Although little is known of Charles's early life,he probably attended the local church school,which at that time was under the auspices of thevicar, the Reverend John Wayet. Even though schoolattendance was not compulsory, Charles's educationcould not have been neglected in view of theimportant career which he was to have ahead ofhim.Enrolment in the Metropolitan PoliceWhat influenced Charles in the early 1830s to goto London and enlist in the Metropolitan Police?He was in his late teens and the MetropolitanPolice had been formed in 1829.There was a very free press in Lincolnshire atthat time and he would have read about thetroubles over the country with riots, highwaymen,robbers, poachers, etc. The prevention of crime inthe cities was a subject much debated inpublications at that time. The population ofLondon was about one and a half million and,according to a Parliamentary Committee report of1827 "the art of crime has increased faster thatthe art of detection".Pinchbeck is one hundred miles from London. The"Old Perseverance Coach" used to leave fromoutside the Bell Inn at 6 am arriving at London 10p.m. having stopped to change horses en route.This would probably be how Charles travelled tothe capital. It would have cost him 12s.6d (62.5p)sitting outside although, by paying £l a travellercould occupy an inside seat, thus being protectedfrom the weather, but perhaps at the expense ofover-crowding within.Potential recruits to the Metropolitan Police hadto attend two separate interviews before beingaccepted into the force. Charles had beenrecommended by two of the village gentlemen: T. V.Croucher Esq. of 223 High Street and Mr. I.Lancaster of 202 Shadwell, as being literate andof good character. The regulations also demandedthat recruits had to be under thirty five years ofage, well built and at least 5ft.7in. in height.The minimum age was usually considered to betwenty years but the records show some recruits asyoung as eighteen.The Metropolitan Police Act of 1829 defined theoriginal Metropolitan Police District as an areaof about seven miles radius from Charing Cross,and within the next year, seventeen policedivisions were set up, each having 165 men.Charles was appointed as a constable to ADivision, the Westminster Division, on November5th 1835 and his warrant number was 11114. Eachdivision was in the charge of a Superintendentunder whom were four inspectors and sixteensergeants, who in turn each supervised nineconstables.On being appointed, Charles was given a parcelcontaining his uniform which consisted of ablue-tailed coat, blue trousers and a strengthenedblack top hat. He carried a short truncheon and arattle, his truncheon being hidden from publicview under the tails of his coat. He was paid oneguinea (£1.05) a week and lodgings were provided.The objectives of the Metropolitan Police were theprevention of crime, and protection of people andproperty. Recruits were given training andinstruction as to behaviour, to be civil andobliging to all people of every rank and class.They must, at all times, do their duty in a quietand determined manner, have a perfect command oftheir temper, and never be moved in the slightestdegree by any language or threats that might beused.Chartism and the Birmingham RiotsAt the time Charles enlisted, Chartism - "a cry ofrage and class consciousness on the part of thesuffering wage earner" - was developing as amovement for political reform. Founded in 1836, itwas centred on William Lovatts London WorkingMen's Association and in 1838 drew up a PeoplesCharter of six points; universal male suffrage,the secret ballot, equal electoral districts,abolition of the property qualifications formembers of Parliament, payment of Members ofParliament and annual general elections. TheChartists quickly gained support through-out thecountry and as the movement came to its climax in1839, their charter with 1.2 million signatureswas presented to parliament.As the movement grew, working people met in largecrowds on open spaces near the great cities tolisten to their orators and to demonstrate theirsolidarity. In Birmingham the middle classes hadtaken the lead in the Reform Bill agitation.Following their example, the working classesdecided to take the lead in the Chartistagitation. Despite the order of the magistrates tothe contrary, they were determined to hold theirmeetings in the Bull Ring. This determination ledto a severe outbreak of Chartist rioting on theevening of Tuesday 3rd July 1839, but unlikeLondon, Birmingham had no full scale police force.It subsequently turned out, that for some daysprevious to the rioting the borough magistrateshad been in constant communication with the HomeOffice, and that it was at their special requestthat Lord John Russell dispatched sixty pickedmen, of which Charles was one, from themetropolitan force.From about half past seven, as was reported,people were assembling in great numbers in theBull Ring, where, around the monument, they raisedtheir flags and banners, one of which was adeath's head and crossbones. At eight o'clock theforce from London arrived at the railway stationwhere they were sworn in as special constables.Unfortunately, as it transpired, they thenproceeded directly, in three omnibuses to the BullRing without waiting until the soldiers at thebarracks were ready to accompany them. Theomnibuses drove up to the Bull Ring at about nineo'clock headed by the mayor on horseback whoimmediately rode to the front of the mob orderingthem to disperse. No attention being paid to hisrequest, he gave a signal to the police toadvance. They filed off four abreast, marchingright into the centre of the people assembledround the monument. Wielding their staffs, theymade for the flags and banners, quickly seizingthem, but the people, angry at losing the emblemsof their principles, rallied and attacked thepolice in return.A fearful and indiscriminate battle ensued betweenthe Chartists and the police. The Chartistsregained the flag poles, broke them into numerouspieces, converting them into offensive weapons andmade a furious assault upon the police whom theybeat off to a considerable distance. But thepolice rallied and again attacked the people andone poor policeman who had, by some means or otherbecome separated from his companions in the BullRing was immediately surrounded by about forty ofthe Chartists. He fought bravely and, according tothe Times report, being a powerful man, kept themall at bay with only his staff. Unfortunatelyhowever, his foot slipped and he fell upon hisback, his staff flying for a considerable distanceout of his hand.The cowardly vagabonds, who had assailed himbefore, now rushed up and fought him with thegreatest ferocity. Some of his companions came tohis rescue, but they were beaten off and thewounded man got up and staggered to the wall ofSt. Martin's church. Here he was again attackedand one man, with a large clasp knife, stabbedhim. As the policeman fell the brutal cowards setup a cheer as if they had performed a glorious andpatriotic act. The policeman lay lifeless but astrong party coming up rescued him and carried himto the public office from where he went tohospital.At the same time, opposite the liquor vaults ofMr. Wainright, two men of A division of the LondonPolice, one of whom was Charles and the otherThomas Reason, having fought gallantly for thepossession of one of the flags, were stabbed witha bayonet, or some similar instrument, possibly ashoemaker's knife. Thought to be mortally woundedthey were taken to Mr. Wainright's house.The fighting continued through the night andduring the early hours of the following morningbut by four o'clock the mob had almost entirelydispersed. Several more policemen had been woundedand taken to hospital but all those injured,including Charles, recoveredThe Development of the PoliceAfter recovering from his wounds, Charles returnedto his duties as a police constable in theMetropolitan Police Westminster Division whichdealt with the full range of crimes committed inLondon at that time including vagrancy, robberyand prostitution. Charles's bravery and prowess atthe Birmingham riots was to have implications forhis police career far beyond the confines of theMetropolitan area.It was during the eighteen months he now spent inLondon that he met and courted a young lady, ElizaWebb, the daughter of William Webb, a law clerk inRichmond, Surrey. They were married on the 31stDecember 1840 in the Parish Church of Richmond,the witnesses to the ceremony being Jane and JohnCrow, Charles's sister and her husband, his friendJohn Higgins and his unmarried sister ElizabethLaxton.In England generally, for the previous one hundredand fifty years, the Tudor and early Stuartpolicing system of parish constables and justicesof the peace had become less and less effective,due partly to the growth in population which ledto the expansion of the towns. During theeighteenth century the population of Englanddoubled from six to twelve million adding to thenumber of vagrants being moved on from one parishto another. Parliament began to look at methods ofpolicing other parts of the country besides Londonwith Chartism acting as an additional spur.By the autumn of 1839, the police force ofManchester, based on the Metropolitan Police, hadtheir skill in crowd control recognised. Inaddition the successful efforts of theircommissions, overcoming opposition and winningover the confidence of the Chartists sympathisersby their manifest impartiality, led to theMetropolitan Police being recognised as theprototype for other towns. It was not only thelarge towns which felt the need for betterpolicing. Frequent fairs were held in the markettowns. Here, not only did stock and produce changehands but men and women gathered in order to findemployment. These fairs attracted a large numberof "undesirables" who robbed and pilfered and,between fairs, were a threat to the rural dweller.Policing the Nantwich HundredIn 1829, the Cheshire Police Act had set up therudiments of the first paid county police force inthe United Kingdom whose organisation was based onthe hundred which was how counties were dividedfrom medieval times. It enabled the magistrates ofthe county palatine of Chester to appoint specialhigh constables for each hundred and assistantpetty constables for the townships. In the case ofthe hundred of Nantwich, an approach was made tothe Commissioners of the Metropolitan Police toput forward a suitable candidate to take charge ofthe local force. Charles was recommended for thispost of High Constable, due partly no doubt to hisreputation at the Birmingham riots. He took up hisnew office on 2nd February 1841.The Nantwichhundred was a large lozenge shaped area of ruralCheshire delineated at the time of the Doomsdaybook. The ancient town of Nantwich was at itscentre and it was bordered on the North East bythe Northwich hundred, on the North West byEddisbury and Broxton and on the South by thecounties of Salop and Stafford. The townshipsincluded were Acton, Audlem, Barthomley,Coppenhall (including the railway town of Crewe),Marbury, Nantwich, Sandbach, Whitchurch (mostly inSalop), Wrenbury and Wyburnbury. In 1810, thetotal population of the Nantwich hundred was19,500; by 1871 it had grown to over 47,500.The Move to NantwichCharles and Eliza, his wife of a few weeks, tookup residence in the centre of Nantwich, living inthe ancient thoroughfare of Pepper Street. He wasto live out the rest of his eventful life inNantwich. Having lived in the heart of the greatmetropolis of London, Charles and Eliza might haveimagined Nantwich would be a rural idyll. This wasfar from true.In the fifteenth century Nantwich was a salt townwhich it had probably been since Roman times;Great and Little Wood Street and Snow Hill werenames for the localities of the salt houses. Thisis of particular interest because Charles and hisfamily lived in Snow Hill at a later date. Asearly as 1580 when the population of Nantwich wasabout sixteen hundred, the trades of shoemakingand glove making dominated the town. By 1825 threesmall factories for shoemaking were opened,although the trade was mostly carried on at home.By the time Charles and Eliza arrived in 1841 thepopulation had risen to five and a half thousandwith just over a thousand houses and eighty-twopaupers living in the workhouse.A large proportion of the buildings in Nantwichwere timber and plaster, with large bay windowsand projecting stories and narrow passages betweenthem leading to courtyards. There were also manylarger mansion type houses which belonged to themore opulent inhabitants.Despite the increase in population there was nosanitation system, only open ditches; "dirt wasrampant". There was no sewage disposal except intothe River Weaver from which, even so, many peopletook water for domestic use. Sewage had to beremoved from the outdoor privies and it was oftenleft in heaps. In many cases, since there was noexit from the backyards, which is where theprivies were, the sewage had to be wheel-harrowedthrough the house in order to take it to the riveror the fields. In 1842 the street now known asWelsh Row was called Frog Row because the FrogChannel, an open sewer, ran along its length fromWelsh Row Head to the River Weaver. Notsurprisingly, there were periodic outbreaks ofcholera and typhus in the town.The Recruitment of Petty ConstablesIn mid-Victorian times, there were a great numberof tramps, gipsies and nomadic seasonal labourers,as well as the usual pickpockets and beggarsaround. One of the duties of the police was toprotect the inhabitants and their property fromthese rogues who, along with house-breakers andhorse thieves, were a continual threat to thepopulation.One of Charles's first actions on taking up hisnew post as High Constable was to recruit severalassistant petty constables for the hundred ofNantwich. An advertisement was placed in theChester Chronicle on Friday the 5th March 1841 tothe effect that several Petty Constables wererequired for whom the salary would vary from £80to £60 per annum according to the extent andpopulation of the district over which theassistant was appointed. Under the CheshireConstabulary Act no person could be appointed tothe office of Assistant Petty Constable unless hewas of a sound constitution, able bodied and underthe age of forty years, and of good character forhonesty, sobriety, fidelity and activity and ableto read and write. As distinct from the othertownship officials, a petty constable was underthe control of the justices with the ratepayershaving no say in the choice of the officer who didmost of the legal business of the district,serving warrants and summonses, seizinglaw-breakers, representing the township atdiscussions about defective parish roads andbridges at Quarter Sessions, taking in lists offreeholders, jurymen, lunatics, public houses andmen liable to serve in the militia. The pettyconstable was sworn in at the Hundred Court atNantwich by Charles, the High Constable, and thenhad to attend monthly meetings of the justices ofthe Peace at Nantwich. Each constable was suppliedwith, amongst other things, the recognised staffand handcuffs.Crime in the TownMany of the better class houses had insideshutters or outside bars to their ground floorwindows. This did not however prove fool-proof aswas illustrated by a case of burglary which wasreported in the Cheshire Chronicle on the 7thApril 1843 when William Tomlinson, agedtwenty-three, was indicted for a burglary in thehouse of William Beech, a farmer, living at Crewe.The Attorney General and Mr. Townshend appearedfor the crown. On the 22nd of October WilliamBeech went to bed at ten o'clock, having securedthe house as usual. He heard a noise at twoo'clock but did not get up, and early the nextmorning he was informed by his wife that the househad been entered by the removal of a pane from thewindow which enabled the burglar to open theshutters. From the house were missing two writingdesks, some bread and cheese and two pairs ofboots.Thomas Taylor, a pawnbroker's assistant at Tunstalsaid that on the 25th October a person pledgedwith him a mackintosh and two pairs of boots inthe name of Jenks but he could not swear that theprisoner was the man. Charles, in his capacity asconstable for the Nantwich division, said that heapprehended the prisoner about seven miles fromCrewe on the 13th November. On searching him hefound on his person tickets for the articlespledged with Taylor who produced the articleswhich were identified as the property of WilliamBeech.In his defence, the prisoner said that he receivedthe pawn tickets from a man named Rainbow who gavethem to him to redeem the articles. The juryacquitted the prisoner but he was then chargedwith breaking into the house of William Wildingand stealing various articles including somelinen. He was convicted on this indictment andalso on a third which was similar and sentenced toten years transportation.It was also quite likely that a person walking inthe streets or in the parks would be set upon byvagabonds. An example of this came up at the samecourt sessions as the previous case and wasreported in the same newspaper. Thomas Sandersaged thirty, William Leech aged nineteen, HenryJohnson aged twenty-three, Ann Williams agedthirty-seven and William Fernival aged forty-threewere indicted for assaulting Margaret Donelly andstealing from her the sum of fifteen shillings.The Attorney General and Mr. Trafford were for theprosecution and Mr. Temple defended. MargaretDonelly told the court that she lived at Newcastleunder Lyme and was at Nantwich Fair on the 5thFebruary 1842. In one of the streets of that townshe met Ann Williams who asked her to lend herfive shillings which she did and told her she wasgoing home that night. Donelly started home on theNewcastle road and had not gone far beforeFernival and Sanders placed a stick under herthroat and the other two men laid hold of herhands and a blow from a fist knocked her downwhile Williams tore off her pockets whichcontained fifteen shillings.A man named Shaw had been with Donelly but was onthe road some distance in front of her. Thedefendants then ran along the Newcastle road butshortly afterwards returned and went towardsNantwich. In the course of a few minutes Shaw cameup to Donelly and they both went back to Nantwichand gave information to Mr. Laxton, of therobbery. Before she told Mr. Laxton what had takenplace, Donelly had seen all the prisoners in apublic house and charged them with the robberybut, when she returned there with the policeman,they had gone. In consequence of advice which wasgiven to her by her brother, she at first declinedto appear against the defendants lest they do herfurther injury.Charles confirmed having received information ofthe robbery from Margaret Donelly on the night ofthe 5th February. He went to the public house andsaw the prisoners there but, in consequence of theadvice of her brother, Donelly did not press thecharge against them.Mr. Temple, for the defence, addressed the juryand, as the case depended mainly on the evidenceof Margaret Donelly, he made some very severestrictures upon it to induce the jury to reject itand acquit the defendants. His Lordship, insumming up, remarked particularly on the length oftime that had elapsed between the allegedcommission of the offence and the period when thecharge was brought. A verdict of not guilty wasgiven.As the High Constable for the Nantwich hundred,these were just two of the very many cases withwhich Charles was involved. Others includedpoaching and the more serious crimes of murder andmanslaughter.Poaching in a county of large estates such asCheshire had long been a popular rural pursuit.Many violent battles occurred between large gangsof poachers and the gamekeepers.Sometimes, when arrests took place, attempts wouldbe made to rescue the prisoners. Just such a casewas reported in the Chester Court on Tuesday the7th March 1843 under the heading of "disorderlyconduct and outrage". On Tuesday 28th FebruaryCharles was called upon to prevent Thomas Coventryfrom ill-using his grandmother, an old woman ofeighty-eight years of age. Assuming that nofurther violence would be offered, Charles lefther house but was again summoned and, with greatdifficulty, managed to arrest Coventry. Charleswas promptly assaulted by a number of Coventry'sassociates who, after ill-treating and abusinghim, succeeded in rescuing the prisoner. Aboutseven o'clock on the same evening two of Charles'sassailants, William Coventry, Thomas's youngerbrother, and Thomas Hockenhall were taken intocustody. On being removed to the lock-ups,Hockenhall contrived to slip off the handcuffs andescaped. Coventry was fined with expenses £1.0s10d but, in default of payment, to be committed toChester Castle to do two months hard labour.Indeed, mid-Victorian Britain was not a peaceful,secure and virtuous land.Family Life in the "Hungry Forties"As was normal in Victorian times, Charles andEliza were to have a large family, eight childrenin all, the first of which, Charles WilliamMatthew, was baptised on the 24th January 1842 inthe parish church of St. Mary's, Nantwich. It wasa hard time to start raising a family with theeconomic crisis worsening and a series of badharvests.This period became known as the "hungry forties",flour becoming very expensive, which put it beyondthe reach of many poorer people. This caused aserious problem with the adulteration of flourwhen either alum, chalk or pipe-clay was added tothe flour to increase the weight. Charles wasinvolved in the detection of this practice and theinhabitants of the town and district presented himwith a gold watch for his work in putting a stopto it.Juvenile crime was another problem for theconstabulary, just as it is nowadays. A case inpoint was reported in the Cheshire Chronicle ofthe 10th March 1843 under the heading of "daringand impudent robbery". On the 3rd March,1843Thomas Smith aged fifteen years, apprentice to MrMottram, cabinet maker of Nantwich, a little afterone o'clock in the afternoon, while the family wasat dinner, entered the shop of H.& E. Harrison,grocers and confectioners near the market placeand stole two half-crowns (25p).The family, hearing a noise, went into the shopand caught the lad. On the police officer beingsent for and searching him, two half-crowns werefound upon him which he acknowledged to havingstolen from the till. On further searching, silverand copper coins to the amount of 11s. 5d werealso found upon him. He refused to give anysatisfactory account as to how he had come by thismoney and so was taken to Chester Castle to awaithis trial at the next Quarter Sessions.Prize FightsIn the 1840s it was not unusual to see menstripped to the waist shouting out and challengingthe best man from some other county to a fight.Illegal prize fights, which attracted many people,often took place and indeed, Charles was involvedin one such fight, the details of which werereported in the Cheshire Courant on Wednesday 17thSeptember 1845. It was headed "prize fights" andrecounted that on Tuesday 9th Septemberinformation had been received regarding two prizefights which were to take place in Shropshire orStaffordshire. The first was between Fody Fox andBilly Jordan, both of Manchester, for £50 to £60 aside and the other between Collin and Bolliver for£10 a side. If these were prevented from takingplace there, they were to be held on the bordersof Cheshire.On the basis of this information, a large body ofthe Cheshire Constabulary with Mr. Laxton assuperintendent proceeded immediately to Woere,near to which place there were upwards of fivehundred people assembled to witness the brutalexhibition. The mob was principally made up ofpeople from Manchester, Salford and Liverpool but,by the combined and determined efforts of theCheshire and Staffordshire police, their designswere frustrated Bolliver, one of the contestants,was captured, immediately on entering the ringand, while he was being conveyed to Woere, a riotensued which it was feared would result in seriousconsequences. The constables were pelted withstones but none of them was seriously hurt.Had it not been for the prompt interference of theCheshire and Staffordshire police, a more seriousbreach of the peace would have occurred. There wasnot a single officer belonging to the Shropshireforce present and the town constable of Woereabsolutely refused to assist in quelling thedisturbances. Sometimes these fights ended in amuch more serious way, as was the case on the 29thFebruary 1845 when Joseph Wilkinson was committedto Chester Castle for trial at the assizes for themanslaughter of William Ashley of Nantwich duringa pugilistic fight.Controversial Police PracticesPolicing was not without its controversy and eventhough illiteracy was common, written complaintsabout police conduct sometimes appeared in thepress. A letter was delivered to the ChesterChronicle on November 29th 1844 referring to theHundred of Nantwich and stating that the paper'sattention had been called by a correspondent tothe extreme vigilance exercised by the police overthe publicans in the hundred, and also to apractice which the correspondent considered mostobjectionable. This was that when information waslaid and the proceedings failed, the police hadtheir expenses paid. When, however, theinformation was upheld the publican had to payfull costs as well as the fine, one half of whichwent to the police. It was thought that there wasno doubt that this practice encouraged "trading orspeculative" information being given to the policeon the principle of "heads I win, tails you lose".The report went on to say that at least one of themagistrates would understand this illustration -"unless the reported doings at the late Tarporleyhunt were all a fable".It was thought that the law ought to be enforcedin all flagrant cases of the breaking of thelicensing laws. It was, however, rather "too bad"not only to the publicans but also to the rest ofthe community that the strict letter of the lawshould be enforced in all cases and under allcircumstances. The newspaper said that they couldstate some curious things about the enforcers andalso the adjudicators of the law in theneighbourhood, but for the present they wouldforbear in the hope that matters would hereafterbe conducted a little more reasonably towards amost respectable class of tradesmen.The Move to Snow HillCharles, being part of a large family himself inhis youth, was also enjoying raising a family ofhis own. He already had one son born in 1842 andby August of 1847 Eliza had given birth to threemore children, two daughters and a second son.They were all baptised in the Parish Church of St.Mary's in Nantwich, Jane Mary Anne on the 2nd May1843, Emily Eliza on the 7th March 1845 and HenryEdwin on the 6th August 1847.Up to this time Charles and his family had livedin Pepper Street. In 1848 the salt baths on SnowHill, which had been there only a short time, wereremoved In addition the nearby old prison, knownas the Round House, which in spite of its name wasa rectangular building, was also taken down and anew police office and prison erected on its site.Adjoining this, a residence for Charles and hisfamily was built.The last criminal detained in the Round House wasMary Gallop, for poisoning her father at Crewe.She was hanged at Chester in 1844. In the newprison on the site, the first and only murdererconfined, prior to her trial at Chester, was SarahFeatherstone, for the murder of her child. She wascondemned to be executed, but respite was grantedand she was imprisoned for life. It was here onSnow Hill that one of the most serious fires inNantwich started, but more of that later.In the 1851 census, Charles's house was recordedas "No. 188 Snow Hill (The Lock Ups)" and it isinteresting to note that his census returnincluded four prisoners. These were Maurice Morgana hostler from Nantwich aged fifty and threeIrishmen, Thomas McHale and David Welch, both agednineteen and Patrick Welch aged twenty-three.The move from Pepper Street in the centre of thetown to Snow Hill on the outskirts was a bigimprovement in living conditions for Charles'sfamily and according to the 1851 census hisneighbours were made up of a schoolmistress, amaster joiner, a butcher and his wife adressmaker, and a shoemaker employing four men andtwo women.Typhus and CholeraReference has been made earlier to the insanitaryliving conditions in the town. One of the worstscourges of Victorian England was typhus fever,caused by lice, and spread by crowded houses andbad hygiene. Both typhus and cholera were acontinual threat and, indeed, in 1840, beforeCharles came to Nantwich, there had been anoutbreak of typhus fever of a very malignant kind,considerably increasing the mortality in the town.There had been fifty cases in the Union Workhousealone. In 1846 there was another outbreak, whenthe epidemic lasted for nine months. At this time,Charles, whilst carrying out his duties, came intoconstant contact with the ill and dying, whichmust have been very worrying to Eliza, raising heryoung family, in case Charles carried the illnessto them. There was still no sanitation system andthe main source of drinking water was from a pipecalled "the spout" in Wall Fields.In June 1849, the plague of Asiatic cholera cameto the town and, in the short space of fourteenweeks; nearly one thousand cases were reported outof a population of six thousand, resulting inabout one hundred and eighty deaths. All theinhabitants were more or less affected by thevirus but the epidemic appeared in its severestforms near the river, in the localities of WoodStreet, Gas Alley, Wych House Bank, Mill Streetand Hospital Street. It chiefly affected the lowerclasses, although it was remarkable that the Irishpopulation, who were generally attacked by typhusin 1846, escaped, comparatively speaking, fromthis horrible disease.Many people fled from the plague-stricken town andtrade came almost to a standstill. No markets wereheld and no fair in September, even country milksellers refused to come to the town and grass grewin the streets. Funerals took place daily and atall hours, and as it was deemed necessary to burythe dead as soon as possible, alarming reportswere circulated that some had been buried alive.Thirty-seven deaths occurred in the week endingthe 10th of July, and on the 14th a house to housevisitation was started by a committee consistingof the Rector, the Reverend A. F. Chater, Dr.Williamson, Mr. Thomas Johnson and othersincluding Charles, who took an active part in theattempt to eradicate the disease, showingpraiseworthy zeal and giving untiring and heroicattention to the distressed and afflicted poor.According to the reports of eye witnesses Charlesshowed no fear for his own safety. The visitscontinued until the contagion died out.When the epidemic was at its height, sufficientgrave room for the dead could not be found in theancient churchyard. In view of this a piece ofland on the Barony, called Fingerpost Field,belonging to the workhouse, was purchased for fourhundred pounds raised by public subscription, andon the 20th July 1849 licence was granted by theBishop for the burial of the dead. In the churchregister the number of deaths recorded from the1st June to the 31st December 1849 was two hundredand forty-nine. The first person to be interred inthe new burial ground was a victim of the cholera;James Chesters of Snow Hill aged sixty, who wasburied on the 21st July 1849. There was widespreadfear of the cholera in adjoining communities andat Crewe the Council of the Mechanics Institutionrequested police constables Murphy and Blinkhom toprevent Irish and other beggars from the "lowhaunts" of Nantwich, some three miles away, fromentering Crewe.The cholera epidemic of 1849 has been described asthe greatest crisis in the history of the town inmodern times. A report was commissioned by Mr.William Lee, and this painted a vivid picture ofthe prevailing conditions under which the peoplelived. For example he reported that there wereonly five public water pumps for nine hundredpeople, some obtaining their water from the riverand streams running down Welsh Row. Following thisreport a local Board of Health was set up andwater was taken from Baddiley Mere, a purer sourceof supply. In 1854-5 new drains were built intothe river Weaver.Social Change; The Development of Crewe and theRailwayThe middle of the 19th century was a period ofgreat social change due to the development ofindustry and communications. The Nantwich Hundredceased to be a rural backwater, and the cottageindustries were overtaken by factories, as thetechnology of manufacturing grew and the railwaysdeveloped dramatically. The choice of Crewe,formerly Coppenhall, as the main junction andworks for the London and North Western Railway,was perhaps, the most significant development toaffect policing in the hundred. In 1841 itspopulation was about 750 but by 1848, had risen,due to the growth in industry, to 8,000, onethousand of whom worked on the railway. Thisgrowth continued and by 1871 the population hadrisen to nearly 20,000 with over 3,000 men thenworking on the railway. Crewe continued to developrapidly into the 20th century.Eight out of ten of the inhabitants came fromoutside Crewe, and the arrival of such a largebody of mechanics and labourers created problemsof policing with which the ancient system oftownship constabulary could not cope. Theconstables often had to look on helplessly whilefights raged between rival gangs of navvies.In an attempt to fill the gap in the policeorganisation, seventeen farmers and other localdignitaries set up the Crewe and CoppenhallAssociation for the Prosecution of Felons. Crimesranged from brawling and drunkenness, damage tocrops, game and fences, to poaching, theft andassaults. The property of the railway and thetakings of the booking offices became a target forcriminals.The Formation of the Cheshire PoliceThus by the 1850s Crewe was beginning to rivalNantwich as the major town in the hundred.Although the bulk of the police and legal businesswas transacted in Nantwich, Charles, HighConstable of the hundred, had to go to Crewe moreoften because of growing criminal activity there.Apart from being inefficient and time consuming,this led to a feeling of resentment in Crewewhere, from time to time, pressure was brought tobear for the removal of the High Constable'sresidence from Nantwich to Crewe. This wasstrongly opposed in the ancient township ofNantwich.The archaic policing system in Cheshire, based onthe old hundreds, was finally swept away in 1857as a result of Parliament enacting the County andBorough Police Act of 1856. This obliged thejustices to establish a paid police force for thewhole of each county. The Cheshire Constabulary,on its formation, was divided into nine policedistricts, each under the command of aSuperintendent. Charles was enrolled on 20th April1857 as the Superintendent of Nantwich divisionwith a salary of £110 per annum. He was also givenan allowance of £60 per annum for horse andforage. On page fifty-seven of the CheshireConstabulary Enrolment and Record Book for thattime, he is shown as six feet one and a quarterinches tall, aged forty-two, blue eyes, brown hairand of light complexion. From this date Charlesceased to be the High Constable and became one ofnine Superintendents reporting to the ChiefConstable of Cheshire, Captain Smith, who wasbased at the headquarters of the force at Chester.The Growth of the Laxton FamilySince moving to Snow Hill, Charles and Eliza hadhad four more daughters, Frances, baptised on the14th October 1850, Eleanor on 19th July 1852, MayJane on 27th June 1854 and Isabella Anne on the27th December 1856. There was a great deal of workfor Eliza with so many young children to lookafter, and Charles, being a man of substance,employed a live-in domestic servant, a young localgirl called Mary Hollins. The children allattended school and were allowed to stay untiltheir education had been completed, unlike manywho were forced by economic necessity to leaveearly. At nineteen years of age, Charles William,their eldest son had become a solicitor's clerk inNantwich.Trades and the Developing RailwaysThere was a need for professional men in Nantwichas there were many trades within the town.Shoemaking was one of the main occupations, andhad been so for many years. Most of the work wasdone at home by men, women and boys who had toleave school at an early age to earn money fortheir families. In 1850 about one third of themales and one sixth of the females were engaged inthe work. A good man could earn twenty shillings aweek, his wife two and sixpence to threeshillings.The shoe trade had its problems. In 1851 the firstsewing machine was invented and the workers wereopposed to its introduction. Women were the firstto be put out of work, and later, when the"riveting" machine arrived, some men also losttheir jobs. As more machines came in, creatingmore opposition, a union was formed. The employerstightened their regulations, no longer allowingstrips of waste leather to be pawned at localpubs. In 1859 Leonard Gilbert built the first shoefactory; this was in Welsh Row and HospitalStreet. His machines came from the U.S.A. and heimported men from the Liverpool area to work them.He made the "Nantwich Boot" which was designedspecially for the cotton and mill workers inLancashire and Yorkshire and he made a fortune inthe process.The trade however, was seriously affected bystrikes. The union members held a procession in1860, making their headquarters at the Talbot Inn.Twelve years later in 1872 a strike commenced on10th May and lasted thirteen weeks, followed byanother on 8th May 1873 which lasted for nineweeks. In consequence a considerable amount of theshoe trade was alienated from the town.Glove-making, on a small scale was anotherindustry in Nantwich, but it came to an end inApril 1863 when the last manufacturer, WilliamDavies, of Pepper Street, closed down, the tradehaving been seriously hit by foreign imports.In 1853, on the site of Townsend House, in WelshRow, large premises were built by Messrs. GeorgeHarlock & Co., for the manufacture of moleskin andcorduroy goods such as trousers and hats. Nantwichwas therefore a thriving community due to the manyindustries as well as the cotton industry and salttrade.Alongside the industrial development of the town,Nantwich was soon to be affected by the regionalgrowth of the railways. Between 1830 and 1850 aninter-regional network was built. The first routebetween Lancashire, the West Midlands and Londonwas completed in 1838, but in 1841 the ruralagricultural areas had virtually no railways. Onthe 1st September 1858 the Crewe and ShrewsburyRailway was opened for traffic. The prosperity ofNantwich increased and on the 13th September 1858the newly built Town Hall and Corn Exchange, whichcost over £2,500, was opened. The day was one ofgreat celebration. The streets were decorated withbanners and flowers and a high class concert wasgiven at which, amongst others, Miss Clara Novellosang. It was not until 1863 that the railway cameto Nantwich when, on the 19th October, the line toMarket Drayton was opened.The Doddington MurdersSoon after becoming a Superintendent, Charles wasinvolved in a notorious murder case known as the"Doddington Murders". A gentleman named HenryAckroyd rented, from Sir Delves Broughton, anestate at Doddington, about four miles south ofNantwich. He also had the shooting rights over thevarious "covers" in the township of Bridgemere,including a triangular piece of land calledBerrington Oaks, where the murder took place.On the night of Saturday the 27th November 1858, amisty but moonlight night, a gang of poachers, sixmen in all, assembled at the house of John Danks,a twenty-five year old married besom maker. Theother members of the gang were Richard Boulton, athirty-six year old collier, William Lear, aCollier, James Malkin, also a collier, JamesOakes, a forty-three year old potter and ThomasHulme, a forty-one year old labourer.On leaving Danks house on the poaching expedition,they were well prepared, Danks and Boulton werearmed with shot guns, one man had a pistol, andthey were accompanied by two dogs. On their way toBerrington Oaks they set the nets they had broughtwith them and caught six hares.Mr. Ackroyd was expecting poachers on his land andhad deployed six gamekeepers and underkeepers towatch. They were not bearing arms. At 2 a.m thealarm was raised when the waiting keepers heard ayelp of a dog and the noise of gunshot. A chaseensued around Berrington Oaks during the course ofwhich two of the keepers were shot. Thomas Beechdied instantly from shots to the heart and ThomasMaddox, some hours later due to shots penetratingthe bowels. Two of the poachers, Lear and Malkin,were apprehended by the keepers but the othersmade off.Charles led the investigation into the murders andfrom statements made by witnesses, including thewounded Maddox and the captured poachers, itemerged that the shots had been fired by JohnDanks and Richard Boulton. A reward of £100 wasoffered by Mr. Ackroyd for the capture of themurderers.Charles instigated extensive searches throughoutCheshire and Staffordshire, and whilst he wassearching Danks house he found the singlebarrelled shot gun used in the murder. Alsorecovered was the double barrelled shot gun ownedby Boulton, and one of the dogs which had beenpresent at the scene of the crime and later foundto be owned by Danks.Whilst this search was in progress the capturedpoachers, Malkin and Lear were tried by themagistrates and each sentenced to three monthsimprisonment. This was unusual as they wouldnormally have been committed to the assizes fortrial, a much more lengthy procedure.Following information being passed to the policecountrywide, the four men were finally arrested inSomerset, where they were found to be working onthe railway. They were brought back to NantwichPolice Station on the 17th December 1858 andCharles immediately charged Danks and Bolton withmurder.The four prisoners appeared before Mr. JusticeHill on the 1 st April 1859 in the Crown Court atCheshire Spring Assizes. Danks and Boulton werecharged with having murdered James Beech andThomas Maddox, and Oakes and Hulme were chargedwith being with William Lear and James Malkin uponland in the occupation of Henry Ackroyd Esq. atBridgemere, at night, and armed with guns, for thepurpose of destroying game. Oakes and Hulmepleaded guilty and Oakes was sentenced to sixyears penal servitude and Hulme to four monthsimprisonment with hard labour.The Trial of the MurderersCharles gave evidence at the trial, as did the twopoachers, Malkin and Lear, who had been sentencedpreviously. Forensic evidence was produced linkingthe shots recovered from the bodies to the gunsfound in the houses of the accused. A number ofother witnesses were called and the sworntestimony of the dying Maddox was produced. Thedefence suggested that the summary trial and shortsentences of Malkin and Lear had been a cleverploy to persuade them to give evidence againsttheir fellow poachers.Following the judges' summing up, the jury retiredat 12.30 p.m on April 2nd. They could have hadlittle doubt as to the guilt of the accused, asamid a breathless silence they returned into courtthirty-five minutes later and pronounced a verdictof guilty against both men. As reporteddramatically in the Chester Chronicle on April 9th- "a shudder ran through the crowded court, thecrier called silence while sentence of death waspassed and His Lordship, having put on the blackcap said: Richard Boulton and John Danks, after along, painstaking and careful trial, the jury, whohave considered your case, have found you bothguilty of wilful murder; a verdict fully warrantedby the evidence in the case, and leaving no doubtin my mind, nor can it leave upon the mind ofanyone who has attended to that evidence, anydoubt but that you are each guilty of the crime ofwilful murder." The judge continued: "I do notwish to enlarge upon the enormity of that crime.Wilfully and deliberately you sent two of yourfellow creatures before their God, giving them nonotice of the act you were about to perpetrate;but you shot them cruelly, and foully murderedthem. By the murder of one of them, I have now topass sentence upon you. Your days are numbered.You will now count the short time you have to livein this world, by a few hours, and quickly youwill count it by merely a few minutes. Thinkseriously upon the position you stand in. You willbe called to appear before that God whom you haveoffended I entreat you not to indulge in idlehopes of mercy in this world being extended toyou. I entreat you to humble yourselves inpenitence before God Confess your sins to Him, andseek His pardon by that atonement through whichalone you can make your peace with God. Attend tothe instruction you will receive ere the finalsentence of the law be carried out, and which itis now my painful duty to conclude by passing.""The sentence of the court for the crime of whichthe jury have convicted both of you is that youseverally be taken from hence to the place" (herethe prisoner Danks fell forward on the front ofthe dock fainting, recovering almost immediately)"from whence you came, and from thence, on a dayappointed, to a place of execution, and that yoube severally hanged by the neck until you areseverally dead, that your bodies when dead, shallbe taken down and buried within the precincts ofthe prison in which you shall be confined aftersentence, accorded to the statutes in such casemade and provided, and may God, in His greatgoodness have mercy upon your souls."As the Chronicle continued: His Lordship wasgreatly affected, almost to tears. The prisonerBoulton wore an anxious expression and Dankstrembled violently. They both quickly left thedock and the court was speedily all but deserted.Subsequent to the trial, Charles was offered thereward of £100, but he declined it saying thatthose who gave the information to him were moreentitled to the reward than he. Mr. Ackroyd,however, bought a gold watch and chain which werehanded to Charles publically in the oldmagistrates court at Nantwich.Other Criminal CasesFollowing the arrests of the murderers, routinepolice work continued which was illustrated by acase which appeared at the Cheshire Spring Assizeson the 2nd April 1859, when Thomas Jennings wasconvicted of stealing three hundred and eighteenpounds of oats. He was a waggoner employed by afarmer, Mr. William Henry Hornby. On the 14thMarch Jennings obtained the key to the farmgranary from the keyholder who subsequentlydiscovered that a sack of oats was missing.Charles Laxton was informed by the farmer that theoats were missing and during a police search thebag of oats was found at the Jenning's house. Hewas arrested and found guilty of the theft and wasimprisoned for nine months.Criminal activity was rife in Cheshire at thistime as indicated by a crime return made by chiefconstable Captain Smith, for the quarter ending30th November, 1860.1800 people were apprehendedand summoned, 105 committed for trial, 834summarily convicted and 861 dismissed ordischarged on payment of costs, or settled out ofcourt. Most of the crimes were of a minor nature,as were two such cases in Nantwich under Charles'sjurisdiction.On the 22nd May 1861 Mary Ann Hanley, athirty-nine year old cap maker of Nantwich wasdrinking in the public house owned by Mr.Bretherton. Also there, was John Butler, ashoemaker who, rather the worse for drink, leftthe public house around midnight. He was closelyfollowed by Hanley who, according to Butler, puther hand in his pocket and stole £17s. and apocket handkerchief. She was immediately takeninto custody and on being searched at the policestation the money and handkerchief were found onher.At her trial at the county sessions in July, MaryAnn Hanley said, in her defence, that Mr. Butlerhad given her the money for having improperintercourse with her. The jury, however, foundHanley guilty, but expressed the opinion that Mr.Butler had displayed great carelessness on thenight he was robbed. Hanley was sentenced to threemonths hard labour. At the same sessions, EmilyDoyle, a laundress, pleaded guilty to stealing acan and a spoon, the property of the London andNorth Western Railway Company, at Crewe on the18th May. She was sentenced to one month'simprisonment for stealing the can and one day forthe spoon.The Family Moves OnBy 1861, Charles and his family had moved house to48 Welsh Row. This was a timber framed 17thcentury house with a gable end which jetted outover the ground floor. Jetties could project outby nearly a metre, which was an advantage whereland was densely occupied. In spite of its age,the house still stands. Emily, Charles's eldestdaughter, was now sixteen years of age and stillliving at home. She had no out side occupation andso a live-in domestic was no longer employed.Charles, the eldest son, now aged nineteen, wasworking as a solicitors general clerk while therest of the children were still at school. The OldGrammar School had been demolished and the new onebuilt in 1860.Parliamentary Election and Other DutiesPolicing work was never far from politics and in1861 the first parliamentary election took placein the newly constituted borough of Birkenhead.When nominations were handed in some 7000 peopleattended outside the Town Hall. There was muchrowdyism and ribaldry, but no trouble. It wasdecided by the police that the election itselfmight result in rioting, as indeed was common atelections in the 1860s. Charles was instructed tosend every available policeman to Chester railwaystation, to leave for Birkenhead. They were toassist the Birkenhead Borough Force, and cutlasseswere to be made available for every man, shouldthey be needed. In the event no rioting tookplace, and the election passed off peacefully, Mr.John Llaird of Cammell Llaird Ship-builders beingelected for the Conservative Party.Charles had always been an advocate for fairdealings in trade, one example of this being hisconcern regarding the adulteration of flour. In1862 it was decided that all Superintendentsshould automatically become Inspectors of Weightsand Measures and, when Charles took on theseduties, he received an allowance of £15 a year.Charles was noted for the earnest andconscientious manner in which he discharged hisduties. He was also not frightened to assert hisauthority when dealing with other professionalpeople. In the summer of 1865 a pestilence amongstcattle, known as the rinderpest broke out. Thiswas a contagious viral disease and 90% of acutecases were fatal. Dogs were thought to carry thevirus and spread it from place to place. Theplague swept across the county and orders weregiven, that all dogs, not under proper controlshould be destroyed. Mr. R. C. Edleston, a wellknown solicitor in the town, whose dogs wereallowed to roam at will, persisted in disobeyingthe order. Mr. Laxton told him that he should takemeans to destroy his dogs and Mr. Edleston wasthus forced to ensure that his dogs were properlycontrolled in the future.Fights Against FiresAs previously mentioned a large number of thebuildings in Nantwich were made of timber andplaster and so were very vulnerable to fire.Equipment to fight against this danger had beenbuilt up over the previous hundred years. On the17th July 1737, the Churchwardens and Constablesof Nantwich had agreed to a fire engine beingpurchased and an engine house erected, along withother necessary items. On the 28th August a ratewas levied to meet the expense, but the engine wasonly purchased in 1740, and not until the 9thNovember 1746 was an agreement reached to buy twodozen leather fire buckets which cost 5s.6d each.The engine house, which was opposite the rectoryin the corner of the churchyard, was demolished in1863 a new one being built on land in PilloryStreet.A great interest was developing all over thecountry about this time in fire protection andvoluntary brigades, and about 1865 many countrytowns formed voluntary brigades. It becamefashionable to be a fireman, as King Edward VII,then Prince of Wales, was an unofficial member ofthe London brigade. Nantwich had a disastrousrecord of fires, an example of which was when, in1843, on Whit Sunday, there was a fire in HospitalStreet, when a row of thatched cottages oppositethe Wesleyan Chapel was completely destroyed, andthe Wesleyan Schools were damaged as well.Further evidence of the vulnerability of propertyin Nantwich was illustrated by an account whichappeared in the Chester Chronicle which reportedthat at about seven o'clock on Monday evening onthe 24th January 1859, a fire broke out in thefarm buildings of Mr. Furnival of Austerton, nearNantwich. A boy in the stable had left a lightedcandle stuck against the wall, which must havefallen and set some straw on fire. The building,which was very old and thatched, was soon burneddown.Fortunately the wind, which was blowing very hardat the time, kept the fire from the otherbuildings and stacks, otherwise all would havebeen sacrificed to the flames, as the Nantwichfire engine was applied for but refused to come,the committee not allowing it to go out of thetown. The building, which was the property of theEarl of Kilmorry, was not insured. Mr. Furnivalwas insured for the stock but the loss was verytrifling as there was only some horse tack and hayin the loft which was consumed by the fire.Fire on Snow Hill and the Voluntary Fire BrigadeIn 1848 a Police Office was erected on Snow Hillwith a residence adjoining for SuperintendentLaxton, and it was here, on Snow Hill, that one ofthe worst fires started. A few minutes before twoo'clock one hot July afternoon, Friday the 31st1868, Jimmy O'Neill was working in his smithy whena stray spark set fire to the thatched roof of aneighbouring stable. It was a very windy afternoonand the burning thatch was blown across the streetand, in only half an hour, the fire spread fromSnow Hill, along the Swine Market to reach Mr.Carrington's shop at the corner of High Street. Ithad been a very long dry summer, causing a watershortage and none could be obtained from BaddileyMere. Everyone was greatly alarmed at the speed atwhich the flames were spreading, but at last thefiremen and watermen ran out the old engine andwater from the town was used to fight the fire.The damage however was extensive, six houses, fourstables and the smithy all being destroyed, aswell as five other houses loosing their roofs.As a result of this tragic occurrence the NantwichVolunteer Fire Brigade was formed. This brigadewould attend fires not only in Nantwich itself butalso in the surrounding areas. At a meeting oftownsmen, a subscription list was started tofinance the setting up of the brigade. An engine,hose and appliances were needed, and a piece ofland behind the market was given for a FireStation. Twenty two members were enrolled. Thereis a minute in an old book dated November 2nd 1868in which it is stated that the Honorary Secretaryshould write to Captain Smith, Chief Constable ofCheshire, asking him for permission to allowSuperintendent Laxton to be Captain of thebrigade. Permission was granted and Charles tookup the post, which he held until 1879.The Nantwich Volunteer Fire Brigade thus formed in1870 was a fine body of men, as can be seen fromthe photograph. The engine can just be made outand it is interesting to note that one man isholding a bugle. The Captain, Charles Laxton, iswearing a brass helmet, as opposed to the blackones worn by the rest of the firemen, perhaps sothat he could be easily identified at the scene ofa fire.The engine was a manually operated hand-pump type,as indeed most were then, and was run out by handto fires in the town. However, horses were usedfor fires out of town, and were usually providedby local stables such as Acton Mews or GeorgeHensons Mews. The assembly point was the squareand it became a race with the Town Fire Brigade tosee who could get there first. During one suchrace between two fire engines, one finished upwith the horses and forecarriage through a hedgewith its driver round the horses' necks. The menbecame renowned for their enthusiasm and even wonsome competitions for their speed of getting tothe fires. Pumpers were paid sixpence an hour (21/2p), paid by the insurance companies, as themembers services were always voluntary. Annualsubscriptions and proceeds from concerts in thetown paid for the upkeep of the equipment, and thepurchase of new hose and appliances.The Family's Final MoveAfter assuming the post of Superintendent,Charles's work involved more administration andman-management than dealing directly withcriminals. It was during the later years of hiscareer that Charles and his family moved to a morecomfortable suburban house at 5, The Crofts, alsoknown as Dysart View. Charles was to live at thishouse for the rest of his life. It was quite closeto the Congregational Church in Monks Lane, whichthe family now attended. This church hadoriginally been in Church Lane but in 1842 the newbuilding was erected at a cost of £2,200.Emily Eliza, Charles's daughter, was married inthe Parish Church at Nantwich on the 30th November1870. Her husband, Jacob Fletcher Crompton, was abook-keeper and came from Manchester and that iswhere they had set up home. Charles became agrandfather in 1872 when Emily Eliza gave birth toa baby girl who was christened Florence Emily. OfCharles's other seven children, only threeremained single and still living at home: Charles,his eldest child, a solicitors clerk in Nantwich,and two of his daughters, May Jane and IsabellaAnn.Charles's RetirementCharles's health began to deteriorate, thebronchitis and asthma that he had suffered fromfor quite a few years becoming worse with age, andthis led, in 1874, to his early retirement fromthe police force at the age of fifty-nine,although he remained active as Captain of theVolunteer Fire Brigade for a further five years,and as Honorary Captain until his death. WhenCharles's colleagues realisedthat his retirement was imminent it was decided toorganise a public collection as lie was very wellthought of in the community. A large amount ofmoney was gathered both from the inhabitants andhis friends. This, together with contributionsfrom the magistrates of Nantwich Court, enabled amost handsome commemorative mantel clock in marbleto be purchased. The clock was presented toCharles, together with a "purse" of £71.13s.6d, onthe 29th September 1874 when he retired.When Charles attended the Nantwich MagistratesCourt in the capacity of Superintendent of Policefor the last time, he received many expressions ofesteem from the Chairman and magistrates inattendance. The Chairman of the bench the ReverendJ. Folliott said that he wished to express hisregret that Mr. Laxton's health had not been suchas to allow him to remain in the office which hehad so long and so faithfully filled. He trustedthat Mr. Laxton, in his retirement, would beblessed with returning health and a long life, andthat God would bless him wherever he might spendthe remainder of his days. Mr. William Tollemache,the local squire, also expressed his admiration ofthe vigilance, assiduity, courtesy andfaithfulness Mr. Laxton had displayed during histerm of office. He also praised the conspicuousbravery which, as an officer of police, Charleshad shown on several occasions, when he had, atgreat peril to himself, controlled the violence ofan unruly mob. He trusted that Mr. Laxton would beas happy in his private life as he had beenfaithful in his public capacity and he believed hewould carry with him, into his retirement, a troopof friends. They would always be glad to see himamongst them. Three other magistrates praised theretiring Superintendent and expressed their goodwishes for his future.Despite his failing health, Charles was still ableto get around and made a habit of walking from hishome, down town to Welsh Row where he often calledin for a chat with his old friends. As a member ofthe Oddfellows Friendly Society he was stillinvolved in their business of giving help in thecommunity when needed. He had his large familyaround him. His son, Henry Edwin, who was marriedin 1873 and lived in the Manchester area, had fourchildren during Charles's retirement.Sad to say however, that his daughter, EmilyEliza, died on Friday 4th January 1881 and wasburied at Nantwich Parish Cemetery, it being thefirst internment there under the then recentBurials Act which allowed burials to be conductedby non-conformist churches. The Reverend F. Moon,Independent Minister of the Congregational Church,conducted the ceremony. It is thought that as aresult of her mother's death, Florence EmilyCrompton, then aged nine years spent much time ather grandparents house and may indeed have beenliving there permanently. She was recorded on thecensus taken on 3rd April 1881 as being at 5, TheCrofts, her grandfather's house.Charles's Death and FuneralCharles died at his home on Friday evening the29th September 1882, exactly eight years to theday from his retirement. As a man of much standingin Nantwich, he was widely mourned.In the late Victorian period, funerals of notablecitizens were grand affairs and Charles's funeral,which was held on Thursday 5th October 1882, wasno exception. His coffin was carried on the engineof the Volunteer Fire Brigade. It was covered witha black velvet pall, on top of which were hispolished brass helmet, belt and leggings which hehad worn as a Captain of the Fire Brigade. A largeprocession followed the cortege headed by a squadof twelve police, followed by the united bands ofthe town and National schools playing the DeadMarch from Saul. Next came a large group of therepresentatives and officers of the Poor Man'sFriend Lodge and finally twenty or more ofCharles's friends.There were two mourning coaches pulled by horsesprovided by Mr. Oates of the Lamb Hotel. The frontone contained the principal mourners, his twosons, Charles and Henry, and two sons-in-law,Frederick Andrews and Jacob Crompton, with threegrandchildren. The Congregational Minister, theReverend F. Moon was in the second coach with nearrelatives and friends. The procession moved veryslowly and took a long time to reach the Cemetery.Large crowds lined the route from Charles's houseand along High Street, Oat Market and the Barony.Many people gathered at the service which was readby the Reverend Moon and, as the coffin waslowered, the floral tributes, carried by the closerelatives covered it completely.Charles's funeral was to stay in the minds of thepeople of Nantwich for many years as illustratedby a Mr. Rupert Bell who, writing fifty yearslater in 1932 said, that he well remembered thefuneral of the late Mr. Laxton, a greatlyrespected and retired Chief of Police, passingalong Monks Lane.On the following Sunday, a memorial procession andservice was held at the Nantwich CongregationalChurch, attended by members of the Fire Brigadeand Police, as well as townspeople, friends andrelatives. The preacher, the Reverend Moon,indicated that the presence of so many people,both at Charles's funeral and in the church thatmorning, bore evidence of the esteem in whichCharles was held. His life had been one ofunstinting public service, often fraught withdanger. He attempted, at all times to follow theobjectives of the Police Force, to be civil andobliging to all people of every rank and class, todo his duty in a quiet and determined manner, andto keep his temper, whatever the provocation,which had been instilled into him as a recruit somany years ago. The respect and admirationafforded him, both at his retirement and hisfuneral, illustrated how highly regarded he hadbecome in the eyes of his fellow citizens ofNantwich.